Connecting with customers: Customer Service teams must master the human element while meeting the expectations of their customer base. Read on to find out how automation enables this!
Customer Service automation should not look like this…
It should look like this!…
What are the driving forces of automation?
Quite simply, they are customers’ preferences and expectations. In today’s digital age, customers do not want to wait, they expect instant help with their issues 24/7. They also expect nothing less than a personalised and specific approach, and mostly through messaging. Most cases will involve the use of bots and automated messages but what automation really enables is freeing up time of Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) to respond to enquiries a lot quicker. Today’s Customer Service teams must master the human element while meeting the expectations of their customer base.
These days, customers flat out expect more throughout their entire journey. Live chat, social media and mobile functionality are all channels that enhance Customer Experience (CX) and boost advocacy. If only you had the time and resources for it …
There are two ways to serve customers: proactively or reactively. Customers prefer the former — CSRs who can respond to email enquiries quickly and accurately, and always know why, when and where orders are being processed.
This is all fine in an ideal world but how are they supposed to do this if they simply don’t have the time and need to spend their time carrying out repetitive, tedious tasks day in, day out. AUTOMATION is the answer! Who wouldn’t want to improve quality of data, increase flexibility, increase consistency and identify process improvement opportunities faster?
Not only does automation radically reduce the amount of unfulfilling day-to-day tasks for CSRs, it opens the door for new career-pathing opportunities by necessarily redefining some positions. What’s more, customisable dashboards make it a cinch for managers to better identify top-performing CSRs by tracking metrics tied to individual performance.
Enter Esker…
Esker’s Customer Service solution suite automates routine tasks associated with managing customer requests, orders and claims so the CS team can perform more fulfilling tasks that directly impact your customers and company, while weeding out the root causes of failure in Customer Service processes such as:
Customer Enquiry Management
Acting as a digital assistant for the shared inbox, automation within the customer enquiry management process frees up your Customer Service team to address enquiries faster and improve CX by fixing issues such as:
- Lost or deleted emails
- Limited collaboration
- Lack of clarity & context when addressing customer enquiries Wasted time & talent by forcing staff to search & sort through shared inbox
- Cost impact of low productivity, higher turnover & customer dissatisfaction
Order Management
By enabling all incoming customer orders (fax, email, phone, website, portals, EDI, etc.) to be managed in a single, centralised solution, automation creates a value-added ripple effect, addressing common pains like:
- Order processing errors & slowdowns (leading to high DSO & sluggish cashflow)
- Lower levels of team collaboration, productivity & overall morale
- Narrow range of analytics, reporting & audit trail capabilities
- Excess paper, postage, transport & physical archiving expenses
- Increase in disputes & dissatisfied customers
Customer Claims Management
Another important duty of Customer Service teams is reducing the number of customer claims — something which AI-driven automation solves by addressing common claims management bottlenecks like:
- Inability to analyse claims by type, date or customer
- Limited collaboration with coworkers from multiple departments on the verification, approval of dispute of claims
- No way to automatically post claims as a credit note or to a G/L account in the ERP
