How has Customer Service Evolved over the Years?
Let’s just say you are having trouble with a certain service that you use and you can’t figure out how to find a solution for it. What would you normally do in that case? You would obviously contact customer service for it so that they could listen to your query and provide you with a solution for it.
There are a lot of companies that provide stellar customer service, for instance, if you are having trouble with your Windstream internet service you could reach out to Windstream customer service and they will settle your problem before you know it. Customer service has evolved in a way like no other, but the question is how has it really evolved over the years? Here are some ways how:
What was Customer Service like in the Past?
Customer Service was very simplistic in the past. We had people taking phone calls and we had call centers dedicated to these calls. This was the only way to contact customer service and you had to wait in a virtual line until it would be your turn to talk to the customer service representative. While this was the only way to settle people’s queries, it was also a very slow process, which is why it was necessary to have developments in customer service.
There have been technological developments that have led to massive improvements in customer service, which has made the job a lot easier for people working in customer service and it has also made the process faster for customers.
The Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Customer Service
When we say technological development, we mostly talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it has been incorporated into nearly every industry. Many companies have started using Artificial Intelligence for their customer service, which eliminates the need for human help until the matter becomes unsolvable for the AI, in which case the issue is then delivered to a human to sort it out.
Artificial Intelligence tools pick out the issue from the issue that is brought to it and it then provides viable solutions to the problem with the capability that it has. It gives you a series of questions to answer so that it could figure out what your problem is and it then gives you solutions for it.. However, it should be noted that the human mind will always be above Artificial Intelligence, and at some point, even AI has to rely on human capabilities.
The Decline in Phone Calls and Emails
Now that we are progressing forward with technology and its development even in the customer service industry, we have seen that there has been a steady decline in the use of emails and phone calls. Even though calls and emails have been around for a long time, they were not efficient methods as people thought they might be. In fact, they were very strenuous and time taking. Now that we have machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, we have shifted more towards bots and the incorporation of the internet to get the job done. Not only has this made things faster but it has also made things easier and more efficient.
The Use of Social Media Platforms as a means of Customer Service
While many of us use social media to browse through content and watch videos and images of people, did you know that there are companies that are using social media platforms as a means of customer service? For example, a lot of companies have set up a WhatsApp Business account that allows them to communicate with customers even more efficiently. Similarly, a lot of companies also make use of Facebook Messenger and Facebook Marketplace to get in contact with customers and solve their problems as soon as possible.
Again, this eliminates the need for emails and phone calls when you can easily chat with customers that seem to go through some problem. The same is the case with Instagram since it has a Direct Message feature that would allow companies to chat with customers in the easiest way possible.
The Introduction of Chatbots
Who knew one day you would have a robot helping you out instead of a human? That is exactly what the principle is with chatbots and how you can use robots to solve most of your problems. A common example of using chatbots is WhatsApp where companies have dedicated chatbots to help customers with their queries. The bot has preset questions that you must answer so that the bot could help you out with your problem.
Wrapping Up
It is without a doubt that customer service has seen a lot of evolution over the years through the use of technological advances and developments such as Artificial Intelligence and chatbots!
Comments are closed.