If your business is looking for modern ways to boost customer satisfaction rates, it may be time to introduce automation into your customer service strategy.
Delivering high-quality, personalized customer service across various communication platforms can be challenging for any customer service team, regardless of size or industry. That’s where customer service automation can help. With the potential to increase satisfaction rates, reduce service costs, and boost productivity, automation might be a game-changer for your business.
This article serves as the ultimate guide to customer service automation, including the benefits and challenges, use cases, and tips for seamless implementation.
Jump right to:
- What is customer service automation?
- Top benefits of automation in customer service
- Challenges of automating customer service
- Examples of how to automate customer service
- Steps to automate customer service effectively
- FAQs about customer service and support automation
<h2 id="What">What is customer service automation?</h2>
Customer service automation involves using digital tools and artificial intelligence to assist customers, resolve issues, and support live agents.
Automated customer service leverages new technologies to execute repetitive, routine tasks such as answering FAQs, auto-replying to messages, or handling after-hours issues.
Automation tools allow your customer service reps to spend their time building customer relationships and solving more complex issues. Agents have the flexibility to use AI as an assistive tool to boost their productivity and can focus on aspects of support work that require more empathy, creativity, and specialized knowledge.
<h2 id="Top">6 top benefits of automation in customer service</h2>
Introducing automation into your customer service process can be highly beneficial for both customers and service representatives. Let’s dive into the top benefits of automating customer service.
Boost productivity
Teams that introduce AI into their customer service strategy show an impressive 94 percent increase in productivity. Automation radically improves individual and team efficiency by:
- Improving collaboration
- Streamlining workflows
- Locating useful and relevant information
- Handling repetitive and routine tasks
- Preventing ticket escalation
Tools such as chatbots, autoresponders, automated survey and feedback requests, proactive support notifications, and automatic routing enhance the support team's productivity by allowing agents to focus on critical, complex tasks.
Each hour is important and must be used wisely, especially in small businesses. By automating time-consuming responsibilities and routine tasks, AI can help smaller customer service teams save time and reduce strain on employees.
Offer 24/7 rapid support
One key benefit of AI is that it doesn’t need to clock out. Customers today expect fast, reliable service from brands. In fact, over 72 percent of customers say they expect a response within 30 minutes of reaching out to a business. For most teams, responding that rapidly to customers across the board is a daunting, if not impossible, task.
With customer service automation, chatbots can handle customer issues through all hours of the day and night. Additionally, chatbots can be used during business hours to immediately respond to customers, share information, and resolve routine issues. These rapid response speeds boost customer satisfaction rates and deliver a highly competitive level of service.
Improve analytics and tracking
AI tools enhance data capture, tracking, and analytics for customer support teams. Each interaction with a customer provides your company with valuable insights and reports that can improve the overall performance of your product, service, or team.
AI solutions can analyze customer service interactions, review conversations, and identify areas for improvement. After collecting data, your AI tools can create custom charts to display metrics, help team leaders track performance and growth, and assist in the development of training guides for agents.
Plus, automated service tools can integrate with other software used by your business to create a panoramic view of your data across all channels, ensuring your team is informed on overall customer situations and actions.
Cost efficient
Scaling customer service can be a challenge for growing businesses, as it’s often difficult to keep up with the demands of an expanding customer base. Additionally, for enterprise-level companies handling a high volume of customer tickets, labor costs can rise to unmanageable levels.
Automation can cut costs by up to 40 percent and help businesses realize efficiencies. Businesses can reserve live agents for relationship-building or complex tickets by handing off routine tasks to AI agents.
Using a digital solution to help scale your service team also ensures your customers remain satisfied and questions are answered more efficiently. All while reducing the overhead cost of hiring more customer service agents.
Improve personalization
Providing personalized outreach to customers is key to making them feel appreciated and valued. Effective personalization relies on reliable data gathered across a variety of different channels. AI can accelerate data capture and analysis, enabling your customer service team to build robust customer profiles that include detailed information on a client’s:
- Purchasing history
- Individual needs
- Pain points
- User preferences
- Behavior patterns
Even further, when integrated with your sales software, AI can leverage data from both customer service and sales interactions to create an even more detailed profile, allowing your representatives to provide the customer with:
- Personalized content
- Tailored product recommendations
- Customer-specific communication styles
- Unique solutions
Finally, customer service automation allows you to deliver this personalization automatically and at scale, ensuring each customer interaction with your businesses is tailored to their particular preferences and needs.
Employee satisfaction
Contrary to popular belief, automation in customer service has a positive impact on employee job satisfaction. Automation frees employees from repetitive, mundane tasks that don’t require creativity or problem-solving, reducing burnout and increasing job satisfaction.
Roughly 89 percent of full-time employees are more satisfied after introducing automation. Its benefits also include:
- Increased productivity
- New job opportunities
- Promotions
- Higher wages
<h2 id="Challenges">Challenges of automating customer service</h2>
While automation can be extremely beneficial for businesses, employees, and customers alike, it also presents a few challenges. Luckily, with planning and intentional implementation, automation can be adopted without issue.
Let’s dive into a few of the most common automation difficulties and how to solve them.
Challenge 1: Staff buy-in
Automation’s rise in popularity has created inevitable anxiety in workers concerned about job security. Leadership teams considering implementing customer service automation must address employee concerns proactively and empathetically, emphasizing the importance of live agents and reiterating confidence.
Provide ample opportunities for upskilling and further training while presenting the automation software as a mode of enabling employees to concentrate on high-priority, creative tasks that require the personalized care and attention of a live agent.
Challenge 2: Losing that human touch
Customer service automation should always be used in partnership with live agents. Despite the many advancements in AI capabilities, it isn’t a replacement for human interaction and still lacks the vital empathy, creativity, and nuanced conversation necessary for exceptional service.
Customers should always be given the option to bypass automated systems when possible, with the choice to elect to speak with a live agent. Providing only automated customer service options can lead to frustration, dissatisfaction, and a poor customer experience.
Challenge 3: Limited in problem-solving scope
Currently, customer service automation tools can solve generic, well-defined issues but cannot navigate more nuanced, intricate situations. For example, AI may misinterpret customer inquiries or be unable to comprehend diverse customer slang or dialects outside its knowledge base.
For now, automation should be used to handle routine tasks or FAQs while reserving human agents for issues that require relationship management or intricacy. That said, AI is advancing rapidly, and with machine learning capabilities, programs will continue to become more robust and capable as they collect data.
Challenge 4: Privacy and security concerns
AI programs must collect and store customer data to be effective tools. This process requires considerable attention to security and privacy.
Businesses must implement ethical and responsible systems to protect and manage customer data while following applicable data protection regulations.
Selecting a compliant customer service automation software that has built-in security features is the most efficient way to ensure customer data and your business’ reputation are protected.
<h2 id="Examples">Examples of how to automate customer service</h2>
Let’s dive into a few ways companies of all sizes are implementing automation into their customer service operations.
Smart ticket routing
Have you ever contacted a customer service department and been required to share your information with multiple agents until you’re routed to the right place? It’s a frustrating experience for customers and time consuming for customer service agents that have to collect repetitive information. Ticket routing automation can simplify this process by automatically gathering a customer’s account info and issue type and assigning the ticket directly to the proper agent.
Ticket routing automation can:
- Balance team workloads
- Cut down resolution times
- Minimize repeated information
- Maintain continuity
- Improve customer satisfaction
Message triggers
Automate messages that are sent when customers take a particular action or use a specific keyword. Message triggers are great for repetitive tasks such as notifications, payment reminders, shipping updates, welcome messages, and more.
With message triggers, customers receive a reply instantly, even after normal business hours. Plus, message triggers can be useful across all communication channels, such as email, web chat, or customer service SMS.
It’s important to avoid overusing message triggers, as it can become overwhelming for customers. Customer service representatives can set up conditions to prevent more than one message being triggered at the same time.
Drip messaging
Drip messages, or a series of automated messages sent to customers at predetermined intervals, are an excellent way to help guide a customer through a particular part of the customer journey.
Drip campaigns can be automated to send after a set amount of time or once the customer takes a particular action, such as emailing, signing up for sale notifications, or throughout the general onboarding process.
Traditional campaigns rely heavily on timing to be effective and can be time-consuming to execute. With automation, customers can be automatically added to drip campaign lists and contacted without support agent intervention.
Chatbots and conversational AI
Chatbots that utilize conversational AI are excellent tools for reducing incoming call or message volumes. By using the knowledge bases provided on your website and generative AI technology, chatbots can personalize responses and provide answers to repetitive or frequently asked questions.
Plus, a huge benefit of installing an AI-powered webchat option on your business’ website is the bot’s ability to answer questions at any time of day, boosting customer satisfaction and ensuring rapid response times to customers during and after hours.
Chatbots can also significantly reduce the workload of customer service representatives by resolving issues before they need to be escalated to a live agent, enabling reps to operate more efficiently and with less interruption from incoming tickets.
Behind-the-scenes workflow automations
Customer service automation has benefits that extend beyond customer-facing interactions. It can be difficult for support agents to tackle both handling large volumes of customer tickets and collecting data to analyze performance and identify areas for improvement.
That’s where robotic process automation (RPA) comes in. RPA can automate repetitive tasks like call routing or answering FAQs, but it can also:
- Automate data collection
- Provide business performance insights
- Reduce data errors
- Remove duplicate files
- Retrieve and provide customer-specific information
- Update outdated data
Canned responses
Canned responses, or pre-written pieces of text, are useful templates that allow customer service reps to retain brand voice and decrease response times. These are typically used to:
- Answer FAQs
- Greet the customer
- Provide shipping updates
- Request feedback
- Provide instructions
When automated, canned responses can be automatically inserted into webchats, emails, SMS messages, and more to reduce the need for live agents to reply, rapidly resolve tickets, and provide consistency in voice and communication to customers across live and AI agents.
Sentiment analysis
AI-driven sentiment analysis uses machine learning algorithms to analyze customer interactions and report on customer satisfaction or frustration levels. There are three primary modes of sentiment analysis:
- Aspect-based analysis looks at individual segments of text (sentences or phrases) and identifies the customer's emotion based on the overall sentiment being expressed.
- Fine-grained analysis determines sentiment by looking at the implied polarity of words used by the customer and scores them on a scale from negative to positive.
- Emotion detection identifies customer’s emotions and moods based on the text provided and assigns a specific emotion.
Sentiment analysis is useful in customer service automation because the process can:
- Identify and prevent escalations
- Reduce churn
- Train agents on individual customers
- Personalize interactions according to sentiment
- Resolve cases more efficiently
- Identify training opportunities
Self-service portals
Providing customers with efficient ways to answer their own questions is an effective way to reduce the pressure on customer support representatives. Plus, modern customers actually prefer to answer their own questions without agent intervention. Over 90 percent of customers expect companies to offer a platform for self-service and want to feel empowered to resolve issues on their own.
Self-service options, such as an FAQ page or an AI-powered webchat, can cater to young, tech-savvy customers, reducing the strain on customer service reps. Building a robust knowledge base on your website and implementing an AI assistant is a great way to encourage customers to resolve issues at their own pace.
Transcriptions
AI transcription tools can convert speech into text in real time for further analysis, training, and storage.
Speech-to-text is typically used in situations such as video or phone calls with clients. AI transcription tools can:
- Search and analyze large volumes of transcribed calls
- Provide rich data for agent training and feedback
- Store transcripts for legal protection
- Extract in-depth data insights on customer sentiment
<h2 id="Steps">Steps to automate customer service effectively</h2>
Now that we’ve covered many dynamic benefits and uses of automating your customer service process, let’s look at the following steps to ensure proper implementation and a seamless transition.
1. Research and identify.
It’s crucial to analyze your current processes and identify areas where automation software would be most impactful. Begin by reviewing your current customer-agent interactions. Are there any simple, repetitive, or high-volume tasks draining your support team’s time?
You can also look at customer feedback. Are any areas constantly mentioned in feedback that need improvement, such as slow response times or lack of after-hours support?
Issues that are simple to resolve, time-consuming, and don’t require dynamic human creativity or empathy to solve are good candidates for automation.
2. Be selective.
While it’s important to identify tasks that may be good candidates for automation, it’s equally important to identify areas that shouldn’t be automated. Creating a stable balance of AI tools and live agent support is key to a well-rounded customer service strategy.
Tasks that live agents should continue to perform may include:
- Taking phone calls with customers that prefer to talk to live agents
- Onboarding new customers or employees
- Handling cancellation requests
- Performing account maintenance
- Interacting with high-value customers
As we discovered earlier, the goal of automation is not to replace, but to support live agents and allow them to focus their time and expertise on complex, high-value, and nuanced tasks.
3. Choose your software.
Choosing the right tools is a crucial part of the automation process. To ensure the tools you select are a good fit for your business, seek out software that has the following features:
- Budget-friendly
- Easy to use
- Integratable
- Scalable
- Secure
- Compliant
- Offers the right features
Can you easily adapt the new technology into your current communication channels and tech stack? Does the automation software offer the level of security and compliance required by your industry or client base? How scalable is the software?
While it may seem cumbersome, answering these questions before you select automation software can save your business a lot of time, money, and headaches down the line. Remember, your automation tools will interact directly with your customers, handle secure information, and will often act as a representative of your business. Taking the time to select the right tools for you will radically increase the chances of successful integration and implementation.
4. Train your team.
It’s crucial to make sure your leadership and customer service teams feel confident in how to implement, use, and scale your automation tools. Ensuring your customer support team knows how to use the automation tools can help boost the productivity of both parties.
Plus, effective training can help your agents know more than just how to work with the automaton software. They’ll need to know what to do when an automated ticket is escalated to them, who to report to for system errors or feedback sharing, and how to proceed in situations where automation fails.
5. Evaluate performance.
Think of your automation software as another employee. Carrying out regular AI “performance evaluations” is the best way to ensure your tools are working as designed. Neglecting to properly test software can result in poor customer experiences, negative reviews, and incorrect data. Plus, testing your automation software allows your customer service team to practice using the tools and highlights areas where further training or adjustments are needed.
Interacting with your webchat bot, cold emailing, or texting customer service regularly can help you stay aware of automation performance and the customer experience.
<h2 id="FAQS">Frequently asked questions about customer service and support automation</h2>
How does automation impact customer satisfaction?
Automation has a positive impact on customer satisfaction, increasing scores up to 20 percent when implemented properly. While human interaction is still vital, automation that’s well-integrated and easy to bypass helps lower response times and allows representatives to spend more time interacting with customers.
What businesses benefit most from customer support automation?
In terms of size, both enterprise-level and small businesses can benefit from customer service automation. AI tools can help large businesses handle high-ticket volumes and can assist small businesses looking to scale customer support teams on a budget.
Many different industries can benefit from automation as well, including:
- Travel
- Healthcare
- Finance
- Hospitality
- Ecommerce
- SaaS
What technologies are commonly used for customer service automation?
There are three main types of AI technologies used in customer service automation:
- Gen AI. Generative AI can be trained to create new content using machine learning algorithms and existing customer data. For customer service automation, generative AI can be used in webchats, message templates, and content creation.
- IVR software. Interactive voice response (IVR) is a kind of automated voice system that can interact with your callers, gather data, and route phone calls based on information provided by the contact. IVR is frequently used by high-volume call centers.
- Machine learning. Machine learning (ML) uses data to continuously improve accuracy and further learning. ML can assist in the analysis of data, report-building, analytics, and personalization.
Tap Textline to automate your customer service channels
Textline provides businesses with powerful automation features to streamline customer service teams’ communication workflows. With a wide array of advanced options, customer support teams can use Textline’s platform to create customized automations that work for their specific business and team needs.
Plus, with omnichannel inbox capabilities, customer service teams can automate, manage, and interact with customers from multiple channels in one unified inbox. Textline customers can also implement automated message routing, set trigger actions when contacts subscribe, personalize outreach at scale, and more all within Textline’s user-friendly platform.
Automate your customer service communications in minutes with Textline. Request your free demo today.
