Balancing Between Real Humans And Chatbots In Customer Service

In the modern age customer service is vitally important to the running of every company. With the advent of the Internet customer service took on a different facet to what was expected in traditional roles. As websites have developed and Internet speeds have increased, there has been a change in approach once more.

A Live Chat function has become an expected part of the website experience, offering users a variety of ways in which information can be found quickly and effectively. Not only can a user become a customer through phoning the telephone listed on the website, but they can also email and speak to the member of staff manning the live chat function.

It isn’t just with live chat on a website where you can witness the mixture of chatbots and real people, but also with telephone customer service teams. For many users, having the ability to speak to a real human being instantly is a great way to entice them to trust the company and become a loyal customer to that brand. There have started to become some issues however as real human beings manning the live chat and phone lines, are being replaced by automated chatbots in an approach aimed at cutting costs whilst still providing users with critical information.

One of the main issues that has cropped up again and again with chatbots is that they tend to cause confusion and consternation for users who have called up, or logged on, to find out important and often precise information. Although the costs of having automated chatbots for these types of conversation is much lower than a team of humans, if you factor in the problems of customers and users calling again and again because the chatbot hasn’t provided them with the correct answer, and costs can start to increase to a similar level.

There is also the problem with a delay in answers causing users to potentially lose trust and interest in a brand, and taking their business elsewhere. Chatbots have become more sophisticated, with live chatbots taking on a human appearance and form, and offering links and answers to many questions. However, there is something to be said for the quality of real human interaction in terms of building relationships and trust between a consumer and a company.

There is a balance to be had between real life human beings speaking to users via live chat and chatbots. Although chatbots can’t provide in-depth and accurate information that may be required, they can guide a huge percentage of users to the right section of the website for the information they are looking for. If you can find the right balance your users and customers will remain happy and know that you are a brand that they can trust to answer questions quickly and effectively. One way in which you can ensure that your real life live chat customer service staff are performing their duties effectively is to provide them with regular customer service training specific to your company.

John Lee

John is a passionate blogger and author who writes on various topics. He is an animal lover and has one dog. He loves to read biographies and self-improvement books. His hobbies are photography, singing, and dancing.

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