Tag: AI

Every modern business is expected to provide customers with immediate support if they’re experiencing problems. Yet with the evolving digital landscape where users expect instant gratification, how can businesses facilitate this without having customer teams on-call 24/7? The answer is simple, empower your customers to find their own solutions with Customer self-service.

What is customer self-service?

Customer self-service is any action or task that can be completed by a customer without the involvement of an agent or employee.

Common examples of self-service include: scanning items at a supermarket self-checkout, marking an item for returns on an online retail store, or ordering on a screen at a fast-food restaurant.

Cost-effective for businesses and convenient for customers

For most companies, the benefits of customer self-service are two-fold:

Customers are better equipped to solve their own problems, which leads to increased customer satisfaction and a higher likelihood of word-of-mouth referrals and repeat purchases.

Businesses benefit from decreased demand for support services and, as a result, incur lower labour costs.

This effectiveness of self-service systems has been reflected in their popularity with customers across the globe. In a report by the Harvard Business Review, 81% of customers stated they would prefer to handle an issue themselves before seeking assistance.

Another study revealed that 40% of all customers who contact a call centre do so only after trying to self-serve. This tells us two things: the first is that self-service is the go-to option for a large volume of unsatisfied or confused customers; the second is that, unfortunately, many businesses are not offering efficient self-service options.

What’s more, customer self-service isn’t just limited to brick-and-mortar shops. Online self-service is a crucial part of the modern customer experience. How crucial? A study by Microsoft showed that around 89% of American customers expect businesses to have some form of online self-service.

Benefits of customer self-service for businesses

On the businesses’ side, the benefits of implementing efficient self-service solutions are also backed by the data. A study by Gartner Research revealed that organisations see up to 70% reductions in calls, chat, and/or email enquiries after implementing a Virtual Customer Assistant.

But that’s not all: self-service can also help you close more sales. A study by Forrester shows that 53% of customers are likely to give up on an online purchase if they can’t find a quick answer to their question. In other words, if you don’t have answers readily available, half of your potential customers will not buy from you.

How to improve customer self-service

Depending on your business, there are a variety of ways to begin building or improving your current self-service setup.

Here are four ways your business can introduce customer self-service:

1. Use knowledge base software to build a knowledge hub

Knowledge bases are dedicated areas of your website made up of written articles that provide customers with targeted answers to their queries. Knowledge base software can help you create and organise resources to make your self-service materials more accessible, engaging, and helpful for your customers.

Depending on your business, a knowledge base can sit on a separate web portal, or as a collection of individual pages on your website. This will also be determined by the knowledge base software you use and the level of personalisation it allows.

You can write and share articles with various functions within a knowledge base, such as:

a) Explainer articles: Explainers provide general overviews of individual features, while also outlining the benefits and use cases.

b) How-to articles: How-to articles are step-by-step guides that direct a customer through a specific process or troubleshoot common issues.

c) Frequently asked questions (FAQs): FAQs are searchable lists of customers’ most frequently asked questions and the relevant solutions for each, which should be easily accessible to help customers address common issues.

You may also want to include a community forum or comments section in your knowledge base. Community forums allow your customers to discuss solutions among themselves without the need for an agent, reducing the need for intervention from your team even further.

The value of a robust knowledge base goes beyond customer service. It can also help your website rank higher on search engines like Google, which is important for receiving more traffic and potential customers.

Optimising your knowledge base articles for search engines by using relevant keywords and phrases helps them appear higher in search results. When people click on your articles from search engine results, it sends a signal to search engines that your website is a credible source of information, leading to higher rankings and more potential customers.

In summary, having a robust and optimised knowledge base can boost your website’s search engine rankings, which can help attract more customers to your business.

How to create a knowledge base

These days, it’s easier than ever to set up a knowledge base. All you have to do is find a knowledge base software tool that serves your particular needs.

Tools such as Help Centre from Connex One enable you to design your own customer self-service portal. Think of it as a knowledge based article creator, support ticketing system, and training course designer all rolled into one!

2. Offer product knowledge training courses

Short and interactive product knowledge training courses are an effective way to teach your customers how to utilise your products or features. These courses can include video tutorials, written walkthroughs, and quizzes to test the knowledge gained and ensure the customer has understood the content.

To make product knowledge training courses more engaging, you can also incorporate Gamification and certification elements, allowing customers to complete courses at their own pace while receiving rewards for their progress.

Interactive training courses offer several benefits compared to other training content. An Easy Generator study showed that a well-designed product knowledge training course often leads to:

a) Lower customer churn rates

b) Higher customer engagement

c) Reductions in one-time customer issues

It’s estimated that companies who include some form of early-stage education will make a customer 131% more likely to make a purchase, according to a study by Conductor.

How can I create product knowledge training courses?

Companies like 360Learning give you the opportunity to create training programs through a learning management system (LMS).

LMS’s are cloud-based platforms designed to help you build your own custom course with customisable rewards and certificates.

3. Provide training videos

If you’re looking to add another dimension to your customer self-service offerings, developing your own training videos can offer a more visual approach.

You can use them to answer FAQs, showcase and demonstrate product features, or give your customers tips and tricks to help them navigate your company’s services.

Not only that, but you could also embed them in your knowledge base articles, giving your customers flexibility when it comes to handling queries.

What’s the best way to make training videos?

With the array of tools on offer, video creation has become more accessible, enabling more and more businesses to establish their own in-house.

We recommend starting with your script. This process can be simplified if you already have written documentation on a product or feature.

You could then easily adapt it to a video script, where you can put it into a teleprompter, or add it to a text-to-speech service like Natural Reader for a low-cost voice-over solution.

When it comes to editing your video, there’s a variety of services at your fingertips, both free and paid. Outside the typical heavy hitters like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro, companies like Clipchamp offer a free cloud-based editing suite that gives users an intuitive way of creating their own videos.

To host your videos, look to websites like YouTube or Vimeo, as they can provide you with enough storage space for your videos while also giving you the ability to easily share them all across the web.

4. Add live chat to your website

If you want a quick and reliable way of communicating with your customers, live chat remains the #1 choice for web-based communication, and it’s easy to see why.

Live chat gives agents the ability to handle multiple customer interactions at the same time while also providing instantaneous responses to all kinds of queries.

If you want a completely automated system, you could also enhance your live chat service with chatbots.

Chatbots, also known as Conversational Bots, use language-processing to analyse keywords in a customer’s question. The chatbot can then provide the user with an answer to their query or direct them to any relevant learning material.

How do I add live chat to my website?

It’s never been easier to add live chat to your website. You can use products like Connex One to add a live chat widget directly to your site without needing coding experience and start talking to live users within minutes.

For a more bespoke configuration, pairing with Connex One’s Flow feature can fully automate live chat processes, along with the rest of your customer journey, or enable your team to use canned responses and ai self-service to quickly guide a customer to the right destination.

Implementing customer self-service

Hopefully, we’ve given you a better idea of how customer self-service can add value to your customer service. While you might want to try to add every suggestion at once, we recommend starting off your self-service journey by talking to an expert.

If you’re looking for an easy way to create a knowledge base or implement customer self-service, book a meeting with our team to discuss how you can utilise our user-friendly Help Center knowledge base software.

hello@hybridcomms.io – or give us a call

Call the Hybrid Team today on 03300564565 , or email us at hello@hybridcomms.io

With the surge in remote work and the growing emphasis on seamless collaboration and communication, businesses are increasingly adopting UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) to streamline operations and enhance productivity. UCaaS offers an array of features that break down communication barriers, empowering employees to work more efficiently, no matter where they are or what device they use.

For manufacturing companies, UCaaS proves particularly advantageous as it facilitates real-time collaboration between on-site teams and remote workers, enabling more effective production management and responsive customer service.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the top five benefits that UCaaS brings to manufacturing companies, highlighting its potential to elevate collaboration, scalability, mobility, customer service, and cost-effectiveness.

What is UCaaS?

Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is a cloud-based communication solution that integrates various communication channels, including voice, video, messaging, and conferencing, into a single platform. It allows employees to communicate and collaborate seamlessly from any location, on any device.

Top 5 benefits of UCaaS for manufacturing companies

1. Enhanced collaboration and communication

In the manufacturing industry, effective collaboration and communication between teams and departments are vital for smooth operations and timely product delivery. UCaaS solutions enable employees to communicate effortlessly with each other, regardless of their location or device, using various channels like voice, video, messaging, and conferencing. For instance, a plant manager can conduct video conferences with remote engineers or technicians to resolve technical issues or strategise production plans. Sales teams can also collaborate with the production department to ensure sufficient inventory for fulfilling orders. UCaaS integrates with other collaboration tools, such as project management software, further streamlining workflows and boosting productivity.

2. Scalability and Flexibility

Manufacturing companies often experience fluctuations in demand, impacting their communication needs and workforce. UCaaS solutions offer scalability and flexibility, enabling businesses to easily add or remove users and features as required, without the need for costly hardware investments. For instance, if a company needs to scale up production quickly, it can effortlessly add more users and conferencing capabilities to the UCaaS solution. Conversely, during slowdowns, the company can scale back the UCaaS solution to match reduced communication requirements.

3. Increased Mobility and Remote Connectivity

In today’s mobile workforce landscape, many manufacturing employees work remotely or travel frequently. UCaaS solutions provide increased mobility, allowing employees to communicate and collaborate from any location and device. For example, a remote sales representative can access the company’s UCaaS solution on their mobile device to connect with colleagues or customers through voice or video calls, messaging, or conferencing. Executives on business trips can join virtual meetings using their laptops to discuss production or supply chain matters. UCaaS features like voicemail transcription and call forwarding enhance mobility and productivity.

4. Improved Customer Service

Exceptional customer service is crucial for manufacturing companies, especially for supporting complex products or services. UCaaS solutions offer features that enhance customer service, such as call routing, queuing, and analytics. Companies can direct customer enquiries to the appropriate department or representative using call routing, ensuring quick and efficient resolution. Additionally, UCaaS analytics provide valuable insights into call volume, wait times, and resolution rates, allowing businesses to identify areas for improvement and optimize their customer service operations.

5. Cost Savings and Efficiency

UCaaS solutions bring significant cost savings for manufacturing companies by eliminating the need for expensive hardware, maintenance, and upgrades. Subscription-based pricing ensures businesses pay only for what they use, without worrying about additional expenses or capital investments. This becomes particularly advantageous for manufacturing businesses with fluctuating staff levels due to growth, turnover, or seasonality. Moreover, UCaaS solutions reduce travel costs, as employees can collaborate remotely instead of traveling to different locations. They also minimize downtime and improve efficiency by enabling swift issue resolution and effective collaboration.

Conclusion

UCaaS solutions offer manufacturing companies a host of benefits, including enhanced collaboration and communication, scalability and flexibility, increased mobility, improved customer service, and cost savings. In an era of remote work and mobile devices, adopting UCaaS has become essential for businesses aiming to remain agile, efficient, and appealing to both customers and employees.

If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!

Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!

hello@hybridcomms.io – or give us a call

Call the Hybrid Team today on 03300564565 , or email us at hello@hybridcomms.io

It’s clear the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to adapt like never before, with research showing the crisis accelerated the digitalisation of customer interactions by several years (McKinsey survey, October 2020). But at a time when there’s more pressure on businesses to streamline activities and increase productivity, customer satisfaction is more important than ever.

That’s where artificial intelligence comes in. There’s an underlying attitude that AI is only for businesses at a certain scale, with enterprise use of AI growing 270 per cent over the past four years (Gartner, 2019).

However, when it comes to customer engagement, business size doesn’t matter. In this article we explain how, with software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, AI implementation can revolutionise the way you do business with your customers.

Personalisation comes first

Incorporating AI innovations into any customer engagement set-up allows you to offer more tailored communications, and in turn solutions, for current and future customers.

For any inbound interaction, AI-driven intelligent routing can immediately assign the enquiry to the most suitable team member. This can be based on the call purpose, or additional criteria generated and recorded from previous contacts. The end result is minimised wasted time for the agent and customer alike, and higher levels of customer satisfaction.

AI chat bots can also keep your comms one step ahead of your customer at all times. If a potential customer has repeatedly checked one of your products online, chatbots can generate conversations based on this browsing history, supporting the sales journey without any action needed from a contact centre team – a clear win for business.

Increased quality means rocketing results

Automatic sentiment analysis – which facilitates live monitoring and rating of calls – is vital in gaining a holistic view of customer communications. Without AI, call monitoring and marking can fall on the backburner as it’s a time-intensive manual task. Through sentiment analysis, time can be freed up for team members to do what matters most – outreach, sales and customer support.

Gamification is also a game changer when it comes to employee engagement. Contact centres are fast-paced, high-pressure environments, where incentivisation is key to maximise morale and team performance. AI-driven gamification software turns the stick into the carrot, motivating staff to perform at their best through fun, engaging activities. One of our global clients was even able to boost their productivity by 233% after adopting gamification, driving over £1 billion of revenue.

Real-time data for decision-making

AI can streamline all decision-making. For example, automated keyword extraction of spoken and written queries can generate live recommendations while an agent is managing a ticket. By tracking customer emotions, or frequency of word use, agents can adapt their engagement tactics to better handle the situation based on this analysis and insight, helping increase resolution rates and creating an essential positive experience.

The data-rich information can also support businesses in dealing with unpredictable events. By tracking behavioural patterns of customers during transactions, AI can identify those at risk of leaving, and signal the need for action to retain them. It can also quickly identify unforeseen events – for example a spike in call volume referencing an outage or complaint – alerting teams to address a problem that might otherwise have gone undetected before spiralling out of control.

It’s time to act

Artificial intelligence implementation sounds daunting, but it shouldn’t. Ultimately, through AI-powered initiatives, your business can revolutionise the way you manage inbound and outbound enquiries, as well positively influencing productivity, staff retention and the bottom line.

Through our powerful next-gen technology, we arm businesses with the capability companies need to thrive when it comes to AI-driven customer engagement. For more information and to set-up a free demo of our platform, click here.

Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!

hello@hybridcomms.io – or give us a call

Call the Hybrid Team today on 03300564565 , or email us at hello@hybridcomms.io

In the past year, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has had a profound impact across various sectors, including customer service. The future of AI in customer service holds significant potential, prompting us to consider its upcoming developments and the resulting impact on the customer service landscape.

Among all industries, customer service stands out as one with immense opportunities for AI integration. By leveraging AI tools, businesses can enhance the overall customer experience while also boosting the efficiency and agility of their internal customer service departments. These tools are specifically designed to streamline processes in ways that surpass human capabilities.

In this blog post, we will delve into the shifting priorities of businesses and contact centres, transitioning from a focus on cost reduction to prioritising the delivery of an exceptional customer experience. Furthermore, we will explore the emerging AI technologies that empower organisations to achieve remarkable advancements in customer service.

The Importance of Customer Experience

Business optimisation is no longer just about lowering costs and increasing outputs. This has become increasingly clear in recent years as the concept of customer experience (CX) has emerged as one of the industry’s most important components.

According to a recent SuperOffice survey of over 1,920 business leaders, 45.9% rank customer experience as their top priority for the next five years, ahead of pricing and product.

Source: SuperOffice’s 2023 survey of 1,920 business leaders

Customer experience is, by definition, human-centric, and to compete in the customer engagement landscape, contact centres and customer service teams must provide a pleasurable, seamless, and, most importantly, human experience.

So where does AI fit into these human experiences?

The Rising Demand for Customer Service AI

With the growing significance of customer experience, there is a parallel rise in the attention given to emerging AI technology in contact centers. According to a Deloitte survey, an impressive 79% of customer service leaders have expressed their intention to invest in additional AI capabilities within the next two years.

The potential benefits of AI technology for customer engagement are vast, and its relevance in shaping business-customer interactions is only set to increase.

However, what lies ahead for AI in customer engagement? How will the future of customer service strike a balance between automation tools, AI integration, and the crucial element of human touch to provide a personalised customer experience?

The Top 4 AI tools that are reshaping customer service

To maintain competitiveness, contact center leaders face the challenge of effectively balancing the substantial advantages offered by AI with the human elements of customer engagement.

To illustrate the harmonious integration of AI and human-led processes, let’s explore four contact center AI tools that can empower organisations to deliver exceptional customer experiences:

1. Chatbots and Virtual Customer Assistance for Self-Service

Userlike conducted a study revealing that 60% of individuals prefer engaging with a live agent rather than a chatbot due to concerns about the chatbot’s ability to accurately comprehend their queries.

Nonetheless, when implemented effectively, chatbots can be highly efficient. According to a 2023 Gartner study, chatbots achieved a resolution rate of 52% for customer inquiries related to orders and purchases, and 48% for returns or cancellations. As chatbot AI continues to advance, these rates are projected to soar in the future.

In summary, chatbots can be an invaluable tool when employed appropriately, but they cannot fully replace the significance of human support. Chatbots powered by advanced AI can respond swiftly to standard queries, surpassing the speed of human agents. By deploying the right chatbot, organisations can alleviate their staff from handling mundane inquiries, enabling them to concentrate their skills on high-value interactions that necessitate human involvement or specialised expertise.

2. Interactive Voice Routing (IVR)

The introduction of AI IVRs (Interactive Voice Response) has brought about a transformative shift in customer service by incorporating ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) and NLP (Natural Language Processing) technologies to understand customer queries and provide precise and relevant information. These systems enable customers to engage with businesses using voice commands, replacing traditional menu-driven IVR systems.

Through the power of AI, IVRs can intelligently route calls to the most suitable department or agent, minimizing wait times and elevating the overall customer experience. Moreover, AI IVRs can handle routine inquiries and perform basic tasks like bill payments or order tracking without human intervention.

This automation optimises operations and allows human agents to allocate their focus on more intricate and high-value interactions. With the capability to deliver prompt, accurate, and personalised responses, AI IVRs significantly enhance customer satisfaction, leading to heightened loyalty and improved business outcomes.

3. Sentiment Analysis

The progress made in speech analytics AI has been remarkably rapid. While AI has not fully mastered certain aspects of language that rely on complex human factors like socialisation and culture, it has demonstrated comparable or even superior understanding of language compared to humans in many cases.

One notable application of speech analytics AI in contact centers is Sentiment Analysis. By analysing various factors such as tone, vocabulary, speech rhythm, and inflection, AI can accurately assess the emotions expressed by callers. This enables AI to track the caller’s emotional state throughout a conversation and evaluate the customer service performance of agents.

By harnessing Sentiment Analysis technology, customer service departments and contact center managers can gain valuable real-time insights into their teams’ performance. This enables targeted coaching to enhance the customer service skills of agents based on specific areas of improvement identified by the AI analysis.

4. Keyphrase Analytics and Entity Recognition

Indeed, Sentiment Analysis is not the sole method through which speech analytics AI tools can derive valuable insights from customer interactions.

Keyphrase analysis tools, for instance, can identify the most frequently used words or phrases during calls and text conversations, presenting this information in a clear and useful report for managers and stakeholders. This reveals the topics and areas of interest that customers care about the most, enabling contact centres and customer service departments to anticipate market trends and gain a competitive edge.

Additionally, Entity Recognition AI can aid customer service managers in identifying mentions of specific entities, such as company names, brands, or products, during calls. This simplifies the process of tracking how frequently these entities are referenced by callers in real-time. Businesses can utilise this data to determine which entities are relevant to their operations, such as products, time periods, prices, and more, and categorise them for future reporting.

Using this information, Entity Recognition AI can identify and categorize each mention of these entities during customer service interactions, providing comprehensive reporting on the findings as needed.

Remaining Competitive with Contact Centre AI

As advancements in AI continue to emerge rapidly, customer service departments and contact centers must swiftly adapt to leverage this technology and maintain a competitive edge. The integration of AI and automation should not only enhance customer engagement efficiency and optimise processes but also ensure that customers feel heard, which lies at the core of the industry.

Navigating this ever-evolving technological landscape can be a daunting challenge for customer service leaders and decision-makers. The constant influx of new applications and tools can be overwhelming, making it difficult for contact center leaders to stay abreast of the latest developments.

This is where the Connex One platform can provide valuable assistance. Our suite of customer engagement tools and AI is designed to be flexible and adaptable, growing alongside our clients’ evolving needs and requirements. We continuously incorporate new features based on invaluable feedback from our clients, ensuring that our platform remains at the forefront of customer engagement AI.

If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!

Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!

hello@hybridcomms.io – or give us a call

Call the Hybrid Team today on 03300564565 , or email us at hello@hybridcomms.io