Text Customer Service: Why Not?

Phone calls are becoming more and more outdated as time goes on. Customers don’t like to use the phone to call friends and family, so what makes you think they want to call you? With texting being such a convenient option for communication, and AI Chatbot making it even easier on your business, why haven’t you started offering a text customer service platform? Here are some reasons why you should make the change.

People spend more time texting than on the phone

It seems confusing that people prefer text over phone conversation. Customers spend five times longer every day texting than they do on the phone, and Millennials exchange 67 texts a day on average with others. When talking to someone is so much faster and easier than typing every word through a text, why would people still prefer it?

Well, when you have to call someone, you have to set aside time to talk to them. Businesses are even more difficult to set aside time for because you never know if it is going to take them five minutes to help you or an hour. If you text, however, you can go on with your day while you wait for a response and get other things done. People are too busy to get on the phone, so they prefer texting.

Offering an immediate response

One of the big advantages of texting your customer is that you can use AI Chatbot to send back immediate responses. They don’t have to wait for a customer service agent to review the message and send a response when a machine can do that for you. Customer service departments know they deal with a lot of repetitive questions, and it would save a lot of time if they could have those questions answered by a machine instead of a live person.

Don’t think you will be able to get rid of your customer service team in place of AI CHatbot though. While you will definitely save a lot of time by not having to answer repetitive questions, your other interactions with customers may get more extensive. Research shows the average communication over text for a company is 86 minutes, which means you’ll have to train customer service reps on how to use their time wisely and teach them how to manage more than one text conversation at a time.

Messaging for marketing too

The other advantage to having a texting system set up with your customers is that anyone in the company, potentially, could text your customers. A business focused heavily on sales could allow their salespeople to use texting to stay in contact with customers. Other businesses can use text marketing to send advertisements to their customers on a regular basis. You can even use it as an emergency system where customers are sent texts to notify them of an emergency happening in the area or to your business. Having the ability to communicate with your customers through SMS gives you endless abilities for what you can do.

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Source: forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2017/01/18/heres-how-texting-is-transforming-customer-service-and-customer-support/#107c77ae109e

Do You Have Bad Customer Service

People are always talking about how bad customer service is. It is a fundamental part of every business, yet it seems like companies don’t have a firm grasp on how to improve their departments or even whether or not they have good customer service. Here are some signs of bad customer service you may be experiencing in your company.

You don’t work with marketing

While customer service and marketing departments technically serve different purposes, they are both very much connected. Marketing doesn’t know what to focus on without the help of customer service’s feedback, and customer service can’t properly communicate with customers if they don’t know about current promotions. If you have a small company, these two sections of your business could potentially be run by the same person. A larger company might want to consider putting both departments on the same floor of the building to encourage more communication.

Only unhappy interactions

Many business owners think it is normal to only hear back from your customers when they are unhappy. And while it is true that many people only leave feedback when they are upset, a company that is doing really well should have moments of no customer interaction or positive interactions as well. Constant problems is concern for your company, and it will give your customers the appearance that you don’t care about their needs.

You aren’t using AI Chatbot

AI Chatbot is the ability to use artificial intelligence to communicate with your customers for you through text or messaging. Programs are able to recognize the questions being asked of them and then respond accordingly. It saves your customer service team time by not having to answer repetitive questions, and it is becoming the expectation for customers. They want it available, so they don’t have to always call in for a simple questions.

No repeat business or referrals

Even Millennials, the most not-loyal generation of customers we’ve seen so far, won’t switch companies if they like the product unless they have a problem. Many people don’t even tell you they are leaving but just stop buying your products. So, if most of your business is from new customers and you aren’t getting a lot of referrals, there’s probably a problem that isn’t being remedied by your customer service representatives.

Reps aren’t able to make decisions

One thing that is very common in customer service departments is that reps aren’t able to much more than answer the phone and try to calm the customer down. They aren’t allowed to make any decisions. A manager has to be called upon anytime the customer needs more than basic information. This increases a customer’s wait time to get their problem fixed and requires you to hire more management to make decisions. Instead, allow customer service reps to make decisions within the bounds you have set. For example, you could say that a rep can give a refund up to $50 to upset customers without having to talk to management. This gives them freedom to do what they think is right in the situation while also freeing up everyone’s time.

You are comfortable

Even if you have a really awesome customer service department that isn’t doing anything wrong, customer expectations are changing all the time. That means the way you service them should also be changing regularly. Don’t just be comfortable and satisfied with the way things are. Always look for ways to improve.

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Source: customerthink.com/10-signs-your-customer-service-probably-sucks/

Generation Z values fast customer service

Keeping your customers happy is a huge part of what you probably do every day at your business. Of course, there’s all the other stuff, but customer service still takes on a huge role. And as businesses have tried their hardest to understand how to work with Millennials, they are now facing a new challenge of how to work better with Generation Z, the next group of young kids about to become their new customers. There are some things your business needs to know if you want to work well with this generation.

Gen Z is very comfortable with technology

The oldest generation of people seemed to really like in-person interactions, whether that is over the phone or through shopping in person. The Millennials seemed to be almost exclusively interested in working through online shopping and chatbots. Generation Z, however, has no problem using both and expects both to be available to them.

According to Media Post, the people in Gen Z are much more likely to pick up their phone, search for a business, and use click-to-call to reach that customer. They are just as comfortable looking up the business they want as they are calling them to get what they need.

Faster customer service is important

Gen Z grew up with technology at their fingertips. They had the ability to look up whatever they wanted and get it within seconds. Most of them don’t even remember what it was like to wait fifteen seconds for a website to load. So it makes sense they wouldn’t be very patient waiting for you to answer the phone. In fact, adults between the ages of 18 and 24 are 60% more likely to hang up after the phone has been ringing for 45 seconds instead of continuing to wait for someone to answer. That means your customer service staff needs to be easily available and accessible to them all the time.

By offering text marketing customer service and AI Chatbot to communicate more quickly and efficiently with your customers, you will give them multiple ways to reach you but will also make it much faster for everyone to get through to you. It means you are more likely to be able to answer that call within 45 seconds, and your customers won’t have to wait on hold to speak with your business.

Multitaskers

Another thing for your business to know about Gen Z is that they can multitask. While on the phone with your business, they can be tweeting about the call, researching everything you are saying, and coming up with their own conclusions about the situation. One thing to take from this is that your customer service agents need to be very well trained on your company, so they can always provide the most accurate information. It can be very troubling to a Gen Z person to get an answer from customer service that is different from what they are currently reading on the site. Transparency is also very important. If you try to lie about something, it will take them five seconds to read a review from someone else that tells them the truth. And you should be as quick and efficient as possible so they can go on with the things they have to do for the day instead of waiting for your call to end. Never underestimate the power a bad tweet can have on your business.

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Source: mediapost.com/publications/article/291592/bad-customer-service-gen-zers-will-tell-you-where.html