How chatbots are changing call centers

Chatbot call centers

We’ve published a lot of articles and case studies about chatbots and how they work lately. And for good reason. The reality is that it doesn’t make sense anymore, logically or financially, for businesses to employ people round the clock in a cell center. The call center may receive one or two late night phone calls for something that’s a relatively easy fix. And for what? Yes, it’s essential to always provide customer service, if that’s something that is promised to customers. And it likely is because customers have come to expect constant assistance. But is it really necessary to make staff members sit in an empty call center all night twiddling their thumbs?

That’s where chatbots, using mobile messaging and voice communication, come in. Once largely dismissed as ineffective due to robotic answers, chatbots are now learning to communicate in a more informal and human way. That’s the beauty of chatbots really. They can be trained and will learn to communicate in the way a business needs it to. So, what impact will bot call centers have on customer care?

Related: 3 reasons for businesses to adopt chatbots for CRM

How are chatbot call centers changing customer care?

Live chatbots are able to answer simple queries in an efficient manner, far more quickly than a person ever could. However, humans have the ability to pick up on tone and subtext in a way that a chatbot could never master. Despite the progress made with Natural Language Processing, it remains vital to have a call center staffed by both bots and people; people can take over when the questions get tricky while bots field the quick fixes.

What does this mean for customer care?

Call center staff need to stop thinking about how to stop chatbots; they need to think about how they can work effectively together with them. Customer expectations from chatbots are simple: they expect quick responses to simple questions and 24/7 support. They don’t expect friendliness nor expert answers from bots. And that’s where staff members can step in and set themselves apart.

In addition, chatbots can be used to handle the initial interaction with customers. Bots can take the customer details and information on the issue, before handing over to an agent. This reduces initial waiting time, meaning customers will already feel looked after and appreciated. If the query can immediately be handled by a chatbot, that means there’s no need for it to be handed over to a call center agent. If an agent is needed, the chatbot can assign the call to the most qualified person based on the information received.

Sooner or later, every company will need to employ a staff of customer service chatbots. In this way organizations can ensure work is done around the clock, human error will be reduced and expenses will be slashed. By using chatbots in your customer relationship management (CRM) strategy, you can be certain that customers are assisted efficiently and competently.

If you’re interested in learning more about using bots and live chat for customer relationship management, read more about Clickatell Touch. It’s a live chat app that uses bot technology and call center agents to enable businesses to talk to their customers in the way they want to communicate, by using mobile messaging. You can also watch this video to see Clickatell Touch in action.