Automating customer service: Balancing efficiency with human touch

Using automation as part of your customer support can change the game for your business if you maintain a thoughtful, personal approach. Here is how to balance automation and personalization.

According to McKinsey¹, customers rate four key elements as top priorities when investing in a business or product:

• Fast service and low response times
• Personalized and tailored experiences
• AI-enabled self-service on devices and platforms of their choice
• Easy and convenient customer service touchpoints

To meet all four of these requirements is a tall order, yet achievable with the proper combination of technology and strategy.

All of us have seen or experienced how innovative companies create immersive and engaging customer experiences by integrating automation into customer-facing processes like front-desk operations, communications, and contact centers. Yet, at some point of our lives, we have also spent precious hours shuttling between an endless loop of Interactive Voice Responses (IVRs) and chatbots, struggling to find assistance in times of need.

Automation undeniably yields remarkable results, streamlining customer service, making it more efficient and responsive. However, it’s crucial to recognize that automation can also act as a double-edged sword. Mindless implementation of automation in customer service can lead to detrimental effects, a pitfall many companies overlook in their rush to embrace digitization.

Automation makes service more predictive and proactive – but balancing the future-forward technology with business strategy is the key to enabling truly effective end-to-end support.

Keeping the ‘customer’ first in customer service

In today’s crowded marketplace full of tools and tech promising all sorts of results, it’s easy for organizations to think they should automate everything.

Here are a few best practices that can deliver fast and efficient service to your customers, while also making them feel valued and acknowledged.

• Keep an eye on the bigger picture: One of the biggest challenges with automation is developing a singular focus on automating smaller, individual tasks. While these low-hanging fruits are often the easiest to execute one must keep in mind that the aim is not to simply automate, but to make the customer journey faster and simpler.The real game-changer, where you see the most significant return on investment, is when entire processes and workflows are transformed from start to finish. To achieve this, it’s important to view processes as a whole and have a clear vision of the desired final business outcome, instead of focusing on piecemeal tasks.

• Fix broken processes first: You will be surprised at how many managers are unaware of the process discrepancies and deviations that creep into legacy workflows over time. Automating these broken processes only amplifies the problems.Every automation project should start with an in-depth business discovery. At Odessa, we have built a methodology for this, and it has always provided us with a more nuanced understanding of our customers, their workflows, and the gaps that need to be addressed.
• Find a technology partner that makes customization and integration easier: Many companies are leaning towards standardizing processes, but there will always be workflows and processes that are unique to your business and customers, right?Like Eric Bernstein, CEO, Odessa explains in this article, by blindly standardizing and automating processes, and not leaving margins for flexibility, companies might end up trying to force their customers with round holes to buy a square peg.

  A platform that meets global standards is key for adhering to industry best practices and avoiding complex integration issues associated with excessive customization. This flexibility allows you to add a personal touch to your services, ensuring that customers don’t feel like they are being treated like bots

• Allow for human connection: End-to-end automated customer service maximizes speed and efficiency. But sometimes customer queries can be complex and require human judgement and intervention.Based on a survey conducted by PwC², 75% of customers indicated that they would want to interact with real people more as technology improves. Irrespective of how your customer service journey is structured, always build in an omnichannel solution so that customers can switch to connecting to a real-life person if they want a human touch.
• Choose a self-service portal designed for your business: A customer portal is essential for automated customer service. Choosing the one that is designed for the asset leasing business will have features and functionalities that are more relevant to your customers.For example, the Odessa Customer Portal allows customers to connect to features they need access to frequently: account information, upload, or view documents, make payments, check application statuses and more. It automates key customer service processes – but also leaves room for humanized engagement and conversation through customized offers, notifications, and knowledge sharing.

  What’s better? With a self-service portal, you can free your employees of mundane tasks so they can focus on better customer service and other value-added initiatives.

• Keep your customer close, and your employees closer:If you want customer service automation to be successful, ensure your employees are enabled to drive this transformation forward. Empower them to be better supported in their role by providing them with tools like advanced analytics so that they can make informed business decisions, and free them from repetitive and monotonous tasks. By making them feel invested into the business, they will have the incentive and motivation to deliver customer experiences that leave lasting impressions.

How much is too much?

As change leaders within your organization, there will be a time when you will need to ask the pertinent question: how do we balance a powerful tool like automation with valuable human connection? The degree of automation you implement in your business will wholly depend on factors that are unique to you and your customers. The important thing to remember is that only the fine balance between the speed and efficiency of automated customer service, and the personal touch of a human-to-human relationship, can keep the customer coming back.

1. Customer First: Personalizing the Customer-Care Journey

2. Experience is everything. Get it right.