Voice Assistants Usage In Customer Service

Guest post by Ashley Halsey.

Customer service is evolving, as technology becomes more and more advanced. With this rise in technology comes voice-based customer service, thanks to the following voice assistants (just to name a few): Alexa, Siri & Google Assistant.

Now, more industries are utilizing voice assistants to better customer service in business interactions. Let’s explore how voice assistants can make call center experiences better.

 

Pure Digital Or Fully Human?

Digitization has transformed customer service by making it easier for companies to respond to customers’ wishes or complaints with interactions (either purely digital or completely human, or even with hybrid solutions). 

It’s important for businesses to try and find the balance between digital and human communications that will work for their individual customer base, and their branding. For example, a bank may stick with fully automated services with backup human advisors if required for more complicated processes, but an authentic homely kind of business, perhaps one selling yoga classes, for example, may like to stick with a fully human experience.

While there’s convenience to be had by any business working with voice assistants, it’s essential that businesses currently look to see which solution will best suit the way they’re presenting themselves. If in the future, voice assistant technology becomes the full norm, then businesses can change to adapt this. I’m sure we all know someone who would much prefer to speak to a person than a machine, meaning it’s clear we’re still currently in a transition period.

Also interesting: Humans Vs. Machines In The Age Of Customer Experience

 

Enhancing Customer Service With Voice Assistants

With 93% of consumers being satisfied with voice assistants, with 50% of them saying that they help them be more organized – according to PwC – there’s a lot of appraisals revolving around them. Here are some ways that voice assistants can help out in the customer service realm:

Reduce Holding:

No one likes to be put on hold whenever they contact a customer service rep. But with voice assistants, reps already have customer information on file. That way they don’t have to put them on hold. In fact, all areas in the company can access the data without having the customer repeat that information every time they call.

Have A Customized Conversation Opener:

The last thing you want is the caller to grow frustrated in being on the phone for a long time. Therefore, it’s important to make the conversation worth their time. With voice assistants, they invite callers with a marked welcome to establish trust over voice. This can be done in multiple ways. If the customer is already signed into an account, you can automatically set a voice assistant to use the name of the person who is getting in touch, instantly making the customer believe they are being spoken to directly and aren’t just being fed through a machine.

If you have options or questions asked to help direct the call, you can have recordings that will detail some easy fixes or solutions to a particular problem first that can provide help, but also state that their call is being answered as soon as possible.

 

To learn more about chatbots for your business – check out our ultimate chatbot guide. 

 

Add A Personal Touch With Human-Like Conversations:

According to GeekWire, 42% of adults “prefer real human interaction” versus communicating via any form of technology. Therefore, it’s not surprising to see companies try to make their digital call experience more “human-like” by adding a personal touch in each caller situation. For the caller, this creates the sense of talking to a real person, not a faceless robot.

This means working on your ability to talk and how you’re going to record your voice assistant, or program your AI responding. Are you going to use a selection of voices? How are you going to acquire these voices? Are they going to sound natural? What kind of way are you going to present the voice?

How you present your business will instantly dictate how the conversation is going to go. Imagine an angry customer calling up because they’ve been let down by your company. How you first speak with them will determine how open they will be to dealing with your business. So you need to ask these questions to see what the best approach is.

 

Conclusion

So, if you want to improve your company’s customer service, then you may want to look into implementing voice assistants. This will help you enhance a customer’s experience every time they contact you. This may take some time to implement. However, with the right strategies and feedback from both company and consumers, you will soon be able to master the best service experience possible as the world grows more and more digital. 

 

Author bio: Ashley Halsey writes at Dissertation writing services UK and GumEssays.com. As a professional writer, she has been involved in many projects nationwide. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, giving talks in business training courses, and spending time with her two children.