Messaging automation can be an effective way to reduce customer service costs and improve customer satisfaction. In particular, chatbot automation can give your broadband customers a fast, cost-effective way to solve simple problems without overburdening your call center.
OutPLEX can provide your company with both automated and traditional communication solutions. When properly integrated, these solutions can provide customers with efficient assistance whenever and wherever they need it.
Uses for Chatbot Automation in the Broadband Industry
When a customer runs into a potential issue, their first step is not likely to be contacting a call center to speak with a live agent. Instead, as Forbes reported in May 2021, many customers seek answers online and only turn to other channels if they cannot solve their problems digitally. Furthermore, customers enjoy retaining control of their own experience rather than having to relinquish control to a brand.
For these reasons, it is important to make your website as empowering and customer-friendly as possible. This could mean installing a chatbot that:
- Responds immediately: There is no wait time associated with messaging automation. The chatbot can respond as soon as the customer finishes typing.
- Is available at all times: Customers can use a chatbot during peak working hours, on holidays, or even in the middle of the night.
- Empowers your customers: From the start of the interaction through the resolution, your customer retains control.
- Predicts the customer’s need: Even before a customer begins typing, a chatbot can suggest popular topics. The customer can receive more information about those topics simply by clicking on them.
- Is accessible to everyone: Make sure your chatbot is accessible according to the recommendations outlined by the Bureau of Internet Accessibility. This ensures an inclusive experience for disabled customers.
Chatbots and other digital channels allow customers to find solutions to simple issues or queries on their own. For example, we can program your chatbot to respond to questions about:
- Troubleshooting
- Product availability
- Checking account status
- Making changes to an account
- Business hours
- How to perform certain actions
By enabling your broadband customers to solve such problems independently through chatbot automation or other digital means, your business could:
- Save money: It is much more cost-effective for you to help customers through an automated chatbot than to rely exclusively on live customer service agents.
- Retain more customers: Customers appreciate an excellent customer service experience and are less likely to leave a brand that provides them with one.
- See an increase in customer satisfaction: Similarly, customers are often happier when they not only get fast answers to their questions but can seek those answers through channels they like and are familiar with.
- Devote itself to other goals: Once you partner with OutPLEX for your customer support system, you have more time to focus on your core business objective: providing quality broadband services to your customers.
Messaging Automation Systems Aren’t Just Website Chatbots
In addition to chatbots, OutPLEX can help you reach out to customers via:
- Text messaging: Depending on the complexity of the query, customer text messages can be responded to by either messaging automation or a live messaging agent. Basic questions sent through text can be handled by automation, only requiring a live agent to take over if the automation gets stuck.
- Digital messaging: In lieu of text messages, many customers prefer using messaging apps like WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, or Google Business Messages. OutPLEX offers these and many other platforms for messaging automation.
- Social media: Many social media sites have private messaging options. Offering messaging automation through channels like Facebook Messenger can resolve many common requests.
Which—and how many—of these channels should you offer? That depends on:
- Which channels do your current customers use
- Which channels are popular with the customers you want to attract
- Your budget
For example, per the Pew Research Center, Twitter is much more popular with younger users (ages 18-29) than older ones. So if you are looking to target older audiences, Twitter may not be the best channel for you to invest in.
To find out which channels may be of greatest use to your business, let OutPLEX research:
- Your target audiences
- What channels do those audiences use
- When and how those audiences use those channels (e.g., finding out at what times of day they are most active)
- What people are saying about you on social media
- What kinds of content do customers want to see on your social media pages
Armed with this information, as well as knowledge of your business’s most important needs and objectives, we can work with you to build a CX strategy that:
- Meets customers’ needs: Customers want convenience and ease of use. It is the brand’s job to deliver. Messaging automation is an excellent way to do so.
- Is flexible: Neither the broadband industry nor your business goals are static. You should be able to reprogram or upgrade your chatbot automation and other communication solutions as necessary and with minimal disruption.
- Increases customer retention: Customers value a good experience, and research indicates that many will choose to leave a brand that does not provide an experience that meets their standards.
- Promotes your mission and goals: We can program digital channels to encourage certain behaviors or remind customers of your core values.
- Works well together: Each channel should have the same messaging as the others. Also, if one platform does not have the capacity to assist a customer, it can provide a link or a phone number that may be more helpful or transition the customer to another platform.
- Is fully supported: Even the most efficient systems can run into hiccups. That is why our tech support team is available 24/7 to resolve glitches with software or processes.
Chatbots Can Enhance Your Call Center Experience
No matter how efficient your digital channels are, there are still some issues that can only be handled by a live call center agent. For example, if a customer has a complicated technical problem, a live agent can identify the source and talk the customer through remedial steps, all while expressing appropriate empathy.
For this reason and others, messaging automation and other digital channels do not eliminate the need for a call center. On the contrary, they can improve the customer service experience for all of your customers by:
- Shortening wait times: The more customers can get answers via chatbot automation, the fewer will have to contact the call center. Customers who do call in may therefore get help faster because there will be fewer people on the line.
- Directing customers to the call center: A good chatbot will recognize when it cannot help and will immediately transition the customer to a live chat agent. Alternatively, they can give them your call center phone number. This makes it easier for customers to get the help they need.
- Providing fast answers: Customers on the phone do not have to wait as long to reach a live agent, and customers on digital platforms can receive answers almost instantly.
A more direct way to improve your call center experience with automation is through interactive voice response (IVR). This system works by:
- Picking up when a customer calls in
- Asking the customer to identify their problem through speech
- Using that speech to identify the caller’s intent
- Playing a recording that answers the customer’s question, if possible
- Directing the customer to a channel, such as your website, that can answer their question, or
- Connecting the customer with a live agent, if no other channel can help
Through IVR, you can identify each customer’s intent and divert them to the channel best suited to their needs as quickly as possible.
Call OutPLEX and Get Started Today
For more information on how chatbot automation can boost your broadband business, contact OutPLEX and request a free quote. We have spent over two decades creating customized plans to help our clients meet business objectives through the efficient use of messaging automation, call centers, market research, and more.
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