Has Technology Killed Customer Service?
We are in the midst of the digital era, where it’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine a life without internet, email and mobile phones. In the world of ATM’s, pay at the pump and self-scanning checkouts; have you ever felt that technology has made our seemingly convenient lives more complicated?
Picture this: you are a potential customer and have scoured a business website for a phone number. Once finding that number, you have sat through minutes of automated options. After listening to tedious on-hold music you have been informed that your enquiry will be dealt in twenty four hours.
Unfortunately, this is the customer service scenario for many businesses. And in the twenty-first century, most customer service is being handled electronically and is hardly ever done in person. People are more comfortable in dealing with a person than a computer – so why is technology becoming the death of customer service?
THE PROBLEM: big companies with highly automated customer services
Big companies have composed a ‘help yourself’ phone support which requires customers to navigate through a complicated phone mail system, which has been designed to keep customers from speaking to a real person. With minutes (sometimes hours) of automated options and on-hold songs, the customer service assistants shuffle these customers along as quickly as possible.
Dealing with these types of companies is frustrating. You get the impression that you are just a number and that the organisation couldn’t care less about your custom.
THE PROBLEM: small companies with nobody on the end of the line
Small organisations tend to be technology phobic. As a result, their staff require a bizarre amount of effort to complete the most simplest of tasks. Customers can spend their day endlessly dialling hoping for somebody to return their calls. Once their calls have been returned, they are welcomed with terribly slow IT systems and customer service assistants who seem to have misplaced their details.
Handling a company which is simply not there is annoying and you are often left feeling that your custom is unimportant.
In Conclusion,
Many businesses simply do not understand the benefits of good customer service. Or if they do, they frankly do not have the time to implement such strategies. Technology is a tool which should be used wisely and as new technology develops, your business should adapt.
Options like live chat have changed the way businesses speak to their customers, but speaking to a real person has never been more in demand. Good customer service is to have these things readily available. Excellent customer service is going that extra mile to deal with customers, being there 24/7 meeting their needs, responding quickly and speaking to them person to person.
Bad customer service has tremendous consequences. Unhappy customers are likely to bad-mouth your company losing you future custom. If your business is loosing custom due to poor customer service, you may want to consider alldayPA who are a leading telephone answering service in the UK. This service allows for a fully-qualified personal advisor to answer your phone calls in your company’s voice 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
