Eight Ways to Make Chatbots and Customer Service More Human

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Eight Ways to Make Chatbots and Customer Service More Human

Emotions have always played a big role in customer experiences. The way we feel when we’re interacting with a brand can greatly impact the relationship we’ll have with them in the future. If we’re upset or frustrated and feel like the company doesn’t really care, or we can’t find the help we need, we might not want to do business with them again. If we feel like the company understands us, cares about us, and will work hard to solve our problem, there’s a good chance we’ll come back (and maybe even tell our friends and family as well).

For businesses, this means that to succeed in today’s world, they must focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences with each and every interaction.

Easy, effective engagement has become table stakes. You need to make it simple for customers to engage and do business with you when and where they want to, and you need to make your customers feel like you really care about them when they do reach out. But with more and more companies turning to chatbots to handle a growing volume of customer inquiries, will empathy and understanding get lost along the way?

Recent advances have made chatbots better at sensing emotions and mimicking human conversations, but how can companies ensure that customer service automation never leads to losing the human touch?

To get the most out of AI, you need to allow chatbots to participate when and where it makes the most sense, and let human agents handle the rest. Remember that not every journey can or should be automated and that human agents will never be completely replaced.

Finding the right balance of AI and agents and ensuring they’re used effectively to make customers happy at every touch point is essential to providing the experiences your customers demand. Here are eight steps to follow to ensure your customer experience features the right blend of automation and empathy.

1. Create an identity and personality for your chatbot Customers appreciate when agents have a personable, empathic personality—the same could be said about chatbots. When you design your chatbot, you’ll want to give it a personality type that fits with your brand and one that will ensure the chatbot can hold its own during a conversation. There are too many chatbots on the market that are boring or robotic and use unnatural dialogue that feels detached. These interactions won’t build trust in your chatbot or live up to customer expectations, and can end up doing more harm than good for your brand.

You can also take personalization a step further by giving your chatbot additional humanizing aspects like a name or an avatar, just never pretend your chatbot is human—customers hate that. Always make it clear they’re talking to a bot.

2. Play up the strengths of your chatbots/agents Chatbots are getting smarter every day. Today, most bots excel at handling repetitive tasks and answering simple questions (inventory check, order status, flight info, etc.). They’re also unmatched at searching for data, and can find answers and information much faster than human agents ever could. Where human agents still outperform is reasoning and providing a truly personal touch—though recent advances have allowed bots to detect and react aptly to emotions, for now, upset or frustrated customers are probably better off in the hands of an empathetic human agent. Be sure you’re using chatbots or human agents where it makes the most sense, and never try to force anything for the sake of automation.

Understand the strengths of chatbots vs agents

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3. Use sentiment analysis to detect 5. Understand your customer emotion and respond accordingly segments and respond accordingly Easy, effective engagement has become table stakes— Human agents are able to pick up on customer emotions Your customers are unique, and they expect to be treated that right away and engage accordingly—your chatbot should way. Not all customers will follow the same path through a you need to make it simple do the same. If the customer seems frustrated or angry, your journey or have the same expectations for the level of customer for customers to engage and chatbot should recognize that and respond appropriately, service they’d like to receive. For the most part, customers fall do business with you when even if it’s just a simple response before handing off to into one of the following three segments—keep all segments in and where they want to. a human agent. Phrases like “I understand” “I am here mind when designing your customer journeys and be sure each to help” or “Let me get that information for you” feel has the option to get the experience they want immediately. conversational and show the customer you care. Progressive Pioneers lead the demand for product You can also use sentiment analysis to analyze the intensity and experience innovation. They expect hyper- What is sentiment of customer emotions and determine when a chatbot personalized experiences and want companies to analysis? should hand a conversation over to a human agent. Triggers cater to them, their needs, and every aspect of their can include certain keywords (manager/human) or other interests. They want empathetic service reps (most Sentiment analysis (also known as keywords that show the customer is getting frustrated (I often humans)—offer this kind of experience to opinion mining) is a component of already tried that!!!!) When a hand-off happens, be sure your most valuable customers. Natural Language Processing (NLP) the chatbot transfers the entire conversation history so the that is used to identify the emotional customer doesn’t get further upset by being forced to start Convenience Conformers opt for products and tone behind a series of words. their journey again. services that enhance convenience only after they have become widely available. They look for companies who care and will help them find the best 4. Understand the strengths of products for them. chatbots vs. agents Reserved Resisters are least enthusiastic about Escalate interactions when interaction with an agent is needed product or experience innovation. They feel like when your customers engage with your chatbot, they should they’re just another number but are OK with that know they always have the option to speak to a live agent. because their needs are limited. They value ease Design your journeys so customers can easily connect with an and effectiveness—they just want their problem agent if it is their wish. Keep track of when and where solved and don’t care if it’s a chatbot that does it. escalations occur so you can determine if or how to fix things to prevent escalations from happening again in the future.

6. Measure performance using customer-centric metrics Three E’s of Forget outdated engagement metrics like daily or monthly active users—these tell you absolutely nothing about whether your Differentiated customers are happy and satisfied once they’ve engaged with your company. Instead, focus on the value you’re delivering to your customers. Are they happy and satisfied with the outcome of each and every interaction (whether it’s handled by a Customer Experiences chatbot, human agent, or combination of both)? Remember, a positive customer experience directly correlates with customers who are going to buy from you, keep buying from you, and tell their friends to buy from you—all things that directly impact 1. Ease revenue. This is what really matters. Customers want easy experiences— whether they have a question or 7. Use chatbots to empower agents an issue they need resolved, they want to effortlessly interact with Don’t think of using chatbots solely for the purpose of improving customer self-service. While it’s true they’re great at companies on their channel of automating transactions, they’re also great at empowering agents. When an agent is interacting with a customer, chatbots can choice and not have to start over at work behind the scenes to find and feed them important information, helping agents work smarter and faster, and freeing them any point during their journey. up to spend more time truly focusing on the customer. 2. Effectiveness 8. Use AI to coach agents to build better connections with customers Customers expect their issues Understanding and acknowledging emotion is key to delivering better customer experiences. When a chatbot hands a or questions to be fully resolved customer off to an agent, they should be providing the agent with the sentiment as well as the context of the conversation. during their first interaction with the Whether the customer is happy, upset, anxious, or frustrated, providing your agents with this information will help them company. determine how to approach the conversation to ensure they provide the best experience for the customer and build a lasting connection. 3. Emotion

Customers want to feel an emotional connection. They want to feel like the company understands who they are, knows their past interaction history, and that they’ll do the right thing for them.

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