Integrating Self-Service and Assisted-Service for Excellent Customer Experiences

customer self-service

Undoubtedly, customer self-service technologies offer cost-effective solutions for companies. Self-service automated platforms allow customers easy access to input data, field queries, and resolve issues without the need for interaction with a customer service representative. Technologies such as traditional Interactive Voice Response (IVR) or Conversational IVR that operate on speech recognition, or Artificial Intelligence (AI) bots which allow your customers to speak or chat naturally and describe what they need in their own words to a virtual agent, are effective tools that let customers address their concerns with high first-call or contact resolution. 

The Importance of Self-Service Solutions

The integration of self-service and assisted service is integral for quality customer service experiences. There are instances when further assistance is warranted and customers need to speak with a live agent. An assisted service channel offers extended support to users whose needs cannot be addressed by IVR and bot-driven virtual agent technologies. There are times that a live agent is necessary to answer a complex question or resolve an issue of equal complexity. There is also the reality that, though self-service automated platforms do, statistically, achieve high first-call resolution, that high-resolution rate only factors those users who are able to utilize the platform. There is still a substantial segment of the population who do not have the proficiency, access, or skill, and sometimes patience, to fully navigate automated platforms. 

Full-Service Customer Care

Combining self-service and assisted service channels offer businesses and their customers full-service customer care solutions. Self-service and virtual agent technology accessed via AI bots offers customers round-the-clock access to information and fulfillment. Be it fielding answers to general questions or placing items in a cart, the Conversational IVR or virtual agent can execute the task to customer satisfaction. When the complexity of customer service questions increases, transitioning to a live agent, with customer information intact, can provide the essential assisted service necessary to resolve a customer’s situation.  

Reduce Business Costs

The combination of digital and live agent solutions provides optimal customer service and offers the opportunity to build or maintain customer loyalty in an ever-increasing interactive world. Certainly, the prime benefit of any company incorporating interactive customer support bots is the potential to reduce business costs. By 2023, projections by international digital market consultancy, Juniper Research, estimate that the savings for instituting self-service automated platforms in the fields of healthcare, banking, and retail collectively could be as high as $11 billion. Increased use of chatbots can substantially cut the response and interaction time customers and businesses spend on navigating social channels or phone calls by upwards of 2.5 billion hours.  

Such cost-saving estimates are derived from increasingly sophisticated AI bots—bots programmed with language processing capabilities that feature text or speech. Though fundamentally an AI bot is a software application that simulates human conversation or text, it is very much an advanced communication software application. The technology can interact with customers or potential customers via text or converse with a degree of finesse and polish that emulates human conversation. Bot technology runs from familiar pop-up chatbots that field basic queries to interactive virtual assistant technologies akin to Siri or Alexa. 

Offer Seamless Customer Experiences

The integration of self-service and assisted service offers businesses a quality customer care solution that is both cost-effective and symbiotic in its efficiency. For example, when the complexity of customer inquiries increases beyond bot capabilities and a transfer for further assistance is necessary, pass-through of data already acquired through IVR or AI bot interaction is forwarded to a live agent. This allows the agent to transition immediately to field questions, or to remediate and resolve any problems or issues. Pass-through data bypasses the repetitive necessity of asking the caller his or her name, account numbers, verifying their address, the reason or nature of the call, and so forth. Instead, the live agent can engage the customer immediately to answer queries or find solutions. The blend of self-service and assisted service provides your customers with a seamless customer experience while reducing the response and interaction time that drives up costs. 

Make the Most of Customer Support with Telecom, Inc. 

Integrating self-service customer care technologies with assisted service capabilities is at the core of Telecom’s professional domestic contact center services. Telecom’s extensive array of customer support channels blend IVR, email, chat, mobile, web, and social media, with our call center acting as a channel for assisted service needs. Our custom solutions offer businesses a flexible and versatile approach for how and when their customers choose to interact with them in any customer care support or service capacity. By integrating self-service and assisted service transactions, businesses and the customers they serve can benefit from more positive experiences and customer satisfaction. 

To learn more about our self-service solutions, please contact us or schedule an appointment with Telecom, Inc. today!

Receive a Free Consultation & Proposal

Contact us to learn how we can help you increase sales, optimize customer experience, and reduce your service costs.

Contact Us