A guide to customer service automation

Automation can help a business’ support team by providing 24/7 support and by using technology to handle customer interactions and routine service tasks that are traditionally handled by a live agent. New technology, such as chatbots, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and self-service portals, can manage incoming requests, routing them to the best and most relevant workflows, improving the overall customer experience.

Most importantly, customer service automation tools should be looked at as supplemental to live agents, where bots can help them work more efficiently, resolving issues where the human touch is highly necessary. These technologies, like generative AI, take off the pressure from the live customer service agents, giving them more time to develop relationships and meet customer expectations instead of doing mundane, repetitive tasks.

A business might consider bringing in customer service automation if it’s looking to encourage their customers to self-serve, ultimately reducing the cost to serve and relying on automated systems. The first step is implementing high-quality customer service (CS) software. Automation tools within the CS software are meant to handle the at-times overwhelming number of requests or inquiries a business is receiving around the clock.

The CS software can also monitor customer feedback and customer satisfaction through automated tech support, ultimately improving customer relationships. The automated customer service tools can create tickets, answer frequently asked questions (FAQs), handle one-on-one interactions and guide customers through challenges. The automated system can deal with customer inquiries quickly and provide knowledge-based recommendations with ease.

The type of insight an automated customer service system provides is unmatched. It helps a business’ customer service team determine areas of improvement and look to customer satisfaction data to provide a better customer experience overall.

Customer service teams might use customer service automation in a range of ways. It can be simple or complex, depending on the industry and size of the business. These are some examples of customer service automation to consider for the business when looking into automated support options.

AI chatbots: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can handle a range of tasks, such as booking meetings, qualifying leads, guiding customers to support resources and more. They can handle simple customer queries and guide customers through troubleshooting steps. This task is accomplished by using natural language processing (NLP) to understand customer issues and then provide accurate responses that are relevant to the problem at hand.

Automated ticketing: Automation technology can organize support tickets based on predefined criteria and route tickets to the agent most equipped to handle the customer needs, cutting down wait times. By automating the ticketing system process, a business can prioritize issues in terms of urgency and assign tickets to relevant support teams, helping ensure a meaningful human interaction.

IVR software: Interactive voice response software is an automation software that greets callers and directs them to the appropriate department. Some IVR software can also be used to accept payment from customers and answer FAQs with a prerecorded response system, reducing the strain on support agents dealing with more complex issues.

Automatic translation: Customers might be calling from around the globe and a seamless customer service experience is crucial to retaining their business. Customer service software can automatically convert a conversation, allowing real-time support from customers globally.

Automated notifications: Customer service agents have a lot going on and can sometimes forget a task that needs to be revisited. AI automation technology can mitigate human error and setup intelligent notifications based on set rules.

Customer feedback surveys: With automated customer support a business can set up automatic customer feedback surveys, such as CSAT, NPS, CLV. These metrics help a business collect customer data needed to improve the overall customer experience, CX. In addition, the timing of the survey can be automated to help ensure that the business is reaching the customer at a specific touchpoint.

Email and social media auto response: A customer might make a customer support inquiry on social media or through an email, but agents aren’t able to get to them immediately. Here is where customer support automation can come into the picture and automatically acknowledge the inquiry. It can do so by providing email templates with initial steps for the customer to take and helping ensure that there will be a follow-up interaction.

Automatic updates: Customers these days want to know whether a shipping delay has occurred or if system outages are happening. A business can keep customers on top of these issues through automatic notifications on resolution times and service solutions they can refer to in the meantime.

The customers of today prefer a fast and efficient customer support process. Most US customers also expect a company to have an online self-service portal¹. Implementing automated customer service processes, such as automatically tagging tickets to be routed to the right agent. This approach reduces the time that reps must speak with customers they might ultimately not be the best fit to help.

A company should choose a software with high functionality that has automation features that make the agents jobs easier and leaves customers more satisfied. AI chatbots, for instance, can streamline customer requests and reduce response times significantly when requests are divided across omnichannel support options.

If there is one thing to know about customers today it's that they expect things quickly. Automation solutions enable a business to deliver support around the clock without the need for human intervention, unless the issue is elevated beyond the capabilities of the automated solution.

Automated customer service tools can address common questions, and engage with customers proactively, which can result in better custom retention. AI chatbots can deal with ticket routing throughout the night, as well as handle customer service tasks outside of business hours.

While one of the primary benefits of automated customer service is with a company’s agents and contact center, another added benefit is automated reporting and analytics. Automated customer service software can take customer service data from across communication channels and gain greater insight into customer interactions through personalized reports and dashboards.

These insights can bolster a stronger customer service strategy and help smooth out any issues in the customer journey. Customer service software can integrate with other systems, such as CRM and order management, as a means to gain more relevant customer data and further tailor the customer experience.

By filtering out the more mundane service requests, automated customer support can mitigate the chance of human error. An automated ticketing and help desk system reroutes customers through a more efficient workflow especially when requests are coming in at a high volume.

The automation solutions help a company and its agents work smarter and in a more efficient way than ever before. Live agents are crucial when complicated issues arise. Automated tools help ensure that those agents are freed up when those problems occur and can focus on the task at hand.

The biggest disadvantage that might arise is the loss of a personal touch and the mark that it leaves on a customer. Automated customer service is important to streamline customer service requests, but doesn’t always provide the human support customers might be seeking.

The automated solutions are not a replacement for customers wanting real human conversation and there should always be an option for them to reach a human being. Also, when a customer is upset and they are directed to an automated system, it might just make them more upset and increase the likelihood of losing their business.

Technology can help a business, but it must be done the right way. A seamless integration of the technology is important when bringing this technology into the business and help ensure there is consistency across the entire journey.

Automating customer service processes takes time and involves substantial planning efforts. The specific steps might vary from one business to the next, but there is a fundamental outline that can be followed depending on the size and intended goals of the business. Some businesses might be seeking automation tools to scale up a business with new product offerings, while another might be focused on retaining current customers. The steps to automate customer service often include: 

1. Determine business needs
2. Decide which customer service tasks to automate
3. Align the team
4. Test processes and results before launch
5. Maintain and improve automation solutions

The business should lay out all of its current customer service processes and determine where an automated solution would be most impactful. The technology should be agile and have high functionality to keep up with the individual needs of the business and its customers.

A business should decipher high-volume tasks that the customer service team spends much time on. These tasks should be simple—like greeting a customer, gathering account information or verifying the account. These tasks are typically simple to automate and are a good starting point for a business just starting the integration of automation solutions.

For example, a small business is quickly expanding and is having trouble managing its support tickets. Implementing an automated ticketing system might be the first place to start. The automated system routes tickets to agents specific to the customers needs rather than having a customer wait on the line or be left unattended for too long.

The customer service team needs to be trained on all automation tools being implemented to help ensure they get as much out of these tools as the customers. A business needs to make sure that all team members are aligned about who is managing the automated customer service tools and who is responsible for maintaining them if an issue occurs.

A business wouldn’t launch a new product without running and troubleshooting it through multiple tests. The same goes for rolling out automated customer service tools. The tools should go through thorough testing to help ensure they are functioning properly and giving customers the top-level customer service that they would expect from a live agent. If the tools haven’t been tested properly the business risks putting out solutions that might disappoint customers.

The new automation technology on the market today needs to be constantly monitored and updated. Customers should always be surveyed after a customer service interaction to help ensure they are satisfied with their interaction.

The automation tools should also get periodic checkups and audited to make sure that everything is still working as it should. Some specific updates might include updating prewritten responses, testing AI chatbots or updating the business’ knowledge base from time to time.

The role of automated customer service metrics comes into play here; these metrics are a vital part of understanding how well a customer service strategy is working.

A customer satisfaction score (CSAT), for example, helps a business figure out how satisfied a customer is with the product or service. While a net promoter score (NPS) is a metric that measures how loyal a customer is to the business and how likely they are to recommend it to someone else.