Customer Service Automation: Pros, Cons, & Best Practice with Pipedrive

Today's customers expect brands to be accessible and equipped with fast solutions for their problems. Anything short puts your business at risk of losing 59% of customers to poor customer service.

In response to the rising demand for better products, services, and customer experiences, 66% of businesses have automated at least one business function. This approach is not just about automating processes that take up too much of your team's time. It's also about integrating software that streamlines and optimises how you serve your customers.

This guide discusses customer service automation, its benefits and disadvantages, and how to automate the customer service department with Pipedrive.

What is Automated Customer Service?

Automated customer service is a business approach that uses software to handle customer requests and concerns. The software may include self-service tools, bots, virtual assistants, and more. It is usually tied to a company's existing customer support software and CRM systems.

Here's an example of customer service automation: When customers need help, they contact your customer support team. The software then assigns a ticket to the appropriate team member who can handle the customer's issue. The automated customer service software lets the customer know the status of their ticket and the team member assigned to it.

Pros of Automated Customer Service

Today's businesses face unique challenges that require thoughtful solutions and strategic thinking. The modern customer has grown accustomed to stress-free experiences and frictionless services from the businesses they patronise. If you are not equipped with streamlined customer service, you risk losing customers.

Don't believe it? 94% of customers are willing to recommend a business with good customer service. But only 13% will be willing to recommend companies with "very poor" service. What does this mean for your business?

Customer service automation enables you to optimise resources, streamline processes, and provide excellent customer support. But that's not all.

Saves Time and Money

Automated customer support solutions help businesses streamline processes and reduce costs associated with manual efforts. For instance, rather than having your customer support team on edge with numerous customer calls, you can create an automated ticketing system that books and categorises every customer's complaint.

These tickets can then be assigned to the most qualified team members. This frees up your support team's time to focus on providing more valuable services.

Streamlines Communication and Collaboration

Customer service automation solutions allow your team to easily access information from their customer's most recent interactions. This saves even more time because your team doesn't have to manually look up this information or switch between different data sources scattered throughout the office.

With customer service automation, you can easily share important customer information with other departments like marketing or finance.

Enhances Customer Engagement

Customer engagement starts with a great customer service experience, not forcing them to wait on hold for someone to get in touch. In case you didn't know, customers who wait on hold for 27 minutes will likely say something bad about your business on Twitter.

Customer service automation allows you to delight current and future customers with a seamless, efficient, and high-quality customer service experience.

You can set up an AI-powered chatbot that mimics human interactions to answer customer questions before sending their concerns to a qualified customer support team member.

Reduces Customer Churn

It only takes one bad experience to sway 61% of customers to other competing businesses. While no company is immune to bad customer service, automation can help in customer retention and reduce the number of customers who stop doing business with you.

Automated chatbots and email responses assure the customer that someone is looking into their issues on the other end. These tools also provide platforms for customers to express their concerns, which enables you to understand them better.

Builds Customer Relationships

Building long-term relationships with customers doesn't have to be rocket science. It can start with simple steps, e.g., quick response times to customer queries. Customer service automation provides a solution for businesses with limited staff or resources to build customer relationships by providing a more personal and rewarding experience.

Increases Efficiency

Automation helps you stay on top of all incoming inquiries by sorting them into queues according to severity. You can allocate your time between lightly pressing tasks like responding to basic questions and more serious issues that require immediate attention.

The bottom line? Automation enhances your customer service efforts and decreases the workload on your team. By cutting down on repetitive tasks and freeing up staff time, you can focus on the things that really matter.

Cons of Automated Customer Service

While some companies have successfully adopted AI chatbots and self-service, others still cling to basic human interaction. As it turns out, automation in customer service comes with pressing downsides that you should consider before making the switch.

Automated Customer Service Can Sometimes Be Impersonal

Humans are social beings, and we crave genuine human connection. When customers interact with AI that only offers functionality, there's a risk that they'll feel like they're speaking to machines that don't care much about their challenges.

That presents an opportunity for your business. Incorporate a human element at critical points of the interaction with your customers (e.g., onboarding your customers to a new business solution).

"76% of companies that implement marketing automation generate a return on their investment within the first year. Not only that, but 44% of them see a return within just six months." - Marketo Report 2021

Automation Technology Struggles With Empathy

While businesses may think AI is the perfect solution for handling sensitive situations, it's important to note that AI has no emotions to fall back on when things get tricky. Unlike humans, AI can't empathise with your customers unless taught how to.

While it's possible to program AI with certain rules and protocols, it can't make some judgement calls based on an individual's situation. If a customer reaches out to you with a sensitive issue, you need to be prepared to deal with this sensitive situation humanly.

Poor Match of the Automated Element to Customer Needs

Although automation means streamlining your customer service and providing better experiences, how well it can be incorporated into your business depends on your business. It's never a one-fits-all solution. You need to evaluate where automation might best meet your customers' needs and where the human support element should come into play.

Automation May Require Significant Upfront Investment

Unfortunately, automated systems for businesses don't come cheap. Top-notch customer service automation software can cost from modest monthly fees to thousands on a subscription-based model. Of course, that depends on what solutions you need and how many features are provided.

Customer Service Automation Strategies

Your customers are more empowered now than ever. They expect your support team to respond to their inquiries almost instantly. Whether it's an email, a phone call, or a social media message - customers demand the same level of service and response regardless of the medium they use to communicate with you.

That said, here are a few strategies to up your game with chatbots, artificial intelligence, and voice assistants, among other technologies.

Use Chatbots: Be a Step Ahead of Your Consumers

Chatbots eliminate the need for human intervention and can provide an immediate response in just seconds. Chatbots allow companies to deliver the same experience across all channels so that customers don't have an issue no matter which medium they choose. They can answer questions, handle orders, and provide product updates with minimal effort.

Use AI to Automate Customer Service

Chatbots, intelligent virtual agents, and voice assistants are some AI-based tools that can help you automate customer service. Although they may not be able to handle every single inquiry from your customers, they can still provide an easy and cost-efficient way for customers to:

• Inquire about the status of their orders
• Track the progress and delivery information for their packages
• Ask questions about your product or service

AI-based customer service solutions can also help reduce human error. Unlike people who get tired after hours of answering customer queries, these tools don't need breaks or sleep and are capable of providing accurate responses 24/7.

Voice Assistant Integration

If you have not yet dabbled with voice assistant integration, now is the time to start. Voice assistants like Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod have made it much easier for people to find what they're looking for.

As a result, more and more businesses are integrating these devices into their customer service offerings. You can use your voice assistant as an interactive customer service agent. It's easy enough to set up such that customers can call in, ask a question, and get answers without having to wait on hold or talk with somebody over the phone.

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing allows you to better communicate with your customers and prospects and conduct training sessions for customers unfamiliar with a certain product or service.

With video conferencing, you'll be able to show your customers:

• How to install new features
• How to work with your products and services
• How to onboard other team members
• How to solve different problems that may arise

Doing this enables you to provide them with hands-on customer service without investing in an expensive on-site seminar.

Automated Email Responses

One of the best ways to automate customer service is by setting up automated email responses. You can set these emails out based on specific trigger words or time intervals. This will save you a lot of time and allow you to be more proactive when handling inquiries from clients.

How to Automate Customer Service with Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a sales CRM that helps you better organise your leads and sales pipeline on one dashboard. From initial contact to final sale, Pipedrive will help you stay on top of your business. You'll be able to quickly identify high-priority deals that need more attention, keep track of your progress, and easily manage your pipeline.

What's more, Pipedrive offers a customisable chatbot and Live Chat feature, which automatically engages web visitors in a conversation. The Live Chat feature automatically assigns each chat to a sales rep to keep the conversation going, so you can receive customer queries and feedback directly from your Pipedrive account.

With these features (and more integrations from the Pipedrive Marketplace), you can automate and enhance your customer service efforts by:

• Scheduling meetings
• Chatting
• Receiving requests and concerns from customers
• Managing conversations between your customer support team and your customers

How Automaly Can Help with Customer Service Automation

Automaly is your one-stop shop for all your automation and AI needs. We help our clients identify and set up the right customer service integrations from Pipedrive's marketplace. Our experts also recommend and help you set up other workflow automation strategies to scale your efforts.

You will enjoy automated client communications and create a personalised experience for every customer as part of our done-for-you service.

Ready to get started with automated client communications and create a personalised experience for every customer? Schedule a free consultation and see how it works!

Summary

Customer service is a tricky balance of keeping your customers happy while being cost-effective and streamlining processes. There's no one-size-fits-all approach to customer service automation. Each company needs to consider its unique business needs, strengths, and challenges when implementing automated solutions in customer service.

Talk to an automation and AI expert today and learn how Automaly can help boost your customer service efforts.