There is no doubt that automation is changing workplaces as we know it. It is simplifying workflows, reducing employee time spent on mundane tasks, lowering costs, and boosting efficiency in general.

Even though it is only in its relative infancy, it has already left its mark on the business world, and will only become more usable over time. But in addition to being great for businesses, automation also has the potential to help customers, as well.

For example, using the right digital customer experience management platform can help not only your business but also build better relationships with customers. But how else can automation benefit those who keep your business afloat?

With that in mind, this article is going to go over a few different ways that automation can actually improve the customer service that your business provides.

Allow for Better Communication

One of the biggest ways that customer service can be improved by automation is by allowing for better communication. Communication is at the heart of any relationship with your customer, so it needs to be top-notch. If you communicate poorly or ineffectively, many customers will go elsewhere, even if your products are great.

The main way that automation can improve communication is thanks to chatbots. Chatbots can make a customer service agent’s job much easier, while still providing customers with satisfactory information and responses. They are essentially robotic customer service agents, and they are getting quite robust with what they can do.

Sure, some customers will still need assistance from an actual person which can take longer, but the ability for many people to get their questions dealt with quicker is a real win and will help drastically improve their experience.

Improve Customer Feedback

Another way that automation can improve customer experience is by making it easier than ever for customers to deliver feedback effectively. Whether it is a form that is emailed to a customer or a popup that comes up on their screen, automating your customer feedback process is a good idea.

It ensures you ask them to rate their experience when it is still fresh in their mind, and not hours or days later once they have moved on. Trying to manually gain feedback can also be difficult, and not as simple or quick as sending out requests automatically.

Not only are many customers happy to give feedback, and love it when it leads to changes, but feedback is also very important to businesses. It allows you to learn exactly what your customers like and dislike and can help you make the right business-related decisions.

For best results when it comes to gaining feedback, you want to ensure the forms you provide are as simple as possible. If you ask a ton of questions, many people will simply click away before finishing or submitting their feedback.

Provide a More Personalized Experience

The importance of personalization cannot be ignored, as companies who excel at customizing and personalizing their experiences often find more success and make more sales than those who don’t.

Automation can often help create more relevant targeted ads, make the right product recommendations, send the right deals and discounts, and so much more. People love to feel like a company is reaching out and speaking or selling to them directly, as opposed to feeling like just another customer.

You can also use automation and things like artificial intelligence to personalize your interactions with customers and build a relationship over time. All in all, your business should be finding ways to strengthen bonds with your customers at every turn, and personalization is a great way to do just that.

Vastly Improved Resolution of Issues

A big part of customer support is dealing with customer problems. Many people will never reach out to a company directly unless they either have a question or have an issue that they need to get fixed.

Resolving conflicts quickly is often what customers want most when reaching out, so being able to deal with one quickly and effectively can provide a major boost to customer experience. Unfortunately, manual conflict resolution can be challenging.

Many departments may not have instant access to the information they need, which creates a potentially long wait for customers. The knowledge of every agent is also different, so who a customer connects to can often have an impact on how well their issue is dealt with.

By automatically building a knowledge base that is always full of up-to-date and accurate information from all departments, you can ensure every interaction is great and doesn’t rely on the exact knowledge or skills of that particular agent who is in the call or chat. This will stop people from needing to be transferred from department to department, and the entire ordeal will likely be resolved faster than ever.

Offers a More Consistent and Predictable Experience

One thing many people love from a company they work with or purchase from is consistency. Many of us love a predictable and consistent experience so we always know what we are getting and are never surprised or let down. If every time you reach out to a company your experience is different, it can be a little jarring, especially if one or more interactions are bad.

If you can ensure that everyone reaching out to your business has a good experience, every time, it can work wonders for your reputation and help create much more loyal customers. In many cases, all it takes is one bad interaction to ruin dozens of good ones, so be careful.

The way automation can help with this is by sending canned responses to popular questions or queries, and even by helping you come up with these responses by using data and analysis. This means every customer support agent will be able to provide a similar experience to customers who reach out to them.

In conclusion, we hope this blog post has been able to help you see how automation can improve the customer experience within your business or online store.