What is the role of customer service for business growth?
Customer service plays a crucial role in shaping the marketing, sales, and support strategies of businesses.
Digital-native companies and those undergoing significant digital transformation processes increasingly rely on customers to manage self-service processes such as purchasing, reservations, returns, etc. Customers themselves express a need for autonomy throughout various stages of their buying journey. However, in such a context, it doesn't mean that direct human contact loses its value; on the contrary, it takes place.
In this article, we explore how customer service is a catalyst for business development. We unveil key factors driving the evolution of customer service today and showcase some of our successful projects that exemplify these principles.
Customer service above the assistance
Through digital channels enhanced by AI, RPA and generative AI, companies automate repetitive and low-value activities. So what happens to the customer service? In the face of this trend, customer service gains strategic importance as it takes on new roles such as sales (upselling, cross-selling) or loyalty management.
Our e-sellers: when customer service gives more than support
For several months, we have been managing the online sales of cars for a well-known automotive company. In this complex process, customer service strategically oversees lead acquisition, management, and the coordination of lead conversion, either directly or through the dealer network, within a multi-language and multi-country model.
Customer service is still crucial for both B2B and B2C
Companies that expand self-service channels provide greater automation but, at the same time, recognize the need to offer their customers an excellent level of human service, especially when assistance is required. This human service can be synchronous (voice) and asynchronous (textual channels), but it always aims to clearly convey personal engagement and the human touch in both B2B and B2C sectors.
A customer service for travel customers and entities
For a renowned national tour operator historically active in B2B, we implemented a strategy to open direct B2C sales channels, with a central focus on creating high-quality customer service to support both traditional and digital contact channels, and to help organizations (Hotel, B&B, etc…) with our client’s platform. Our intervention achieved high levels of productivity and customer satisfaction.
The most significant change in customer service
The evolution of channels used for customer service represents the most impactful change in the service. In particular, we can consider these fundamentals factors:
- Inbound voice: customers prefer human interaction, even though non-luxury companies tend to limit its use, especially if multilingual, due to scalability challenges in terms of both volume and service hours.
- Conversational messaging channels like WhatsApp: are growing and are in demand by both brands and customers, requiring simple automation.
For example, according to current trends, a sales chatbot is used in 2-3% of cases by visitors to an e-commerce site, but a support chatbot reaches a usage rate of 10% in restricted areas, suggesting room for improvement in the former case.
Conversational channels for fast food
In the fast-food sector, more than one of our clients has centered their customer service strategy on conversational channels, recording over 50% of managed contacts coming from Google MyBusiness, such as restaurant reviews and comments.
Roadside assistance and insurance
For various companies specializing in roadside assistance, we developed a voicebot capable of handling over 70% of support requests end-to-end. Discover our project for Europe Assistance.
Empowering the strategic role of customer service
Setting up accurate customer service is a pivotal aspect of Customer Relationship Management. While this perspective is supported by significant investments abroad, there is still a certain hesitancy in Italy when it comes to putting this into action.
In Assist Digital, we continuously work to optimize our customer service offerings to be competitive and successful in line with the international market and the evolving needs of customers. Learn more about our CX Operations service and contact us!