The COVID-19 pandemic has a sudden and significant impact on customer service leaders, where the level of customer emotion and anxiety in service calls has increased dramatically. The Coronavirus outbreak has severely impacted customer support operations worldwide, with most of the call center teams working remotely.
The growing concern over COVID-19 has led to large and small organizations adopting remote working practices to stay productive and connected. The transition to the remote workforce is the new normal for ensuring business continuity and delivering quality customer service. This transition to work from home environment is compelling teams to rapidly adapt market volatility, cancellations, surging tickets volumes, longer waiting times, and other uncertainties.
A shift towards cloud contact center technology enables staff to easily login and standardize the process of inbound and outbound calls during this pandemic time. Organizations are exploring new ways of collaborations, as lack of personal communications can lead to a feeling of disconnect between the organization and its employees.
Cloud-based contact center software, online collaboration tools, and conversational platforms are empowering remote workers to effectively handle increased customer service calls and seamlessly serve customers. Organizations are also encouraging flexible working patterns to ensure the smooth running of remotely working for customer service teams.
Conversational AI is a set of technologies that automates communication and offers human-like interactions. It is often referred to as chatbots and intelligent virtual assistants (IVA), which feature a human interface system. These AI-enabled chatbots and IVA are the most relevant approach for addressing customer needs and improving contact center management.
“Chatbots and virtual assistants are augmenting and automating the customer service process by utilizing the existing resources and knowledgebase articles for answering and resolving customer queries.“
As per the research, chatbots can answer around 80% of routine customer questions.
Chatbots and virtual assistants are empowering organizations to eliminate repetitive & tedious tasks and maintain the customer service levels despite reduced workforce due to coronavirus outbreak. Customers today demand faster resolution of their tickets, and AI-based chatbots are proving to be a key driver for enabling an effective remote workforce.
Unlike human agents, chatbots and virtual assistants cannot be absent due to illness or other disasters like COVID-19, which can put human lives at risk. This makes chatbots and IVA an ideal and efficient solution for assisting customers 24/7 across all communication channels, resulting in enhanced customer engagement.
The current state of uncertainty, fear, and frustration has presented companies with new risks as well as opportunities. During the time of crisis, offering empathetic customer service is an opportunity for companies to demonstrate what an organization is all about and gain a competitive advantage.
Positive Brand Perception: In the COVID-19 situation, having a positive brand perception is vital to remain competitive in the market. Positive customer experience results in customers praising a brand, which also boosts employee morale.
Customer Loyalty Post Crisis: Chatbots empower companies in personalizing customer interactions during the COVID-19 crisis to build stronger relationships with customers. These unique experiences, tailored to customer preferences, strengthen customer loyalty, and enhance customer satisfaction.
Better Cash Flow: The COVID-19 crisis has left organizations with disrupted cash flows. An unstable revenue stream is driving organizations to adopt chatbots for reducing their operational expenses. As chatbots are the most effective ways of providing customer service, it can reduce customer service costs and bolster the lead generation efforts.
Repeat Customers: Consumers’ needs are paramount during this crisis and providing stellar customer service can help companies in enticing more customers. A satisfied customer can increase the number of referrals with an effective word of mouth marketing, which can further help companies to reach potential customers.
KLoBot is a chatbot builder platform that empowers organizations to create text as well as voice-enabled chatbots and deploy across their favorite communication channels. Chatbots built on the KLoBot platform are leveraging the power of NLP and ML to better understand the customer sentiments and enhance visibility into customer behavior.
KLoBot-enabled virtual assistants are the next-generation solution for accelerating digital transformation and mitigating administrative tasks. These chatbots and virtual assistants are the most effective way to scale customer support and maintain stable resolution times during this crisis.
Chatbots designed with KLoBot simplifies the human-machine interactions and streamline business processes. These chatbots can address the routine customer queries and optimize customer service while reducing the expense of customer service operations. The coronavirus outbreak has forced several organizations to modify their call center plan and shift towards KLoBot for handling higher call volume and better serving customers.