The Importance of Customer Service Technology: Enhancing Advisor Performance

Fantastic customer service isn’t possible without the dedicated work of your customer care team. Your operators must be skilled, well-trained, and well-equipped to do their job to the best of their ability. However, even the most skilled and experienced advisors can struggle to perform at their peak when they only have access to outdated or ineffective technology.

Without effective customer service technology to rely on, operators are often chained to slow, lagging systems and convoluted processes. But by simply upgrading your tech stack, you can eliminate these frustrations and allow your customer service to shine. From the types of tech available to the full range of advantages your team and customers can enjoy, here’s our full guide to customer service technology.

Different types of technology are available depending on the needs of your customer service team and the wider business. Whether you’re looking for something new to boost your customer service or considering upgrading an already existing technology, it’s worth familiarising yourself with the options below and how each one works.

Analytics

Contact centres are bursting with data, but if a business has no means to turn these into easily digestible insights, they can just pile up and waste valuable storage space. Analytics tools are perfect for turning all types of data into useful insights. From automated reporting to interaction analytics, the information provided by these tools allows managers and teams to understand key metrics and make improved business decisions based on facts and figures rather than guesswork. The more advanced and specialist the analytics tools are, the better the insights will be and the more useful they’ll be for your customer service team.

Helpdesk Software

Your entire customer support team can run seamlessly on help desk software if it has the right features. Ticket management, ticket pipelines, automation and prioritisation are just a few of the things available for your customer representatives to take advantage of. This creates efficient workflows and simplifies customer support with easy-to-use tools that help with their everyday tasks.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

IVR is a tool that can help route customers to the right agent at the right time. The technology provides an option menu for customers depending on their reason for contacting your team. So if they want help with sales, they can be directed to your sales representatives. And if they’re calling to complain, the technology will redirect the customer to your complaints team.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)

Automatic call distribution technology can direct calls to agents based on pre-determined criteria such as expertise and availability. This helps prevent agents from becoming overwhelmed and distributes the workflow in a more manageable way that works for the team and the customers. ACD is particularly useful for handling out-of-hours calls, a volume of call traffic and reducing average handling time.

Live Webchat

Live webchat technology can add another communication stream to your customer service output, meaning that customers have a wider range of options for contacting your team. This technology automatically routes customers to available agents or automated replies to provide responses to queries and concerns without needing to wait on hold. Agents can handle multiple webchat conversations at once with minimal waiting times, streamlining your service and keeping customers satisfied.

Chatbots

Chatbot technology can be tailored entirely to your business. Your team will program responses and tone of voice, and once the chatbot is running successfully, it allows your team to turn their attention to more complex customer issues while the technology handles lower-level queries and concerns.

As an extension of this, the use of AI or ChatGPT can be a very helpful agent support tool. In particular, you can use ChatGPT to garner information and responses in a human-like manner, which can have a positive impact on your ability to answer customer queries.

CRM System

Good customer relationship management (CRM) software can take simple automation and elevate it by collating everything you need in one user interface (UI). Agents can track and manage customer relationships, while also monitoring relevant insights. This can help agents understand how to boost customer satisfaction without needing to trawl databases and manually find information.

VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol technology allows agents to make phone calls using devices connected to the Internet, such as mobile phones and computers. This creates flexibility in working conditions since agents can work from anywhere with a stable internet connection. VoIP also offers caller ID, caller diversion, digital encryption and voicemail services to improve caller processes for both parties.

Omnichannel Solutions

Simply offering omnichannel support can sometimes not be enough, but a good omnichannel tech solution can help you keep track of everything and see communications in a single customer view. Omnichannel solutions support multiple channels, including phone, webchat, chatbots, and text messaging. It creates a hassle-free, simple customer journey and allows your advisors to focus on using their skills and knowledge rather than wasting time pulling customer information from different databases.

Knowledge Base

Knowledge bases are excellent tools for keeping customers updated with self-service options. This technology can be automatically or manually updated to include key information that customers regularly search for. This means they can find the information at their own pace without straining your team.

Personalisation

Personalised service is one of the most crucial things businesses should be offering customers. And with technology such as helpdesk software, CRM systems and omnichannel support, it’s easier than ever to add the right personal touches where they matter most to customers. This can benefit your team since they can implement personalisation with little extra effort while also helping to build customer relationships.

Efficiency

The better your customer service technology is, the more efficient it can make your team. This is why it’s important to keep your software and programs up to date since any lagging can slow down your service. Technology that allows your team to speed up their processes and offer high quality customer support to more people each day is a huge advantage of upgrading your tech stack.

Reduces costs

While technology implementation might involve a few additional costs, the long-term savings for businesses in terms of resources and time can be huge. Quicker and simplified processes will take up less time for your representatives, meaning that less money is needed to be spent on these services. Plus, many of these technologies are offered on a subscription basis and don’t require contact centres to purchase expensive hardware which also saves money.

Improves customer experience

Customer service technology might be intended to improve efficiency for operators, but in turn, this also boosts the customer experience in most cases. From creating self-service options to allowing customers to get faster responses, the tech can offer a simpler customer journey and UX that allows them to navigate your customer service options seamlessly.

Empowered agents

When the technology is performing well, it empowers your agents to up their game too. Agents that are backed by efficient, simple and easy-to-use technology can focus more on providing the best service rather than spending time working with outdated and slow systems that don’t work well for their role.

We offer all types of businesses the opportunity to tailor our communication software to their needs. One of our main features is profile aggregation, which means each channel can be merged into one easily accessible UI where agents can handle each customer interaction as if it were one continuous conversation. Regardless of how many different channels are used by a customer to reach your team, your advisors can view these in a single customer view (SCV) where only one reply is necessary.

Gnatta can also deliver all data to the same UI which allows advisors to access all the relevant information to resolve queries and put customers at ease. Our automation options are also designed to make your advisors’ lives simpler and improve your customer satisfaction (CSAT) and resolution rates. We’ve built a system that actively helps your agents work quicker and smarter with the end goal of improving customer service output at the forefront.

Technology should be a customer service operator’s best friend. It shouldn’t cause confusion or frustration, and it definitely shouldn’t slow advisors down.  Even if you think your tech stack is fine as it is, we still suggest chatting with your advisors who use it daily to find out whether they think anything could be improved. Ultimately, your chosen technology should be a springboard to success, not a wall to scale.