Having an in-house team of professionals specialised in dealing with customers is crucial to the long-term success of a business. This is because established companies understand the importance of keeping customers happy and satisfied, and the customer care staff is the first point of contact for any customer who may have an issue with a company’s product or service.
Customer-focused businesses, such as B2C companies, especially need a system in place to tackle customer interactions on a day-to-day basis. To this end, these companies develop customer service protocols that inform their customer care staff of clear guidelines to perform their role and deal with customers effectively.
Some of the tasks performed by customer service staff include:
- Promptly answering customer calls
- Being available for chat sessions
- Responding to customer grievances
- Documenting customer details and issues flagged
- Offering solutions that satisfy the customer
While having dedicated resources to carry out these routine tasks is possible, their 24×7 availability is a tall order. This is where organisations can benefit from formidable software like Cevitr’s robotic process automation solutions. But first, let’s understand what robotic process automation is.
Robotic process automation (RPA), also software robotics, is a type of business process automation technology which helps to streamline a number of rule-based, routine processes such as data entry, report generation, creating and maintaining files and folders, etc., with the help of software robots – also called ‘bots.’
Traditionally, humans handled these processes manually, and they would take a long time to complete them. However, with the technological advances and introduction of automation technologies, most businesses shifted to automating these operations.
The Role of RPA in Customer Service
RPA bots can mimic human interactions with the user interface of different software systems and carry out rule-based tasks with speed and accuracy. These tasks may include:
- Responding to frequently asked questions
- Retrieving answers from databases & sending quick responses
- Downloading and filing away customer emails
- Collecting and analysing customer data
- Providing 24×7 customer support
Responding to FAQs Immediately
Automating responses to a number of commonly asked questions can significantly assist your customer service staff. When a customer submits a query, the RPA bot can quickly analyse it and provide a relevant solution from the programmatically recorded answers. The 24×7 availability of bots can help the customer get an instant response to their query, thus increasing customer satisfaction.
Creation and Management of Customer Profiles
Customers who transact with a business regularly use a registered account for easy access. Therefore, RPA bots can help customers create these accounts by assisting them in setting up their profiles online or via telephonically interactive voice instructions. The bots can extract and analyse customers’ data to validate their personal and bank details and systematically record all their purchase, return and refund information.
Automated Email Responses
RPA bots can also fetch information from different databases and create an email response to customers who raised complaint tickets. Once the issue is resolved, the bot generates ticket closure responses to share via email.
Cost-Effective Scalability
Since RPA systems can easily be integrated with existing customer care software applications and databases, they can update customer information, store transaction history, and initiate action items across multiple mediums.
This makes RPA an effective solution for managing a deluge of customer complaints and queries in a short span of time. How is this possible? When customer interactions increase, and more staff is required, the RPA bots can be easily replicated and deployed to deal with inquiries at a much lower cost than getting more human resources on board. This scalability of RPA not only helps with cost saving but also guarantees desired results quickly.
Any forward-looking business today would opt for RPA technology. That said, if you want to unlock the full potential of your business by adopting a more customer-centric approach, consult an RPA expert and learn how to tailor this automation technology to your organisation’s specific goals
