The technological revolution coming to the customer service sector is seen by many as the apocalyptic rise of an all-conquering Artificial Intelligence army – sent here to crush job opportunities and customers’ patience.
We hear stories of human voices being replaced with the shrill tones of howling machines, who will order us to pay our phone bills or have our contracts cut off.
Sounds like a nightmare!
Well, don’t believe the hype. The change brought to customer service by technology isn’t all fire and brimstone.
In fact, it might just make the life of a customer service agent easier than ever.
Vodafone, for example, are pioneers in using new tech in the customer service world.
Their recent plans for investment in chat-bot TOBi, voice authentication services and 24/7 customer care are not about downsizing staff or saving money but actually reflect greater investment in providing a better service.
The TOBi chatbot is based on Watson, an industry-leading fully integrated chat service developed by IBM.
This allows for a ‘sentiment’ function, which, if desired, allows users to pass immediately to a customer service adviser.
It’s all about freeing up time, cutting out all the small stuff and making the system more fluid.
With phone lines often backed up with tasks such as bill paying, authenticating identity and accessing simple personal details such as data allowance, the idea is to simplify the process so you get to answering an issue right away.
24/7 chat services also offer a more dynamic world of text-based customer service roles that allow reps more freedom and support to connect with customers and solve issues quicker.
Then there are specialist customer service roles on social media platforms, which will allow staff to interact and solve the needs of even the most enraged of customers – unless you’re The Donald, it takes a special situation for someone to use Twitter to complain.
In the future customer service advisers will be combining multi-platform tech, PR skills and customer care knowledge to deliver support, feedback and responses.
There’s even an argument that, as we all connect online and companies invest in products and services that need ongoing support, there will be more job opportunities because of the demand for dynamic, human-led customer service support.
Plus, when it comes to arguing the case about last month’s phone bill, we’d rather be speaking to Linda in Glasgow than chatbot K43X5, second commander of the AI revolutionary army.
Enter the brave new world of Customer Service with a role from s1jobs.