Companies are forever trying to save money in all area’s of business. Since arriving in the UK, I have noticed that here in the UK, there seems to be an ever increasing practice to drive customers like mad to the internet. The number of companies that make it so difficult to get hold of a “Real Person” is truly amazing. I along with anyone else can understand the need to lower costs and human resource of any kind is one of a companies largest expenses.
How damaged is your brand if you reduce customer service to a list of answers on a website? Is the potential savings so big that you are willing to alienate your customers and drive them to despair … trying to reach you? What’s more, how does a set of questions on a website, ensure customer retention, prospect retention, deliver great feelings of awesome customer service or up-sell your customer?
The answer
==== It doesn’t ====
What I think many companies will learn the hard way is that automation is great, but you cannot remove the human element from good customer service. Companies will see their customer churn rates ever increase because people that don’t want customer service are those that are looking for the cheapest solution. If you can’t be the cheapest, you will loose out. The truly valuable customers, those that maintain a relationship with their providers will choose to stay with companies that offer “Good Customer Service”.
