A recent study from Creative Good points out just how expensive bad customer service can be. And nothing new. Since Forrester released a figure a few months ago stating that nearly 70 percent of online shoppers abandoned their shopping carts in mid-buy due to site frustrations, we've been aware of the financial impact of bad sites and poor customer service. Yet, despite these dire warnings, no one's really done anything about it yet, and the looming Customer Service Crisis has yet to get the media attention it really deserves. It could be that customer service just isn't sexy enough.
Customer service means dealing with customers.
And dealing with customers means call centers. And call centers means employees. Or maybe not. While there's no substitute for a real, live human being when someone's calling with a complicated tech support question or wants assistance with a complicated purchase, there are technologies that can stand in to handle routine inquiries. Instead of having to figure out how you organized the answers they need, they can ask questions naturally by typing them into a chat-like text field and getting an answer or a helpful link.