A few weeks ago, I literally spent 20 minutes trying to convince a chatbot AI to let me talk to a real person.
I could practically see the wheels of the algorithm churning furiously as it tried to keep me from elevating my issue. Every one of my perfectly clear requests, like, “I want to speak to a representative,” or, “Help me with something else,” or, “I need to speak with someone,” ran into deliberately bland phrases like, “Let me see if I can help you with that,” or, “Let’s try something else.”
Eventually, I did reach a real person (thank you, Sarah!) who cleared up my problem in less than a minute.
What this encapsulated, in 20 minutes of frustration, was both the promise and peril of customer service today.
The Dark Past and Perilous Future of Customer Service
In the past, customer service was a numbers game. The level of service was based on the number of employees in your service department.
If you didn’t invest enough, then customers would get frustrated with wait times and poor service, and customer retention would plummet. Adding more employees would increase retention and make customers happier, but it was an investment that usually didn’t lead to new revenue. Businesses needed to balance just enough support to not make customers angry enough to leave, which is not a formula for business growth.
AI and Customer Service
Today, with the advent of AI and chatbots, customer service teams can quickly scale. Customer issues can immediately be heard. The problem is that the chatbot sits on top of the business's service processes. It feels more like a gatekeeper that customers have to navigate rather than a tool they can use to address their issues.
Believe me, no matter how polite and patient it may be, the fourth time you hear a robot say, “Let me see if I can help you with that,” you will be annoyed.
Because that AI system hasn’t really been aligned or incorporated into business processes, it’s not a better solution than a pleasant smooth jazz soundtrack playing as you wait to speak to a representative. Problems aren’t getting fixed. Customers are still getting annoyed.
Any company that believes simply installing a chatbot is a magic solution for customer service isn’t really helping its customers.
Reinventing Customer Support and Service
Deleting your chatbot and hiring a team of service reps isn’t the solution either. Instead, you need to leverage the power of AI to improve your business processes and deliver better customer service. That’s why HubSpot reinvented Service Hub, an all-in-one customer service solution built on the HubSpot platform.
Service Hub is designed as a way for companies to reimagine customer service on a single platform, with a single tool, and with the customer in mind. It’s built from the ground up to increase efficiency, connect the front office to the service teams and customers, and facilitate building business relationships.
What Does the Reinvented Service Hub Look Like?
With this in mind, AI doesn’t “replace” customer interaction or your service team, but supports and enhances its goals. AI is a conduit for a streamlined and delightful customer service experience, rather than a gatekeeper.
Here’s what you can expect from HubSpot’s Service Hub:
- The new Service Hub is an AI-first approach. It provides immediate, omnichannel self-service options for customers, but also control so the self-service team can better design the service experience with the customer in mind.
- The AI in Service Hub isn’t just for customer use, but to support the service team as well. It is designed to boost productivity and make the job of your humans easier. It doesn’t replace the human touch. Instead, it increases productivity and supports employee work while putting humans (and human-reviewed answers) first.
- Marketing and sales are connected to the service team through the CRM. This way, everyone has more insights about the customers. It removes the impediments and silos between customer-facing teams for a better experience.
- Customer retention increases, as you can deepen and build because you can have more meaningful interactions with customers. With automation and AI, you can start leveraging proactive tools to reach out to customers before they have a problem.
Embrace the Future of Customer Service with HubSpot and Service Hub
In the past, customer service was often seen as an afterthought. The focus was on new sales first. Today, in an age when reviews are easily accessible and word-of-mouth and recommendations carry more weight than an ad or landing page, business leaders need to see customer service as a critical investment.
When you implement HubSpot’s reinvented Service Hub, customer service and support won’t be an afterthought. Instead, it can play a critical role in successful business growth.
If you’re interested in learning more, discussing the challenges you have with service and support, or seeing how you can better use Service Hub, then contact GO2 Partners. We work with many companies in industries like manufacturing or print production to implement and use HubSpot, Service Hub and business automation specifically. We’re ready to work with you.
