What if you could use chatbots to manage your customer service instead of live support agents? As AI technologies and virtual agents continue to develop, there has been a long debate whether these chatbots will take over the live support agents or not.
Over the last decade, we have seen live support agents become integral for customer support than ever before. However, with the rise of social media and the development of smartphones, many companies are deciding to use chatbots for live support.
It is already evident that chatbots are the future of live support agents. Here we will discuss the potential advantages and drawbacks of chatbots in contrast to living support agents.
Advantages of a Chatbot
Here are some of the reasons chatbots can benefit your businesses in the long run.
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Cost-Effective Solution
Chatbots are very cost-effective because they will help you save money and time. When you let chatbots handle the basic questions, your support agent will be able to focus on other complex tasks.
Therefore, you won’t have to appoint a large number of support agents. All you have to do is appoint competent support agents who can handle other complex issues.
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Immediate Responses
A joint survey by Drift revealed that 31% of the customers were not able to get basic answers while navigating on an online business site. Artificial intelligence is very quick in gathering information and instantly answering basic questions.
As soon as a client comes to your website and asks a question, the chatbots will provide an immediate response. However, this response is based on the data that is available to them.
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Effective Management
Chatbots can handle a lot of chats without any limitations. They respond to the queries right away because they do not require a lot of time to think or speculate.
Overview
While chatbots can provide many advantages, it has some limitations that should not be overlooked. Chatbots can be effective, but they can only answer basic questions. Its credibility cannot be compared to the thought processing of the human brain. Due to this reason, live chat agents have a competitive edge over chatbots.
Advantages of Live Support Agents
Chatbots still have to go through a long road until they can compete with live support agents. Let’s go through the advantages of live support agents.
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Personalized Support
Live support agents will know about customers’ needs, issues, and more. Most companies are using CRM services to have their data at the same place. Live rep agents can track customers’ data and get an idea about the context of the issue they are facing.
Live rep agents can talk to the customers and answer their queries in real-time. This way, the company can manage customer complaints and handle them faster.
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Answers Complex Questions
Live support agents are more likely to be able to answer complex questions and help resolve problems. It is because these agents know their customers, the products they want, and their preferences, making it easier for the live support agents to drill down to the root cause of the problem.
Live support representatives can connect on the same level with customers. They can look at the issue from the perspective of the customer and resolve their situation while empathizing with them.
Overview
There are a few limitations to using live support agents. Live support agents are a great way to get started with the service, but they are not always available, and they can be costly.
If you have a high volume of customer inquiries, you might want to consider other options. Live chat can be helpful in many situations, but it’s important to remember that there are limits to its effectiveness.
Final Thoughts
The emergence of AI and chatbots has changed the face of customer service. The chatbot’s technology is very simple, but it is one of the most powerful tools that can be used to deliver a great customer experience.
However, the advantages of live support agents must not be overlooked. Even if chatbots are very advanced, they are still not able to think as critically as the human mind does.
For now, the live support agents will continue to be preferred since they can serve customers better with a personalized experience.
