Automation is a critical part of modern customer service, allowing small businesses to scale with demand both seasonally and year-over-year. Today's customer expects a 24/7 response, but they also want customer service with a strong sense of human touch. Speaking with a human when it matters is a major driver of customer loyalty. Efficiency and empathy may feel like they're in conflict, but a handful of strategic choices can give you and your customers the best of both automation and human support.
What is customer service automation?
Customer service automation leverages business technology to minimize human involvement. Anyone who has ever interacted with a computerized phone tree has dealt with automated customer service. The rise of AI is driving even more automation in the form of:
- Chatbots
- Interactive FAQs
- Agentic AI handling phone support
Well-done automation doesn't eliminate humans from the customer service process. Instead, it allows them to focus on the complex problems and the issues that require a softer touch. The automation does the easy and repetitive stuff like answering and routing calls, fielding basic queries, responding to social media, and providing answers to common questions.
Can you automate customer service?
Not only is it possible, but many small businesses use it already, in the form of email auto-responders, shipping notifications, and appointment reminder texts. When small businesses move deeper into automation, they oftenoftentimes start with simple tasks like automating FAQs, a knowledge base, or social media posts and responses. The issue is less about whether you can automate customer service and more about which aspects are most suited to it.
Why customer service automation matters for small businesses right now
A major drive of automation in customer service is the increasing customer demand for a response at any hour of the day and any day of the week. Small businesses can't realistically respond to customer service inquiries at 3 a.m. on a Saturday. However, there are plenty of requests that automate well, including:
- Password resets
- Balance inquiries
- Order status updates
- Returns
Many customers strongly prefer a self-guided approach, and automation gives them the little bit of help they need without hassling a person.
5 advantages of automated customer service
Automating customer service has benefits that go beyond the bottom line and staying competitive with other businesses that have already automated. Quick answers and high availability drive customer satisfaction.
1. Faster responses
Chatbots, phone trees, and other automated systems provide answers with no delays. Customers can quickly learn about business hours, pricing, products available, and the status of an order or a return.
2. Consistent answers to common questions
Consistent and accurate answers matter, especially when it comes to simple and common questions. While AI offers a more human-like level of variance in its response and tone, it delivers fundamentally the same response every time. You can also rapidly update the automated system's knowledge base, ensuring customers always get the most current answers about everything from product specs to holiday operation hours.
3. Reduced support load for your team
Automation takes the biggest chunk of the load off your human agents, particularly when dealing with tasks like basic troubleshooting and accounting issues. This allows your people to focus on complex issues that require human judgment. Not only does this reduce the workload, but it also helps team members avoid burnout related to repetitive and unfulfilling work.
4. 24/7 responses without a night shift
One of the big advantages of automated customer service is its 24/7 availability. Small businesses rarely have the staffing budget to put on night and weekend shifts for customer service. Automation also makes it easy to respond to customers in other time zones, reducing the risk that a support inquiry falls through the cracks.
5. Data and analytics
An automated customer service system generates a lot of data that can drive business insights. You can track interactions to learn about patterns regarding product pain points, such as poor documentation, flawed checkout processes, and highly requested features.
5 common mistakes to avoid with customer service automation
Even the best-laid plans can sometimes backfire, so it's important to think ahead about some of the most common mistakes. Keep your customer service automation on point by avoiding these five common missteps.
1. Hiding the human option
Nothing angers customers and kills loyalty faster than the inability to exit the automated process and speak to a real agent. Always make sure the "speak to an agent" option is clearly stated in every automated chat or phone session. Be clear about when a human is available to set realistic expectations about business hours.
2. Lack of staff training regarding handoffs
Balancing automation with the human touch means your staff will handle lots of handoffs from chat and call sessions. Your team members need training on how to quickly get up to speed on what each automated session covered, so they can dive into solving the problem. The more seamless the handoff process is, the happier your customer will be.
3. Not having the full picture before automating
You need to gather information from support tickets and other interactions to determine what the easy questions for automation are versus the hard questions for humans. Before automating anything, fully analyze your customers' history to identify what the common and simple questions are.
4. Setting and forgetting
A well-oiled customer service process that uses automation can easily become something that's out of sight and therefore out of mind. Unfortunately, this is a formula for automated answers to become outdated. Regularly audit your automated system to verify that it's providing the most up-to-date information for all common queries.
5. Automation as an accountability screen
Avoid the temptation to blame the robot. An agentic AI is still a representative of your business, and your company and team are accountable for its answers.
How do I automate customer service without sounding robotic or hurting the customer experience?
Your main goal should be to focus on the helpfulness and clarity of the experience. Personalization details can humanize the interaction with information, like names and order details, while providing useful information. If the customer values the information, they are far less likely to hate the automation.
Automated responses should provide answers in natural language while transparently telling the customer these interactions are automated. Likewise, the system should provide a clear exit path allowing the customer to interact with a human. Consider adding frustration detection prompts to the system to encourage the automation to hand things off to a human agent too.
What parts of customer service should be automated vs. human?
The simple rule of thumb is that the more common and repetitive the task or question is, the more likely it is to deserve to be automated. FAQS, order confirmations, shipping status inquiries, appointment reminders, and account inquiries all automate well. Consider adding basic troubleshooting, initial intake, screening for human support, and ticket creation, too.
Anything that might require an apology or a resolution needs to be a human task. If the situation is emotionally charged, it isn't going to get better with a customer screaming at a machine. Billing disputes, privacy issues, account security, sales consultations, and creative work all need to go to a human agent.
How to make sure automation supports your team
Foremost, human team members deserve to know that automation isn't replacing them but taking off the worst part of the load. Keep team members in the decision-making loop and flag problems with the system as they emerge. Provide thorough training on how the automated system works, particularly regarding handoffs to human agents. Monitor both customer and agent satisfaction to ensure the automation is actually working as expected. Finally, be sure there is always a clear path from the automated system to a human, so the customer can quickly access a real person.
Signs your business is ready to automate customer service
Small businesses tend to make investments only when the need becomes heavy. Your business should automate customer service if it finds itself constantly dealing with:
- High request levels or long wait times
- Inquiries that take longer than 24 hours for a response
- Declining response times alongside increasing volumes
- High quit rates among human agents
- Copying and pasting answers into emails, texts, or chats
- Customer complaints about response speed
- Scaling issues
How to qualify for a small business loan to fund customer service automation upgrades
Building out automation requires money, but applying for a small business loan can help you defray the costs. First, be sure to present your plan to automate customer service as a growth driver because lenders want to know the return will be there to play the loan and the interest. A strong loan application should emphasize your plan to improve:
- Customer satisfaction metrics
- Churn rates
- Revenue growth
- Labor costs
Also, provide clear records that show how you intend to manage loan payments as the benefits of a new system accrue. Include supporting documentation that shows how improved ROI from lower labor costs, reduced burnout, and lessened dependence on other customer service tools will improve your overall financial situation.
Get funding to scale service for your business without losing the human touch
Automating customer service is an essential part of scaling your business. AI chatbots, ticket systems, knowledge bases, email responders, social media automation, and phone trees all help small businesses do more.
With the right funding, your business may be able to integrate a system that maximizes the benefits of automation while continuing to provide the human touch in customer service. See if you pre-qualify in just 5 minutes or less!
