Customer Service and Technology

I don't have to tell you that the best companies have the best customer service. Having outstanding customer service is hard, particular at a large scale. While hard, it's absolutely critical since it's most likely the only time customers are directly communicating with the company.

Incompetent and unorganized customer service that is readily available may be worse than one that is slow to respond but communicates effectively.

For example:

I took my time to explain my issue as they asked. But at the end of it, I'm just told to call a number for assistance. It's annoying to have a default response after putting my effort to let them know of my issue. I gave as many details as I could and it probably wasn't recorded anywhere. A ticket number would have been nice to refer. I'm left annoyed.

On the other hand, I send a bug to Mint.com and I receive an email that they received my bug report. I don't get a response till weeks later, but it includes the solution.

With technology, there are more methods of communicating with companies' customer service than ever. There will be even more ways with more bots and increased messenger capabilities. But how companies execute their customer service services will be more crucial than ever. Having the right information and good communication skills cannot be replaced by technology (at least not yet).

If the problem can't be solved through one medium, the customer should be transitioned efficiently with the already supplied details. If it has to be transferred to a phone call, give the option to the customer to have someone at customer service call them or give them a phone number to call at their earliest convenience (with a ticket number to reference, if the issue can't be pulled up easily by a phone number or some other information).