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AI-powered advances in customer support

Written by Rick Schissler on . Posted in Business

AI-powered advances in customer support

May 28th, 2018
AI-powered advances in customer support

High-quality products and services can make a business successful, but exceptional customer service is what makes customers come back. This is why companies constantly try to innovate their customer service strategy — and some do it by adding artificial intelligence (AI) into the mix.

How AI capabilities enhance customer service

AI has two capabilities that enhance customer service: machine learning and natural language processing.

Machine learning studies historical customer data in your systems and equips your customer service staff with all the information they need to address concerns much faster and provide personalized product suggestions, discounts, and offers. It’s the same mechanism that enables Facebook to suggest friends and brands to add or follow, and allows Amazon to personalize product recommendations.

On the other hand, AI’s natural language processing capabilities make it possible for businesses to deploy computerized customer service systems that don’t require human support staff. AI-enabled systems can ‘talk’ to customers via software similar to that of Apple’s Siri, Google’s Alexa, and Windows’ Cortana.

Automated, accurate, and agile responses

Although well-trained employees can multitask and solve customer problems, humans make mistakes. Automated systems like chatbots provide accurate and quick responses because they can be programmed to respond rapidly and accurately, handle large volumes of queries, and be available 24/7.

For example, a restaurant chain that often receives queries about a branch’s opening hours can use a chatbot to handle questions about store hours, reservations, and other simple concerns. A retail store chatbot can also make online ordering seamless by answering questions about product sizes and/or availability.

Overall, AI-enabled chatbots can reduce or eliminate pain points commonly encountered with human customer service representatives, such as long wait times, inefficient escalation of complex concerns, and negative human emotions from irate customers, all of which affect customer satisfaction levels.

Cost-efficient support

Businesses spend thousands of dollars to hire and train customer service representatives. But based on studies, the high attrition rates in the call center industry cost them a lot of money. Some companies even let operations staff handle customer support, which then affects productivity and reduces profitability.

AI-powered platforms reduce the time and money spent on customer service because you don’t need to hire more support staff in case of business expansion. Instead, you can reprogram customer service software so that queries about new products or new business locations can be easily addressed.

Many customers still prefer to have their problems solved by humans. And for banks, hotels, hospitals, and businesses where complicated concerns require human customer service agents, an AI-powered support system can facilitate seamless issue resolutions.

Fortunately, there are plenty of technology options to make customer service and other functions more efficient. Call us today for innovative business technology solutions.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

Be Smart and Back Up Your Valuable Data

Written by Rick Schissler on . Posted in Business

Be Smart and Back Up Your Valuable Data

May 10th, 2018
Be Smart and Back Up Your Valuable Data

Storing copies of your business data in the cloud will help you avoid the risks associated with broken hard drives, lost or stolen devices, and human error. That’s because entrusting your data to an expert cloud provider means you’ll have trained professionals handling the backup of your business assets online.

How should you go about choosing a cloud backup provider? Let’s take a look:

Learn more about their storage capacity

Before partnering with a cloud backup provider, ask them where they store their data. Many providers use cloud servers over which they have little control, which could be hazardous as it makes it harder to monitor activity and respond to anomalies. To avoid this fate, choose a backup service that operates their own cloud-based servers.

Next, you will have to determine whether your business assets can be backed up, since some cloud storage providers do not have the capacity to save bigger files like videos or other multimedia files. By asking these questions, you can find a cloud backup service that fits your business needs, and more importantly, can take care of all your files.

Get details on their security

It will be important for the cloud backup provider to explain in no uncertain terms how they will store your files. They should be encrypted and stored on multiple servers because redundant storage ensures your data has multiple copies saved online and can be retrieved at will. Even if an uncontrollable disaster befalls your company or the backup provider’s system, you’ll still be safe.

Compare your budget and backup costs

Before considering any cloud backup provider, you need to know how much the service is worth to you. How much money would you lose if your server crashed and all the data it stored was irretrievable? Compare that amount with the cost of a provider’s service, which could be charged by storage tiers, per gigabyte, or on a flat-fee unlimited plan.

When asking about the price of cloud backups, make sure to clarify any service limitations or restrictions. For example, how quickly can your storage capacity be upgraded? Is it possible to run out of storage? These are not things you want to discover in the middle of hurricane season.

Clarify data recovery timelines

Although storage availability is important, how quickly backups can be created and restored is also an essential factor. Ask providers how often backups will be created (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly), and how long it will take to restore them (e.g., hours, days, etc.). If those timelines are too long, it may be time to look for a better provider.

The most important thing is to know your needs before meeting with a potential provider. Let them know your business needs, budget, and recovery timelines. Our solutions and pricing are flexible and customized to your needs so you’re not stuck in a cookie-cutter plan.

Give us a call to find out more about cloud backup service and other dynamic ways to protect your data.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

Does Technology Help or Hurt Your Business?

Written by Rick Schissler on . Posted in Business

This may not sound like a serious question to everyone, but I think it is perhaps the most important question or issue facing small businesses today. It is meant to be a roundabout way of asking you is technology working for your business. More importantly are you getting the most of technology in your business?

There are five main considerations that need to be considered when you try and answer this question. First, what type of business are you in? A simple question, but I encourage to think about the answer a bit unless you have done so before. It is the old question you have probably heard, “Am I in the railroad business or the transportation business?”. How you answer can have a big impact on the types of technology you need for your business.

Secondly, what is your business or growth plan. Do you plan to expand your business or are you happy right where you are? When you seek to expand a business then technology is usually a bigger part of your plan. Other plan questions, such as what is your exit plan, need to be considered. Obviously, your exit plan should tie-back to your growth plan so you have an ongoing plan that will eventually lead to or tie into your exit plan.

Thirdly, what are current industry trends as they relate to technology. The fast food industry has introduced in store ordering kiosk as well as on-line ordering with store pickup. These types of changes require a great amount of investment in technology. Industry competition can drive some technology changes as every business competes to stay up and remain competitive. It’s not so much to keep up with the ‘Jones”, but to keep existing customers and the ability to attract new customers.

Fourth and perhaps most important to the business itself is how prepared is your workforce for technology changes? Are they capable of learning new technologies and at what level is their ability? If they are not capable, are you prepared to replace them with a new workforce? Or are you willing to set up the proper training program to get them up to speed? You need to be able to answer these questions before you go out and acquire the latest and greatest technology for your business. Otherwise all your effort and investment will be for naught and may even sink your business.

The fifth and final consideration is capital. Do you have the money on hand or will you need to borrow to finance the purchase, training and maintenance required for the new technology? You or your accountant needs to run the ROI or return on your investment to determine the payback on the new technology. Finally, you need to look at the impact of the technology on the business strategically. The impact on the overall business is the real consideration here and how its impact will affect your business plan as well as your exit plan.

For more information about your IT technologies and how they can be made to work for you call or email Ben at WesTec Services at (713) 682-4000 or bschissler@wtsvc.net .

Mission: WesTec will be a “turn-key” solution for all of its clients’ business connectivity needs. It will offer efficient and effective solutions, directly and with strategic partners, that create tangible value for its clients at every point of contact. Westec will serve all people and entities with a servant’s heart.

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