In the digital era, convenience, speed and accuracy are kings. Today’s customers don’t have to call you in the middle of the night to know more about your product. All they have to do is access your website and collect the information for themselves.
However, at the end of the day, we are still human and automation or digital platforms can never replace that completely. In fact, here are some reasons why businesses still need to incorporate the human touch in the way they serve customers.
- It saves them time and builds trust
Yes, your customers could call your business, follow the instructions uttered by the automated voice at the other end to get their answers, but that’s time-consuming. Customers are busy people and they really don’t have the patience or the time to be clicking 1s and 2s on the keypad.
They’d rather have a human being answer the call and give them the information they need right away. More importantly, they can trust another human over a “robot receptionist”.
- They still prefer a humanized experience
Research suggests that customers still want a humanized experience because humanized services are empathetic and personalized.
After all, customers are humans too. In fact, McKinsey found that around 70% of customer experiences were judged on the basis of how the customer felt at the end of it all. To put it simply, not everybody wants “cut and dried” transactions/interactions, even in the digital age.
- They feel valued
The digitized business landscape has eliminated most of the human interaction that was once a core part of the customer-seller relationship. Of course, no one can deny that things have become much easier for customers and businesses alike. Customers can compare products and have greater flexibility in deciding where their money is being spent.
However, what they don’t have in the digital era is “concern” and “understanding”, two things that most customers still want. They want a business that can value them. That kind of value can only be communicated through a humanized customer experience, never by an automated one.
The presence of a human tells the customer that they don’t have to bear with complex processes to find a solution and that they are still valued as customers.
Remember, each opportunity to interact with customers is an opportunity to build a relationship with them. This is hard to do if your callers are reaching a recorded message. The more positive experiences your callers have with your company, the more likely they’ll be coming back to purchase from you again. So, regardless of how advanced technology is becoming, your human workforce is still very much needed.
