In the past year we have noticed that companies are seeing an increase in the number of digital customer contact moments. For many companies – certainly with multiple locations and departments – the challenge is to ensure that all customer questions run smoothly and provide customers with fast and appropriate answers. In this article we explain why smart routing is indispensable for your customer service.
What is smart routing?
To start at the beginning, let’s start with what is meant by “smart routing”. With smart routing, incoming inquiries are scanned on the basis of keyword recognition and automatically assigned to the correct department, location or agent. Indeed, automatically thanks to the so-called smart rules that you can set yourself.
How does smart routing work?
Where traditional ticketing systems convert customer requests into tickets and people into numbers, we at Saysimple prefer to keep it personal. No back numbers and queues, but names and personal service.
We have developed a Teams module within the Saysimple Customer Contact Platform. This makes it possible for managers to create teams, departments or locations and add agents to those teams. In this way, new customer questions are easily referred and immediately dealt with by the right contact person, department or location.
It works like this: based on keyword recognition and rules, every question is routed to the right team, location or agent with the most relevant expertise. based on pre-set rules that it concerns a financial question that belongs to the ‘Finance’ department.
To illustrate the foregoing, we have added a framework of the our Smart Routing feature. This way you can see how incoming inquiries from all channels reach the right person, department or location in a smart way.
What are the benefits of smart routing?
Enough background information, time for the benefits of smart routing. Smart routing has a list of advantages for customers and companies. Which are:
#1 Efficient workflows
Smart routing is synonymous with working more efficiently. Incoming customer inquiries – and thus the workload – are automatically spread over the service team. This fair distribution means that agents only receive the type of questions in which they specialize. In addition, FAQs can be automated, so that agents do not have to worry about this anymore. This increases the agent experience and indirectly the customer experience.
#2 Better collaboration between teams and locations
Incoming customer inquiries arrive in one central team inbox. All agents can easily see which chat conversations are still open. In this way, the work can easily be taken over and the customer still receives a quick answer. Ideal in times like these, where remote working is the new standard.
#3 Faster responses, higher productivity
Related to the previous point: because the central team inbox automatically routes customer inquiries to the correct location, department or contact person, agents save many manual actions and thus time. Time they have left to talk to customers faster and more specifically. Satisfied customers (because faster response time), satisfied employees and indirect savings in customer care costs.
#4 More satisfied customers
For customers, smart routing not only means that they are answered more quickly, they also only have to tell their story once. The Saysimple Customer Contact Platform provides agents with information about the customer profile, such as name, place of residence and conversation history. By using this information during chat conversations, customers feel heard. Because if there is one thing they don’t want, it is feeling like a number and repeating himself. With smart routing you provide customers with a 9+ customer experience.
Conclusion: agents and customers benefit from smart routing
Smart routing has various forms and advantages. In a nutshell, it can be said that smart routing is a positive asset for both customers and service agents. By integrating the smart routing feature as a customer contact strategy, customers experience higher satisfaction, because they have to wait less long for an answer and receive tailor-made service. And for agents? They can work more efficiently together with their colleagues, work better together, they experience less work pressure (not even during certain peak times) and more job satisfaction. Only winners!
Did this article inspired you to start with smart routing? Then reach out for a free demo and discover more about the Saysimple platform.