Customer Engagement: How FAQs are Helping Brands Build Richer Relationships

Customer service can be a complicated business. 

In today’s always-on, omni-channel world, interactions occur at any time, on any device, and via any channel. 

Those channels are multiple too. 

Email, SMS, webchat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp. 

To score highly on the C-SAT front, enterprises need to provide the right responses, and fast. 

In many cases – although not all – automation is key. 

However, deploying it in isolation (say in support of just one channel, such as webchat) is to miss a big trick. 

Today, the smarter organisations that have brought all of their communication channels together onto a single, powerful, cloud-powered platform are integrating chatbot functionality with them ALL. 

That’s the same swift, standardised answers to the most frequently asked questions; provided 24/7 via every communication channel there is. 

And what’s more, human agents and their supervisors have single-user-interface visibility of it all and so can instantly step in to support if required. 

It’s the new way to ensure investment in chatbot functionality delivers maximum return. 

And, as is always the case, picking the right provider makes all the difference. 

“Effective communication and engagement is THE most important aspect of any brand/customer relationship – making the process as easy and as rich as possible should be right at the top of the priority list,” says Mathis Andre, Product Manager at Europe’s leading UCaaS platform provider Dstny, whose all-in-one-place ConnectMe solution is fully-integrated with its clever FAQ-Bot engagement functionality. 

“Consumers want to communicate with organisations in ways which are most convenient to them. For many that means via applications such as webchat, Facebook or SMS. 

“For those organisations, managing multiple disconnected, separate threads of messaging can be inefficient and complex. Much better to connect all of those channels to a single chatbot solution that provides the same seamless and standardised engagement experience across the board.” 

In the case of Dstny’s ConnectMe platform, user organisations’ agents see ongoing bot-chats from all of the different communication channels and can take over control if the bot is unable to provide an answer or if the customer has requested to talk to a real agent.     

The innovation is part of an ongoing ConnectMe ‘single entry point’ UI convergence program which is increasing the number of Dstny services that exist natively within the platform. 

“The user simply clicks a tab within ConnectMe and sees all of the ongoing real-time conversation between the chat bot and the customer on all of the different channels,” says Andre. 

“All of the messaging is available for the agent in one place and it is all managed via a modern, intuitive user interface. It’s about automating what can be automated – repetitive tasks, answering frequently asked questions, sharing basic store or product information. And it’s about providing all of that in a uniform way to everyone via every channel.” 

The same centralisation also drives important enrichment of organisations’ content databases upon which chatbot functionality depends. 

“Easier and more widespread access to your chatbot means usage will increase,” says Andre. 

“That increased usage will result in increased questions and the generation of increased answers. That volume and quality of content will enable organisations to enhance their level of customer engagement, and ultimately, customer satisfaction. The return on investment is significant.” 

Not that the future is ALL about the chatbot, of course. 

Human interaction is always likely to remain a key component of organisations’ customer engagement toolkits. 

However, with consumer demand for uber-convenience never likely to abate – and the inexorable rise in the popularity of messaging apps certain to continue – could it be that the FAQ has a disproportionately-crucial role to play in the constant quest for customer engagement brilliance? 

The answer surely lies within…

• To learn more about how Dstny’s ConnectMe communication platform can help businesses get closer to their customers, visit Dstny.