When it comes to appealing to customers today, you have to be ready to provide what your customers are looking for, and provide it now.
Much of technology has acquiesced to human nature’s demand for instant gratification. Psychology Today reports that in general, humans want things now, not later. “There is psychological discomfort associated with self-denial. From an evolutionary perspective, our instinct is to seize the reward at hand, and resisting this instinct is hard,” the report states.
Over the past few years there’s been a phenomenon cooking on millions of countertops across the United States and Canada: The Instant Pot.
It’s a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, a steamer, a yogurt maker, and more all in one unit. And what’s made the Instant Pot so special? It simplifies processes and cooks food in a fraction of time it takes to cook things conventionally: like juicy, tender shredded pork in two hours as opposed to seven.
Technology has made instant gratification much easier, from the Instant Pot to text messaging to Google, among a very long list of other technological advances shortening time that have become part of our everyday lives.
So when it comes to providing customer service, having a knowledge base where your customers can find the answer to any question they have with just a click on your website becomes more than just customer satisfaction. It’s instant customer satisfaction. By carefully organizing your company’s frequently asked questions, making categories clear and simple, and continually adding new information as you get to know what your customers want can be key to delivering a high-quality customer service experience.
Entrepreneur Neil Patel said one of the ways you can appease this need for instant gratification by providing online chat services 24/7 and downloadable forms. A knowledge base can house downloadable articles, FAQs and other documents that may be helpful for your customers. And LiveHelpNow’s knowledge base provides customers an opportunity to rate what they find so you’ll know what people are looking for, what they’re finding, and maybe even more importantly, what they aren’t finding. This knowledge base also integrates with live chat and other ticketing systems so you can pull information directly from transcripts to improve your knowledge base without cumbersome manual transfering of data.
And because of this synchronicity between the knowledge base and live chat or contact center, you can keep the human element in the customer service equation. Shep Hyken, a customer service expert and best-selling author, said while technology has changed how we book an airline ticket, order food, or even check out at the grocery store. But, he points out, that all these technologies are great until they break. And then we need a human to step in and take care of things.
“It won’t be a definitive choice between man and machine. It will be a combination of the two that creates the best customer experience,” Hyken said.
With a solid knowledge base supporting your customer service workflow, you’ll be able to deliver information to your customers in a timely manner, through a variety of channels.