Waiting on hold for a contact centre agent to pick up the phone is a sure way to upset your customers. Chatbots can help and add so much more to improve the quality of customer service you are able to provide across multiple digital channels.

Most Local Authorities and Housing Associations are thinking about or embarking on their Digital transformation initiatives. Using AI and chatbots to automate business processes over multiple channels is an easy way to achieve the desired objectives.

What are Chatbots?

Chatbots use a form of AI called Natural Language processing (NLP) and Machine Learning to understand human language and recognise the intent of what is being said by the user. They can then provide responses to customer queries or direct users to a page, video of self-help guide. From a housing perspective, chatbots can help tenants raise repairs, pay their rent, report ASB, join a housing register or apply for an adaptation. Digital Transformation through Artificial Intelligence driven Virtual Assistants and chatbots can cut costs and provided greater accessibility to customers.

1. Immediate Customer Service

A chatbot has the ability to process and serve data exponentially more quickly than a human and can handle hundreds of calls simultaneously. Chatbots can reduce lag time and customers will never be held in a queue again. We all know that waiting in a queue is one of the most frustrating things we need to deal with so when customers don't have to wait for support, they will likely rate their experience more favourably.

Chatbots can deal with the common queries leaving contact centre agents free to deal with the tenants that need them most and those that prefer or need to speak with a human being.

2. Out of the Box Digital Transformation

The cool thing about technology being modular is that you can treat everything like Lego blocks. Pieces fit and come together to build bigger, greater things. Similarly, your developed Chatbot interface can be plugged into a number of platforms like Alexa, Facebook Messenger, SMS, Skype and others. This allows your business to deploy the same servcie and give the same customer experience across multiple digital platforms. This lets the chatbot deal with all kinds of customers and queries no matter what their preferred channel is.

3. Cost Savings

Implementing a chatbot reduces staff training costs, management overheads and rework providing a good return on investment, often in the first year. The bots deliver a more consistent and controllable service to customers. When coupled with self-service and automated business processes such as raising a work order or scheduling a repair, the savings are multiplied.

4. Improved Customer Service

Chatbots are powered by machine learning which means they are constantly learning, evolving and adapting. With each transaction, they gain more knowledge to enhance their databases and increase their ability to solve problems more accurately. The quality of their answers will also improve and lead to better issue resolution. Let's not forget that chatbots are available 24/7 and can speak 60 different languages.

5. Personalisation

With chatbots, you can control and personify your brand, manage the tone of voice and add as much or as little detail the service that you want. You can have them act as single point of contact that directs customers to the required information, hand them over to a live chat or arrange a call back. You can tweak the conversational styles of chatbots by tuning their tone of voice and adding a personality to them as well.

With our housing sector knowledge and technical expertise, Fuzzlab is able to deploy a production ready , multi-channel self service and seamless customer experience for repairs, ASB, rent and general enquiries in weeks.

Contact us to see a demo of our chatbot solutions for social housing at hello@fuzzlab.co.uk