Businesses looking to excel in customer service must exert their maximum efforts to meet today’s high standards and expectations. Happy customers mean enhanced loyalty and a healthier bottom line. However, it’s not as easy as setting up call centers, having pre-recorded voice lines, and calling it a day. Businesses must constantly look for ways to improve customer service efficiency, and using a business transcription company is an excellent way to do it.
In this article, you’ll learn how:
- US businesses lose more than $62 billion per year thanks to poor customer service.
- Tracking metrics like resolution time and customer effort score can reveal how efficient and effective service processes are.
- Business transcription services can improve customer service efficiency by providing transcripts that can be used for training, data analysis, and legal and regulatory purposes.
Why Should Customer Satisfaction be a #1 Priority?
Did you know that US businesses lose more than $62 billion per year due to poor customer service? And 51% of customers won’t return after a bad experience?
Seven out of 10 US consumers say they spend more money with businesses that provide great customer service. By moderately increasing customer service standards, a company with $1 billion in annual revenue can generate $823 million in additional revenue.
Customers are the heart of every company’s success. You can imagine what would happen without them—businesses wouldn’t make any sales, and commerce, in general, wouldn’t exist.
Common Types of Customer Support Channels
The most common mediums businesses use to assist their customers are listed below.
| Channel | Description |
| Voice Calls | Traditional phone-based support with live agents for personalized assistance. |
| Interactive Voice Response | Automated system for voice or keypad navigation through menu options. |
| Email Support | Handling customer inquiries and requests via email correspondence. |
| Live Chat | Real-time text communication with agents for instant support. |
| Social Media Support | Monitoring and responding to customer queries on social media platforms. |
| Self-Service Portals | Online knowledge bases provide FAQs, guides, and self-help resources. |
| Mobile Applications | Dedicated apps offering support options and self-service capabilities. |
Best Practices to Improve Customer Service Efficiency
It’s impossible to count the number of ways to improve the efficiency of one’s customer service team. Even so, based on my experience—these are the most effective and practical.
Proactive Outreach for Superior Customer Support
Businesses that reach out to customers before they ask for help can significantly reduce the number of people on their customer service lines. This keeps things running by ensuring issues get handled ASAP.
One essential thing to know is how customers behave online so companies can predict when they might need help. Do they leave negative comments or reviews on your recent posts? Figure out which aspect of the operation is causing the most headaches and spot signs that someone’s about to lose their cool.
Proactive outreach can take many forms. It can involve giving new or returning visitors personalized shoutouts or saving abandoned shopping carts by striking up conversations with customers who’ve added items but haven’t pulled the trigger.
Leveraging Automation to Enhance Service Delivery
Chatbots can be very useful in terms of customer service. AI-powered solutions can be online 24/7, meaning customers get the answers they need independently, even when the office is closed for business.
These automated systems can remove simple tasks from the customer service team’s plate so they can focus on the tougher, more critical issues that need a human touch—a solid time saver. However, it’s best not to make bots handle complicated tasks as people will have to step in and correct the mistakes.
Plus, businesses can use internal chatbots to help agents during live chat sessions by giving them the info they need to provide excellent support. However, it must be emphasized that automation is a fantastic tool yet can never completely replace the human element in customer service.
Regardless of appearance, bots cannot empathize naturally, which is crucial in improving customer service efficiency.
For similar reasons, AI is not suitable for transcription use. More on that later.
Streamlining Request Routing for Efficient Resolution
When people contact a business, they want to connect with someone who can seamlessly solve their issues. Therefore, ensuring customer problems get to the right specialist immediately reduces wait times and means support resources are used efficiently.
Luckily, automated systems can smartly route questions based on an agent’s expertise or department. Chatbots can also act as the first point of contact or gather intel on the customer’s needs before pointing them to the best live chat agent for the job.
This routing technique also increases the chances of solving the issue in the first interaction. Increased first-contact resolutions are excellent signs that customer service efficiency is dramatically improving.
Amplifying the Customer Voice through Feedback Collection
A well-operating feedback system lets companies collect valuable insights into what customers are experiencing, what they prefer, what’s causing them headaches, and so on. Therefore, businesses must actively listen to customers’ voices, as they can help pinpoint areas that need work or tweak their products to better fit customers’ needs.
Plus, asking for feedback shows customers that the business is all-in on keeping them happy, which builds customer loyalty. Targeted feedback tools—surveys after interactions or website feedback forms—can significantly improve customer feedback quality.
Dissecting Interactions With Transcripts to Spot Optimization Opportunities
Every interaction transcript, be it a phone call, email, chat, or recorded meeting, is a chance to spot pain points and zero in on areas where service can be streamlined. Businesses can harness advanced analytics tools to dissect these transcripts to see patterns.
Take sentiment analysis, for example. They can reveal the emotional undertones of customer conversations, highlighting frustrations or satisfaction levels. Tracking metrics like resolution time and customer effort score can also show service processes’ efficiency and effectiveness.
The reality is that transcripts have so much to offer businesses—in training materials, legal documents, customer journey analysis, and so on. The organization’s decision-makers simply need to figure out how to use transcripts.
Let Ditto Handle Your Business Transcription Needs
The best way to get transcripts for businesses is to enlist the help of a reputable, human-powered, U.S.-based business transcription service provider like Ditto.
Some of you might think that’s a big claim since AI is getting better all the time, and offshore providers are often dirt-cheap. However, it’s essential to look at the issue from every side. And let me tell you, every side tells the same story. Let’s talk about it here.
Contextual Understanding
Communication is a messy, messy subject. Despite the relatively advanced state of linguistics these days, it is possible—nay, extremely probable—for humans to misunderstand each other.
Native speakers usually develop an almost instinctive grasp of language yet still have difficulty communicating efficiently. What more if you throw a non-native speaker or a large language model into the mix?
Non-native transcriptionists will miss important contextual details like implied sarcasm or upfront irony. This can lead to misunderstanding the video or audio content they are transcribing, leading to potential errors.
Similarly, AI works by transcribing what it thinks it hears. It has no concept of context and will as easily write “there” instead of “their.” Despite all the hype, AI tools cannot transcribe as accurately as humans.
Working with U.S.-based human transcriptionists allows you to sidestep both issues, ensuring accuracy and better service quality.
Ability To Understand Ambiguous Speech And Unfamiliar Accent
Non-standard accents are to be expected when transcribing any video and audio content. Non-native speakers and natural language processing software will have difficulty handling such cases if they’re unfamiliar or, in AI’s case, not trained with the accent.
Experienced transcriptionists will be exposed to different accents throughout their careers, making it easier to accurately understand and transcribe audio and video content.
Furthermore, transcribers can also use context to generate transcripts faster. The best example is a human’s innate ability to guess the next words a speaker would say based on the subject matter and what is being said.
With professional U.S.-based transcriptionists like the ones who work with us here at Ditto Transcripts, this skill is dialed up to ten, making them faster and more efficient.
Specialized Knowledge
Communications can cover a wide range of topics and ideas. Some of these terms may sound like Greek to the uninitiated, which is not ideal for transcriptionists.
Using transcription services with proven experience across industries can ensure that accuracy will be maintained despite the diverse topics your recordings may involve.
Privacy, Security, And Discretion
Here in the U.S., we have government agencies and regulations like HIPAA and CJIS to ensure confidential data is kept confidential.
That might not be the case in other countries, as the issue of data security is different worldwide.
And don’t get me started on AI. These platforms are practically gold mines for information hackers. They’re susceptible to social engineering attacks, data poisoning, model inversions, and lateral bypasses through support systems.
Your best bet is to enlist the help of a secure transcription provider. Ditto, for example, is FINRA, HIPAA- and CJIS-compliant, meaning we provide high-security measures lightyears beyond your typical birth year password and dog’s name combo.
Improve Customer Service Efficiency With Ditto
The truth is, anyone with a computer and headphones can offer business transcription. However, not everyone can provide accurate and high-quality transcription as we do.
With Ditto, you know you’re working with professional transcriptionists who understand the English language better than most. All our services come with our 99% accuracy guarantee and the best customer service in the industry. Contact us today and see the difference.
Ditto Transcripts is a FINRA, HIPAA, and CJIS-compliant Denver, Colorado-based transcription services company that provides fast, accurate, and affordable transcripts for individuals and companies of all sizes. Call (720) 287-3710 today for a free quote, and ask about our free five-day trial.
