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Guide
24/7 Customer Service Without Adding Staff
Customers message at night and on Fridays, and many expect a reply. Here are the realistic options, and how to split the work between a chatbot and your team.
Three ways to cover the hours
- An away message. Free and quick to set up. It tells customers when you will reply, but answers nothing.
- Shifts or an outsourced team. People answer everything, at the cost of more salaries and training.
- A chatbot with a handover. It answers the common questions at any hour and leaves the rest for your team in the morning, with the conversation saved.
What a chatbot can cover at night
- Opening hours, branches, delivery areas and policies.
- Product, service and price questions, from information you approve.
- Taking the details of a request, so your team starts the morning ready to act.
What should wait for a person
- Complaints and upset customers.
- Anything that needs a decision: refunds, exceptions, special prices.
- Questions outside the chatbot's information. It should say so, not guess.
How to start
- For two weeks, save every message that arrives after hours.
- Sort them: which could be answered from information you already have, and which need a person.
- The first group is your chatbot's starting list. The second group is your handover rules.
Questions
Common questions.
Many prefer a useful answer at night to waiting until morning, as long as they can still reach a person. Say clearly that it is an automated assistant.
It tells the customer someone will reply, and passes the conversation to your team.
No. Someone on your team reviews the handed-over conversations and keeps its information up to date.
Messages Waiting Until Morning?
Tell us what customers ask after hours, and we tell you what a chatbot could answer.