Introduction to Customer Service Robots

Are you ready to experience the rise of customer service robots? If not, you might be more prepared than you realize. After all, most people in the modern world depend on “smart” assistants like Alexa and Siri. In fact, almost everyone in the general public now interacts with machines every day.

And businesses have taken notice. That’s why many of them are planning to overhaul their customer service programs. And they’re going to do so using robots. Why? Customer service robots can boost customer satisfaction. They also reduce costs and get tasks done faster than many humans. Are you ready to learn more about customer service robots? Let’s get started.

What Are Customer Service Robots?

Customer service robots serve the purpose of interacting with a company’s customers. Some of the robots look like humans. These are the humanoid customer service robots. What about the ones that do not look like humans? These get classified as non-humanoid customer service robots.

What is the mission of both humanoid and non-humanoid customer service robots? To automate the most basic job requirements of any human’s customer service job. Why are many companies so focused on putting these robots in place? It is due to their three major advantages:

1. They have very fast uptime.
2. They are often more efficient than their human counterparts.
3. They save companies a lot of money in labor costs.

Do you not believe the hype about these robots? Well, in that case, you’ve got to check out the market. Let’s look at the market for public relations robots as an example. The sales of PR robots increased a lot from 2017 to 2018. There was a 53% growth in sales.

Robotics experts predict that growth like this will continue in the coming years. They estimate that well over 40,000 public relations robots will get sold between 2019 and 2021. That’s a CAGR of 37%. (CAGR stands for compound annual growth rate.) In other words, do not assume customer service robots are a fad. The numbers show that they are here to stay.

The Value That Customer Service Robots Provide

One of the key advantages of customer service robots is their versatility. Since they can do many tasks and they have a high level of value. Your average customer service robot can help out humans in many different ways. For instance, say a customer is having trouble finding a brand of cereal in the grocery store. The customer service robot can tell that person what aisle the cereal’s on within seconds.

More and more customer service robots are getting deployed into retail stores. Why? So that they can guide humans across the store floors. Similar circumstances are present across the hospitality industry. In fact, customer service robots are appearing in shopping malls, banks, and restaurants.

So, what is the most important value of these customer service robots? It is not only their capability to communicate with humans. And it is not only their ability to do tasks in a more cost-effective manner than humans. It is also their data collection capabilities. When many face-to-face human-robot interactions occur, the robots collect data. This is like a website tracking your information using cookies.

Why are customer service robots collecting data? To help companies come up with re-branding tactics and conduct interactive marketing. Expect rules and regulations about data privacy to evolve as these robots evolve. That’s because robots will become very mainstream in the new future.

How Will Companies Put Their Customer Service Robots in Place?

The manner in which companies will role out their customer service robots varies. It comes down to the goals and logistics of each organization. Most robotics experts agree on one notion. It is that self-service and automation will boost any company’s efficiency. Customers will have more options than ever before.

Those options apply to how each individual interacts with customer service reps. But here is the main concern. Polls state that many humans want to speak with other humans. That’s, well, human nature. This means companies should hesitate to make customer service robots the only option. Having only one method of automation is going to annoy some customers.

Companies are doing all they can to counteract concerns about customer service robots. That is why many organizations are working hard to make technological improvements. The technology improvements will lead to these robots having more benefits and value. The smarter the robot, the better it can interact with humans and perform difficult tasks. This is why companies are finding new ways to streamline backend processes. They are boosting responses to information-driven questions and enhancing compliance abilities. Actions like these might make humans more receptive to communicating with robots.

The Future of Customer Service Robots

The evolution of customer service robots is making big changes happen. And changes in digital technology sometimes fail because humans do not accept the changes. This means that companies will have to get creative. New strategies are necessary as they launch customer service robots in the future.

Companies have to take many factors into account now before it’s too late. They cannot only focus on issues like hardware costs and robot-charging. In other words, having tunnel vision is not going to make these robots flourish.

Organizations should consider factors like change management strategies and unique app development. Why? Because high intelligence is not enough for customer service robots to achieve success. These robots need to have as much of a human touch as possible. Plus, it must seem obvious to customers that robots provide tons of benefits. Otherwise, some customers will get annoyed.

The 4 Current Categories of Customer Service Robots

Below are the four most popular customer service robots. Many companies are using these machines today:

1) Field Service (customer service) robots.

A field service/customer service robot’s mission is to help human workers do their tasks. That’s why these robots can carry items to work sites. One of their goals is to ensure that technicians stay out of harm’s way.

Here is an example. A common field service robot has video capabilities and many sensors attached. Why? So that the bot can assist with underground pipe inspections. This robot uses automated analysis to gather pictures of the surroundings. This leads to map improvements that benefit humans on the project.

2) Retail customer service robots.

The use of retail customer service robots allows humans to focus on high-value tasks. The retail bots take care of all low-value actions that a company needs. This leads to huge savings in labor costs.

For example, retail customer service robots restock empty shelves and scan products. The bots can do both of these tasks faster than humans. They can even conduct in-stock product counts. These are so inventories are always taken care of. This improves the entire customer experience at each store. More items are available and customers have more choices.

The modern retail customer service robot can even engage in dialogue with humans. This boosts the morale of customers desiring interactions whenever they shop. The LoweBot at Lowe’s is a great example of a retail customer service robot. It greets people, responds to questions, and shows them where items are.

3) Delivery customer service robots.

Delivery customer service robots provide people with better customer experiences. The bots can travel across short distances and conduct low-value drop-offs. Delivery customer service robots are sometimes referred to as “street robots.” Each street robot has sensors that recognize traffic lights and patterns. Some of them even know how to use elevators.

Street robots do more than perform basic delivery tasks. They also gather data as they work. Why? So that companies can use the information to boost work processes. What is the end-result of this? A boost in revenue for organizations that use delivery customer service robots. Take Savioke’s robotic butler. The robot-butler already works in almost 80 hotels across the world. The hotels use a bot to deliver small goods to people’s hotel rooms.

4) Insurance customer service robot-drones.

This type of customer service robot is on a mission. What is the mission? To stop fraud from taking place. That’s why these insurance drones can go where adjusters are incapable of going.

The popularity of insurance drones skyrocketed in 2017. That was when insurance organizations began to use drones to file claims. Why? Because hurricanes and wildfires were preventing adjusters from going where they needed to. The first step in this process involves an adjuster using a GPS map.

The person then annotates the drones on the map, based on GPS coordinates. Next thing you know, all relevant parties have access to damage claims information. This puts customers, agents, and adjusters all on the same page fast. Thanks to customer service robots, claims processing has never been easier.

Conclusion: Customer Service Robots Are Here to Stay

The sight of a customer service robot is becoming more common by the month. And there are no signs of the production of these bots slowing down. Rather than fighting the change, it might be best to embrace it. After all, these robots carry huge benefits. What’s the number one benefit?

They will save companies multi-millions of dollars over time. The key is to continue developments in automation. Doing so will help businesses find ways to improve their customer service experiences. This will lead to companies developing stronger devoted followings.

Please feel free to contact Robotics of America today. We have much more information about customer service robots. In fact, check out our website for more articles about these amazing machines. We have more written information about topics like these:

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