Artificial Intelligence (AI) Revolutionizes the Contact Us Page

If a customer has a question about your product before purchasing or has a support issue, where are they going to turn? To your Contact Us page. And what are they going to find? On a typical website, they’ll find a myriad of phone numbers, a lot of email addresses and a not so friendly and perceived slow contact us form. The mobile experience is even worse, driving an increase in costly and unneeded customer phone calls (the only option).

Even the best Contact Us pages require your customers to search through various resources to find the one that meets their needs – and, in our experience, customer questions rarely fit exactly into any pre-defined category. For many customers, this leads to lost opportunities, misroutes, frustration and ultimately, a negative customer experience.

If a customer is on your Contact Us page they want an answer of some kind. This is your chance to make their experience with your company swift and effective – to draw them in, help them out, land a new sale and make them a loyal customer.

WHY NOT FLIP THE MODEL?

What if you could find out what your customer needs up front and either answer the question in real time or immediately direct them to the right place or person for their purpose?   No more making your customer spend time filling out a contact us form then waiting for your reply, or calling you and sitting on hold when all they have is a routine question.

A Conversational Chatbot powered by AI and driven by data from your Salesforce CRM, can dramatically increase your lead conversion while improving your level of service.Less time, less cost, less frustration, fewer dropped leads, higher customer satisfaction. A game changer.

Deploy a conversational chatbot using Natural Language Processing (NLP) as your Contact Usquarterback to help your customers get the answers they need. An NLP-based bot using Amazon Lex (same tech as Alexa) recognizes regular text patterns – so your customer can just type what is on their mind – and can learn based on common questions. Using your Salesforce data, the bot can personalize a conversation based on a customer’s history with your company. Virtually all the qualities a human agent possesses without a time limit or pay scale.

In a sales scenario, your chatbot can instantly capture a sales lead and get them to a human agent or create a lead in Salesforce off-hours. Or for support, it will create a case in Salesforce, dramatically cutting down on your average handle time, improving your ROI and personalizing the customer experience.

Adding a conversational chatbot as your Contact Us QB, fielding questions and directing customers, provides you with an interactive sales and service product 24/7.

MAKE IT A PORTAL TO YOUR SALESFORCE COMMUNITY

In addition, your Contact Us page can be a portal to your own Salesforce Community where customers can self-serve, discuss various issues, ask questions or gain insight through thought leadership discussions, training, webinars, etc. Internet chat forums abound around almost any issue. Harnessing this group power maximizes customer engagement and provides the ultimate self-service experience. Check out how Fitbit is using their Salesforce Community to engage customers and build brand loyalty.

THE 5 KEY ELEMENTS OF THE BEST AI-POWERED CONTACT US PAGES

Let’s look at the key elements of a Contact Us pages and see how an AI-powered Contact UsPage exceeds expectations – and helps you to capitalize on your Salesforce investment by taking advantage of this untapped opportunity.

1. A Contact Us page should identify what information is available, and what a customer’s options are in an engaging way.Your new AI-powered Contact Us page doesn’t require extensive explanation – one or two stand-out statements should do it. Instead, your customer will instantly be invited to type exactly what they are looking for and begin a conversation from their desktop computer or mobile device. From here they will be given the information they need or be directed to the right place or person immediately. And for those tougher questions, they will be transitioned to a human agent without interruption. All of which will allow for a more personalized experience for your customers while making your employees more efficient by decreasing average handle times. Why is this different than a standard chat option? NLP platforms from the top tech players like Amazon, Google, IBM, Facebook, etc. offer self-service interaction, are intelligent (serve up invitations), capture customer intent, and route customers to the right employee – increasing sales and lowering costs for support by directing the customer to the right answer.
2. Include information needed to contact sales or customer service directly, including direct access to the preferred channels in a mobile-first world – web chat, SMS and messaging.A majority of customers prefer to find answers and/or solve a problem themselves and expect a self-service solution. The AI-powered Contact Us page streamlines the visitor experience by providing a simple and natural engagement point for the Brand, improving efficiency and ensuring faster response times while making the contact us form obsolete. While it is still a good idea to provide an email and phone number – primarily as it is expected, your AI-powered conversational chatbot should be equipped with mechanisms to seamlessly hand off a problem to a human agent via messaging channels that provide a far better customer experience (and lower operational costs!) before your customer becomes frustrated with the process and feels a need to contact you directly. It is all about ease of use for the customer.
3. Quickly address your customers’ needs while engaging them in your business and keeping them on your site.Your revitalized AI-powered Contact Us page should have easy, intuitive entry ports at every turn. Direct conversation with a chatbot to answer routine questions, direct searches and ultimately suggest alternative solutions to your visitor while capturing data and producing leads. Community engagement to draw visitors into your business and facilitate interaction, conversation and education leading to increased brand loyalty. Resources for those who aren’t ready to commit but want to know more. And, ultimately an opportunity to connect the old-fashioned way for those who want to remain in their comfort zone. Best of all – every interaction is saved on Salesforce allowing for incredible mining of data for analytics to improve your business.
4. Engage your current and future customers on social media platforms they communicate on routinely.Combining active social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedInwith community pages built on Salesforce not only engages visitors in your business but gives them a voice. Active communities help to identify opportunities and solutions which can then be converted to new products and targeted services and information. A win-win for all.
5. Clearly identify how and when you will be responding to a customer’s request.You will engage with your visitors instantly, so many of their requests will be answered in real time without the customer having to wait on hold, or for an answer to an email request – immediately improving the customer experience. In the event that a customer’s needs require a different kind of response, say a discussion with your sales team about a new project, they will be directed to the correct contact for further discussion.

The Contact Us page is often overlooked despite being the gateway to customer interaction. New technologies not only meet but exceed current ‘gold standard’ practices and open up a whole new world of possibilities. Explore this potential and join the Contact Us revolution!

Want to see an AI-powered Contact Us page in action? We invite you to visit the NeuraFlash Contact Us page and meet Flash, our new AI-powered service chatbot. Flash is eager to answer your questions and looking forward to your visit.