Business lessons learned from lockdown

Every organisation in the world has been impacted by the pandemic, some positively, others negatively, but there were many lessons to be learned from this experience. It showed our governments how prepared they were, highlighted key strains on our healthcare services, gave the environment a chance to repair itself through lowered emissions, and reminded us as people about what’s important.

Always be prepared for a crisis

Businesses either excelled, had no change, or sunk during the pandemic lockdown. Those who excelled or had no change to their revenue and operations were prepared, or had working models that allowed them to continue working regardless of the lockdown measures,  while those who were negatively hit faced shutting down revenue streams and operations due to being unprepared, having restricted operating models, or existed in an impacted industry. The businesses that operated in the many industries, such as entertainment, beauty and travel, that were essentially shut down as a result of lockdown had little choice, and even being prepared to work remotely provided little relief. Some businesses were reactive, and offered remote services online to keep small revenue streams ticking over where possible, but many were not so lucky.

However, there are a segment of businesses who could have been better prepared for a disaster. Many companies still operate with locally hosted systems and software, forcing them to rely on that office space. By shifting their internal systems to ones that were more cloud-friendly, they would have been much better prepared for a remote working situation. There are a few departments that can always be prepared for working remotely, and this includes marketing and customer services.

Keeping customer service online with live chat for websites

During a time of uncertainty, customers generally have more questions and expect quicker answers. It’s during times like these that your customer service team needs to be more responsive, as it will ease your customer’s anxieties and keep them calm. Live chat for websites is a simple and easy way to keep communication online in a crisis and provide an easy, familiar avenue for your customers to contact you. Often, during times like these, phone lines tend to be jammed with a high volume of calls, leaving customers waiting for an undetermined time in a telephone queue. The immediacy of live chat for websites is what makes it one of the most effective methods of customer communication on the market.

Automating customer service to stay online during transitions

The magic does not end there! Imagine your customer service team is in a transition stage: some are online, some don’t have access, some have access but have a slower internet connection, and some are simply just adjusting to the new normal. A lockdown is a big life change and not everyone is equipped to deal with it easily. Let’s say only 50% of your team was able to work remotely immediately, since others have various obstacles. However, your influx of customer requests just tripled as compared to yesterday, which was a normal day, but you have Click4Assistance which means that you’re already prepared for remote working. Now, you also have Artie, Click4Assistance’s AI Chatbot, who is about to save the day.

Artie can engage an unlimited number of website visitors at a time, making him equipped to deal with such an influx of customers. As your customer’s first point of contact, Artie can do two major things for your customer service team: firstly, he can gather key information about the customer and their request and transfer them to the right department, and secondly, he buys time. While he’s speaking to the customers, your agents are able to manage the influx with ease, and allow enough time to chat with every incoming customer transferred to them.

Keeping your chat for websites secure

The most important lesson of all learned from this lockdown and pandemic is security. Many platforms were left unattended while IT technicians moved their focus to getting remote operations online.  target="_blank"With Click4Assistance, you don’t have to worry about that. Your conversations with your customers are encrypted in transit, making it as safe and secure as a payment page, and your data is secured on a UK based server, so no data is transferred overseas. Click4Assistance’s dashboard is accessible on any device with a Chrome browser, making it remote-working ready out of the box. With live chat, video calling, social media integration, all the reports you’re dreaming of, and an AI chatbot all in one comprehensive suite, there’s little to say no to.

If you’re interested in deploying Click4Assistance, the UK’s premier GDPR compliant live chat software solution, to increase your business’ productivity for 2020, give us a call on 08451235871 or send an email to theteam@click4assistance.co.uk and one of our experts will be with you right away. Not ready to reach out yet? Discover how it works, try a demo, or better yet, try Click4Assistance completely free for 21 days.