We loved this quick article from the Harvard Business Review. It confirmed what we knew about the value of human-powered customer support and surprised us too.
Researchers found that just the presence of a real person to help, even if the potential customer never chats or calls, alleviates anxiety and increases user or customer trust in a platform or service provider.
The surprising finding -- AI-powered statuses updates performed worse than no contact at all.
The not surprising finding -- offering a path to human contact substantially increased the likelihood of conversion.
We know well-trained and motivated team members can use active listening and product enthusiasm to effectively move tentative callers to happy purchasers.
https://hbr.org/2019/04/why-anxious-customers-prefer-human-customer-service