Nowadays, who doesn’t have a user account on forums like Quora? In fact, we are sure that at some point you have asked or answered questions in a community, for example from a telecommunications company or an app.
Why? The opinions of customers and users of a product or service are valued more than its description by the company, and even more than its functionalities when buying or hiring.
It is clear that we have more confidence in what our peers tell us than what a brand or corporate tells us. Taking this concept further, some companies such as Microsoft or Unilever have opted for a new type of customer service, provided not by agents, but directly by users and customers of a brand.
The opinions of customers and users of a product or service are valued more than its description by the company
¿What is crowdservice?
Crowdservice is the act of enabling a group of clients or users of a brand, who are experts in its use, to answer the questions of other clients or prospects. The questions can be simple advice, or a real accompaniment until the purchase. To reward these customers, the business pays the expert a small fee for each response provided.
The entire service is managed through dedicated software that can be integrated into the organization’s white label website, live chat software or social media channels. Another interesting point is that this service channel is on-demand, which is activated only when it is used.
The impact on the contact center is similar than a chatbot, but human
It does not mean that customer service agents will disappear with crowdservice. Conversely, it is still the agents who can access a customer’s personal data.
But similar to a chatbot, the crowdservice frees up time so that agents can answer more value-added queries. What’s more, a contact center might even consider reducing opening hours and potentially the number of agents by diverting traffic to this method.
The main difference is that the service is provided by humans who use the product, and not by a robot, which in certain cases can be more interesting for the company. And even better than the external forum, with crowdservice you control what customers and prospects ask and comment on.
Almost anyone can be an expert
When it comes to the gig economy, crowdservice appears as a simple option to earn extra money. With a mobile or a computer and an Internet access, you are ready. Nor is a very complicated training necessary since most software is capable of increasing the expert’s capabilities by proposing answers with artificial intelligence, which can be corrected, in addition to access to the knowledge base.
Of course, before hiring you, the provider will evaluate your knowledge of the product, the language you have applied to and your ability to answer a typical question. However, in our opinion it is difficult to count on crowdservice as the only source of income.
Satisfaction and conversion are usually very high
Softwares that facilitate crowdservice say that a correct answer is usually obtained in less than five minutes, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. In addition, those who have asked the question can assess the quality of the answers provided, and the expert only receives payment if the question is considered as solved by him, which encourages the experts to respond appropriately.
When it comes to buying the product or hiring the service, companies communicate that the conversion is worth it, due to the issue of trust between users.
We hope this overview of the crowdservice concept will help you understand the topic more clearly. Similar to the chatbot, the crowdservice could be an additional tool to divert traffic from the contact center, with lower costs and easy to expand or reduce.
We’d love to follow the conversation and discuss your contact center software needs with you. Do not hesitate to contact us!
