Good Customer Service Is Personal Customer Service

Recently, British Telecom (BT), the largest telecom company in England, informed that it will cut 55,000 jobs over the next few years. Of these, 11,000 jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence. BT commented, “Newer, more efficient technologies, including artificial intelligence, means that fewer people will be needed to serve customers in the future.” Digital Republic clearly sees this differently. Especially in times of digitalization, AI and ChatGPT, a personal, competent, i.e. human customer service makes the difference!

It almost seems as if AI solutions can do all the digital work (at least more cheaply) that humans can also do. But in the end, it’s always humans who operate their devices, who set up networks, or who want to seek help through customer service. Removing the human element on the provider side may seem financially attractive, but it takes away the very thing that makes customer service work: the person on the other side of the line.

Of course, Digital Republic relies on new technologies and has a digital support portal where customers can help themselves. Of course, customers can also write emails or call. However, it is important that all of these communication channels are managed by people. Every e-mail is written and answered personally, and calls are answered or returned without being put on hold.

By focusing on human customer service, we ensure that you can always speak to a real person who can help you with your concerns. In an increasingly digital world, this human element is a crucial factor in your experience as a customer.

At Digital Republic, we fully rely on a competent and highly involved support team, which we have already dedicated a separate blog post to. As a completely digital provider, customer service is our only direct window to you as customers. Through our supporters, we not only advise you, but also receive valuable feedback on how we can improve.

That’s why Digital Republic’s customer service is in constant close exchange with the rest of the company and is involved in all processes. A standard that is difficult to achieve with ChatGPT and Co. This may seem time-consuming, but the feedback from our customers shows us every day that this effort pays off:

The last comment in particular makes it clear how important human contact is for your experience as customers. No one wants to receive the same answer to a problem from a chatbot. Nobody wants to repeat their question on the phone for 5 minutes until the AI on the other end has understood the dialect correctly.

Good customer service is human customer service!

The feedback from customers is clear: competent, friendly and, above all, human support still beats chatbots and computer voices. And that’s unlikely to change anytime soon, because (and we all agree on this as humans) it’s always more pleasant to communicate with a real person than with a machine.

That’s why, even as a digital provider, we continue to rely on people, especially in all those places where we come into contact with you as customers. This may not always be as fast as with a chatbot, but you have a real person on the other side and we have the certainty that behind every answered question there is also a person and possible problems can be quickly identified and solved, also by the rest of the team.

For us, this strategy is simply the logical consequence of our corporate values. If you want to be free, fair and progressive, you have to put your customers at the center. And that works best with motivated, competent, friendly and human people.