Digitalisation vs Human Touch: Why our Customer Success Team Is Here to Stay

At Thankyou Payroll, we rely heavily on both human touch and digital tools to run our service. Find out why that’s not going to change.

Customer Support Team collaborating together

Photo by Yan Krukov on Pexels

Human vs robot – it’s a never ending debate. And in a world where our digital landscape is constantly evolving, it can be hard to imagine a world where the two can co-exist. But we’re here to tell you that they can, and they will – as far as Thankyou Payroll is concerned.

As a PAYE intermediary and payroll software provider, we rely heavily on both human interaction and digital tools to run our service. Lose our software, and we’d have no value to offer to you or your business. But lose our Customer Success Team, and you’d be left to your own devices, without anyone to reach out to for help when you need it.

Together, these two pieces form the backbone of our organisation – and that’s not going to change any time soon…

The value of digitalisation

The purpose of this blog isn’t to discredit the valuable capabilities that digital tools give us. We experience countless digital interactions everyday, taking many of them for granted. It’s almost impossible to imagine a world where Zoom doesn’t exist now, right?

Not only are digital tools useful, but they are essential to creating secure, efficient, and resilient business processes for us. Thankyou Payroll can be considered as one of these ‘processes’. We help business owners to run their payroll efficiently and securely through our cloud-based payroll software, replacing tedious and unreliable paperwork – among other good things.

For our Customer Success Team, our Help Centre is an important digital tool which complements and supports our customer offering. This hub of knowledge provides our customers with high-level payroll education, ensuring that only the more complicated queries are streamlined through to the team directly. That way, we can maximise the amount of people we are able to help at one time. Efficient!

Keeping up with the pace of digital change 

In order to take up space in the digital world, businesses need to stay relevant in the digital world. And since the pandemic, the pace of digital change has certainly stepped into a higher gear. 

That’s part of the reason why we’ve recently embarked on our own modernisation journey; we’re improving the functionalities of our product so we can ensure longevity for Thankyou Payroll, and for you. It’s also why we’re a member of the Digital Boost Alliance; we believe that all businesses (big or small) deserve an equal opportunity to undergo their own digital transformations.

But what exactly is a digital transformation? There’s a misconception that when you modernise and digitise your business, you’re exchanging the human touch of your service for automation and AI. Well, not as far as we’re concerned…

Retaining a human touch in a digital world

I’ve always really valued the human touch that TYP staff have provided. Their service has always been top notch, but I especially love that TYP staff are relatable, they have office dogs, and they are human too. In terms of ‘maturing’ how you present yourselves, please don’t lose that human touch, that relatable-ness, the friendly and supportive attitude and the ability to laugh and have fun alongside doing a fabulous job. Thank you.

Jane Solly

Finance Administrator, Volunteer Nelson

We know our customers. We know what you like and we know what you dislike. That’s how we know that the human touch of our service is often the quality our customers value most about us. Here are a few reasons why…

Compassion

It’s a basic human desire to feel seen and understood – especially when you’re experiencing a problem. There’s nothing worse than being met with a pre-fabricated response which shows no empathy for your situation. That’s why having a real person on the other end of the line who genuinely cares about helping you makes all the difference.

Personalisation

Personalisation means more than just having your name repeated back to you. It’s speaking to someone who understands your individual needs and is able to adapt their approach to match them. Customer support can never be ‘one size fits all’ because no person or problem is ever entirely the same.

Flexibility

While automated communication can certainly provide you with a quick turn-around time, this loses its value if your problem is ‘misdiagnosed’. On the other hand, when you’re interacting with a real person, you’re interacting with a whole team of people. People with the flexibility to resolve your queries and offer compromises using their combined knowledge and creativity.

Reliability

Technology has come a long way but that’s not to say that we’ve eliminated the possibility of technical outages occurring. That’s why it’s important for customers to be able to rely on the aid of real experts, especially if a system is down.

Finding the balance between digitalisation and a human touch

We’re not saying that AI and automation have no place in the realm of Customer Support, or even for Thankyou Payroll. In fact, we’d be lying if we said we didn’t already have these technological advancements woven into our payroll service.

Instead, we’re saying that true customer success will exist when both human and virtual agents can work together – blending the efficiency of technology with the power of human connection.

Technology will continue to change, and we will continue to adapt to keep up with the demands of the digital world. However, as far as Thankyou Payroll is concerned, our customers will always come first – and that means answering to your needs and desires.

Lastly, a great Customer Support Service does not exist without an exceptional Customer Success Team. Shout out to our awesome payroll experts!

Meet our payroll experts…

Amanda Hoare

Customer Success Specialist
Dunedin Office

Beckie Coe

Onboarding Specialist
Dunedin Office

Heather Allott

Customer Success Team Lead
Wellington Office

Sarita Devi

Customer Success Specialist
Wellington Office

Sonul Dutt

Customer Success Specialist
Wellington Office

Susannah Smith-Campbell

Customer Success Specialist
Dunedin Office

Angeline Garcia

Customer Success Specialist
Wellington Office