Every industry is now beginning to see the benefits of artificial intelligence and automation. AI and automation help improve operational quality, reduce errors, enhance customer experience, cut down costs, and increase profits.
“AI and automation in customer service are helping companies take the right approach when it comes to improving experiences.”
Customer service is an important subset of customer experience. It is only by improving customer service that you can retain customers. AI and automation in the field can help improve the customer service journey and enhance the quality of service.
For example, conversational AI or chatbots are revolutionizing how customer service works without extra personnel on it. You can remove low-value tasks from the customer service agent desk. This will let them focus where there is more need. Also, this will help them improve the concept of human touch since they will be available more.
For example- automating simple tasks like authenticating customers, understanding their preferences transferring calls, reserving products, asking queries, etc. A study showed that 6 out of 10 US customers prefer a self-service tool digitally to resolve their issues instead of a video call or chat.
The Impact of AI and Automation on Customer Service
The impact of AI and automation on customer service cannot be neglected. Here are some of the key ways in which AI and automation impact customer service and customer experience.
Personalized Content
In today’s world, a business needs to keep the customer as a priority. Companies are adopting AI technology to boost sales. Customers want to be helped and this is what AI chatbots can do. They learn from human behaviour and human interactions. AI chatbots also help in personalization. They contextualize as per the person and communicate.
Since AI and automation enabled chatbots can identify and recall previous conversations, they will help you with unfinished businesses quickly. Personalization can improve customer service interaction, drive repeat purchases, improve conversion rates, and promote customer satisfaction. You can understand the information easily and be equipped to offer a tailored customer experience.
Predictive Intelligence
AI-powered customer service is a viable way to make better data decisions. AI helps identify customers who may shift to another company. AI will offer better retention and encourage the customer to stay.
The AI can help know who the potential customers are. You can have targeted communications, find customers who are ready to purchase and proactively solve their problems. Predictive intelligence means keeping the customers in focus and tracking where they would go or be at a certain point in time.
Automate Customer Service Messaging
Rapid and quick customer response can be expected with AI and automation. Customers want quick answers- you can improve that. Customers are very demanding. A good, automated messaging can help them.
This may mean a self-help service that will help them solve their own issues. You can also improve customer service facilities like phone, email etc. Self-service is faster and error-free. There is no waiting time as they can solve the issue using self-service and AI technology.
Improves Business Operations
AI helps improve operations and streamlines processes. You can handle customer queries in a better manner and provide real-time solutions. AI advancements can lead to integrating automation, reducing repetitive tasks, and reducing stress on repetitive tasks. You can improve business operations with AI-enabled customer engagement.
You can also reduce the concept of repetition. This repetition increases customer frustration. This friction can be reduced with AI and automation. Chatbots can also help customers find their category and the issue in which it falls. In a call, nearly 75 % of the time is devoted to manual research which can be used for value-based interactions as per a survey.
Improving Communication
Through AI and automation, you can improve communication. You can automatically send customer service surveys that are valuable. Through surveys, you can find what works for customers.
This can then be conveyed to them so as to understand their perspective. Customer service surveys like multiple choice, polls can handle customers from a quality and quantitative perspective. You can improve communication by using chatbots. These chatbots will help improve the quality of conversation.
Need Training only Once
Hiring and training customer service agents are costly and time-consuming. It is not simple. These training and hiring costs can increase with the number of customers. AI and automation solutions can offer huge cost savings here. They can be loaded with the resources needed for them to answer a question thereby decreasing turnover.
AI also allows you to come with better knowledge that can be helpful in any industry or domain. This is a powerful feature that can be re-configured as per the requirement. This can help automate a lot of conversations so that human support agents can focus on their challenging work.
Reduces Operating Costs
New and innovative technologies like AI and ML are advancing rapidly. Artificial intelligence improves business functions, streamlines efficiency, and leads to improved profits. AI can handle high volumes of work and lead to increased conversions and revenue. AI also handles cost in an effective manner while holding output.
Integrating automation will reduce the chance of errors and increase security. AI can also impact by reducing the costs of operation thereby improving success. Chatbots also empower businesses to be scalable. This works by switching to another server. You can work in a geographic boundary-free method while fine-tuning bots to communicate in the local language.
24/7 Support
AI and automation have made it simpler for companies to offer 24/7 support to customers. Customers require that businesses be available when they need it. 24/7 customer support can mean difficult things for some companies. It may mean excessive pressure on customer service agents to be available.
AI customer service agents have many benefits over human agents. They are not tired, they don’t feel emotions, they don’t need breaks, they don’t leave the company, and they don’t get dissatisfied easily. This is especially needed in a space like customer service where the turnover rates are high due to the stressful nature of the job.
Types of Customer Service AI and Automation
- Contact centre Software solutions like Nuance, Mia, Avaya
- Platform Infrastructure providers like Amazon Connect, IBM Watson
- Bot startup providers like msg.ai, True AI, Augment AI
- Automated responses solutions like Nuance, IPSoft, NextIT
- Social media AI solutions like Sprinklr, Spredfast
- Ticket routing solutions such as Cisco, Genesys, Solvvy
Bottom Line
AI and automation are not meant to replace humans. Instead, it is here to augment human intelligence to work better. For example, live chat agents cannot be up 24/7 answering questions from various geographical boundaries. But AI and automation can help with that. A tool will remember all that information and make the right choices to support the customer.
In fact, the CEO of Concierge has noted that their AI chatbot has reduced banking problems by 75%. Almost all Fortune 500 companies are now prioritizing AI for customer service due to its immense benefits. While some see AI as a threat to jobs, it must be noted that AI is effective to offer a memorable customer experience.
Also, Read Can AI Help Improve Your Sales
