Leveraging AI to Assist Your Customer Service Strategy
If there is one component of business that is now omnipresent, it’s artificial intelligence. From automating easy queries to providing a personalized experience, AI has also infiltrated customer service. It’s transforming how businesses interact with customers and with one another.
Did you know that almost 90% of contact centres will now use AI driven chat bots to handle the simplest of enquiries? Not only does this help businesses to improve their response times and reduce their costs, but it helps them to be able to relate to their customers in a better way. We are already seeing that the best conversational marketing platforms out there are driven by AI and live chat agents, so it’s important to understand how to leverage AI to assist your current customer service strategy.You can simplify your processes, improve customer satisfaction and boost efficiency with it.
Service artificial intelligence refers to the integration of technologies to enhance and automate support processes. Businesses are able to offer faster and more personalized assistance through chat bots, predictive analytics, and virtual assistants, and this can help companies to efficiently handle those high volumes of queries. The amount of insight that you’ll gain into customer behaviour will be valuable while improving your response times at the same time. Artificial intelligence and customer service do go hand in hand.
Examples of AI in customer service
Big companies are leveraging AI to a huge extent. They do this to optimize their processes and enhance their user experience. And you could be doing the same thing while creating those innovative solutions that you might be missing out on. Here are some of the biggest examples of AI use in customer service from the biggest companies around the world.
Amazon
Did you know that Amazon uses natural language processing? The chat bots on voice assistants that they use enhance customer interaction, enabling seamless and human-like conversations even though you’re dealing with AI. With NLP, voice assistants like Alexa can understand and respond to customer queries with accuracy and speed.
Walmart
In Walmart, you’ll find machine learning and predictive analytics have been used to optimize customer experiences and service. These technologies work to predict trends and personalize the customer shopping experience. Not only does this benefit the company, but it benefits customers too. With AI powered analytics, customer demand can be forecast and inventory management can be optimized. This would only be possible with the right software.
Netflix
Given that most people tend not to communicate with Netflix directly, it should surprise you that Netflix uses AI to assist in their customer service strategies. However, predictive analytics and recommendation algorithms are something we are all familiar with. The more you watch action movies, the more action movies will be recommended to you. The user experience has therefore been revolutionized with Netflix.
As you can see, artificial intelligence is making moves to reshape the customer service experience. It’s also offering businesses the chance to find new ways to enrich their customer experiences. So if you’re looking to use AI to assist your current customer service strategy, here are some of the best ways that you can effectively use it.
- AI powered chatbots. There are so many AI powered chatbot options out there, but they are transforming customer support. Instant 24/7 assistance is what people want and you can preload it with answers to common questions, help to resolve issues, and direct your customers to the right resources. This can all be done without human intervention, which essentially allows your business to stay awake 24 hours a day. Not only will this reduce wait times, but it boosts customer satisfaction. For those who do not work standard hours and cannot speak to somebody directly on the phone, they can still get the answers that they need without having to feel unsatisfied by the experience.
- Predictive Analytics. One of the biggest game changers for artificial intelligence in customer service is anticipating customer needs with predictive analytics. Historical data can be analyzed, and AI can anticipate customer needs as a result. From here, it can offer proactive solutions. For instance, artificially intelligent systems could predict when a customer is likely to need a replenishment of their product. This can then be notifying them before they even ask for it, which enhances the way customers will relate to your business by staying ahead of their needs.
- Self-service portals. Artificial intelligence can help customers to resolve issues themselves. This is often one of the most desirable outcomes for a customer because they don’t always want to get on the phone and have to wait on hold to speak to somebody. With AI customer support software, you’ll be able to ensure that your users can solve simple things without having to contact customer service. Not only will this reduce your overall operational costs, but you give your customers a self reliant and very satisfying experience.
- Analysis for customer feedback. Artificial intelligence can be used to identify if a customer is frustrated, happy or confused. It helps businesses to monitor customer feedback in real time, which offers insights into customer emotions. This is so important if you’re looking to have repeat customers because your business can then respond appropriately. Whether this is through immediate support or acknowledging what’s happening, customers will feel satisfied by the experience that they are getting. Amazon and Netflix have mastered this and they are constantly using customer feedback and data to refine their services. Netflix especially utilises this with their thumb option. If you indicate that you enjoy a TV show or a movie then they will record that information and ensure that they are offering you the right recommendations for next time.
- Language translation. Global support is so important. If your business is one that is going around the world, you want to be able to appeal to all of your customers, and AI tools can instantly translate text or speech. This breaks down cultural and language barriers and ensures that your customers, no matter which region they’re in, receive the same service. A customer in Japan can get assistance in their native language while interacting with a customer service agent based in the US because of the way AI is set up.
- Personalisation is taken to new heights. Because analytics takes customer preferences and behaviour into data format, AI can push personalization to new heights. AI systems can offer tailored recommendations or even predict future needs. Businesses that use AI customer personalization can also enjoy enhanced loyalty and a higher trust rating.
- Quality control. It’s not just about the customer facing interactions. AI can be used as a powerful tool for quality control and training your team. By reviewing customer service interactions and offering insights into areas for improvement, AI can analyse response times, tone and satisfaction levels. This helps to build patterns and with AI driven insights, businesses can better train their teams.
- Volume management. Artificial intelligence is the best solution for managing high volumes of interactions with customers. This is especially the case during peak seasonal times when you route inquiries, automate responses, and handle basic requests. With the help of AI, you’ll be able to reduce the pressure on your human agents. During big sales, for example, AI can handle thousands of queries at once. This massively reduces your cost because then you only need to have a team of a few 100 agents instead of a few 1000. You want to keep your operations running smoothly even during busy periods, and AI is able to take over and ensure that that’s the case for your business.
- Omnichannel support. Artificial intelligence enables omnichannel support, which means it gives your business the opportunity to offer consistent customer experiences. With social media, phone, chat, and e-mail, AI interactions are seamlessly transferred across channels. This means that customers don’t have to repeat themselves. And as we all know, that’s one of the most frustrating things about being passed from pillar to post when dealing with customer service calls. You want to make customer support more fluid and reduce the frustration for both customers and agents alike. With an omnichannel support integration, you’ll be able to push notes and context across from one channel to the next so that customers never have to worry about repeating themselves.
- Emotion detection. There are some AI programs out there that allow for voice analysis. This analysis voice tone and emotion which significantly improves customer service interactions. With the ability to detect frustration or confusion in a customer’s voice, AI can alert the agent to take a more empathetic approach or escalate an issue. This feature ensures that customer support agents are always aware of the emotional state of who they are assisting. This can lead to prompts for the team to help support agents to understand how to build a more compassionate relationship with the customer.
Generative AI. This is the type of AI that creates personalized content that’s tailored to every customer’s needs, no matter how different they are. Whether it’s customized emails with their name on it or product recommendations based on previous purchases, generative AI uses customer data to craft content that really does resonate.
