How You Can Implement AI to Enhance Your Customer Service Today
What does AI look like in today’s customer service world?
Introduction
Up until recently, humans have been responsible for the entire customer support process. This includes everything from small trivial tasks to larger, more complex tasks. But now, companies can use computers, machine learning techniques, and other AI solutions to solve minor and repetitive assignments and leave the complex cases to customer support representatives.
That being said, as AI solutions have increased so has the demand for personalization in customer service. Therefore, businesses should use AI solutions in union with human customer service representatives that can empathize with the customer and create the most personalized experience possible.
For example, imagine consumer Christy is looking to subscribe to AT&T telephone service. It used to be that Christy would have to get on the phone with a human customer service representative and set up all of her details with them. Today, AI can today do the entire process from receiving the order to signing up the customer to shipping them the sim card and all within a few minutes. Also, on the consumer’s end, Suzy could use an AI solution like Google Assistant to make the mobile subscription for her. So in this scenario, the AI’s are interacting with one another, meaning that more work is being accomplished with less manpower.
Now fast forward a couple of months and Christy is having issues with her phone plan and she would like to make a complaint. Subsequently, she visits the AT&T’s website and comes across a chatbot. This chatbot helps to answer FAQs and solve other minor issues. However, because Christy is a more complex case, the chatbot suggests that she gives the customer service agents a call. Because the chatbot filtered through the more trivial situations, Christy can reach a customer service representative in less time, enhancing her experience. Plus, Christy gets to speak with a real person who can provide her with the best solution to her problem. This is where the “human touch” is important - Machines help personalize the experience while humans make it more personal.
Alright, so we’ve got that covered…AI can help businesses improve their customer service and therefore enhance their customer’s experience.
In fact, there are about About 147 Million articles explaining the possible benefits of AI!
But the real question is; when are these AI developments going to start making their impact on the customer service world?
We’re here to tell you that Artificial intelligence is not something that is coming in the future, it’s here today!
In this article, we will cover three examples of artificial intelligence solutions being used in customer service today so that you too can start improving your customer experience.
Example 1: Decrease Customer Dissatisfaction
The Problem: We’ve all been placed on hold when trying to reach a customer service agent before and we all know how it feels to be kept waiting. We’ve all also experience the dreaded “please hold while I transfer you to the right department.” These kinds of interactions with customer service representatives are what leave customers feeling frustrated and impatient.
The AI Solution: Natural Language Processing and machine learning solutions can help to listen, classify, and then organize calls by understanding what the customer is trying to achieve. Subsequently, the customer can be matched to the agent who can best solve the problem.
Omnicus, for example, uses smart resource allocation to handle large amounts of traffic so that your customer service agents aren’t overwhelmed with questions they can’t answer and so your customers don’t have to be transferred from agent to agent.
Example 2: Improving Your Brand’s Image
The Problem: With social media and review websites like Yelp giving people the power to say anything about your brand, your brand’s reputation is in the hand’s of your customers. That’s why it’s more crucial than ever that you are listening to their opinions, demands, and problems associated with your brand and industry.
The AI Solution: Social listening tools using Natural Language Processing to scan for keywords associated with your brand to reveal common questions and problems your customers are experiencing and sharing online. This way, you can answer questions before your customers have to reach out to a customer service agent, saving their time and yours. Furthermore, one of Neil Patel’s favorite social listening tools is Mention. Mention allows you to choose the sources, keywords, brands, and competitors that you would like to monitor.
Example 3: Save Time
The Problem: It used to be that customer service agents had to spend a lot of their time answering trivial questions and solving minor cases. Not only is this frustrating for the customer service representatives, but it also increases the wait time for the customer and decreases their overall experience.
The AI Solution: As we mentioned in our example above, chatbots can be used to answer FAQs and other common questions in order to free up time so your customer service representatives can deal with more complex cases.
Today, your business can quite easily implement AI in their messaging apps. By uploading their FAQ database with possible answers to platforms such as Omnicus, they can automate common repetitive tasks. By also integrating the AI with your company’s backend systems, it can truly become a fully automated service beyond just FAQ problem-solving.
Conclusion
There are plenty of AI solutions available for your use today. In order to find the right solution for your business, start by identifying where you can enhance your customer experience.
Where are their gaps in your customer service journey? Where could you be more efficient? What are the most common problems your customer service representatives are experiencing? Once you’ve discovered where you can make improvements search for an AI solution that can fulfill all your needs. There are so many solutions that can solve more than one problem too!
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