Here’s a headliner: By 2025, 95% of all customer interactions including online chats and live phone calls will be powered by AI, so says Servion Global Solutions is one of their researches. Do you see what it implies? That only 5% of consumer-to-enterprise engagements will require human involvement at all! Now, this prediction may scare some (with the cultural phobia of machines taking over), but for a significant 73% of the global community, it means zero wait time on support, instant solutions and convenient experience with the company as a whole.
The thing about automation is that it catches on like your favorite show-tune. The mere concept of intelligent machines making human life easier is a thrilling enough to reel the customers in. Take the example of a home hub, which connects with the surrounding devices like your Nest Smart Thermostat or Philips Hue Smart Bulb, and supervises them on your behalf in the most optimal way. Such is the promise of Artificial Intelligence, which once applied to customer service, can streamline multiple processes, relieve the CSRs of menial tasks and modify the workings of the department.
Is AI integration in customer service really an efficient move that a company should make? This post explores the possible benefits that can be enjoyed through this union.
Promotes Growth in the Right Direction
Many businesses still follow traditional modalities when it comes to customer service. This results in outdated customer experience. You see, 71% of the current generation prefers to use multiple channels to make contact. They want an enterprise’s absolute attention, whether it’s through social media, email chains or SMS support. Managing this public demand without hurting customer experience in any way requires a futuristic approach, instead of the traditional one. And what can get better than Artificial Intelligence?
Not only do AI chatbots reduce response delays and automatically sort customer queries, but advanced intelligent analytics read the customer engagement data and provide predictions, which can be used to improve strategies and increase chances of revenue generation, so on and so forth.
It is certainly not the time to backtrack.
Where companies like Amazon are changing the game with the deployment of Alexa, and Charter making “Ask Spectrum” an elemental part of its Spectrum customer service, there is no space for ancient methods. Business growth can only be acquired with an embrace of the futuristic technologies because frankly, that is what today’s consumers demand.
Helps Target Customer Needs Better
Hacking the customer psyche is no easy task, and coming up with a standardized roadmap is even more difficult. All consumers are essentially different. Some are in the market by chance, others by virtue of casual browsing, while a few are there specifically to purchase a particular product/service. How can companies cater to these colorful variants in the most efficient way possible?
Experts recommend, through Artificial Intelligence. Yes, the modern AI solutions can help companies pinpoint the basic intent of each consumer (what they like and what they’re concerned about), modify their customer service approach to suit the intent and make the buyer journey more personalized for the customer.
Through this automated targeting of individual needs, each customer will feel special and leads will double by the second.
Maintains Data in Real-Time
Research says that about 89% of the people hate to repeat themselves and punch in the same information during a customer service interaction. The practice of requesting personal data, again and again, can be eliminated by the introduction of Artificial Intelligence into the system.
Companies can use AI to collect customer information (including purchase, support and transaction history) and contact details for the purpose of authentication one time only, saving customers the trouble of repeating. In addition to that, AI can also automatically update records in real-time, so that the customer service representatives have an accurate point of reference on hand during customer interactions, and they can close leads better. Customers are happier when the agent already knows their case history, and AI voice recognition has a huge part to play in this efficiency.
So, employing AI-powered support solutions results in happier CSRs, better performance, accurate inventories, and a more stable future.
Offers Pre-Emptive Support
It is possible to detect issues in the support system, address them and resolve them before the customer even gets to experience them, through the aid of Artificial Intelligence. This is a preemptive move – catching errors in the making to forestall bad customer experiences and to keep the company’s profit curve going up.
An AI solution can definitely make this a reality.
Not only that, through the assimilation of chatbots, you can also identify those issues which a consumer is facing low-key but is yet to communicate to a CSR.
A chatbot is an AI feature that many companies like Facebook have already embedded in their messaging apps to keep their customers constantly engaged.
This intelligent feature, programmed to simulate human conversation, can get the customers to talk openly about the company’s products or services, read the signs of distress in the conversation and report them to the customer service team so that they can get the issues fixed at the backend before the customer even has a chance to pick up the phone.
Once the customers see their brewing problems removed from the equation automatically, they’ll become even more enthusiastic brand evangelists and spread the word to bring in other prospects.
So, integrating Artificial Intelligence with customer service offers pre-emptive and proactive support which can give your business an edge.
Acclimatizes to New Market Trends
Public tastes and market trends go hand in hand. Do people develop an affinity for hands-free mobile usage? The trend of smartphones starts roaring. Do millennials crave death-defying internet speeds? Telecom companies start working on 5G. Consumers demand more ways to contact a company? Customer service departments start adopting an omnichannel accessibility approach.
This is how the public drives the market growth. How can you stay on top of it? Through Artificial Intelligence. With a smart AI integration into your customer service system, you can ensure that the latest market trends are observed from afar and adapted to in the best way possible.
For instance, ‘personalization and humanization of customer engagement’ is a market trend in customer service, which is being propagated. In that regard, Artificial Intelligence can suggest website improvements, propose in-app personalized initiatives, record feedback and free up time for customer service representatives with auto-ticket creation so that they can attend each customer like they’re the most special individuals in the world, etc.
Thus, AI not only helps your customer service team to acclimatize better to newer market trends but also to look good while doing it.
Enables a Steadier Onboarding
Hiring new employees who don’t have experience in the field of customer service, training them and bringing them up to speed can be improved exponentially by the introduction of Artificial Intelligence.
One thing AI excels at is learning human behavior. It can read the performance of each new recruit, note the points where they lack, and then reform the training to ensure learning in the most optimal way. This will save the company time, money and resources. With the AI tracking progress and proposing personalized solutions that have the greatest chance of success, the onboarding process becomes streamlined. So much so, that the expert agents get the free time to focus on more complex issues within the customer service system.
Wrapping Up
The bottom line is that Artificial Intelligence is not a mere trend that will come and go. It is here to stay. Ignoring its utility in the customer service domain only endangers your organization. This post clearly mentions the benefits that can be accrued from the tactful integration of AI, including growth, targeting, accurate data maintenance, proactive support, adaptation and simplification of processes, etc. So, heed to the experts and prepare yourself for the future, which is not possible without embracing AI.
Read More: Why Artificial intelligence is the future of Growth