There’s no doubt that providing extraordinary customer service is the way to your customer’s hearts and minds. But what constitutes ‘extraordinary’ service? It could be unparalleled convenience, 24×7 support, effective and instant query resolution, and so on. Enter: Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools.
If you’re still on the fence about the efficacy of AI, consider the following statistics:
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AI is predicted to power 95% of all customer interactions by 2025.
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A staggering 73% of consumers will consider businesses using AI if it makes their life easier.
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Finally, around 43% of millennials don’t mind paying a premium for a hybrid human-bot customer service channel.
Clearly, AI is reshaping the customer service landscape and driving customer-centric innovation. To that end, in this blog, we will look at the top-5 advantages of integrating AI with customer service. Let’s jump right in.
Top-5 Benefits Of Using AI In Customer Service
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1. 24/7 Availability Via Self Service Agents
AI-powered chatbots can lend a helping hand to nearly every kind of business. These intelligent bots can be trained to resolve FAQ-type customer queries. More importantly, unlike human agents, they’re available for service 24x7x365. Plus, these virtual bots don’t take sick/vacation leaves.
Customers can get answers to their queries quickly and effectively, literally at the click of a button. Take a look at the following chatbot example, which allow customers to reset their password:
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Key takeaway: AI virtual chatbots empower users to self-serve and resolve queries themselves in a speedy, reliable, and efficient manner. More importantly, these bots are available for service round-the-clock, making it a great investment.
Recommended: 11 Hand-picked Live Chat Software for a Fantastic Customer Experience
2. Hyper-Personalization
Thanks to brands like Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, etc., customers are spoilt with personalized choices–from customized suggestions to personalized content, users have come to expect brands to not only know but preempt their needs and wants from the get-go. In fact, according to Accenture, 91% of customers will purchase products with a brand that dishes up personalized product recommendations to customers.
This is where artificial intelligence technology is truly shining. AI tools, a treasure trove of user data – can collect, store, and analyze information in real-time. This timely and accurate analysis of data allows brands to personalize their offering as well as the customer experience:
Key takeaway: AI technology can be used to extract real-time insights into your customer’s likes, dislikes, motivation, etc. This allows your brand to enhance the overall customer experience by literally speaking the customer’s language and personalizing the service through and through.
3. Optimized Resource Management
AI tools can be programmed to handle simple, linear tasks. Since the tool ‘takes over’ and helps shave off some of the routine workload, your live agents can spend their valuable time servicing customers who are annoyed or engaging in problem-solving/creative tasks that require a human touch and cannot be resolved by a bot.
This is true for businesses, both big and small. A tech business, for example, can depend on AI to regulate day to day tasks such as handling basic queries during time off. This way, service reps can have a more relaxed day handling objections. Similarly, small business owners, such as spas, salons or barbershops, can use AI capabilities to get detailed information around their client’s likes and dislikes when they book an online appointment. Needless to say, such clients will return to them again due to the elevated business experience.
Furthermore, your AI support technology does not need repetitive training as these intelligent tools tend to self-learn and adapt with time and experience.
Key takeaway: AI tools can take over simple, tier-1 tasks so that your agents can use their valuable time and energy in driving complex tasks. As you can imagine, this optimized use of resources has a business as well as financial advantages.
4. Superior Digital Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System
Truth be told, traditional IVR platforms are being replaced with a digital one (and for a good reason). Think about it: When was the last time you heard someone say, “Your call is on wait, please hold the line the last time? A digital IVR system motivates customers to self-serve. In fact, 83% of customers prefer self-service IVR rather than speaking with a representative. Here’s how IVR works in a nutshell:
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Customers see visual cues on their mobile/website.
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Depending on the option they choose, they’ll be transferred to live digital agents or self-service options.
This kind of speedy service tends to improve customer satisfaction rates while reducing the response time rates, and by extension, mid-call dropouts – a win-win for everyone.
Key takeaway: A digital IVR system has emerged as the nerve center of every customer call center. If used correctly, this system can boost the query resolution rates by 66% and offer quality assistance in the process.
5. Reduced Churn Rate And Increased Customer Loyalty
First things first, let’s understand what we mean by churn rate. Quite simply, the churn rate refers to the number of people who stop engaging with your brand within a specific period of time. So what causes people to switch brands? It could be a number of reasons like poor service, unsatisfactory and incorrect query resolution, longer wait times, etc.
You can completely transform your customer service by using well-trained chatbots– virtual agents that can be at the customer’s beck-and-call. In instances where the bots cannot help, they can redirect the customer to a live agent. All in all, the customer’s queries are bound to get resolved one way or another, that too, instantly and to their satisfaction. This enhances the overall experience and makes it positive.
Key takeaway: Delivering a positive customer experience consistently can boost user happiness and satisfaction levels. Ultimately, your customers will stay loyal to the brand and willingly want to spend more in return for a superior customer experience.
Closing Thoughts
The role of artificial technology in customer support can no longer be ignored. The days of hiring a college student part-time for customer service are long gone, AI is here to stay. More and more businesses are investing in this futuristic technology to provide an extraordinary customer experience to their users–one that’s characterized by speed, reliability, and quality support. To wrap up, here are the top-5 advantages of using AI in customer service:
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24/7 availability via self-service agents
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Optimized resource management
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Hyper-personalized customer service
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Superior digital IVR system
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Reduced churn rate and increased customer loyalty
One final thought: As long as AI technology and humans are working together and keep leveraging each other’s benefits, businesses will stand to gain from this collaborative partnership. AI is not here to replace the critical role that human agents play in customer service; it’s here to augment the true value and potential of a customer-centric culture.Â
