Artificial intelligence has been making its way into every aspect of our lives for quite some time now. From business to home appliances, chances are, there is some form of AI you can use.
Customer service is no different. In fact, it was one of the first to embrace AI tools, since the inception of the first chatbot in 2001.
Today, we will review the role of AI in customer service, how it can help both businesses and clients, and what is the best way to use it.
Let’s get right into it.
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Benefits of AI in Customer Service
Before we proceed, let us outline some benefits AI can bring to businesses.
- Minimizes overall costs. Using artificial intelligence will save you a lot of money in the long run, since you won’t need to hire additional personnel. Additionally, AI does not need days off, nor does it get sick or need sick days.
- Provides long-term consistency. Artificial intelligence tools, like chatbots, are programmed to provide consistent support. They are highly unlikely to make mistakes, and will constantly provide information and/or insight to your customers.
- Delivers higher satisfaction and retention. AI-driven customer support can be personalized, offering high quality engagement, which not only leads to satisfied clients, but also higher customer retention rates.
- Predicts customer behavior more accurately. AI can use real-time data to accurately predict how your customers are likely to behave. To achieve this, it uses data such as purchase history, personal preferences, and buying habits.
- Increases productivity and efficiency. According to a study from 2023, AI-based conversational assistants can increase productivity by 14%. On top of that, they can greatly improve the morale of an employee by doing the heavy lifting when it comes to tedious manual tasks.
- Reduces response time. If a customer has to wait more than 24 hours for a reply, they will most likely become frustrated. AI can eliminate this by giving quick and accurate responses within minutes or even seconds.
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How Can AI Improve Customer Service: 7 Ways
- Offer Personalized Support
- Collect Customer Insights
- Provide Omnichannel Service
- Give Multilingual Support
- Assist With Agent Onboarding
- Identify Customer Intent
- Offer 24/7 Support
1. Offer Personalized Support
Personalized marketing can help your business grow. It allows you to target your customers more effectively, and basically, give them what they want, when they need it.
With AI, this process becomes even easier, it can take the collection and analysis of user data to the next level. Surprisingly or not, 59% of consumers expect companies to use the data they have gathered to provide personalized offers.
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2. Collect Customer Insights
It can be hard to understand what customers want, so luckily companies can collect customer insights. Using the power of AI, customer support teams can access all the information they need within a single workspace, making their jobs much easier, while also allowing them to provide a better customer experience.
Furthermore, representatives can choose to automate responses to save time, especially during peak times.
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3. Provide Omnichannel Service
Having an omnichannel means you need to be available as much as possible and on as many channels and/or platforms as possible. This can be very difficult, thankfully AI can help.
AI cannot only direct your customers to the most appropriate channels, manage basic troubleshooting issues, but it can also provide a positive user experience for your clients.
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4. Give Multilingual Support
Companies with an international presence need to have support available in different languages. However, not every company can afford such a luxury, luckily AI can help.
They can translate user queries and reply in the language the questions were asked.
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5. Assist With Agent Onboarding
AI in customer service can be of great help not only to your customers, but to your new members, as well. You see, the onboarding process of a new hire usually requires investing time and effort to educate them.
Fortunately, artificial intelligence can provide new customer support agents with the right tools to learn the required resources, and get into the specifics of the job faster.
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6. Identify Customer Intent
Like many of the items on our list, quickly identifying the intent of the customer query can save your agents a lot of time that they could be using to handle more complex issues.
AI bots, that are pre-trained on customer intent models, can recognize and resolve customers’ issues.
For instance, a customer sends a message that they forgot their password, or have a billing request. Bots can quickly answer with the proper steps on how to reset the password, or issue a refund.
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7. Offer 24/7 Support
We mentioned this earlier, yet it needs to be emphasized. Providing 24/7/365 support is a huge benefit to every company. Of course, having to employ people to cover both day and night shifts can easily become costly.
With a customer service chatbot, however, it won’t be a problem anymore to offer support to your customers, no matter if it is day or night.
Ultimately, the best thing is your clients can connect with your business anytime and anywhere, instead of getting a message that no one is available at the moment.
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Challenges of AI in CX
As a technology that is still evolving, artificial intelligence is not perfect, and there are some challenges that businesses must consider before implementing it. Here are some of the main cons to consider:
- Implementing AI is expensive. While it may be worth it in the long run, the initial cost of implementing artificial intelligence is quite expensive. Depending on the type of AI you use, there will also be expenses in terms of maintaining it, and ensuring it runs properly.
- Training AI takes time. Specific AI models that recognize patterns, user behavior, etc., require proper training. This is a time-consuming process that often takes hours of manual setup, not to mention having the people with the necessary knowledge to configure them.
- Concerts regarding complex queries and sensitive information. AI might be perfect for mundane tasks, yet, it is still not 100% reliable when it comes to handling more complex customer queries, or dealing with sensitive data. Any concerns regarding privacy should be taken seriously, since you could risk losing the trust of your customers, in case there is a data breach in your system.
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Customer Service AI: What Does the Future Hold?
AI is still an emerging technology with its limitations and challenges. However, it is definitely developing rapidly, and surely more, and more uses will be implemented. After all, the goal of AI is to offload mundane tasks from workers, and make their jobs easier, ultimately.
AI in customer service will undoubtedly continue to play an important role. Who knows, perhaps, someday we will be able to entirely replace humans with highly advanced robots that can handle all our questions and concerns with 100% accuracy, and within seconds.
What is your take on the topic – have you tried some form of AI in your customer support? Did you work for you? Let us know in the comments.
Team DevriX
This article is crafted by DevriX's seasoned marketing team, boasting over four decades of collective expertise in crafting sophisticated marketing funnels, devising comprehensive content frameworks and pillars, implementing engaging email campaigns, and creating impactful social media content designed for scalability.
Our marketing experts specialize in the complete spectrum of inbound marketing strategies. As an accredited HubSpot Agency Partner and a Semrush Partner, we engage in meticulous research, blending our extensive experience with the unique insights of our highly skilled team.
We set benchmarks in content creation by incorporating cutting-edge marketing trends, leveraging in-depth industry research, and utilizing state-of-the-art AI tools for data segmentation and captivating content hooks. Our proficiency extends across a diverse range of sectors, including working with SMEs, Fortune 1000 companies, global B2B brands, major publishing entities, WooCommerce platforms, business directories, and affiliate networks.
