The quality and speed of your customer service can make or break your business. According to one survey, 86% of United States respondents said poor customer service caused them to switch companies after two poor experiences. On the other hand, 88% of consumers said they are likely to make additional purchases with a company after a good customer service experience.
Any business that considers itself ethical knows that good customer service can’t be compromised upon. That said, exceptional customer service takes time and money. That’s where artificial intelligence can help. AI tools can give your team additional resources and support to help them focus on creating a great experience for all customers.
Ways to use AI in customer service:
- Take advantage of chatbots. One common use of AI is via chatbots, and with good reason. People expect fast responses from customer support. Chatbots can help clients resolve common customer support issues by giving them solutions directly or sending them to support pages. They can answer routine questions about order status, personal accounts and service usage, allowing your customer service team to focus on more complex issues. Not only does this keep your live customer service team from focusing on redundant questions, it means customers can get answers to their questions 24/7.
- Look into conversational AI. Not all chatbots are created equal. Some use minimal AI and base answers on a set of if/then rules. Many need specific verbiage from the customer to give the right answers, which can be frustrating. A chatbot powered by conversational AI, on the other hand, can use contextual awareness and analyze incoming customer queries to understand sentiment and intent. This means your client is more likely to receive an answer to their question the first time they engage.
- Offer support in multiple languages. Multilingual chatbots can expand your audience. When people can do business with you in their preferred language, you can expect more customer engagement and loyalty in return.
- Use AI to assist agents. AI can benefit your customer service agents by proactively suggesting the next actions. This automated knowledge search can reduce average handle time, time to resolution, and your business’s overall customer satisfaction score.
- Let AI automate ticket creation and routing. AI widgets can create support tickets when an issue is not resolved immediately. AI can also automate directing tickets to the person or office best equipped to resolve them. This can help your company avoid bottlenecks and confusion.
- Improve sales with personalized offers. AI can analyze your customers’ behavior and purchasing patterns to offer recommendations for products and services during customer onboarding, when they check out or at other convenient times during your sales process – helping you boost sales and customer loyalty.
Solve problems with customer data. Chatbot analytics can help you understand your customers’ biggest pain points by showing you what they complain about or what improvements they ask for. This is invaluable data that can help you significantly improve your customer experience.
