Throughout the world, the business and service sectors thrive on the best customer service management practices to ensure customer retention, boost customer sentiments to increase the profitability and branding of their business. But amidst the emerging technological advances, AI (Artificial Intelligence), as it is well known, is turning the table for businesses in winning the game of gaining customer trust and loyalty. Whether you want to book a movie ticket, book a table in a restaurant, book a flight ticket nowadays, the AI comes to the rescue. Whether small, medium-sized, or behemoth, all business enterprises are run by AI-supported programs and chatbots. AI today has come a long way due to the developments in:
- Machine Learning
- Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Machine Learning enables the AI-powered chatbots or programs to learn from heaps of data collected from previous interactions with customers or data used while solving the customer queries by customer support executives. So, these AI-powered programs keep improvising themselves based on the analysis of the previously collected data and provide an impeccable customer service experience to the customers. Machine learning is the core competence of the globally renowned AI-backed programs like Alexa by Amazon, Google Assistant, Siri, and many others of this genre.
Natural Language Processing delves into the finesse of the language used for interaction by the customers. The vast language intelligence built into the AI-powered programs gives amicable responses depending on the user’s actual intent. Huge amounts of data about common language slang used, intended meanings, and more such information help AI-powered programs understand the customer sentiments and solve their problems in a jiffy.
Why AI is the need of the hour for customer service management?
- Ensures precision
- Less Human Intervention
- Quick Resolution
- Detailed Analysis
- Cost Reduction
- Prediction of Errors
- Real-time support
- Personalized Experience
- Learning from Previous Interactions
In the initial stages when AI first made its appearance in the customer support management arena, only tech giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and similar enterprises started using it for better customer or user experience to grow their branding and customer base. But today, even small and medium enterprises belonging to the e-commerce, tourism, retail, fashion, healthcare, and many such industries are reaping the benefits of AI as now it has become accessible to all. We can feel the top-notch performance of these AI-powered programs as we interact with Google, Alexa, or Siri for our day-to-day needs. As a result, AI has become an integral part of our daily life.
AI: A Catalyst for Business Growth
Before AI came into the picture in the customer service management sector, the businesses struggled hard to retain their customer base as a study conducted suggested that 52% of customers left the brand after a bad customer support experience. But today, the scenario is different as due to quick query resolution, prompt and calm responses, and AI’s ability to channel the query to the required department, customer loyalty and customer retention are reaching new highs. Even with the initial use of AI chatbots for getting rid of mundane queries, repetitive queries, and simple to handle queries, the customer satisfaction and resolution time can increase by many folds.
Self Service Interfaces
It is a known fact that the majority of customers or users, nearly 65%, according to a recent study, want to solve their problem even before talking to a customer support executive by following some DIY steps. AI effectively enhances customers’ self-service experience by giving options for easy DIY steps and responses for some simple queries that may not need the attention of an executive by saving time. AI-based programs can direct complex questions to the relevant departments and persons, making the interaction a pleasant experience for the customer.
Generate Reports and Do Analysis
AI in the customer support sector is not just limited to enhancing customer satisfaction and customer base but can generate reports on the huge amounts of customer interaction data that it handles. It can generate reports on the overall customer sentiments like positive or negative, the most sought-after product, prices high or low, common FAQs, and more. These reports help make the AI experience better and help in the long run for improving the business or service.
Reduce Cost and Scale Operations
For many business establishments setting up a brick-and-mortar infrastructure for employing hundreds of customer support executives is a big challenge. AI comes to their rescue as AI-powered chatbots, and programs can handle several customers at a time quickly with ease. You can cut your business operation costs to a large extent and increase your profitability, and you can scale your business operations with less infrastructure and expenditure.
High Quality 24 x 7 Service
The AI-powered customer support programs give round-the-clock customer support service and are not affected by constraints like holidays and weekly offs. When a business is open to the queries of its customers at any time of the day, customer trust and loyalty increase. Brand reputation will soar as high quality, and quick resolutions are given for customer or user queries.
Tailored for Individuals
AI intervention in the customer support segment can result in personalized recommendations of products or services to the customer based on their previous queries or interactions. Amazon, Netflix, and many other such companies use AI for personalized recommendations and content for their users based on AI. This gives a feeling of being cared for and will positively affect brand loyalty and brand growth.
Taking First Steps
The use of AI in customer support services will help in getting rid of the initial data collection steps like name, account number, mobile number or the product id, account id, and more in different scenarios. These tedious steps are time-consuming and may lengthen the interaction time for the customer. AI-powered programs collect this data through interactive, less time-consuming steps that make the customer journey interesting.
In a Nutshell
AI is a must-have intervention in the customer support arena for businesses and services or else they will be left behind in the stiff competition in the market. AI has come for good and will stay for the good and will further improve with new innovations adding to the quality and reliability of AI-powered customer support programs. It is the right time now to adopt AI in your customer support operation and move in sync with the changing times to achieve progress.