Great customer support plays a central role in a company’s success and profitability. Businesses with an excellent reputation for customer service tend to do better overall and stay in business longer. Companies that miss the mark often lose customers and generate negative reviews online. Unfortunately, bad reviews can deter new customers.
What makes some businesses fail to provide outstanding customer support? Usually, it’s because they haven’t employed the right technology. The reasons for this vary. Some business owners try to get by with the bare minimum, don’t know what they need, or can’t afford to hire programmers. This is where AI can help; with the right tools, there’s no need to hire developers.
AI greatly enhances customer support
Of all the advances in technology, AI has the power to enhance customer support like never before. Conversational AI, for example, completely transforms the interactions between customers and the support team.
The bottom line is that the majority of issues get resolved quickly, without involving a human agent. The business benefits by reducing agent workloads for repetitive issues that can be resolved with simple self-help solutions.
Through a conversational AI platform, users can engage with a chatbot and have a humanlike conversation instead of getting robotic, pre-programmed responses that don’t always help. Powered by generative AI and natural language processing (NLP), this technology can create customized, personalized responses that are relevant to the nuances of a user’s inquiry.
This technology isn’t just for customers – it can also be used to power internal help desk solutions, like the conversational AI platform from Aisera. When a business uses this technology for employees, they get answers and solutions fast, which makes them far more productive. When paired with ChatGPT, this technology gives automated support systems an even bigger boost.
Machine learning continually improves performance
Perhaps the best part of AI is machine learning. Companies that provide AI customer support solutions generally analyze mass amounts of user input, including tickets, to train the algorithm to respond appropriately.
This is an ongoing process, which means the effectiveness of an AI customer service tool is constantly improving. Compared to traditional tools, like rule-based chatbots that don’t improve unless they’re reprogrammed, conversational AI won’t fall behind.
Here are just some of the benefits businesses can get from using this automated AI technology:
- Better customer service. Customers will always have questions, and AI technology helps them get the answers they seek.
- Self-service options. A conversational AI chatbot is ideal for providing users with self-service options, which happens to be what people want. According to data sourced by Customer Gauge, 67% of people prefer self-help over speaking to a human for support, and 40% of people who call in have already searched for answers on their own.
- Fast response times. Responses from an AI system are almost always faster than engaging a human.
- Cost-effective. Great customer service is priceless because it’s what keeps a business going. Using AI reduces expenses, like wasted payroll dollars for agents who spend all day answering simple questions users can handle on their own with the right resource.
- Less stress on agents. Since AI chatbots can resolve most customer issues automatically, support agents will have fewer tickets to manage. A reduced workload results in less stress and more time to focus on urgent matters.
- 24/7 support without live agents. Customers won’t have to wait to get support when you have a round-the-clock AI-powered chatbot available.
AI enhances customer service
Some people are worried that AI is going to obliterate the need for customer support agents, but that’s not true. There will always be some elements that require a human touch. This technology will transform jobs, but it’s only going to enhance – not replace – customer service teams.
Completely automating your entire customer service team won’t turn out well. However, you can use AI to support your teams by making them more productive and relieving them of the repetitive tasks that lead to frustration and job dissatisfaction.
The ideal solution is to use a blend of humans and AI-powered technology for customer service solutions.
AI chatbots empower businesses to succeed
When great customer service is the goal, AI delivers outstanding results through a variety of automated tools powered by NLP, machine learning, generative AI, and conversational AI. It’s even used in omnichannel marketing, which further supports this goal. For businesses that want to continuously improve customer service and reduce the strain on their agents, using AI technology is a must.