Evolving customer expectations have led to a phenomenal increase in the number of companies using innovative technologies to optimize the customer journey. Artificial intelligence has proven to be one of the most valuable tools that business leaders can turn to to increase satisfaction rates, optimize contact center processes, and gain valuable insights.
AI technology enables companies to provide personalized service to their customers 24/7 across a range of channels, bots, and virtual agents. It can reduce operational costs, enable agents to automate various tasks, and even provide insights into customer preferences and sentiment.
However, AI also comes with risks, particularly around ethics and security. Here’s a guide to the best ways to use AI to improve customer support without falling victim to the common implementation issues.
The 3 most important use cases for AI customer support
As AI solutions become more advanced and new algorithms and frameworks need to be explored, the use cases for AI in customer support are also evolving. Today’s companies can use AI for everything from increasing conversion rates through proactive outreach to generating responses to customer queries.
However, most of the key use cases for AI customer support fall into three main categories:
1. Improve agent efficiency and productivity
Today, customer service agents are under increasing pressure to provide fast, competent support across multiple channels. AI can increase employee efficiency and productivity in a variety of ways. For example, chatbots can handle simple queries and automate processes for employees, such as scripting or call transcription, allowing employees to focus on more valuable tasks. In fact, 30% of customer service employees are expected to use AI to automate processes by 2026.
AI solutions can also assist and guide employees with customer support tasks. Using sentiment analysis, they can identify positive and negative sentiments and provide employees with real-time insights on how to defuse or improve a situation. Based on sentiment and intent analysis, they can even help ensure conversations are routed to the right agent.
2. Providing 24/7 service across multiple channels
Perhaps one of the biggest use cases for AI in customer support is to enable companies to provide support to their customers 24/7 through numerous channels. AI chatbotsFor example, they are available 24/7 to answer questions and provide customers with self-service resources.
They can handle an unlimited number of conversations simultaneously and even leverage advanced analytics tools and data to personalize interactions. Chatbots can also relay important information about a customer to an agent when a conversation is escalated, so a customer doesn’t have to repeat themselves.
In the evolving world of customer experience, companies can also leverage AI to create voice botsthat can interact with users on the phone using voice recognition. They can understand natural language, interpret intent, and reduce call queues. These 24/7 solutions improve the customer experience, reduce employee burden, and minimize operational costs.
3. Improve business insights
AI is a powerful tool for companies looking to gain more insights into their audience and growth opportunities. AI solutions can process massive amounts of data from thousands of conversations across multiple channels and provide insights into topic trends and customer preferences.
AI sentiment analysis Solutions can help companies understand what factors influence their customers’ thoughts and feelings. This helps companies better understand customers’ needs and wants, paving the way for developing better products and services. It can also give companies the insights they need to improve customer retention rates and reduce customer churn.
AI solutions can even use machine learning to make accurate predictions about call volumes and customer demands, helping companies make smarter decisions about resource allocation and optimization over time.
Ethical considerations and best practices
While the benefits of AI customer support solutions are far-reaching, there are still challenges that companies must overcome. The fact that AI solutions rely on large amounts of data means that companies must take a proactive approach to using that data and their tools ethically and safely.
Here are the best practices companies should follow when using AI for customer support.
1. Develop ethical AI guidelines
Developing a code of ethics to regulate AI use is an important way to ensure you adhere to ethical and compliance standards. The policies you implement will depend on how you use AI, but you should always ensure you adhere to privacy regulations, prioritize transparency, and avoid bias in interactions.
Make sure you also have a plan for how you will continuously monitor and optimize your AI solutions. A well-developed AI customer support plan should include a process for continuously fine-tuning chatbots, voicebots, and other AI solutions based on feedback and insights.
2. Use the right AI technology
AI for customer support can take many different forms, from voicebots and chatbots to AI-powered analytics tools. The right technology for your business depends on the specific use cases you’ve identified for artificial intelligence and your needs.
Make sure your AI solution:
- Equipped with the latest technology: For example, natural language processing features and sentiment analysis solutions that help you optimize the customer experience.
- Customizable: Make sure you can train your chatbots with your own data, implement your own usage policies, and link your technology with existing tools (e.g. CRM software).
- Safe and compliant: The AI bots and systems you use should have comprehensive data encryption and protection solutions to ensure ongoing compliance.
3. Make sure your solutions are user-friendly
Any AI solution you incorporate into your customer support strategy should be intuitive and easy to use. Bots used to answer customer service requests should use clear language that is easy for your customers to understand, as well as straightforward menus.
The AI solutions you use for data analysis should make it easy for you to gain valuable insights from a series of conversations. Look for a solution that allows you to Real-time monitoring optionsand create custom reports based on the metrics that matter most to your business.
4. Keep people informed
Finally, while AI can improve customer support processes, it shouldn’t replace your human support team. Instead of replacing employees with automated bots, leverage the AI tools you implement to augment your workforce. Make sure your customers always have the option to decline to interact with a chatbot or to escalate their conversation to a human agent.
Make sure the AI tools you use for self-service can also push important information from customer interactions to agents. This will preserve context throughout the customer journey and avoid customers having to repeat themselves.
Take advantage of AI in customer support
AI solutions offer companies the opportunity to improve and optimize their customer support strategy. From bots that provide 24/7 service to solutions that increase agent productivity, reduce operational costs, and provide valuable insights, AI can play a role in every aspect of your CX strategy. However, it is important to implement this technology correctly.
Leading providers such as XCally Give businesses access to flexible AI systems that can power everything from chat and voice self-service strategies to sentiment analysis and predictive insights. These tools help improve efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction without compromising on ethical standards or compliance.
Diego Gosmar – Chief AI Officer @XCALLY says: “XCALLY enables companies to revolutionize their customer support strategies by leveraging the power of AI. With cutting-edge technology such as chatbots, voicebots, sentiment analysis and predictive insights, companies can provide personalized support 24/7 while optimizing agent efficiency. XCALLY’s secure and customizable AI solutions ensure compliance and data privacy, while its user-friendly interface makes it easy to gain valuable insights and create custom reports. By keeping humans informed and giving customers the option to opt out or be transferred to a human agent, XCALLY ensures a seamless customer journey. Fairness, transparency, security, privacy and governance represent the key milestones for XCALLY’s ethical approach to artificial intelligence, where humans and AI are combined to develop CX applications for the common good.”
