| Follow us on:
|
The notion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a help to small businesses regarding customer service is not a new concept, but it is fairly recent and unfamiliar to small business owners. Many small business owners are afraid of trying AI, for fear that it might be a catastrophic failure. However, if you research AI, you will find that many small businesses have used the new technology to increase their ability to serve their customers quickly and efficiently.
AI, Chatbots, and Messaging
AI allows companies to give improved customer service in several different ways. One of the ways that companies can improve their customer service is with enhanced bot assistants or chatbots. While customers appear to loathe the chatbots, the enhanced chatbots act as a gatekeeper for live customer service representatives. For example, if a customer has simple questions, a chatbot is usually able to answer those questions via chat without a live customer service representative needing to interact with the customer. If the chat becomes too complicated, the bot can hand the chat off to a customer service agent, who can hand the conversation back off to the bot when the customer?s problem or question is answered.
Not only can enhanced chat bots facilitate simple conversations and act as a gatekeeper for more difficult customer service problems, AI also speeds up the number of calls that customer service representatives can handle all at one time. Research has estimated that the use of AI and chatbots enable representative to chat with up to three customers at one time, and in the case of chatbots, customer service representatives may be able to chat with as many as six chats.
While chatbots have historically not gotten a great reception, because many people don?t like the idea of talking to or chatting with a robot, in fact, chatbots have become an integral part of business technology. With the use of chatbots and pattern prediction software, the opportunities for a customer service representative to behave out of character or lash out due to anger or frustration. While chatting online does decrease the likelihood that customer service representatives will lose their tempers, the fact that chatbots decrease the time spent on each customer chat, should help the representatives keep their cool and stay on task. Chatbots make it easier for communications between a chatbot and a customer service representative to be smooth and time sensitive, so customers feel they were handled quickly and efficiently.
AI and Enhanced Customer Service Call Features
While some business owners think that AI is more difficult to use with phone calls and other voice-related communications, AI is rapidly enhancing features that make customer service conversations flow faster and easier. Just as with chatbots, customers can talk to a bot in order to begin the problem-solving conversation, but they may need to hand the conversation to a live customer service representative. Simple conversations may never need to go to a representative, but customers do prefer a live person for more difficult questions, especially those that involve money or finances.
AI can help businesses with many different aspects of conversations with customers. First, the use of AI can check conversations between customers and representatives, noting problems such as a change in pitch or volume. If AI detects problems between the chat bot and the customer, the conversation can be given to a live representative in real time. Second, the chatbot is a time saver, as chat representatives and customers noted that they were put on hold far less often, as AI reduces time on hold and wait times, as well as fewer call backs. Enhanced voice AI phone support means that the business remains focused on customer support.
There are also tools within AI that allow you to track the calls placed to the customer service center to see if there is a pattern to the calls. It is possible that the reason your business is receiving calls is because a specific batch of a product was not manufactured correctly, or the instructions were not clear. This pattern prediction helps businesses to target specific products, services or instructions for changes.
AI and Emails
AI can also be effective with the volumes of email most businesses receive on a daily basis. If each email is a representation of a customer problem or need, and the business needs to be able to deal with the requests in a timely manner, which can be a never-ending task. Several AI programs exist that can scan emails and tag them to go to specific people who can answer customer questions or complaints. In addition, if the customer service team needs to write a response, the AI tool gives the representative possible answers ahead of time to make writing the email response easier. Some AI apps allow for companies to lower the response time to less than 24 hours.
In addition, AI programs also can help customer service representatives with introductory questions or preliminary questions about a particular product or service, which a bot can answer. AI allows customers to feel as if their questions or problems can be answered quickly, and the more quickly their question or problem is resolved, the more likely the customer will use the services of your company or buy products from you company in the months to come.
AI allows businesses to speed up their communications with customers, because most business owners know that without a successful customer interaction, their sales on products and services will decline. Through the use of AI, even small business can become more productive and profitable. If you want to be successful with your business, then you may want to begin to research AI as a possible way your business can continue to grow and improve. You don?t have anything to lose other than the drain on your customer service managers time and talents — and those are hard enough to come by as it is.
