Why is AI important in service?
The feeling that customers take from a company is firmly influenced by the level of service received. Artificial intelligence can provide significant support and have a positive influence in this area.
AI is changing customer service. It offers support ranging from minor assistance to comprehensive virtual assistants. The AI spectrum is broad and supports customers and employees in a variety of ways.
One common factor is this: The technology should allow for quick, always available, easy, and flexible support.
This translates into better service delivery for customers. It also builds a stable foundation for companies thanks to satisfied customers and more profitable work.
In short: AI enables companies to offer their customers better service, save costs and gain a competitive edge.
Advantages of AI in customer service
AI can achieve a lot if you use it correctly. Here is a quick overview of some important benefits.
#1 Personalization
AI makes it possible to provide customers with personalized experiences and context-related support. This makes the service more pleasant and tailored to them. AI achieves this by analyzing customer data, making individual recommendations, designing targeted communication on the preferred channels and providing automated reminders.
#2 Shorter waiting times
The biggest annoyance in service is long waiting times. Artificial intelligence can significantly reduce response times and enable support to be always available. Shorter waiting times are achieved through the use of AI chatbots and workflow automation. It also supports employees with real-time information.
#3 Improved employee experience
Repetitive tasks and easy-to-solve queries take up a lot of time for customer service teams. They distract from more complex cases and more important tasks. If AI can provide support here, employees are relieved, work more effectively and are more satisfied.
#4 Increased customer loyalty
AI guides customers through the service and provides them with a better customer service experience.
When AI tools work properly, they make a significant contribution to improving customer satisfaction. This significantly increases customer loyalty. After all, it is often negative service experiences that make customers want to switch. When you consider the importance of a good customer base, loyalty becomes a decisive competitive factor.
#5 Cost efficiency
Those who make targeted use of AI in customer service have the opportunity to save money on several levels.
For example, chatbots and virtual assistants help employees handle fewer standard questions. This leads to faster processing times. Also, support teams work more efficiently and can provide 24/7 support at no extra cost.
AI also avoids expensive escalations because it can proactively identify and solve support problems.
Potential AI Disadvantages
Artificial intelligence does far more good for the service than harm. Nevertheless, there are some scenarios in which it can be detrimental.
#1 Missing the human factor
AI should not replace human agents. It should complement their work so that customers receive the best possible service through the combined effect.
Offering empathy, handling emotions, creating solutions, and providing support are important skills. Only well-trained employees can bring these skills to the table. In addition, people bring practical experience that an AI systems cannot have in this form.
The key is to build a strong AI-human team. This team should combine their strengths to create real benefits.
#2 Dependence on technology
Companies should not become too dependent on AI technology. They should always offer alternatives to AI-driven processes and tasks. After all, errors or failures in AI can severely impair support if you rely too heavily on it and it breaks.
#3 Lack of contextual understanding
Modern conversational AI can recognize context and provide precise answers based on this. However, difficulties can arise with unexpected queries and the interpretation of complex problems. This can sometimes lead to incorrect answers.
AI in customer service: examples
There are many ways to use artificial intelligence to optimize support and other customer service operations within companies. AI services can generate significant added value, particularly when using a customer portal or ticket system.
AI chatbots
Chatbots are a very typical use case for automated customer service. They provide low-threshold access to relevant information and knowledge. They mainly handle the first contact or do research for customers. This happens before customers reach out to an employee for detailed information or specific solutions.
Virtual assistants
These assistants provide employees with comprehensive support in their work. A virtual assistant can take on a whole host of smaller AI services that benefit agents. For example, it creates suggested answers, provides background information or summarizes previous conversations. Overall, many AI applications in support can be summarized under the umbrella term virtual assistant.
Intelligent ticket classification
Before processing a request, it often takes time to review tickets and assign them to the right category. An AI application can significantly speed up this process by automatically categorizing ticket content correctly. By quickly and correctly assigning tickets to the right department, we can process support and service requests on time.
Automated responses
Formulating a good answer to an inquiry can take a lot of time. This is a particularly important problem when there is a high volume of inquiries.
AI assistants can formulate suitable answers based on ticket information, which the respective support employee only needs to check. This speeds up processing. It also avoids errors and inconsistent answers.
Sentiment analysis
By noticing the mood in queries, AI can quickly understand how a customer feels. This happens before an agent contacts them. Depending on whether an enquirer is frustrated, satisfied or neutral, different approaches are advisable. If the AI detects a high level of frustration, for example, a rapid escalation is the right course of action.
In general, sentiment analysis helps agents to act with empathy from the outset and offer customers a better service experience.
Real-time translation
Service requests can come in many different languages. There is often a language barrier between user and agent. Real-time translations compensate for this.
Users and agents compose messages in their preferred language. AI then creates automatic translations and the agent reads the message in their preferred language. This means that multilingual communication is not only possible, but it is also fast.
Suggested solutions (knowledge base)
The path to a suitable solution can also be shortened. This can be achieved, for example, when an AI tool directly suggests suitable answers from the knowledge base. This means faster and more accurate solutions are suggested to the customer. They may also be suggested in real-time to an agent who is helping a customer directly.
Best practices for the optimal use of AI
Artificial intelligence provides support in many areas of customer service. However, it is not enough to implement it without detailed strategic and practical considerations.
Various stakeholders are increasingly demanding the use of AI. However, how exactly companies deploy specific AI applications is proving to be more crucial.
The following approaches make sense:
1. Combine AI skills with human strengths
AI offers added value in service delivery, but it also has significant weaknesses. For example, the pure use of technology is clearly at a disadvantage when customers require empathy and comprehensive support. Companies should use AI in customer service in such a way that they combine human strengths with machine strengths.
This often happens automatically, but has its pitfalls when companies use AI extensively and ambitiously. In principle, the technology must support people in a targeted manner and not replace them.
2. Get the best out of personalization
Artificial intelligence comes with the great advantage of personalization. It can create completely individual customer experiences based on preferences and previous interactions. This offers great potential that many companies are not taking into account. Instead of simply implementing chatbots and minor efficiency improvements, it is advisable to use AI to create highly individualized customer experiences.
3. Establish clear boundaries
First, customers need to understand how much they are interacting with a human or an AI. This helps set clear expectations and avoid disappointment. Customers should also be able to switch from an AI application, such as a chatbot, to an employee easily. To improve services, AI and humans work hand in hand wherever possible.
4. Enable multi-channel communication
AI helps customers interact more. They can choose their favorite way to communicate. Therefore, the technology must work smoothly and without issues on different channels, like chat, phone, email, and social media. For example, if a particular customer likes to interact via email, this must be easily possible.
5. Make improvements
Many people expect that AI systems in customer service should work perfectly right from the start. In reality, however, mistakes do occur. Nothing works as intended straight away.
Companies would do well to learn from this and optimize their processes step by step. In terms of continuous improvement, it is advisable use machine learning, feedback from employees and customer input.
Conclusion: Combining strengths correctly
Artificial intelligence means enormous progress in many areas. Customer service also benefits from this to a large extent.
A distinction must be made between AI that takes over support and AI that supports employees. In reality, it is primarily about the latter. Virtual assistants, AI chatbots, and automation aim to give efficient support. They help improve customer service for users and service providers.
Companies should understand the different aspects of artificial intelligence. They need to create strategies to use it effectively in their services. On the one hand, there is pressure in this direction: customers are increasingly demanding it. On the other hand, AI reveals many practical advantages that enable companies to work more efficiently and successfully.
In practice, this also means a remarkable opportunity for typical human strengths. If an AI helps with routine tasks and simple cases, there is more room for human interaction. People can apply empathy, creativity and complex problem-solving skills to support more intensive cases.
