Beyond Bots: Unleashing the Full Potential of AI in Customer Service

Introduction:

In the last year, AI has been top of mind with almost everybody. Most of my meetings have been about how AI can help Customer Service teams.

But a general misconception here, is that AI in Customer Service = A chat or voice bot solution... I wonder where people got that from?? Thank you OpenAI ??

AI is much more than this! So the purpose of this article is to push people's perception here and explain a bit more about the comprehensive scope of AI applications, from measuring customer satisfaction to empowering agents, boosting self-service and fostering more meaningful interactions.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) with AI:

Most companies I know measure their customer happiness / NPS / CSAT with old-fashioned surveys.. ?? But even if you are the best survey writer in the world, you will probably max get a 25% response rate. And then if you only send out surveys to let's say 10% of your customers / interactions, then that is 25% of 10% ??

Luckily AI now gives us the ability to accurately measure 100% of customer engagements across all channels, allowing businesses to really enhance experiences based on real data-driven understanding.

Empowering Customers with Intelligent Self-Service:

Introduce customers to more intelligent self-service solutions. One thing is bots, but another is to have a real look at your overall self-service offerings. How is your knowledge base(s)? How about those really difficult self-service cases, are customers still struggling with these?

And in this modern world, people want to help people, so why not set up a peer-to-peer self-service community and of course have AI in the background to optimize the whole performance and experience?

Enhancing Agent Performance and Customer Happiness:

Also, this is an important one! Explore how AI is offered to agents. AI assistance is huge! Nowadays we have capabilities like AI-powered real-time agent nudges, and knowledge bases written and optimized with AI, automated case summaries, guided workflows etc etc. On average, we see a minimum of 25% improvement in agent performance here.

Fostering Proactive Conversations and Meaningful Interactions:

With all the "simple" stuff being handled by self-service solutions, bots etc, shift agents from reactive to proactive.

AI and self-service free up agents to engage in more personalized, value-driven interactions, ultimately creating happier customers (and agents).

Breaking Down Tech Silos and Embracing an AI-Driven Platform:

In the end, I would also like to highlight the importance of the time we have right now. I have never seen a subject like AI take up so much attention with C-level executives, so utilize this to its fullest!

Don't just settle for a fancy new bot, seize the opportunity to break down silos, and throw out those +10 different old internal systems and instead choose a modern-day unified platform (WITH AI embedded) that covers all your current and future customer service channels.

Conclusion:

So with this inspiration, I hope that you now see, that AI is far more than just bots—it's a catalyst for transformation in customer service. From elevating self-service experiences to empowering agents, redefining interactions and breaking down silos.