Do your customers know how to talk to your AI agent?
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We’ve spoken a lot about preparing your support team for a new way of doing customer service with AI, but what about preparing your customers for a new way of receiving customer support?
According to a recent Gartner survey, 64% of customers would prefer it if a business didn't use AI for customer service. The reason behind this is something we can all relate to – interacting with chatbots has historically been a shocking experience.
It’s not necessarily that the technology was bad, but by and large chatbots weren’t set up well, which made interacting with them clunky and frustrating.
Luckily, we've come a long way – even since that Gartner research was conducted – and next-gen AI agents like Fin are starting to have a positive impact on customers' perception of automated support.
AI is only as good as it’s set up to be, however, so support teams have the responsibility of really making the experience great for customers. Here are a few quick tips to help set your customers up for success when interacting with your AI agent.
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Tell your customers how to talk to your AI agent
Perhaps due to poor experiences with previous generation chatbots, many people don’t actually know how to interact with AI agents. Instead of asking a question in a normal conversational manner, they resort to single keywords or basic phrases, like “need help.”
AI agents are pretty smart, but they’re not mind readers. Not having enough information is going to cause the bot to draw a blank and frustrate the customer, so it’s important that customers know how to communicate to get the best results.? Chatting to Fin in a natural, conversational way works best, so we set this prompt at the beginning of a customer’s chat with Fin that explains this in a really brief way:
Hi [First Name], you're speaking with Fin AI Agent. I can do much more than chatbots you've seen before. Tell me as much as you can about your question and I'll do my best to help you in an instant.
We worked closely with our conversation designer to get this right by running a couple of A/B tests and tweaking the copy until we landed on something that clicked for our customers.
This simple prompt has helped customers have much richer interactions with Fin and a better overall experience, so I’d highly recommend trying something like this if your customers are struggling to get what they need from your bot.
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Lead with your AI agent, but make it easy to access human help
Customers are getting used to AI agents being the first to respond to their queries, but many still want to know they can easily access a human’s help. This is why it’s important to make the handover from AI to human as seamless as possible when a customer requests it.
When one of our customers opens the Messenger and asks a question, we’ve set Fin to answer first as much as possible in our automated flows. If Fin can’t answer, the customer can select “I need to speak to a human.” A few clarifying questions then help the human agent understand the customer's issue.?
The key here is limiting the effort the customer has to put in. We conducted some research and found that after just four clicks, a customer will drop off if they’re not connected to a human.
We used to talk about “deflection” in support, but abandonment rate – which is what we’re referring to here – is not good. Customers just going away rather than receiving help is not something you want as a business.?
As customers continue to have good interactions with AI agents and develop more trust in them, we'll see more and more queries resolved without needing input from the team.
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Set expectations upfront
There is some debate around this, but I firmly believe support teams should let customers know when they’re speaking with an AI agent.
Some teams like to “humanize” their AI agents with a human photo and name, but in my opinion, we’ll only really help our customers get more comfortable with this technology if we’re transparent about what it is.?
We’re all working towards making automated support better and a big part of this is bringing our customers along with us on this AI journey. My advice is to always be honest with customers to foster and maintain trust?
Here’s to changing customers’ minds about AI agents by providing amazing experiences.?
Ruth O'Brien
Senior Director, Automated & Proactive Support
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Response Time
Response Time is how we get to know folks in the support community in a real and relatable way. This week, we’re passing the mic to Samuel Barrett , Head of Customer Experience at Runna .
What’s the one piece of advice you would give to your peers in the customer service industry?
“Bring your team along with you on the journey! Especially when you are making big decisions and changes. It's important to keep your team informed at all stages and get them bought-into the process. That way when you roll out a change everyone in your department knows what to expect.”
What’s the most valuable thing that working in customer service has taught you?
“Be kind to EVERYONE! It doesn't matter their role, title, or experience. Be kind and lead with care.”?
How do you go the extra mile for your customers?
“I frequently share my personal running routes with our customers. I've spent hours finding the best routes where I live, and when I see a customer based in my home-town I go above and beyond to share all the hidden gems.”?
What we've been up to
How to practice Amazon’s “Big Bet Leadership”
How can “Big Bet Leadership” help leaders drive their teams forward in meaningful ways? John Rossman , who played a key role in launching Amazon’s marketplace business, shares his insights.
Intercom vs Zendesk: Two AI agents put to the test
We tested Fin against Zendesk’s AI agent to determine which bot performs the best. Here’s an in-depth look at the testing process and results.
Poll: What’s the best advice you’d give to a new CS rep?
If you take yourself back to the beginning of your career, what’s one piece of advice you wish you’d got? We’d love to hear what golden nugget you’d share with someone who’s just starting out.
What's happening in customer service?
This is how to be an empathic leader during stressful times
A useful reminder from Fast Company as we head into the busy holiday season. The idea that “empathy is a mindset” particularly stands out – how we show up as leaders, even when we’re stressed ourselves, is so important.
Getting to the human touch at scale with generative AI in customer success
This article from ChurnZero dives into the different ways generative AI enables customer success teams to stay in touch – and perhaps connect more deeply – with the people they’re serving, even as their customer base scales.?
A great customer experience inspires customer loyalty
Customer loyalty is more important than ever, so how can you secure it? This piece by CX Journey provides detailed instructions to create customer experiences that’ll drive loyalty.?
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Isn't the bigger question "Do they want to talk to your AI agent?"