Customer service is one of the most important aspects of running a business. It's also one of the most competitive industries out there. That's why customer service providers need to utilize all the tools at their disposal in order to provide a truly excellent customer service experience. In this post, we'll go over how AI can be used to improve customer service experiences across industries and why it's so effective.
Customer connection is essential in the service environment.
And that connection is severely lacking. Did you know that over $60 billion is lost due to poor customer service? Are you part of that statistic? That’s a lot of money down the drain where there’s such a simple solution.
You don’t need to hand-hold your customers. You don’t have to personally walk the customer through every aspect of your product, click every button with them, show them how to plug it in, etc. What you need is to bridge the connection between you and your customers when they seek help.
That $62 billion we mentioned happens because most companies don’t create that bridge. They leave their customers on the other side, alone. You know what happens when that customer is ignored—when they don’t get an answer? They leave. They find a new company with a similar product. A company that listens to them.
Customers are more self-sufficient than ever before. They want to be able to solve their own problems and don’t necessarily want to wait on hold for hours—or speak with customer service agents at all!
Here are a few interesting statistics to note while you consider your current customer service setup:
- The average response time is over 12 hours to even the simplest of customer queries.
- That survey also noted that 62% of companies failed to respond at all!
- Finally, the biggest misunderstanding is the difference between 80% of businesses thinking their customer service is good quality while just 8% of customers agree.
According to these statistics, it’s best to side with the customer and improve your customer service offerings. Consumers want self-service. They want a place to ask a question and receive an immediate answer. They want to love your product, but they can’t because your customer service is in the way.
Self-service is essential in today’s customer service environment because it provides customers with two key benefits: the ability to get answers when they need them, and cost savings for businesses that adopt it. By providing a user-friendly interface for your customers, you can save money by reducing the number of calls you receive and increase sales by helping customers find the information they need themselves.
What is customer service AI?
As you’re probably aware, customer service is a huge part of the customer experience. It can make or break your business and how you interact with customers on a day-to-day basis.
AI is used in customer service for a variety of reasons—but mostly because it helps provide the best possible experience for customers (creating that bridge we talked about earlier). In fact, AI-powered customer service can be used to answer common questions and solve problems that would normally take human agents hours or days to solve by themselves.
Here are 5 ways AI is used in customer service and can help your business run more efficiently.
- Solving Customer Queries with Natural Language Processing
The largest benefit to implementing AI into your customer service is to address the most common customer issues and questions. The technology is able to take the time and effort away from agents, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks that require human interaction. In addition, it can also help get customers the answers they need quicker than ever before.
Customer service AI is smarter than ever now. It uses natural language processing (NLP) to find answers to customer queries in the manner a customer wants to ask. Natural language processing greatly improves customer experience by ridding the need for keywords and query manipulation. It’s all part of machine learning capabilities that not only enhance customer satisfaction but also improve customer service teams.
AI in customer service is utilized mostly with chatbots and knowledge bases. These are the top two methods customers use to ask questions and find answers.
- Speeding Up Customer Service Agents’ Responses
Using artificial intelligence to answer customer questions and inquiries is a great way to get faster responses. The technology can process the question or issue in seconds depending on its complexity and provide an answer that can either be used as a self-service solution or by agents as a starting point for their own conversations.
This helps cut down on back-and-forth conversations between customers and agents, which can lead to quicker resolutions. Good customer service is defined by how quickly and how well customer queries are answered.
If the average response time is 12 hours, then implementing AI will reduce the wait by over 99%.
With Korra, our AI scans the documents and locations you provide it access to and finds the answer, no matter how complex. It’s a new generation of AI for knowledge bases and one that provides faster answers, speedier responses, and happier customers.
- Managing Customer Service Traffic
One of the biggest challenges for customer service teams is managing traffic. Agents spend a significant amount of time handling common questions, like “Where can I find feature X?” or “Can you help me with this issue?” which means they don’t get to more complex problems and issues as quickly. This also means customers are waiting longer for answers, which can lead to frustration on both sides.
That traffic directly correlates with public perception of your company. If customers find your customer services solutions lengthy or confusing, that adds some negativity to your brand reputation. The better you’re able to manage customer traffic, the better your business will perform. AI can help.
With Korra, we’re able to cut down on these types of conversations and provide agents with faster results than ever before. Our service isn’t just for self-service, it’s for your employees to find, monitor, analyze, and resolve issues with ease.
- Capturing Data in AI Powered Customer Service
Capturing data is a major part of any business. Whether you’re trying to gain insight into your customers or simply looking for ways to improve, the more information you have at your fingertips, the better off you’ll be. This can be especially true with customer service agents who need to know not only what their customers want but also how they feel about those needs. Capturing this kind of customer data and customer feedback helps companies understand where improvements need to be made and how best to reach them.
AI in customer services helps in this area in many ways. At the very least, you gain insight into the majority of issues customers are facing. Use that information to make improvements in version 2 of your service.
Gathering data also leads to AI in customer service understanding human behavior patterns, which further leads to delivering solutions faster.
- Saving Resources for Your Support Teams
With artificial intelligence, you can set up a knowledge base that stores information in an accessible format so that a customer service team member doesn’t have to spend time searching through hundreds of documents for answers themselves. Actually, that’s the heart of Korra.
A huge benefit of using AI in customer service is its ability to scale with your company’s growth without adding additional costs. In fact, it will actually save you customer service costs related to acquisition, retention, as well as customer support agents.
Focus on using AI to enhance the customer service experience.
Don’t be part of the $62 billion loss problem. Be part of the solution; one that sees opportunity in technology to solve customer-related problems.
If you’re looking to improve the customer service experience, using AI is a great way to do it. While there are several ways that AI can be used in a customer service setting, it all comes down to one thing: speed.
When a customer has a question, they want it answered quickly. With AI, you can automate many of the repetitive tasks that humans currently perform to find answers for your customers. This will allow them to receive the information they need faster and more accurately than ever before.
But why not take that a step further? Korra provides you with everything you expect with AI in customer service—and then some. We’re in the industry of answers, not problems. Korra focuses on finding answers no matter how far down the rabbit hole those documents are in your system, then presents that answer in a simple, user-friendly way.
We’re saving your call centers, chat lines, email reps, and service agents tons of time, money, and energy. Get a demo today and see how Korra’s AI benefits your business first-hand.