Close to 80% of customers believe that having a good Customer Experience (CX) for a company is just as crucial as having a good product lineup. Which is why they demand fast, personalized, and convenient interactions with brands. This has led to a surge in the adoption of Artificial Intelligence or AI in Customer Support. But what exactly does it mean? How does it change things? And does it help businesses? Stick around as we’ll dive in to explore more.
Understanding what is AI
AI (Artificial Intelligence) is a field that enables the development of solutions capable of mimicking and helping human beings. It involves solving problems, understanding different languages, hosting communication sessions, and much more. The proliferation of Generative AI in 2023 has revolutionized the world of technology at a rapid rate.
These days AI and its applications are being used in a lot of industries, namely healthcare, IT, E-commerce, etc. Speaking in the context of this blog, AI in Customer Support is the use of Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies to automate tasks and provide support to customers. This can range from a simple AI Chatbot handling FAQs to having a sophisticated AI assistant capable of resolving complex inquiries.
The different applications of AI
While automation is a significant aspect of AI in Customer Support, it's not the only one. Here are some key applications:
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Virtual assistants: AI-powered bots handle basic inquiries, freeing up human agents for more complex issues. They can answer FAQs, reset passwords, and even offer personalized recommendations.
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Sentiment analysis: AI can analyze customer conversations to understand their emotions and sentiment. This helps agents respond empathetically and proactively address potential issues.
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Predictive maintenance: By analyzing customer data and past interactions, AI can predict potential problems and proactively reach out to customers before they encounter issues.
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Personalized support: AI can personalize interactions by understanding customer preferences and history. This leads to more relevant and helpful support experiences.
Benefits of AI in Customer Support
Customer Support requires the proper handling of customer queries and resolution of issues in a systematic manner. The process usually involves the customer contacting a service center and relaying their problem(s) via a phone call or a text message. Earlier, it used to take a lot of resources to resolve issues at the earliest, but these days with the usage of AI, things have become a lot easier. Here’s a list of benefits that businesses enjoy through the usage of AI:
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Increased efficiency: AI handles repetitive tasks, freeing up human agents for complex issues, leading to faster resolution times and lower costs. 70% of customers believe that the usage of AI in Customer Support gives them a better and more personalized experience. A testament to the boost in efficiency provided by AI.
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Improved customer satisfaction: 24/7 availability, personalized support, and faster resolutions contribute to happier and more satisfied customers. Close to 72% of customers believe that they’ll remain loyal to a business that responds to their queries quickly.
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Reduced operational costs: By using AI, you can automate tasks and improve efficiency, this will result in reducing cost for Customer Support. It has been predicted that the usage of Generative AI may result in $80 billion being saved in resource training by 2026.
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Valuable data insights: With every interaction, the AI can learn from the session and derive insights. These insights can then be used to highlight the areas of improvement, leading to better support strategies.
Prominent examples: How businesses are using AI for their Customer Support needs
The significance of AI and its applications can be understood by the fact that 54% of companies had already started using it for business operations by November 2023. That’s just one year since the advent of ChatGPT. Given below is a list of companies that are using AI to streamline their Customer Support operations:
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Sephora: This beauty products company dialed up its customer support game with their virtual assistant "Beauty Bot," it answers product questions and offers personalized recommendations to customers.
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Hilton: The popular hotel chain Hilton has recently shown interest in having an AI assistant. This has led to the development of "Connie,” an AI system housed in a humanoid robot’s chassis. Connie has its own desk and is now helping guests by navigating them through the premises and suggesting them good dining options.
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Starbucks: Boosting their personalization game up a notch, Starbucks created Deep Brew, an AI platform. What this platform does is that it maps the customers’ preferences, learns from them and recommends brews that they may prefer. It has also become Startbucks’s Automated Brand Personalization Engine of sorts.
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Bank of America: Bank of America thought of streamlining their customers’ pain points by giving them a reliable tool. The result was Erica, a financial virtual assistant that helps customers make payments, manage accounts, and much more. It has the ability to find the best financial plans that can help customers to make the most of their money.
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1-800-Flowers: With some help from IBM’s Watson, 1-800-Flowers ended up creating their own AI-based Customer Support Chatbot. This enabled their customers to raise queries on their website and mobile app, and get the solutions within minutes.
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Sensory Fitness: Sasha, Sensory Fitness’s AI assistant is a voice powered system that resolves customer queries through automated calls and voice-based sessions. It has been reported that Sasha has helped Sensory Fitness save $30,000 per year on resources.
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ING Bank Turkey: This Turkish bank had a resource problem. Simply put they had to handle way too many calls every single day. To resolve this problem, ING deployed an Interactive Voice Response System (IVR). It is quite similar to Sensory Fitness’s Sasha as it hosts conversations on automated calls and resolves queries.
Implementing AI in your Customer Support
These days AI in Customer Support can be implemented through a number of steps. With the proliferation of AI Chatbot building platforms, it can be a bit difficult to choose the right one. But you don’t have to worry about it as Purro is the one-stop solution for your AI Chatbot needs. Let’s first look at the things you need to consider before building an AI Chatbot:
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Identify your needs: Define your specific goals and challenges you want your AI to address.
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Choose the right technology: Explore different AI platforms and solutions to find the best fit for your needs and budget.
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Start small: You can begin with a simple project to test the capabilities of your AI system and gain experience before scaling up.
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Monitor and adapt: Continuously monitor your AI performance and tweak it to adapt your approach based on results and customer feedback.
Once done with these prerequisites, you’ll have no trouble creating your own AI Chatbot. And with a powerful platform like Purro, you can build your own Customer Support chatbot in 3 simple steps:
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Import your data through various files and your website.
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Embed the chatbot on your website through a simple code snippet.
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And relax as your chatbot handles customer queries and generates good leads.
Conclusion
We hope that you read and understood our blog on AI in Customer Support. The application of AI in industries is only going to expand in the coming years. Which makes the decision to opt for an AI-based Customer Support tool a wise one. Creating a reliable and robust AI Chatbot is equally essential to engaging customers and boosting conversions. And with Purro by your side, you can create the right chatbot for your business.