You might be struggling to offer an optimum level of customer service as speed and convenience become more desired. How do you ensure customer satisfaction when they want both speed and traditional human interaction? Here’s how you can blend artificial intelligence (AI) with personal communication within your call centers to serve your customers more effectively.
Create a Space Where Artificial Intelligence and People Work Together to Answer Questions
Customers are increasingly tech-savvy and comfortable navigating technology without any human interaction. Gartner has reported that the vast majority of customers will manage their connections with companies without ever talking to a person. This means that you have to approach your customers as people who want a certain amount of independence.
Despite this, there is still a need for a real person to be on the line. When customers need resolutions to complex problems or are asking a unique question, they usually prefer to speak in real-time with an actual person. You should work on improving both of these areas to dramatically improve your customer experience. When you deliver balanced, quick, and helpful customer service, you get repeat purchasers and loyal promoters.
Where Automation Meets Empathy
While automated systems will never be as empathetic as people, they can transform the way you assist customers. Technological breakthroughs have allowed computers to become continuously self-learning based on analytics. You can implement AI into your call center and it will monitor how your agents respond to inquiries. The technology will then be able to complete tasks and respond to questions on its own, meaning you can start to rely less on live agents.
Using Analytics to Set Up the Process
To start blending AI into your call center, rely on analytical tools and data. This will help you find out the best way to solve problems that customers call about. Your implementation will depend on the availability of live support and complexity of the inquiry.
For example, you could set up an automated process to instruct customers to speak or enter a specific number that correlates with their question. The AI can provide helpful answers and information for each inquiry while providing a last-resort option to speak to a live representative. This is just an example of how you can utilize AI to streamline your customer service.
Personalizing and Branding Your AI
You want to provide relevant and helpful service based on preferences and demographics. Tracking trends can help you implement a dynamic call center experience that is automatically customized to previous customer interactions. Keep in mind that even your automated processes should be consistent with your overall brand experience. All content should be in line with your vision and goals.
Getting started with automation and intelligence doesn’t have to be a daunting task. You don’t have to overhaul your whole IT department or throw up legacy systems. You can start off by choosing a single product to test your project for 2 or 3 months. Once you have perfected the process with one product, you can expand it across your entire platform.
This blog was first published on LinkedIn.
