Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing across every industry, but is this technology the right choice for your customer service strategy?
We've already explored the multiple uses of ChatGPT for customer service, like crafting accurate responses to complaints or creating issue notifications. However, since then, AI has grown and amplified its uses and language models.
In this article, we’ll delve deeper into the universe of AI for IT support, discussing some key considerations that organizations should keep in mind before integrating AI into their customer service strategies.
We will also provide real-world examples of how companies effectively use AI in customer service, showcasing this technology's diverse applications and benefits.
Are you ready to decide if AI is a good fit for your customer interaction strategies? Let’s get started!
Will AI replace customer service?
There is a common fear that AI is going to replace human jobs. But is that going to happen? Let’s see.
There is good and bad news regarding this question: the bad news is that we are not going to be able to escape artificial intelligence; the good news is that we can take advantage of it to enhance our capabilities.
Mariena Quintanilla, Data Management and Customer Operations Consultant, stated on the 75th episode of Ticket Volume that there is a need to learn how to leverage and embrace AI in order to keep up with the industry’s requirements.
“Generative AI works in the same way as spreadsheets, which helps you do a more effective analysis than if you were plotting things out in pen and paper," she explained.
Take the case of level 1 customer support agents. Their work is to be the first contact with end-users and try to resolve their problems. Of course, AI can provide quick answers and analyze customer’s issues in a heartbeat.
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However, Ariel Gesto, CEO and Founder of InvGate argued, “While ChatGPT could be trained to recognize and respond to common technical issues, it may struggle to understand the unique needs and circumstances of individual users.” This can lead to frustration among users, who may feel that their issues are not being adequately addressed. So, there is no way that the human factor can be removed from the picture.
It is true many jobs will be drastically shifted because of AI, especially in the customer service area. Artificial intelligence will improve effectiveness, speed, data analysis, predictiveness, and more. Nonetheless, these jobs can never be replaced, as it takes a human to understand another human being.
ChatGPT & the Enterprise: Balancing Caution and Innovation in the Age of AI
How can AI improve customer service?
Now that we can rest assured AI is not going to replace us, let's delve into some ways AI can actually revolutionize your customer service strategy.
- 24/7 availability – AI-powered chatbots can provide instant responses to customer queries, ensuring support is available round the clock.
- Personalized interactions – Artificial intelligence can analyze customer data to personalize interactions, offering tailored recommendations and solutions.
- Efficient issue resolution – You can automate routine tasks and processes with AI, allowing customer service agents to focus on more complex issues, leading to faster resolution times.
- Enhanced customer insights – AI can analyze customer interactions to provide key insights, helping businesses understand customer needs and preferences better.
5 benefits of an AI-powered customer service
Some of the benefits you get by using AI to enhance your customer services are:
- Improved efficiency – AI-powered chatbots and automation can handle a large volume of customer inquiries simultaneously, reducing wait times and improving overall efficiency.
- Enhanced customer experience – AI can provide personalized interactions and resolve simple issues before delegating to an IT professional.
- Cost savings – By automating routine tasks and processes, AI can help reduce operational costs associated with customer service, such as staffing and training.
- Data-driven insights –AI can analyze vast amounts of customer data to provide valuable information for organizations to improve their products and services.
- Scalability – AI-powered solutions can quickly scale to handle fluctuations in customer inquiries, ensuring a consistent level of service during peak times.
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6 things to consider before using AI for customer service
It is essential to understand that, though applying AI to your organization can bring many benefits, there are some key considerations that need to be taken into account before taking the leap:
- Data security and privacy – Ensure that your AI solution complies with data protection regulations and has robust security measures in place to protect customer data.
- Integration with existing systems – Evaluate how AI will integrate with your current customer service systems and ensure compatibility to avoid disruptions and downtime.
- Training and skill development – Invest in training programs to ensure your team is equipped to work alongside AI and maximize its benefits.
- Customer acceptance and communication – Communicate transparently with customers about the use of AI in your customer service operations and address any concerns they may have.
- Monitoring and evaluation – Regularly monitor the performance of your AI system and gather feedback to identify areas for improvement and ensure it aligns with your goals.
- Ethical considerations – Consider the ethical implications of using AI in customer service, such as bias in decision-making algorithms, and take steps to mitigate these risks.
AI customer service examples to start with
Artificial intelligence can be used extensively with a variety of tools. These are some of the examples of organizations using this technology to streamline their customer service.
- Agent enhancement - By analyzing drafts, AI can be leveraged to enhance responses by suggesting modifications to the original text. This is exactly the case for InvGate Service Management's Improved Responses through which agents can choose to expand, summarize, or change their answer, improving their response time and quality.
- Knowledge base article creation – AI can analyze customer queries and interactions to automatically generate and update knowledge base articles, providing self-service options and reducing the workload for support teams (in fact, we have a dedicated feature that uses AI to draft an article in less than 30 seconds!).
- Sentiment analysis – AI can analyze customer feedback and social media posts to understand customer sentiment, helping businesses identify issues and improve their products or services.
- Query summarizations – AI can summarize customer queries, helping support agents quickly understand and address customer needs, improving response times. InvGate's Ticket summarization feature allows you to do this, helping to onboard someone new to a complex ongoing incident by up to 90% (from 10 minutes to less than 1 minute).
- Chatbots and virtual assistants – AI-powered chatbots or assistants can provide instant service to customer queries, offering 24/7 support and reducing the need for human intervention in routine inquiries. For this, InvGate Service Management Virtual Agent offers end-users with contextual knowledge article summaries with the information they need to solve an issue.
- Predictive analytics – AI can analyze customer data to predict future trends and customer behavior, enabling businesses to proactively address issues and tailor their offerings to meet customer needs.
- Recommendation engines – AI can analyze customer preferences and behavior to provide personalized product recommendations, enhancing the customer experience and increasing sales.
If you want to see what AI applied to customer service looks like in practice, InvGate recently launched the AI Hub, a set of features that leverages this technology to expand IT teams capabilities and efficiency.
Contact our support team who will be happy to guide you through them!
Key takeaways
Artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing, but its integration into customer service requires careful consideration. Here's a summary of what we've discussed:
- AI integration: AI offers numerous benefits for customer service, such as improved efficiency and personalized interactions.
- Job impact: While AI can enhance certain aspects of customer service, it cannot replace the human touch needed for understanding unique customer needs.
- Benefits of AI: AI can improve efficiency, enhance customer experience, save costs, provide data-driven insights, and scale to handle fluctuations in customer inquiries.
- Considerations: Before implementing AI, consider data security, integration with existing systems, training, customer acceptance, AI readiness, monitoring, and ethical considerations.
In conclusion, while AI can significantly improve customer service, its successful implementation requires careful planning and consideration of various factors to ensure a seamless integration that benefits both businesses and customers alike.
