There are several benefits that come with businesses implementing AI-Powered Customer Service into their daily workings and as such, many organisations have been looking towards automation for some time now. This was accelerated considering the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to a reduced demand and global uncertainty forcing companies to seek out different methods of improving their businesses processes.
A common solution found by a few companies was that of automated AI-powered customer service. This can improve the speed at which customer queries are answered whilst still ensuring the quality of those answers is high. This article will discuss in more detail why such means of customer service are likely going to become more popular in the future.
The Responses Customers Get are Fast From AI Powered Customer Service
Customers expect a fast response to their queries and as such, a quick response is crucial when it comes to speaking with said customers. Stats suggest that over 40% of customers aren’t prepared to spend more than 2 minutes waiting on the phone, whilst 13% are not prepared to spend any time waiting whatsoever. When customers become subject to elongated hold times whilst waiting for an answer to their query, they are likely to become frustrated. Customers will be less likely to return to a business if exposed to such hold times and this can cost organisations money, given it is a lot more expensive to seek new customers as opposed to retaining existing ones.
Whilst most businesses recognise the need to reply fast, it is safe to say that this is not always easy to do. This is where automated customer services come into force as they can answer a clients query immediately. Customers will be much more satisfied with a virtual agent answering the phone to help rather than be left on hold and told every couple of minutes how important their call is to the business.
The Resolution is Stress Free and Simple
A human only has so much knowledge about a business, hence why most organisations are split into different departments. This might make perfect sense but when a customer is trying to get an answer to a query, it does not bode well for businesses if said customer is passed around from support line to support line, department to department. 33% of customers claim that this is a frustrating factor.
AI-powered customer service is going to be able to solve a large majority of customer queries without having to refer to other departments within the organisation. As a result, customers will not have to switch support lines and instead can have their question answered with little to no fuss.
AI Doesn’t Sleep
If a business has customer service made up of individuals, then it is going to cost a great deal to hire enough staff so that shifts are covered every hour of every day. This is especially the case if a business operates in numerous different time zones. As such, using AI technology makes sense in this instance because companies can use virtual agents to handle all the calls that come in across the entire world at different times of the day and night.
The Service is Reliable and Consistent
Stats suggest that around 90% of all customers will include a business’s customer service as one of the factors when deciding whether to work with that business. As such, an organisations service must be of high quality and that high quality must be both consistent and reliable. It is hard to make such a guarantee about customer service when a business is using a traditional contact centre.
Agents who work at a call centre have off days, they get tired, forget facts, or misinterpret them and as such, guaranteeing prospective clients that said customer service will remain consistent is impossible. This is not the case when using AI-powered customer service as this is never going to misinterpret or forget relevant information. Businesses can guarantee with AI-powered customer service that this standard of service is what a customer can expect to receive every single time without fail.
Scaling Up is Easier
If a business decides that it wants to scale up or has certain periods where it can expect a higher influx of calls such as over the holidays, scaling up to accommodate this becomes a lot more straightforward. If a regular call centre is being used then when this influx of calls comes through, quality may dip due to the fact people are having to deal with more requests.
Scaling up can be a tricky process when a business has physical agents as it is not simply a case of adding more agents. There is the need to hire people and teach them how to carry out their role. If there is a spike in activity or a business wants to scale up, then there may well just not be the time to go through this whole process.
When a business is using AI-powered customer service, it is easy to add as many virtual agents as is necessary to keep the quality of service sustainable and consistent. More to the point, these virtual agents can be added instantly, which means as soon as an increase in callers takes place, a business’s response to it can be quick and seamless.
AI-Powered Customer Service Can Be Personalised to Satisfy Everyone
Customers like to communicate with businesses in a variety of different ways. This could be by email, over the phone, using forms on a website and as such, a business should be sure to offer all these different channels to their clients. This means that customers can have a personalised experience depending on what method of communication they prefer to use.
Does Your Business Want to Use AI-Powered Customer Service?
It is not hard to see why we are more and more likely to see businesses adopt AI-powered customer service. If you have a business and think you would like to begin using such technology to see to a customer’s needs, then you should consider enlisting the help of Yoono.
Yoono can aid with all matters AI related so if your business decides to adopt as much, you will have support with how to make it work most effectively for you. If you have any questions about AI or what Yoono can do for your business, then do not hesitate to get in touch.
