Today’s customers expect excellent customer service when they engage with your company, but this isn’t always easy to provide. To meet this challenge, companies are beginning to combine the power of human customer service representatives and AI-powered chatbots in order to provide faster, more efficient assistance and improve customer satisfaction overall.
In this blog post, we’ll explore how humans and AI can work together to improve customer service while also exploring some of the unique challenges of combining the two methods of communication.
AI-Human Collaboration
Through efficient service, companies can improve loyalty rates, increasing consumer satisfaction. As a result, consumers would be more likely to return for future purchases or recommend products and services through word-of-mouth. For example, a survey by Maritz Research revealed that an astonishing 78 percent of U.S. consumers have been likely or very likely to switch brands as a result of poor customer service experience.
In contrast, 82 percent of consumers reported they were likely or very likely to continue purchasing from a brand because they received good customer service. Thus, it’s clear that positive experiences with businesses increase customer loyalty while negative ones decrease it. And when you consider that 86 percent of B2B customers and 94 percent of B2C customers say they are willing to pay more for better customer service, there is a huge opportunity for organizations to provide excellent support in order to retain their customers. But how can companies ensure superior service? One solution may lie in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies like chatbots. Chatbots are computer programs designed to simulate conversations with humans via text or voice interfaces.
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Using natural language processing (NLP), these programs aim to automate simple, repetitive tasks—such as answering frequently asked questions—so human agents don’t have to do them anymore. This frees up time for employees to focus on higher value tasks such as providing personalized assistance tailored around each customer’s needs and preferences.
While chatbots still aren’t perfect—and some people even prefer talking to real people—they have proven effective at handling many common requests. For instance, a 2020 study found that online shoppers who used live chat had an average conversion rate 2.5 times greater than those who didn’t use live chat.
Another study found that 74 percent of respondents preferred receiving help via live chat over other channels such as email or phone calls. These statistics indicate that chatbots could play a key role in improving customer service by freeing up valuable employee time so they can focus on offering customized assistance.
AI-human Collaboration
By combining AI technology with human labor, organizations can offer top-notch support while also keeping costs low. However, chatbot technology alone isn’t enough to fully realize its potential benefits; rather, businesses must also implement strategies for incorporating live agents into their interactions with customers. After all, most people will want to speak with a person at least sometimes.
Therefore, the ideal situation involves using chatbots during off-peak hours—for example, between midnight and 5:00 AM—to answer basic questions before transferring callers to live agents during peak hours. Additionally, chatbots can act as a sort of virtual assistant, helping agents handle customer inquiries and cutting down the amount of work they have to do. For example, a chatbot can screen incoming messages and determine whether they require a response or not.
If the message requires a response, the chatbot can route it to an agent for further action. If the message doesn’t require a response, the chatbot can send it directly to the customer or simply close it. Either way, this process saves agents time and effort by eliminating much of the busywork they would otherwise have to deal with. Overall, AI-human collaboration can help organizations achieve a balance between high-quality service and cost efficiency.
Businesses can leverage AI technology to free up time for their agents and reduce the number of routine tasks they have to perform. Meanwhile, human agents can use their expertise and intuition to handle more complex issues that chatbots cannot. With this approach, organizations can boost customer loyalty while also reducing operational costs.
Saves Time and Offloads Human-Agents
Considering that 85% of inbound customer service requests are transactional in nature (e.g., order status, shipping updates, etc.), it makes sense to automate as many mundane or easily-answered inquiries as possible.
By offloading these questions from human agents, organizations can drastically improve their efficiency—and make room for more complicated interactions, which is where customer service agents really excel. Human-to-human conversations require empathy, nuance, patience, and understanding; computer systems just aren’t there yet.
So if you’re looking to scale your business while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction across all channels, you need a system that allows your employees to focus on more complex issues while automating routine tasks. In other words, you need a hybrid approach. The best way to maximize efficiency and productivity is by combining automated processes with human agents who have real insight into what drives customer satisfaction.
The combination will allow your organization to answer questions accurately at scale without sacrificing quality or personalization. Plus, an intelligent automated system can be trained using actual data about how individual customers respond to different answers, making it even easier for humans when they do step in.
Makes Businesses Live 24*7
The primary reason for why businesses cannot provide their customers with round-the-clock support is because humans can only operate a certain number of hours each day. This limitation makes it impossible for a business to cater to every customer’s needs at any given moment. To make up for these shortcomings, businesses are turning towards artificial intelligence (AI) as an optimal solution.
With AI, businesses can set up automated systems that act as reliable extensions of human employees. These systems do not need to sleep or take breaks, which allows them to offer 24/7 customer service. In fact, they might even be better than human employees since they don’t have fatigue issues or emotions interfering with their work.
They also never forget anything, and there’s no risk of burnout. It’s clear that AI holds tremendous potential for businesses looking to improve their customer service. However, most companies still struggle to implement AI effectively. One of the main challenges is figuring out how humans and machines should interact in order to benefit both parties.
Supplements Smart Business Decisions
While no technology will ever replace the human touch, there are ways that humans and artificial intelligence can work together. A lot of businesses are leveraging chatbots to improve their customer service approach.
Chatbots can provide an initial response, gather information about what a customer is looking for, recommend certain items or services, conduct research in a flash…and then pass you off to a human when it’s appropriate. The benefit of using a chatbot is twofold:
First, it frees up your staff to focus on more complex issues; second, customers who have had positive experiences with bots are much more likely to come back. It’s a win-win situation! With all these benefits, it seems clear that integrating AI into your business strategy can lead to better results—both now and in the future.
Conclusion
The Future of Customer Service is Human-Machine Integration. The customer service industry has evolved over time as technology has grown, but it’s important for companies to keep in mind that there’s no one-size fits all approach when it comes to customer service.
Companies must be willing to experiment with new ideas, explore different avenues, and make changes as necessary in order to provide customers with an experience that keeps them coming back for more. But in today’s fast paced environment, it can sometimes feel like a struggle to keep up with everything on your plate.
That’s where artificial intelligence comes into play. This type of software helps take care of certain aspects of your business so you don’t have to worry about them yourself. From processing orders to responding to emails, AI takes some of the weight off your shoulders. Nowadays, many businesses are using some form of AI—whether it’s chatbots or automated email responses—to improve their customer service game. While these tools may not completely replace human interaction, they do help streamline communication between businesses and customers. Today, we see a world where humans and machines work together seamlessly without any issues at all!
