If you run a business, you already know that it is an era of customer service. More people will choose a product or service just because it has a better customer experience.
Within customer experience, the number one priority is to ensure that your customer has direct access to customer service for everything.
Most businesses only offer complaints management and technical guidance via customer service. However, the bigger brands are shifting the service experience via customer service.
This includes query management, price discussion for each article, billing options, complaint management, technical guidance, service upgrade, cancellation of service, bundle details, and more. One of the leading examples in customer service is Wave customer service.
The company has effectively shifted almost every possible service that would otherwise requires you to visit the outlet, to their customer support department. This has helped them retain their customers and boost customer loyalty as well.
As a business, if you are struggling to retain the customer and get customer loyalty, customer service is the way to go.
However, it can be expensive since you will be required to form a team that stays at the service 24/7. Apart from this operational cost is also high because customer service is not a product or a service you can sell but an added value that you offer to increase customer satisfaction.
As customer service is becoming a vital part of business, even small companies are allocating budgets for customer service.
To make sure that companies do not have to spend too much on simple customer service tasks, the use of software and AI-based tools is becoming common. More companies are switching from traditional phones to VoIP and cutting the number of employees by using AI-based software.
To effectively incorporate AI into their business, they just need good internet, the required software, and a computer.
How AI Will Change the Nature of Customer Service Work?
AI has many applications, almost in every domain.
Artificial Intelligence is becoming popular in business. More companies are using AI to boost their customer service. This is not just helping them cut costs but it is also helping them to work more effectively by reducing human error and offering prompt replies.
As customer service workers, people are now finding it easier to work with the help of newly introduced AI software and companies are also able to get better results.
If you are a customer service representative or you own a business, here are some of the ways and examples of newly introduced AI-based software that can help you improve the customer service department.
Chatbots are hands down, the best thing that has ever happened in customer service. Where most companies would dedicate a whole team to handle customer just chats, now they are being replaced by chatbots.
Chatbots offer prompt replies by using automated data that is installed in them. This data is used for generating answers. The best thing about these chatbots is that they can sense the context of the question.
After skimming through the question, the chatbot then gets to the installed data to come up with an answer accordingly. This chatbot software is a simple plugin and they are not expensive, which makes them an ideal choice.
VoIP has already replaced the traditional landline phone system that was being used previously. However, now you can also get VoIP management software.
This software ensures that businesses get to collect the data of the client, register the complaints and then manage the catalog for the customer so the issue can be resolved right away.
Apart from this, the VoIP management system records all the interactions of the customer with the client so that it can be retrieved anytime there is an issue.
Remote working is becoming a very attractive benefit in the job industry, as most people prefer remote working to on-site jobs. With the help of AI-based software, anyone can work from anywhere at any time by just using their computer and stable internet.
This helps companies to hire customer service agents from different countries speaking different languages and different time zones. For instance, European countries usually hire people from Asian countries by using AI-based tools.
This helps them cut the overall cost while making sure that they can track the digital blueprint of the client as well as their employee.
Apart from the business benefits of AI, AI is changing the role of customer service workers.
Previously customer representatives were hired on the base of their communication skills and their ability to de-escalate a situation.
However, customer service is now becoming a science. This includes instant problem-solving skills, the technical skill of handling and using VOIP and other software effectively as well as proficiency in the language.
As simple tasks are now handled by AI software, the focus has shifted to adding a human touch.
By using AI-based software, client data is kept in a single server and all the employees get access to that server. This helps the company to manage client history based on the complaint they register, the status of each complaint, and the order list, bundle, or service they are acquiring.
This list is also used for a prompt reply on the formation and complaint status update via other channels like emails and texts.
Bottom Line
AI is taking lead in almost all business departments but it has revamped the customer support department completely.
As a business owner, if you want to boost customer retention and brand loyalty, customer support is the only way to go.
The above-mentioned perks of using AI will help you cut costs while improving your customer service.