“Customer service represents the heart of a brand in the hearts of its customers.” ~ Kate Nasser.

Customer service is the assistance you offer to your customers before or after they purchase your product or service. One of its earliest documented examples can be found in the early 1800s, when many companies began to realize the important role that customer service plays in business success.

However, the rapid rise in customer expectations has created a serious challenge for companies. With all the new digital channels and increased competition, it’s no wonder some companies have a hard time keeping all of their customers happy.

As this saying goes “Modern problems require modern solutions”, which is why many companies began looking for innovative ways to ensure customer satisfaction.

One of these modern solutions is Artificial Intelligence (AI), which began to be increasingly adopted by companies around the world to improve the overall customer experience.

In fact, it is estimated that by 2025 around 95% of customer interactions will be handled by AI. So what does this technology have to offer that so many companies decided to implement it?

Artificial Intelligence Defined

AI is the use of computers to perform tasks that are typically associated with intelligent beings, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making and language translation. Using these technologies can help companies quickly analyze large amounts of data (including social media comments), provide quick responses to customer questions, anticipate what they want next and generally increase the overall customer satisfaction.

AI-powered chatbots

Chatbots are applications that help businesses automate online messaging interactions with customers to some degree. However, AI chatbots are a step forward in this technology and can guide customers through more complex operations.

AI chatbots are not limited to pre-programmed responses and commands, they continually learn from the data provided and from the interaction of each customer.

Using Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities, chatbots break down the question and compare it to data in their knowledge base or previous answers that made customers in similar situations satisfied and happy.

The more interactions chatbots have with customers the larger is its knowledge base, giving more accurate and useful information to interested parties.

Reduced waiting time 

Another great advantage of AI chatbots is the reduced waiting time and service time. Research shows that due to long wait times and service times, companies reported 75% of customer churn.

Using smart chatbots can speed up this process, as they mostly don’t require the involvement of human agents. Therefore, when a service agent is limited in terms of the number of people they can serve, the chatbot is not – it can respond to multiple requests in a matter of seconds.

AI chatbots are estimated to save businesses around $8 billion per year in customer support costs.

24/7 availability 

Today customers demand constant availability from companies. This is especially important if the business is international and operates in countries with different time zones. Therefore, 24/7 availability shows your customers that you are ready to help them when needed, giving your business a positive reputation.

However, this can be a difficult task to accomplish considering that the average worker works 8 hours a day. 24/7 availability means you need to have different shifts of workers to ensure your customers get uninterrupted support.

AI Chatbot is a more effective and efficient solution which many international companies implement in such scenarios. Chatbot knows no 8-hour work schedule and requires no rest, unlike your staff. It is always readily available to provide your clients’ assistance and guide them with their inquiries. 

AI-powered customer feedback analysis

Another way AI can help businesses is by constantly checking different digital channels, such as forums, review websites, emails and chats, to find specific problems that users are experiencing.

In addition to identifying customer pain points and improving your product or service based on these insights, this proactive feedback analysis approach helps your business establish a strong connection with your users and identify the root cause of customer problems.

With the help of NLP and neural networks, the artificial intelligence solution will analyze customer feedback in seconds and classify it based on user sentiment. It will also provide exact keywords regarding the problem that customers have encountered.

In this way, companies will always be aware of what aspects of their service customers like best or what things need improvement, giving them the opportunity to respond to the problem before the specific user leaves the business and churns.

Video analytics 

Last but not least, another powerful tool for improving customer service is video analytics. Video analytics is a technology that with the help of algorithms analyzes the content of a digital video to find customer trends and ensure security.

What are the benefits for companies? With the help of this technology, companies can analyze heat maps and customer journeys, discovering the most common routes that help retailers better display their most popular products and offers.

Video Analytics also helps facilities identify peak traffic at their location and understand when additional staff is required to provide faster service.

Once the service is finished, the facial expression of the visitors can also be detected and connected with the quality of the service, giving more precise information on customer satisfaction.

Conclusion 

Many companies still ignore the implementation of AI because they believe it is a more expensive solution. However, the truth is that AI is a more profitable solution for your business in the long run.

Another important point is that the Artificial Intelligence solution not only improves customer satisfaction but also makes your staff happier. Delegating boring and repetitive tasks to artificial intelligence while providing your employees with meaningful projects engages and retains talents within your company.

If the reason you are still hesitant to implement AI in your business is because you are not equipped with the necessary resources to implement AI, that is not a problem either.

MaxinAI is pleased to offer you a free consultation call with our Artificial Intelligence experts so that we can better understand the project you have in mind and provide you with a customized AI solution that will ensure its success.