At Assist Scout, we consider nice buyer help is greater than offering appropriate data. It’s about creating connections, demonstrating empathy, making proactive recommendations to maneuver prospects ahead, and extra.
Whereas AI is right here to remain in customer support, it’s going to by no means completely change human brokers. AI instruments assist customer support groups do higher work — it doesn’t change them.
On this article, we’ve collected seven profitable examples of firms which have embraced AI in customer support — to not take the place of human brokers, however to enrich their skills and make them more practical than ever.
What’s AI in customer support?
On the highest stage, AI in customer support means utilizing synthetic intelligence and machine studying applied sciences to automate buyer help processes and interactions.
AI in customer support appears to be like totally different relying on the enterprise. For instance, one firm may provide a conversational chatbot that pulls from their assist heart to help prospects in a human-like method. One other may use AI options to enhance an agent’s e mail response so it sounds extra on model or to summarize a prolonged e mail thread in seconds.
How are firms utilizing AI for customer support?
As extra firms are incorporating AI into their toolboxes, these are a number of the most typical methods the know-how is being utilized in customer support:
To interact in conversations and reply to buyer queries: Chatbots use generative AI to grasp and reply to prospects’ questions, irrespective of the time of day. By integrating this know-how with an present information base, chatbots could be extremely efficient at fixing frequent buyer points with out escalating them to a human agent. Nonetheless, like another know-how, it’s not 100% dependable. There will likely be instances the place the knowledge supplied won’t correspond to the query or is solely flawed. You’ll have to map out these eventualities and make it simple for purchasers to contact a human agent if their downside isn’t solved.
To grasp satisfaction ranges: AI is being utilized in analytics instruments to research buyer suggestions at scale. From emails to critiques to social media posts, this AI-powered evaluation helps customer support leaders higher gauge buyer sentiment and feelings. Expertise is quicker and extra dependable at discovering frequent themes or points earlier than they grow to be a priority so companies can deal with them proactively.
To supply multilingual buyer help: Clients need and count on buyer help in their very own language. Nonetheless, having help brokers obtainable in all languages could be expensive. Utilizing machine studying algorithms to provide correct translations shortly, companies can talk with prospects in virtually any language. For instance, firms are utilizing AI of their ticketing software program to shortly change the language of an agent’s response to match the shopper’s wants.
To categorize and prioritize incoming help tickets: AI in customer support can deal with tedious, time-consuming duties beforehand dealt with by brokers, corresponding to triaging buyer help tickets. AI-powered ticket routing can mechanically categorize incoming buyer conversations based mostly on their content material and urgency in order that they attain the suitable workforce extra effectively, decreasing response time and releasing human brokers to hold out extra helpful duties.
To enhance human brokers’ solutions: A typical use of AI is to assist brokers do their finest work. AI know-how summarizes a buyer’s query so the agent saves time determining what the shopper needs. AI writing help instruments can shorten or lengthen an agent’s reply and even edit a response to match a enterprise tone.
This checklist comprises a number of the most typical eventualities of firms utilizing AI in customer support, however it’s always evolving. As AI improves and is built-in into extra instruments and processes, companies proceed to seek out new methods to make use of AI to enhance and optimize buyer help experiences, growing satisfaction and retention.
7 examples of firms efficiently utilizing AI in customer support
We’ve collected seven actual world examples from firms utilizing AI to enhance their buyer expertise.
1. Airbnb – Chatbot and self-service
The world of customer support chatbots could be divided into two teams: chatbots which can be powered by AI and chatbots that aren’t.
You’ll often acknowledge chatbots that use AI, as a result of they’re surprisingly good at understanding and responding to buyer questions. Chatbots that don’t leverage AI are a lot easier and extra structured — they observe pre-defined guidelines to work together and lead customers by a call tree. Sadly, even AI chatbots typically fail to offer related data until prospects use the “proper” immediate, which may trigger some odd agreements.
Airbnb demonstrates what an expertise with conversational AI in customer support ought to be: clear, easy, and informative. One of the best half is that it doesn’t purposely make connecting prospects with a human agent laborious. In case you don’t get the make it easier to want by self-service, reaching somebody is simple.
This kind of AI chatbot is de facto good at letting prospects self-serve whereas companies can cut back help prices, enhance effectivity, and improve satisfaction.
2. Wanderlog app – Conversational AI
In case you’ve ever needed to manage an extended vacation journey, you understand how a lot time goes into it. It’s virtually a full-time job: studying journey blogs and guides, discovering the most effective locations to eat or keep, and determining tips on how to get from A to B.
In case you’re fortunate, you may know somebody who may give you some private suggestions.
Wanderlog is a useful little app that helps you propose and manage your journey. It comes with an fascinating AI characteristic that makes use of ChatGPT’s huge knowledge to behave as a journey agent, offering suggestions and tips about actions and even organizing your every day itineraries.
Through the use of a generative AI bot, Wanderlog makes it enjoyable and straightforward for vacationers to get suggestions, discover actions, and discover journey help with quick, detailed solutions with out having to succeed in out to a customer support agent.
3. TransferGo – Multilingual chat automation
Whereas English is usually thought-about the language of worldwide enterprise, solely one in 5 folks can truly converse it. Providing multi-language help is vital for companies, as 75% of shoppers usually tend to return if help is of their language.
TransferGo, a global cash switch firm that lets folks ship cash shortly, is now utilizing AI to supply multilingual chat automation to their prospects. The corporate makes use of a digital agent fluent in 11 totally different languages.
Utilizing AI, their multilingual digital agent reliably and shortly handles self-serve intents, corresponding to altering names, addresses, or telephone numbers in seven languages.
4. Uber – Sentiment evaluation
AI-powered sentiment evaluation instruments can analyze buyer suggestions to gauge prospects’ sentiments and feelings. This helps companies perceive and deal with considerations in actual time earlier than they grow to be issues.
Uber makes use of AI know-how to measure the effectiveness of their methods. For instance, after rolling out a brand new rider app, Uber used AI to establish sad customers and used suggestions to handle points within the app earlier than they grew to become a significant downside. This strategy will get upstream of your customer support workforce, enabling you to repair points earlier than your help inbox will get slammed with indignant prospects.
5. Assist Scout – AI writing assistant
At Assist Scout, we’re proud to make use of our AI options to enhance our prospects’ experiences whereas serving to our workforce work extra effectively and successfully. Nonetheless, a few of our AI writing help options, AI drafts specifically, have even benefitted folks past our help workforce.
Each workforce member, from our engineers to our advertising and marketing workforce to our CEO, spends time responding to actual prospects within the Assist Scout queue. And whereas we’re all aware of our product, it could nonetheless be a bit of scary for individuals who will not be used to working straight with prospects.
AI drafts is a instrument obtainable in Assist Scout that may generate responses to incoming conversations based mostly on knowledge inside your account, corresponding to dialog histories and information base content material. It’s made an enormous distinction in relation to growing consolation within the queue.
Kristi Ernst Thompson, one among our senior technical help specialists, says, “AI drafts have made Complete Firm Help really feel so much much less daunting. Our help workforce all the time encourages everybody to reality test and revise drafts in order that they’re written in their very own voice, however we’ve discovered this provides them an important jumping-off level.”
There could be a certain quantity of hysteria that comes with looking at a clean web page, and AI drafts makes it just a bit bit simpler to get everybody within the inbox and serving to prospects.
6. IKEA — Digital room planning
Making a “fast go to to IKEA” isn’t a factor — and that’s very true in case you want inside design assist. Now, with IKEA’s AI room planning instrument, customers can velocity up the design course of.
IKEA prospects can use the AI instrument to create their designs when it’s handy for them, quite than spending prolonged periods on the telephone or in particular person with a customer support affiliate.
Whereas this will not appear to be a regular use case of AI in customer support, it’s an important instance of zooming out to consider the broader buyer expertise. Previous to utilizing this AI know-how, IKEA prospects had to spend so much of effort and time to design their areas. Utilizing AI know-how makes that course of far simpler and extra handy, and it additionally decreases the probability of future returns and dissatisfied prospects.
7. Delta Airways — Information administration
Whereas low-cost airways have historically centered on value, Delta Airways has been attempting to compete by providing an important buyer expertise. At a convention final yr, Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian, defined how AI helps their help groups be extra environment friendly by making data simpler to seek out.
“We’re working with our reservations workforce to attempt to assist our reservations brokers parse the historic insurance policies and questions and issues that you could be name into an actual agent,” he defined.
An instance of this in follow is when a passenger calls with a query about touring with a pet. Utilizing AI, the customer support rep can shortly entry a solution from a procedural guide. This sort of data has traditionally been obtainable in assist facilities and FAQs, however Delta’s working to make it extra accessible to name heart brokers. “Folks go on and are on maintain for 5 minutes ready for a solution; they need to solely be on maintain for 5 seconds,” Bastian stated. “That is what AI can do, and that is one of many first functions that we’re deploying.”
Finest practices for utilizing AI in buyer help
AI is much from good. It may misunderstand requests, give out unclear or incorrect data, and counsel unrelated assist heart articles.
Nonetheless, whereas not flawless, these firms (and lots of extra) have already benefited from utilizing AI to enhance their customer support. Under are some finest practices for implementing AI in your individual customer support journey:
Set clear aims. Having clear aims will make it easier to discover the AI answer that matches your wants. Maybe you need to cut back response time in languages aside from your workforce’s major language otherwise you need to begin monitoring sentiment to supply extra proactive help. No matter your goal is, it’s the idea for determining which instrument most closely fits your wants.
Select use instances that match the workforce’s wants. Discover the precise use instances the place AI can have probably the most vital influence on buyer help. Prioritize repetitive, time-consuming duties, corresponding to answering frequent queries, routing tickets, or offering self-service choices.
Begin by leveraging your present instruments. Many instruments, like Assist Scout, have now launched AI-powered options and performance. Earlier than investing in extra instruments that make huge guarantees, optimize your present tech stack to benefit from these new options.
Take a look at, check, and check once more. Sadly, many companies nonetheless provide a sub-par AI-powered buyer help expertise. It’s not the AI’s fault; it’s as a result of the people didn’t take the time to fine-tune it. AI is a strong instrument, however it must be monitored to make sure the accuracy of AI-driven selections.
Have human brokers overseeing the AI fashions. When utilizing AI to help human brokers, make sure to have a course of in place for brokers to validate the AI’s work. That is to keep away from any inaccuracies coming from the AI mannequin that may be shortly corrected by a human.
Monitor efficiency by organising KPIs. Begin by deciding which metrics to measure and tips on how to measure them. With out KPIs, you gained’t know whether or not the AI is assembly your expectations. You may enhance and replace the AI fashions periodically as your wants evolve and also you accumulate buyer and worker suggestions. Deploying AI in buyer help will not be a static choice; as a substitute, it’ll evolve, particularly because the know-how retains on growing.
AI will radically influence how customer support groups are organized, however AI is not any substitute for the ability and empathy that help professionals possess.
Optimize your customer support with AI
As synthetic intelligence quickly evolves, it’s apparent that it has many use instances in customer support. It’s particularly related when utilized strategically to automate repetitive or tedious duties, releasing up buyer help brokers to do extra impactful work.
Within the examples we’ve seen, firms have efficiently applied AI to enrich the work of human brokers and to enhance the broader buyer expertise.
One factor is crystal clear: The advantages of AI are extremely depending on how thoughtfully you combine AI into your customer support instruments and processes.