Can AI really support customers?
Ever gotten tired of waiting for customer support representatives to get back to you on your inquiries or complaints? Or found yourself frustrated with generic "An agent will be with you shortly" messages? Do you wish there was a better way to get information and service instantly and efficiently? Well, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies seem to have the solution for you.
What’s the deal?: In today’s newsletter, we talk about ways AI is revolutionizing the customer support industry and what that means for you, the customer.
AI is upending the world as we know it by automating tasks that took a long time or were inefficient even with the best human effort. In customer support, long wait times, a lack of empathy in responses, and even plain wrong answers have been major problems. But, with the rise of interactive language processing AIs, these problems are being solved quicker.
Here are 5 ways AI is improving customer support:
1. Rapid response times: Getting agents to respond promptly has always been a big customer support issue. Companies have tried to solve this by outsourcing customer support to support farms or using rudimentary chatbots to collect customers' complaints and keep them engaged while waiting. With natural language processing (NLP) AI now on the market, customer queries can be understood by the computer and answers delivered in real time without any customer-human interaction or wait time.
2. Interactive knowledge bases: Knowledge bases are digital databases of information that can be used to provide customers with answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. AI like ChatGPT, IBM Watson, Microsoft Azure, and others can be used to set up interactive knowledge bases for products and services. Now customers don’t have to search standardized keywords on websites to get the best answers. Just type in the first thing that comes into your head, and the NLP-capable AI will fetch you an accurate answer. This reduces the reliance on customer support representatives, saves the customer’s time, and allows the business to focus on improving other parts.
3. Empathy and personalization: If you’ve ever worked in customer support, you know that empathy and personalization are cornerstones. You also know that on some days, when your mood just can’t take it, they are hard to muster. AI comes to the rescue here.Whatever the customer inquiry, responses can be personalized and empathized.This ensures that customers get personalized product or service recommendations, promotions, and self-service options in the tone that best suits them.
4. Language support: If you’ve ever tried to get support and you don’t communicate the dominant language in the area, you’d realize how important this is. AIs can be trained to communicate fluently in multiple languages, allowing customers from all backgrounds to make inquiries about your product and services and get accurate messaging in their own language. This will break down barriers and expand your customer base. Globalization at scale!
5. Sentiment analysis: Is your customer angry at your service, or do they need a few cheery words to pick them up and exceed their expectations of your service? Sentiment analysis uses NLP and machine learning (ML) techniques to identify and extract information from text data. It determines the attitude, opinions, or emotions of the writer and takes action to address the customer's concerns in a way that makes them feel heard, understood, and valued. | 
