What is customer service AI?
Artificial intelligence can streamline your customer service activities in a myriad of ways. Here is a look at the client relations tasks that AI can carry out for your company:
Prioritize and organize inquiries
Customer service AI can sort through volumes of customer inquiries quickly and efficiently. By rapidly identifying the urgency of each request, the product or service in question, the appropriate support channel, and any previous conversations with said customer, your customer service representatives will be better equipped to reply quickly and efficiently.
Expand your customer service hours
Thanks to tireless AI, your customer service department can provide support 24/7. After your team has gone home for the day, artificial intelligence can continue to respond to frequently asked queries and common issues. If your customer requires further assistance, AI will let them know when their human counterparts will be available.
Enable self-service
Virtual agents can remove pressure from your customer service department by enabling customers to find their own solutions. For example, AI can track orders, provide product tutorials, or make product recommendations.
Analyze customer feedback
Another way to use AI in customer service is to analyze and interpret customer feedback from surveys, reviews, and online platforms. These insights can quickly identify where your organization is succeeding and what areas require improvement—making customer relationship management much easier.
What does customer service AI look like in Canada?
Everyone seems to be talking about AI, but in reality, it’s not all that common in Canadian workplaces. In fact, Statistics Canada states that only 6.1% of businesses use artificial intelligence to produce goods or deliver services as of the second quarter of 2024. Interestingly, of those who use AI, 26.5% have incorporated virtual agents or chatbots into their organization.
It would appear that interest in virtual agents is on the rise, but according to a Statistics Canada report issued in September 2024, 71.8% of businesses do not plan to use AI over the next year. Of those organizations, 74.2% say that AI is irrelevant to the goods produced or services delivered by their company.
Others are open to the use of AI and are exploring the ways it could possibly benefit their organization. For instance, in October 2024, Shared Services Canada reported that they are conducting a test in Government of Canada call centres to measure the effectiveness of AI chatbots in providing assistance to customers. The goal is to enable clientele to receive immediate help, cutting down on wait times.
What are the benefits of AI in customer service?
Before investing in AI customer service tools, you will likely wish to identify how it will benefit your organization. Here are some of the positive aspects of AI in customer service:
- Improved allocation of resources: Using AI in customer service can lower operational expenses. By having AI perform repetitive or mundane tasks, your team of customer service representatives can focus on more complex issues. This puts your financial resources to better use.
- Increased efficiency: With AI handling repetitive tasks like tracking orders or responding to routine questions, your team can seize AI’s gift of time to handle more complex tasks. This leads to speedier and more efficient service, increasing customer satisfaction.
- Scalability: Providing good customer service is important, but it can be a challenge during peak busy seasons. To avoid having your customers wait on hold or in an online queue for hours, you can allow AI to process the routine requests. This can significantly decrease waiting times and create a much happier client base.
- Personalization: At first glance, it may appear strange to list “personalization” as a feature of artificial intelligence. AI, however, can analyze a customer’s interactions with your organization to create a personal profile that enables it to form product recommendations and personalized replies. This increases customer satisfaction and the likelihood of upselling or cross-selling.
- Customer insight: AI’s uncanny ability to synthesize large volumes of data can provide your company with valuable customer information, such as preferences, habits, and frustrations. In turn, this knowledge can be used to make internal improvements.
- Streamline sales efforts: AI can be a boon to service and sales by taking on a support role. By entrusting artificial intelligence to generate e-mails, send reminders, and analyze sales data, your front-facing employees can focus on making sales, serving customers, and building customer loyalty.
- Increased accuracy: Customers can become frustrated when they receive contradictory responses from different agents. AI, however, offers consistent and accurate information. This consistency can greatly enhance your company’s reputation and customer satisfaction.
What are the negatives of customer service AI?
Artificial intelligence is not without its downside. Here is a look at the potential problems associated with using AI in your organization:
- Privacy risks: The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada contends that data collected by AI can potentially be stolen. It is your company’s duty to responsibly use AI-powered tools and ensure the safety of your customers’ data through stringent safety measures and eradicating system vulnerabilities.
- It’s not human: One of the biggest drawbacks to AI is that it lacks the “human touch.” Some customers want to engage with actual people. AI’s inability to fully replace a human is particularly evident in situations that require an emotional response. It also lacks emotional intelligence, failing to interpret changes in voice, inflection, or other verbal cues.
- Programming limitations: While AI is adept at handling tasks it has encountered before, it is not skilled at adapting to new situations. In the customer service realm, it is impossible to predict every possible scenario, and it requires a human to adapt quickly when new situations arise. If faced with a complex problem that requires a creative solution, your AI is likely to fall short.
- Initial and ongoing costs: Implementing AI can be expensive, and the costs don’t stop at the initial investment. You will also be required to pay for continuous maintenance, expansion, and training.
- Errors and glitches: Technology can fail—and AI is no exception. Technical hiccups and errors can annoy your clientele. Furthermore, AI is only as good as the data that it uses. Faulty information can lead to inaccurate responses.
- Job loss: Many worry that AI will eventually replace human workers. The numbers show AI does not lead to job loss as often as feared. According to Statistics Canada, 84.9% of businesses that have introduced artificial intelligence to produce goods or deliver services saw no change in employment levels. You will, however, have to deal with your employees’ AI anxiety and any perceptions regarding impending job loss.
AI may not work for every organization, but it is worth exploring. By weighing the pros and cons of adopting artificial intelligence, you can make an informed decision for your customer service department.
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