6 ways AI can impact the future of customer service

Organizations have always used some level of technology to deliver great customer experiences. But the future of customer service will require even more advanced technologies to meet growing customer expectations.

There is no doubt that customer service will take a huge leap forward thanks to new trends such as artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, according to the IBV CEO’s Guide to Generative AI for Customer Service study, nearly 50% of CEOs feel that customer expectations have increased so that their organizations will accelerate the use of new technologies such as generative AI. Undoubtedly, the future of customer service must be AI-driven for organizations to improve customer experience and increase customer loyalty.

Solve customer churn problem

In a recent report, Gartner predicted that 80% of customer service and support organizations will apply generative AI technologies to improve the customer service experience. Simply put, CEOs know how important generative AI and other AI technologies are becoming in creating forward-thinking customer service strategies.

The stakes are incredibly high, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic has made customers more likely to switch brands. Studies show that 80% of customers are likely to switch to a competitor after one or more bad experiences with a brand. Customer support is a very important defense against customer churn.

The power of AI-enabled human representation

We are at an exciting time in customer service history where organizations can experiment with these new tools and forge a path toward a world where AI becomes the co-pilot of every customer interaction. According to the same IBV study, 63% of executives already expect to invest in generative AI use cases to serve agents directly by the end of 2023.

AI will become the central brains of contact centers where organizations interact with their customer base. AI-powered customer service doesn’t necessarily mean that every interaction is self-service. Instead, it means human support teams leverage AI and machine learning tools when assisting customers.

Frontline employees will continue to be an integral part of customer service interactions, but the use of new technologies is quickly becoming a competitive advantage.

How AI will change the future of customer service

Here are six AI-driven customer service trends that can help you provide better customer service across the entire customer journey.

Generative AI-based customer service team training

While all talent development can benefit from personalized training built on generative AI, customer service training has specific benefits. Issues can vary from customer to customer, so customer service representatives must remain agile when assisting customers. By using generative AI to learn unique scenarios that might arise in real-world situations, your reps can become more adept at handling any challenge your customers face.

AI-based personalization

Organizations that want to increase customer satisfaction must meet the needs of those customers before problems arise. For example, organizations can use AI to send personalized emails to new customers explaining the benefits and uses of a new product based on customer profiles.

Generative AI call script

Organizations are increasingly developing capabilities that allow agents to interact directly with technology applications to provide immediate support to customers. While some customers still want to talk to a human, customer service agents in call centers are increasingly enhanced by generative AI scripts and workflows that can be updated in real time. This way, your customer care representatives have updated information so they can confidently resolve your customers’ issues.

Conversational AI Bot

Traditional chatbots are useful, but somewhat limited by the static scripts they are programmed with. Conversational AI bots can better respond to customer input and update with new information in real time. These bots come closer to feeling like human interaction and are more likely to help customers effectively. It will provide a more engaging and personalized experience for customers who prefer self-service tools.

AI-powered insights from customer data

AI excels at finding patterns in data that humans would take too long to unearth or that might otherwise go undetected. Using AI, organizations can make smarter decisions by analyzing the entire history of omnichannel customer experiences across customer service call records, emails, social media, forum posts, and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms. You can also feed back data if your customers repeatedly misuse your product. In this case, organizations can create more specific guidelines that warn against misuse of the solution.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) based on Generative AI

Organizations can no longer draft FAQs based on their knowledge and forget to update them for months or years. In a rapidly changing world, FAQs must be continually updated to reflect new issues or uses of the solution. Organizations can use AI to analyze customer calls, emails, and social media posts to compile the most frequently asked questions. Generative AI tools can then leverage customer management playbooks to generate the most useful responses to help retain customers.

IBM and the future of customer service

To provide great customer service, organizations need to use all the tools at their disposal. As emerging technologies like AI become more prevalent, organizations must strive to leverage them across all business units and support teams.

For more than a decade, IBM has been helping companies apply trusted AI in this space, with generative AI dramatically transforming customer and field service through its ability to understand complex questions and generate more human-like conversational responses. It has additional potential to do so.

IBM provides end-to-end consulting capabilities in experience design and services, and data and AI transformation. Using watsonx™, IBM’s enterprise-grade AI and data platform, and watsonx™ Assistant, IBM’s market-leading conversational AI solution, we partner with you through the AI ​​value creation process to advance conversational AI, improve agent experiences, and Optimize your call center. Operations and data analytics.

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