Whether your business is in retail or engineering, your customers all want the same thing: an enjoyable experience with your brand. Your executives want the same thing. If customers are happy, they are more likely to continue doing business with you, and that means more profits for your company.
There are many ways to improve your customer service. Business leaders in multiple industries find artificial intelligence (AI) customer support – specifically chatbot customer service – one of the best strategies. In fact, the International Data Corporationfound that AI helped improve the customer experience by almost 25 percent.
Here are three ways you can use AI chatbots to make your customer service more efficient and successful.
1. Improve Your Organization’s Response Time
Customer service teams can get a bad reputation for slow response times. According to Statista, one in 10 consumers have recently experienced frustration by the lack of speed when dealing with customer service.
When your team is short-staffed or overwhelmed with call or email volume, response times and attention to detail may suffer. However, chatbots can handle multiple messages at once for instant support. By providing an immediate response, your customers get the attention and answers they are looking for without the frustration of waiting.
In addition, your teams might only be available from 9-to-5, but your customers may have problems around the clock. AI customer support can address common issues during off-business hours instead of forcing your customers to wait until the next day.
2. Troubleshoot the Most Common Problems
While your customer service team gets a number of different questions and concerns, there are likely a few basic or frequently asked questions that stand out. If your team is spending a lot of effort answering these simple problems, it may take their time away from handling more critical customer concerns.
You can use chatbot customer service to handle many common FAQs that don’t necessarily require human interaction. Your customers still receive the answers they are looking for, while your teams can focus on more important things.
3. Escalate Bigger Concerns to the Right People or Teams
When it becomes obvious that your customers require human support that goes beyond the capabilities of a chatbot, the AI can help identify, segment, and prioritize these interactions to the proper channels.
Just like how your sales team can convert more leads after marketing sends them nurtured prospects, your customer service representatives will be more successful when they already know the issues and the steps taken to try to solve them. As a result, your team will be able to handle more volume and solve more problems by focusing on the bigger concerns and leaving the minor issues to the AI tool.
AI customer support is a great way to make your teams more productive, but it should not replace your current staff. There will always be a need for human interaction in customer service. Chatbots just allow your teams to refocus their attention and reprioritize needs to become more efficient.
If you’re looking to add qualified candidates to build a stellar customer support team, the staffing and recruiting professionals at Nelson can help.
Brian Carberry is an award-winning journalist and content creator based in Atlanta. He specializes in career and workplace trends, business solutions, and the rental housing market. His work has been featured in CNN, Forbes, Fox Business, Wall Street Journal, and hundreds of local media outlets across the country.
