How does AI increase efficiency in customer support?

What is the future of AI in customer service?

A study from Stanford and MIT found that using AI in customer service makes agents 14% more efficient. Around 25% of companies involved in the study are now using AI to automate their contact centers, hence enhancing efficiency in customer support and, in turn, making their service operations better.

The ongoing advancements in AI, are opening up numerous opportunities for organizations in various sectors to boost their efficiency and productivity in customer support operations.

While AI chatbots are widely used in customer support today, AI has a broader spectrum of potential. Let’s take a closer look to explore how AI can be harnessed to enhance efficiency in customer support.

“Artificial intelligence will save us time and mental sweat if we use it efficiently.”

— Daniel Willey

Efficient ways of using AI in customer support

By effectively deploying AI in customer support, you can reduce response times, increase customer satisfaction, and optimize your support operations while freeing up human agents to focus on more complex and value-added tasks. It’s essential to strike the right balance between automation and human intervention to provide the best customer experience. Here are the most efficient ways in which an organization can implement AI to give their customers a better experience-

  • AI chatbot

With natural language processing, determine the intent of customers’ messages and seamlessly assist consumers in resolving queries or escalating them to a live agent. With around-the-clock availability and a variety and depth of alternatives, empower customers to solve their queries by themselves by conversing with the chatbot without a human agent’s intervention. 

  • Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis, often referred to as opinion mining, involves analyzing customer sentiment. It primarily focuses on textual data to understand whether customers’ emotions or moods are positive, negative, or neutral. This application of natural language processing (NLP) helps organizations assess customer satisfaction, identify areas for enhancement, and then address those issues promptly.

  • Predictive analytics

Data is the core of predictive analytics. Through the application of AI, an extensive volume of customer data can be examined to uncover trends, patterns, and customer intent in general. This forms a substantial component of a proactive approach to customer experience, where businesses can anticipate customer concerns even before they arise or get escalated.

  • Recommendation engine

Recommendation systems powered by AI evaluate customer actions, purchase records, and likes, to offer customized suggestions for products or content. By comprehending the unique preferences of each customer, businesses can improve their potential for promoting related products and encouraging higher-value purchases.

  • AI-powered intelligent chat assistance

Empower agents with an intelligent chat assistant. Guide them through the ticket resolution process and generate contextual responses and recommendations in real-time conversations. 

Powered by ML capabilities, Kapture CX’s agent assistance provides action-oriented recommendations to the agents in real-time to send responses. With actionable answers to questions that agents might not have the answers to, the agent assistance window helps ensure quality resolutions across the team. 

  • Automated ticket queue management

A lot can be done when it comes to automated ticket queue management.

Backed by ML, Kapture CX can automate ticket assignment so the right ticket goes to the right agent offering instant resolutions. Route tickets to the right support agent based on skills, availability, priority, PIN code, product category, and round-robin basis. Ticket filtering is an important part of customer support operations. Filter incoming tickets using keywords, ticket sources, and customer types and direct them toward the right queue. Ticket queues can also be created by defining the auto-assignment type and assigning the tickets to specific employees and backup employees.

Benefits of AI in customer experience

How does AI increase efficiency in customer support?

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By deploying AI in customer support across organizations, agents can easily be liberated from answering repetitive queries and enabled to work on the more complex ones. 

According to Statista, 76% of the considered companies agreed on making a significant investment in AI applications in the fiscal year 2023.

From efficiency in costs to enhancing productivity, investing in AI has a lot of benefits overall. Some of them are:

  • Cost Savings

By automating routine tasks, AI reduces the need for a large customer support team, leading to cost savings for businesses.

  • All round availability

 AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can provide round-the-clock support, ensuring customers get assistance at any time.

  • Reduced response times

AI can respond to customer inquiries almost instantly, reducing wait times and improving the overall customer experience.

  • Proactive customer support

Predictive analytics can anticipate customer issues and provide proactive solutions, preventing problems before they even occur, let alone solving them.

  • Increased customer and agent satisfaction

Quick, accurate, and personalized responses lead to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. By handling routine inquiries, AI frees up human agents to focus on more complex and valuable customer interactions.

  • Data-Driven decision making

AI can analyze large sets of customer data to identify trends, common issues, and customer preferences, helping companies make data-driven decisions.

Wrap-up

AI isn’t a matter of qualms and concerns; it’s a vitality. Given the substantial advancements in this field, businesses in various sectors are using AI to streamline their support operations. With the evident advantages and the potential for increased efficiency, the decision to either up your game in the AI transformation or risk falling behind is in your hands.

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