AI chatbots are one of the top news stories this year, and it’s for a very good reason. Businesses finally recognize the link between good AI technology and good customer service outcomes. So anything that expedites customer service resolutions is a very important step forward for businesses.
AI technology doesn’t just accelerate customer service solutions; it often leaves a more favorable impression on customers than sometimes murky or ego-based human-to-human interactions. This revolution is so powerful that CNN recently covered the history of chatbot technology. It’s food for thought and a good read for anyone who wants to grow their business using AI tech.
Customer Service is Built on Clear Communication
If you scan over any old list of best customer service practices, you’ll notice a few things that might explain why AI chatbots are so good at their job compared to their human counterparts. At its heart, customer service is:
- Pleasing customers
- Helping customers believe they’re right
- Responding quickly
- Absorbing information from the customer and responding with the helpful information in return
Just why are AI chatbots so good at this and human beings sometimes so bad?
The True Benefit of Customer Service AI Chatbots
AI technology is ideal for customer service because it lacks the things that sometimes hinder human customer service agents. It’s not necessarily that the chatbot is better at relaying information. It’s that it’s better at framing the information outside of the human ego and human emotion. Here are just a few benefits of conversational AI.
1. Chatbots Relay Information Without Ego or Feelings Involved
A human enters a customer service interaction with a working ego and full emotions. These human emotions can muddle the communication between a business and a customer. In some cases, it can even cause the human customer service agent to lose their cool and anger a customer. Chatbots have the thickest of skins and bring no ego to the table. They exist to relay helpful information.
2. Chatbots Don’t Get Tired
Human beings have a life outside of work and often think about that life while on the job. It’s to be expected, but it’s not necessarily good for your business. Because humans have limited amounts of time to devote to work, it can be difficult to provide round-the-clock support to customers. The AI chatbot solves this dilemma. They’re built to serve your customers and have no “life” outside of this.
3. Conversational AI Assistants Are Great Buffers
If you work in an industry where human support is a must but not a must for every question, you can use AI chatbots as buffers for the questions an automated system can answer. This also helps your human customer support agents and keeps them insulated from getting the same question repeatedly.
4. AI Assistants Get Smarter Over Time
Humans often have a cutoff for how easily they can learn new information and adapt to new business environments. For chatbots, the sky is the limit. Machines continue learning and growing wiser each time they’re in action. They don’t resist change or rebel against it the way human beings sometimes do.
5. Chatbots Give Quicker Answers
Sometimes a person using a product just needs to know that the company cares about them enough to answer. Just getting some idea of what’s going on with a customer service issue can keep a customer calm for the moment. Unlike people, chatbots can immediately respond and aren’t overwhelmed with large workloads.
6. AI Virtual Assistants Can Grow Your Business
Implementing AI-based virtual assistants in customer service can be a game-changer for companies looking to scale up their businesses and grow their profits. With virtual assistants, businesses can automate their customer support processes and improve their response times, reducing customer wait times and improving customer satisfaction.
Additionally, AI-powered virtual assistants can handle large volumes of customer inquiries simultaneously, freeing up human agents to focus on more complex issues. This leads to increased efficiency, reduced costs, and the ability to serve a larger customer base. By using virtual assistants, businesses can streamline their operations, increase their productivity, and ultimately, grow their profits.
Keeping Things in Perspective
As the FTC pointed out recently, don’t overhype the AI chatbot revolution yet. There are obviously doubters out there and people who recognize that the technology so far is limited. So if you bring AI chatbots onboard to your business, make sure you find one that will further your cause and live up to the hype.
Businesses that properly use AI chatbots on their customer service teams usually save money, but don’t let money be the only reason you use AI. There are far more motives for using this technology than covered here. Many businesses prefer to keep AI and human customer service agents onboard to complement one another and make the best impression on customers.
