A lot has already been said about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Some love it while others hate it. But today’s truth is that you can’t ignore AI. It has arrived and how. The advent of Big Data has further given a boost to AI. It helped companies to exploit the power of AI to provide the best customer experience.
According to a research by Gartner, by 2020, AI will be a top five investment priority for more than 30 percent of CIOs. But how exactly will it redefine or revolutionize the customer experience? Let us look at some ways through which artificial intelligence will improve the customer experience in contact centers:
1. All-time Customer Service
Providing convenient customer service is the need of the hour. When a customer has an issue, they want it resolved immediately. They don’t care what time of the day it is. Therefore, companies aim to provide round the clock customer support. Chatbots make this an efficient and seamless process. These are AI enabled devices which can be operational 24X7, unlike their human counterparts.
2. Omnichannel Integration
Customers today reach out to the companies through various channels – social media, phones, mobile apps, emails, etc. Therefore, it becomes important to integrate data from all these channels to provide a wholesome customer experience. For instance, a customer first reaches out through call and then also drops an email. The agent should get data from all the previous touch points in an integrated manner. AI helps in providing that omnichannel support to the agents.
3. Reduction in Waiting Time
AI streamlines the calling process. It helps in prioritizing the customers and thereby routing them to the best-suited agent in case of specific issues. Moreover, in case of general queries, the bot can route it to any available agent. This way, the customer doesn’t have to wait long and leads to satisfaction.
4. Repurposing Historical Data
By now we are accustomed to collecting Big Data. Companies try to gather data for all the possible domains and aspects – customer journey, operations, marketing, customer behavior and much more. Earlier, a lot of that data used to be dumped. But with AI, we can use this data to get a 360-degree view of the customer which helps us to improve CX.
5. Personalised Customer Interactions
Stemming from the previous point, the Chatbots being the virtual agents use the historical data to provide real-time information to the human agents. This information empowers the agent to be spontaneous and provide a customized experience to the customer. In addition to that, the customer will also be happy that the company is sensitive to her/his issues which might actually convert into brand loyalty.
6. Building Customer Relationships
Building strong customer relationships is the first step to brand loyalty. Unfortunately, humans have their limitations. AI can be effective in this situation. Bots can send an email to get timely feedback or an SMS on special occasions to make them feel valued.
7. Providing Future Opportunities
All the data crunching yields long-term results. Companies can analyze the historical trends to predict future trends. Based on sentiment analysis, machine learning and natural language processing data, companies can improve their products and target the right buyer persona.
Conclusion
Artificial Intelligence has proved its mettle, but there is still a long way to go before it gains acceptance from the majority. There always are people who are skeptical of new technology. AI has also not been left untouched by that. Some customers still feel more comfortable in interacting with live agents than virtual ones. Having said all that, AI is here to stay. We can expect an increase in its buy-in amongst companies in the near future.
