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People expect companies to deliver great customer experience (CX). They are even getting involved with artificial intelligence (AI) for this purpose. 80% of consumers have experienced at least one AI tool in the last few months, including 38% with an artificially intelligent search engine and 32% with AI chatbots.
The following five points explain the five problems that exist in customer communication and how AI can help companies:
1. Not the right contact person
When people need help, they want to communicate with an agent who will solve their problem immediately. However, they often have to ensure that the company understands the problem, connects them with the right contact person and takes the necessary measures. Instead of receiving prompt and thorough help, people face frustrating hurdles to overcome: 63% say contacting customer service multiple times to resolve a single issue is a major difficulty. 61% are frustrated when they have to describe their problem to several employees and are forwarded several times. Long waiting times in queues also annoy consumers.
AI helps people feel like they are in good hands the moment they get in touch with the customer service team. A virtual AI assistant classifies the concerns and records initial data such as the contract number before passing it on to the human colleague. In the event of a problem, he can have the customer describe the situation and later forward it to the human employee in keywords. This means employees have all the information they need – they can go straight to solving the problem. An AI virtual assistant can also offer improved self-service through which customers can solve their problems – without contact with a human agent and annoying waiting.
2. Not enough communication options
There are often only limited options for communicating with a company. 53% of consumers say they are unable to respond to text messages or emails they receive. 42% want quick information via chat or SMS, but the phone is the only option.
Conversational commerce tools rely on AI to enable two-way communication. Then people can easily respond to text or email notifications instead of having to switch to another communication channel or give up entirely. For example, via Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP enables AI to understand and process human language. The conversational commerce tools independently interpret the customers’ intentions and concerns that they express in their text or email messages.
Conversational commerce workflows can also add information, automation, personalization, and self-service options to conversations such as providing FAQs, authenticating users, making personalized offers, processing sales, or authorizing payments. This way, people don’t have to pick up the phone to get the resources they need.
3. No 24/7 support
48% of consumers say customer service is not available 24/7. 46% are looking for self-service support to help them get some of the answers they need at any time. However, they find that this support does not exist. When support options are so limited, people get the feeling that the company doesn’t prioritize customer service.
Artificial intelligence never takes a day off and works around the clock with virtual assistants and conversational commerce. The focus is on information, automation and self-service to reach customers with minimal human involvement. With chatbots and other self-service tools always available, they receive immediate support at all times.
4. No way to leave feedback
Anyone who has particularly bad or good experiences often wants to let the company know. However, 38% of people say the company does not provide an opportunity to provide feedback. Without the ability to communicate to the company what it did well or how it could improve, customers may think their opinion doesn’t matter. Without access to this feedback, the company also misses out on opportunities to serve people more effectively.
It is challenging to collect and evaluate customer feedback. With AI it becomes easier: For example, a company can set up a conversational commerce workflow equipped with NLP. This allows people to provide feedback or request follow-up if necessary. The tool understands the comments, can evaluate them and provide helpful tips. One-to-one messaging can also be implemented on a larger scale, allowing people to better share their experiences and suggestions for improvement.
5. Impersonal experience
An effective way to build strong customer relationships is to provide personalized experiences. But 38% of consumers say companies don’t personalize their offers or sales. If someone doesn’t feel like they’re being personally addressed by a company’s news or offers, they may feel inadequate or not seen at all – and might look elsewhere.
Human customer service teams fail to provide personalization at scale, especially during peak times, but AI can. A conversational commerce workflow references a customer’s profile to ensure a personalized shopping experience and drives sales using AI-driven chatbots. Extensive one-to-one messaging allows customers to speak directly to the company instead of feeling ignored.