Digital self-service and AI: Streamlined service, happy customers, real-life results
Success! A top utility provider implemented self-service + AI chatbots to boost customer service, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.
Working day in and day out on the front lines with customers, service agents are key to building strong relationships between a company and its customers. The best service agents drive customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, which translates to higher CLV and bottom line results.
There’s a clear relationship between agent happiness and customer satisfaction, making agent satisfaction a smart business move. However, in customer service, job satisfaction can be low, leading to high turnover rates.
Service leaders reported annual agent attrition of 52% in 2023, according to a Deloitte Digital report.
This not only means additional costs to replace staff, but hurts employee productivity and of course, customer experience. AI in customer service promises to help organizations reverse the trend.
AI in customer service benefits
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing customer service in many ways. Here are three top benefits:
- Streamlines and accelerates service, enabling companies to provide faster, more reliable and personalized service.
- Boosts productivity and promotes agility.
- Reimagines the agent’s work, making it more enjoyable and fulfilling.
By automating routine tasks and aiding customer service agents in their work, service teams can focus on their strengths: engaging with customers and ensuring an excellent experience.
The tireless assistant for service agents
Through automation, AI in customer service reduces manual and repetitive tasks such as ticket categorization and information searching. This gives agents, who usually work under intense pressure to resolve customer issues quickly, time to focus on having good customer interactions.
The Deloitte Digital study found that companies using GenAI have 35% fewer instances of agents feeling overwhelmed by information during calls. Fifty-six percent reported higher agent productivity.
GenAI-enabled service tools can help agents by quickly summarizing customer information so they don’t have to waste precious time hunting for important details across multiple systems.
With AI assistance, service reps can connect more deeply with customers and truly use their skills.
Text creation with GenAI in customer service
GenAI is a game-changer when it comes to crafting fast, personalized emails. It captures the essential information from multiple sources and takes care of the routine aspects of writing and formatting.
Of course, agents still can add their personal touch to each interaction to make sure all communication is top notch and human.
The combination of artificial and human intelligence ensures customers get the fast, high-quality responses they need while reducing the burden on agents.
Focus on listening, empathy, and know-how
When customer service agents aren’t buried in routine tasks, they can spend more time on the activities that define the best in their profession – active listening, empathy, technical knowledge.
Despite being excellent at handling data and recognizing patterns, AI tools can’t replicate the nuanced understanding and emotional empathy that’s uniquely human.
With AI managing basic tasks, agents can use their experience and empathy to comfort a distressed customer or better understand customer needs. This makes each interaction a better experience for customers and agents.
How AI in the public sector improves citizen experience
AI in the public sector improves citizen engagement by helping citizens get questions answered faster and streamlining processes.
The satisfaction of problem solving
AI in customer service isn’t just about deflecting routine work; it’s a powerful tool for faster problem resolution.
In customer service today, inquiries are increasingly complex, and the volume of information agents have to sift through is larger than ever. AI helps agents manage the complexity by supporting service teams with recommended solutions, filtered information, and quick summaries of long email conversations.
By assisting service agents in tackling even the most complex inquiries, AI not only simplifies the work, but also fosters a sense of achievement to keep agents motivated.
AI in customer service: Freeing agents to shine
Artificial intelligence in customer service isn’t about pushing out humans in favor of efficiency. It’s about fundamentally changing the agent’s role to bring out the best in humans.
By reducing manual work and speeding up the problem-solving process, AI allows customer service agents to focus on the rewarding aspect of their job–engaging meaningfully with customers and helping them, one conversation at a time.
