AI in customer service – practical guide to empowering teams and driving revenue

The interplay between artificial intelligence and customer service is one of the most interesting relationships between technology and business in recent times. 

Customer service used to be seen as a cost-generating initiative. Now, empowered by AI, it’s becoming a powerful revenue driver for innovative companies. 

Why traditional service models need an upgrade

The traditional customer service model is holding businesses back due to three big challenges:

• Growing customer expectations for 24/7, immediate, omnichannel personalized support
• Increasing costs of scaling human support teams
• Difficulty in turning customer interactions into actionable business insights

Luckily, modern technology provides tools for companies to overcome these challenges – sometimes with ease.

AI-powered customer service has the potential to generate stunning results. For example, True Classic saw a 38% reduction in support costs with CSAT scores reaching 98%. 

Start small, think big

The key to successful AI implementation lies in taking measured steps while maintaining a clear vision of the end goal. In the case of customer service, one of the end goals is to make work easier for your agents.

• Begin your AI journey by focusing on a specific task – start by redirecting a specific type of simple, repetitive email inquiries to your AI agent. Grow from there and expand to more complex interactions.
• Forget about replacing human agents, use AI to enhance their interactions – AI automates the most repetitive work so that agents can focus on doing what they do best: delighting the most demanding customers.

Properly implemented, AI can make service agents more effective while improving the personal touch that customers value. 

Some companies have seen their average response times drop by up to 81% after implementing AI support. For others, AI can recognize and handle up to 66% of customer inquiries. 

Making AI work for your team

AI enhances customer service operations in three key ways:
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AI handles routine inquiries and provides agents with relevant customer history, allowing them to focus on complex issues that require human insight and empathy. This approach transforms service agents from question-answerers into problem-solvers. 
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Modern AI systems can identify when customers need help. For instance, when they spend too long on a product page or show signs of purchase hesitation. With this information, either an AI or human agent can proactively reach out and help the customer out.
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By analyzing shopping cart values and customer behavior patterns, AI helps identify opportunities for relevant product recommendations and meaningful upsells.

What about the human touch?

The human touch in customer service remains crucial. The goal isn't to automate everything. You want a symbiotic relationship between AI and human agents that enhances the overall customer experience.

To maintain the human touch while scaling operations, companies with great AI implementations focus on:

• Training AI to reflect brand voice and personality in all communications
• Ensuring seamless handoff between AI and human agents when needed
• Continuously monitoring and adjusting AI responses based on customer feedback

With how advanced this technology is, you can think of it almost like onboarding a human agent. You train them, give them guidelines and guardrails, and keep checking up on them to ensure they’re doing a good job.

Building for the future

Exciting new possibilities are emerging. Companies are exploring deeper integration between service teams and other departments. They're developing more sophisticated proactive outreach programs. They're finding new ways to personalize customer interactions at scale.

With AI, customer service is a more powerful growth engine than ever before. But regardless of technological advances, the fundamental principle remains the same – AI should enhance, not replace, human capabilities in customer service.

Moving forward

Big change doesn’t happen overnight. To level up your customer service, follow these steps:

Remember, the goal isn't just to automate customer service. It's to create better experiences, drive business growth, and delight your customers. 

If you’re not sure what’s the right solution for you, let’s have a conversation about AI customer service at your company.