January 24, 2019

What Is Artificial Intelligence and why is it useful for Customer Service?

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Technology is increasingly present in our daily lives. It helps in jobs that decades ago was unthinkable, or it existed only in science fiction films. However, there are solutions that are not yet fully exploited. One of them is Artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence offers innovative solutions for the most diverse areas within a company, including customer service. A better understanding of how it works and how it can benefit you is essential to find out if it’s the best option to meet your company's needs.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is one of the technologies of cognitive computing that is gaining grounds every day in all sectors because of its many advantages.

Artificial intelligence is a set of solutions that can perform functions similar to those performed by humans. A simple way to explain the artificial intelligence process is that it receives, identifies and processes information to give answers and solutions like a human being would do.

It replicates human thinking to solve problems and make decisions. Moreover, thanks to machine learning technology, it allows devices to learn from every interaction with humans.

In business, the increase of productivity and efficiency achieved by this technology is undeniable. It has great potential, and the best way to improve its results is to work with a team of trained people.

Large companies already have the help of artificial intelligence in several sectors, but not only huge companies can benefit from this technology.So let's see how artificial intelligence can help any company in customer service.

What makes it an ally for Customer Service?

Customer service deserves special attention because it’s where the relationship with the client is built. Here is where the relationship with the client can be strengthened or, in the worst-case scenario, may be ruined with a bad experience.

This is where artificial intelligence comes into action and allows to do a great job and provide the user an excellent experience.

As stated above, artificial intelligence solutions simulate human thinking, therefore, it is possible to create a completely natural chat in real time. During this chat, the virtual assistant can accurately identify and solve the user's needs resulting in an excellent experience.

When contacting Customer Service, one of the people greatest complaints is the waiting time. With artificial intelligence, that problem disappears because the user does not enter a waiting line. Nor the user has to wait while a person accesses information to give them a solution. Everything is done without delay. And there are more advantages: Artificial intelligence allows to offer services 24/7 avoiding the risk of human errors.

Unlike common thinking, artificial intelligence in customer service is an investment rather than a cost. By improving user experience, conversion and satisfaction rates increase resulting in a growth in sales.

The implementation of this technology increased in 2018 and continues as a trend in 2019 because it provides a wide variety of innovative customer service solutions for all kind of companies.

Related read: Customer Service: 2018 retrospective and trends for 2019

There are several reports showing its growth. One of them is the report conducted by ServiceNow and Devoteam in 10 European countries and in the United States: “The AI Revolution: Creating a New Customer Service Paradigm”. This report highlights that approximately 33% of companies have introduced solutions with artificial intelligence in customer service and that 74% of them had positive results.

How do I choose a virtual assistant for my company?

There is a wide variety of virtual assistants in the market, however, not all of them use artificial intelligence.

Some virtual assistants, the simplest ones, look for the requested information in their database. These will only respond to specific commands and will provide previously set up answers.

Others, the most complete ones, use artificial intelligence. This allows them to learn with the listener, making the chat more natural, less repetitive and generating a much better user experience. This technology will allow virtual assistant to meet all customer’s needs.

To choose the best option for your company, first, you have to set your goals clearly and analyze the demand for customer service. This way you can understand which solution meets best your company's needs.

Other important factor to consider before hiring a virtual assistant is the ease of use. It’s not useful to hire a virtual assistant with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and countless features if it's hard to use and understand.

Therefore, you should check first their ease of use and technical support service so you can benefit from all its features.

Related read: 5 Reasons to Supercharge your Customer Support with Artificial Intelligence

Do you think it's time for your customer service to start counting on this technology?

Are you looking for new ways to improve your CX?

Our customer service solutions powered by conversational AI can help you deliver an efficient, 24/7 experience  to your customers. Get in touch with one of our specialists to further discuss how they can help your business.