Customers today expect support to be proactive, immediate and personalized; they also want the option to self-serve and use various communication channels.
AI tools can assist in meeting these demands by automating repetitive processes and relieving staff of their workload, so they can focus on offering customers new suggestions.
1. Personalized Experiences
Personalization is a cornerstone of brand loyalty and long-term ROI, with 82% of shoppers choosing their business partner based on personalization criteria in 2023 according to Medallia Market Research’s survey.
Personalized customer service involves using individual data to customize experiences for specific shoppers, including their names, purchase histories, demographics and any other relevant details to provide a unique customer experience on each channel. Examples may include greeting each shopper by their first name when they contact your company via email or live chat window, offering tailor-made solutions to specific issues or providing targeted marketing offers.
An engaging approach can create a brand-loving customer community who share their experiences. Chubbies used Gladly to engage their customers on channels they were most active on and built up an impressive fan base who rave about their personalized support – this makes it easier for new shoppers to discover and select your brand!
2. Automation
Automation can be an invaluable asset in scaling customer support and increasing agent productivity, but it alone cannot deliver fast, personalized services at the speed customers expect.
Automating repetitive questions and orders frees up time for your team to focus on more high-value activities that build customer relationships. But before automating, make sure to identify which issues your business can resolve through automation, as opposed to reaching out for human help.
AI technologies provide agents with tools that help them resolve complex and priority tickets quickly by providing contextual article recommendations or templated responses based on customer intent, enabling them to deliver personalized and consistent customer experiences even during high volumes or peak seasons. However, be wary not to over-automate, leading customers to irrelevant self-service articles which could damage both takeaway experience and brand loyalty.
3. Self-Service
Self service provides customers with an efficient means to find solutions and address issues without needing to contact customer support directly. By creating resources such as FAQ pages, searchable knowledge bases, video help centers and chatbots that enable self-service interactions, self service can drastically decrease incoming tickets for customer support teams – but remember that people may prefer having someone assist them directly during urgent or high stakes situations.
When this occurs, you need to ensure your agents have all of the tools available to them to effectively assist customers. This involves training them with relevant knowledge to answer difficult inquiries and offer personalized customer support. In order to prevent unnecessary escalation of issues that might arise, be proactive and anticipate potential situations ahead of time – this might involve sending follow-up texts after grocery deliveries or providing helpful solutions in your knowledge base.
4. Virtual Agents
Virtual agents, commonly referred to as chatbots, have become an increasingly popular form of customer support. These bots can answer simple inquiries and assist customers with self-service processes reducing the need for human agents.
For more complex issues, virtual agents can direct customers directly to a live agent – eliminating confusion transfers and freeing agents up to focus on more difficult questions.
An intelligent virtual agent can utilize its built-in knowledge base to quickly find answers to common customer inquiries, eliminating the need for human agents to spend time searching. Furthermore, this process improves accuracy by learning from past customer interactions.
An IVA can take customer responses collected in an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system and use that information to route calls directly to specific departments or employees, thus optimizing employee time while giving customers 24/7 customer service they expect. Furthermore, this system reduces costs by enabling businesses to utilize smaller teams without paying agents overnight shifts.