Chatbots that use Conversational AI provide several benefits to customer service. One of the main benefits is increase in customer service efficiency - quicker time in answering chats, higher number of people that can be self-served (meaning they never reach a customer service agent), reduced customer support agent workload (they have to spend less time on answering simple FAQs).
Additional advantages of chatbots in customer service are increased customer happiness, getting answers 24/7, not waiting in line or queues and not needing to repeat oneself when transferred to agents.
By far the fastest growing ways of interacting with most customer service systems is through a chat interface. A chat system is used because it is fast, intuitive and it can keep up with the highest ever demand for customer service.
Chatbots and intelligent virtual assistants bring efficiencies to customer service departments because customer service chatbots can answer questions immediately and in multiple languages. Being able to provide sub 1-second answers pleases customers that are looking for the quickest answers to their problems.
Integrating AI based chatbots into existing back office systems means that the bot can do the bulk of the work for the customer service teams. By authenticating the customer, the bot is able to provide personalized information about things like invoice payments, order status, available discounts, any trouble with specific services or products used.
Authentication is possible with some of the AI customer service software companies. All this provides customers detailed information about their queries and is something that previously only customer support agents could handle.
The benefit of having self-serve channels is the ability to not have to wait for the customer to transfer to an agent. Agents need to be available for the next available customer as much as possible but it is possible for the agents to have too many in-bound requests so that all the customers have to wait a long time.
A benefit for a chatbot in customer support is that it does not really have an upper limit on capacity. And it is becoming easier to build a chatbot with no-code tools in a simple step-by-step process. By understanding customer requests through intent detection and Natural Language Processing, chatbots can self-serve customers.
Chatbots can become a master of the conversation by being intelligent about what information is required and what actions to take. Chatbots can build a positive experience for customers and establish trust by answering common FAQs. This translates into decreased work for customer service agents.
There are in general 4 metrics you should keep an eye on when developing your chatbot in customer support. Average deflection rates by using chatbots hover around 50%. This translates into reducing customer service agents’ workload by 50%.
By learning what customers want to buy the chatbots in customer service can upsell and cross-sell products and services. As an example when a user asks about roaming fees from its telecom provider and is satisfied with the answer, the bot can suggest to purchase a new phone that comes discounted with a data plan.
The main driver for increased customer happiness is that the chatbot can give the customer a quick answer. When a customer usually contacts a business they are either put on hold in the call center or their email sent to info@ address gets a response in 4 days.
Immediate answer from the bot increases customer happiness and if it gives the exact information the customers is looking for then the benefits to the company can be significant in terms of customer loyalty.
Customers are always in a hurry. Time is of the essence and when a customer wants to place an order or is complaining about service they want action. The more channel channels there are, the easier it is to address customer needs at scale with the lowest cost.
In this case, chatbot is a good solution as it can solve the "last mile" of the customer journey. Reduce the customer support workload by being available around the clock and tackle customer questions head on when they appear.
Customer satisfaction also gets a major boost through "virtual agents" who are not based at an actual customer care center. These "virtual agents" are only based on a smartphone/tablet and are enabled to answer chats 24 hours a day.
Due to this, even during hours that customer service centers are not open, customers can get help at any time and can get satisfaction instantly. An advantage of the chatbot in customer support is that it never puts the customer on hold. It is always on and ready to answer.
Chatbots work not only in website chat but can be deployed across social messaging apps as well (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, RCS, Apple Business Chat). This allows companies to serve their customers in the channels that customers wish to communicate with them.
Chatbots store the conversation with customers so that when customers are forwarded to agents, this conversation history gets forwarded as well. Many providers allow for this feature and it is highly beneficial because then the agent can quickly read through the conversation between the bot and the user and start solving the question without asking the customer to repeat itself.
New customer satisfaction management and NPS dashboard are emerging. Companies are experimenting with multiple metrics for measuring customer satisfaction. NPS is one of the most commonly used metrics, which is defined as the number of customers who indicate that they are ‘extremely satisfied’ with your company.
Chatbots that use Artificial Intelligence help to increase customer satisfaction scores. They reduce customer waiting time and effort to service. Customers will get a simple reply and the customer service agents can concentrate on more complicated conversations with a customer.
Many chatbots in the market are designed with business logic, like recommending products to customers, or delivering information about a website visitor, which can contain useful business insight.
One of the major problems with the traditional business intelligence solutions is that the data is locked inside the system as audio files where insight is difficult to gather. With chatbots the data is already in text format and using either the chatbot software vendor’s analytics or business intelligence tools it is possible to discover valuable insights.
Things such as customer behaviour, preference for products, feedback to services, common issues with using services, common complaints nad what products serve the most value and satisfaction. Business intelligence solutions that have one click contact and the ability to get reports in real time at the location make customer experience more valuable.
When agents are doing 50% less work as chatbots are answering customer service queries, this means that 50% of the payroll cost that otherwise went to FAQ answering can now go to more value-add activities such as sales or solving complex customer service issues.
Messaging apps are the primary method of communication among younger demographics. Providing a channel where they can chat 24/7 with an automated chatbot reduces the friction in reaching a business. Otherwise they would have to pick up the phone and call support. There are a variety of chatbot vendors to choose from to make your experience a success.
Forms and emails do not appeal to customers these days. The expectation is to get instant response and make more impulse decisions based on the service received from the company.
With that in mind offering chatbots in social channels or in website chat gives a simple interface for new potential customers to submit information and as such capture leads that otherwise would have gone missing.
Use of chatbots in customer service increases the customer experience and satisfaction while it saves business costs. Although bots are not perfect yet they are the best way to achieve the goal of providing a personal experience to the customers 24/7 instantaneously.
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