The quality of customer service is crucial for the success of companies, irrespective of the industry. A study by Forrester Research reports that 66% of the customers won’t return if the customer service was bad, making customer service a critical component of a successful business strategy. The growth in the number of chatbot solutions and technologies on the market has led to several myths spreading. With this article, we are going to explore the top four with you.
AI-powered chatbots can automate repetitive questions with the best being able to offer a hybrid approach allowing for a dynamic knowledge base that grows as you scale. Integrated into a CRM system, chatbots can answer personalised questions, and automate processes such as blocking cards directly on your website or in the mobile app. In banking, for instance, Juniper forecasts that chatbots will be responsible for cost savings of over $8 billion per annum by 2022.
Myth #1: Chatbots will replace all customer service agents
It is true that today, AI chatbots are increasingly performing routine or repetitive tasks, which takes a huge workload off the agents. But agents still have to manage the complex queries, which require creativity and emotional intelligence; namely a human touch.
With Automation and AI the traditional customer service jobs will change, creating in its wake four different categories: employees who will lose their jobs, employees whose work will be fundamentally restructured, employees who will become experts, and completely new job opportunities.
The secret to a great customer service experience is to get the best of both and automate routine queries. This will free up the time of agents to focus on queries that add value. This results in shorter waiting times for customers and a higher availability on all channels, not just digital, thus increasing customer satisfaction. At the same time, AI can assist human workers with repetitive tasks and free up their time to achieve more so that agents can focus on more challenging tasks that require a human touch, allowing them to evolve with the complexity of tasks.
The full potential in customer service can be achieved with a hybrid approach of Agent+AI. In this case, the customer interacts with both a chatbot and human agent, who work together seamlessly to resolve any situation. Also, chatbots can collect all the data from the customer journey and provide the agents with the information they need to offer a great experience. In this way, customers can be offered the best possible service.
Myth #2: Chatbots can only automate conversations
Most people have had a conversation with a chatbot whether they knew it or not. Advanced AI Chatbots do not stop there, they offer automation of several processes such as blocking cards, making appointments or changing passwords.
Superior chatbot solutions offer more than solely conducting conversation dialogues, they can guide customers through predefined workflows, processes, and micro applications. They guide the customer directly to the relevant information they need and allow companies to automate processes in customer service, lead qualification, HR and help desks.
To make the customer’s life easier, there are also different interfaces in which you can integrate the AI solution. While a chatbot answers customers queries through a conversation, a service funnel or dynamic FAQ offers self-service to customers in an intuitive search bar. In line with the wide scope of application, Gartner predicts that 85% of customer interactions will be processed without a human agent by the year 2020. These solutions not only help customers to solve their problems faster but also ensure that the company profits from every single customer contact.
Myth #3: Chatbots require many IT resources
A common misconception is that the integration of a Chatbot implies the availability of a large IT department as well as highly qualified data scientists on the company’s side.
The technology today is at a point where companies do not need any IT resources to integrate an AI solution on their channels. Advanced solution providers train the AI on their platform using historical customer requests, ensuring a high automation rate from the beginning. As everything is set up and ready to use on the platform, the companies can become experts and use the AI solution on their channels without requiring a technical background or internal resources.
Until the launch of the chatbot, to ensure the best results, companies would be recommended to work closely with the solution provider covering initial planning and deployment to constant, as well as optimisation during the operational use. Multiple key stakeholders such as customer service, sales, and marketing are involved to provide an excellent customer experience.
Myth #4: Chatbots are unable to learn
Due to bad experiences with basic chatbots, people often think that Chatbots cannot learn from their interactions. Chatbots with Natural Language Processing (NLP) can evolve.
It is important to differentiate between the different chatbot solutions available on the market. The most basic ones are rule-based chatbots that don’t use AI, similar to an input-output system. On the contrary, chatbots using NLP can mimic human conversations and even identify the customer’s sentiment and react accordingly. Moreover, advanced chatbots can learn from every conversation and increase their knowledge base with every customer interaction.
Takeaway
Debunking myths of chatbots are one step in the right direction. In essence, companies have to provide an exceptional customer experience if they want to maintain their ability to compete in the market. By integrating AI into your customer management today, your customer service can scale as you do.
For successful integrations, choose wisely between the chatbot solutions on the market and integrate the technology into your CRM to enable a seamless and versatile interaction that benefits your customers and employees alike.
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