How AI Automation Unlocks Value from Your Other Systems - AI Powered Customer Service Automation
Head of Demand Generation
3 Aug 2023
4.5 min read
When looking to integrate any technology, it’s worth considering the auxiliary benefits that it can bring to your organisation. AI in customer service refers to the use of artificial intelligence and intelligent technology to create support experiences that are fast, efficient, and personalized. These advancements are transforming the customer experience by enabling more responsive and tailored support interactions across multiple channels. Outside of the stated goals for any solution, there are likely to be benefits that translate to other functions in the business.
AI-powered customer service automation is no exception. AI customer service solutions use technologies like Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning to handle routine inquiries via chatbots and virtual assistants, making support more scalable and efficient. As well as improving first response time for customer service and improving ticket resolution time, there are a range of benefits that these solutions can provide. AI customer service solutions also integrate with CRM systems through APIs or built-in connectors to enable real-time data sharing, further enhancing support operations. Let’s examine a few of them.
The future of AI in customer service is expected to involve AI handling up to 80 percent of customer service interactions from end to end within three years.
Identifying supply chain issues
If you suffer from a supply chain issues – a particular factory creates a product defect, a supplier produces imperfect materials, or a carrier has repeated issues with delivery – it can be hard to detect it with human agents. You have to rely on agents using the correct wrap codes, then have someone review the data and detect when the number of issues suddenly spike.
With AI, this process can be automated and an alert can be set up to trigger an investigation. AI agents built for customer service can analyze customer sentiment and customer conversations to detect patterns and issues in support operations. Using intent detection, AI platform can parse the meaning in what customers are asking and then aggregate the data. With that data, you can then set up alerts when the volume of certain ticket types reaches a threshold and trigger an investigation or escalation.
Machine learning and natural language processing enable AI to understand customer intent from text or voice, allowing for more natural conversations and efficient support operations. Take WISMO (Where is My Order) queries – if you were to see a sudden spike in customers asking where their packages were, you could dig into the data and see what’s causing the issue. Perhaps it’s an unidentified IT issue at a warehouse, or a problem with one of your carriers. AI can also summarize tickets for agents and provide after-call summaries, improving support efficiency and reducing operational costs. This allows you to drill in and find the issue and solve the root problem.
AI can provide 24/7 service and help businesses meet rising customer demands and expectations with fewer resources.
Getting refunds from carriers automatically with an ai agent
When an order is not delivered because of a carrier issue it’s particularly frustrating. Firstly because you’re having to deal with a customer issue that’s not your fault, but secondly because you have to raise the issue with the carrier in order to get the refund for the failed delivery. For an agent to do this takes time away from helping customers, but yet it’s essential for your business to recoup costs.
With AI, this process can be automated. AI-powered customer service automation can automate workflows and routine tasks such as raising refund requests, leading to significant cost savings and reduced operational costs. It requires integrating with your carriers, but when you have that set up, you can create a workflow that automatically raises the issue with the carrier.
Porto’s Bakery does this with DigitalGenius – as they sell perishable goods it’s essential that delivery is on time, which means a lot of next-day delivery services. When those delivery slots get missed, Porto’s have to send a replacement order or issue a refund to the customer. As a result it’s essential they recoup as many costs as possible. Using automation, they are able to automatically recoup $7,000 a month from carriers. AI agents can also provide immediate answers and 24/7 support, ensuring customers receive assistance at any time.
Automating these processes allows human agents to focus on higher value work, and improves customer satisfaction by providing faster, more accurate, and personalized support.
Cancelling or amending orders before they are shipped
A request to cancel or amend an order is another necessary pain that retailers have to deal with. If the order has not been processed the pain is minimal, but if it has shipped then retailers have to deal with returned items, replacement orders and even refunds. With modern commitment to processing orders as quickly as possible, the chances of catching the order gets lower and lower. It depends on a customer service agent picking up the request and getting it to the warehouse in time. AI powered customer service automation can intelligently route customer requests to the right agent or automate the process entirely, streamlining workflows and ensuring efficient handling through intelligent routing.
However this is another process that can be automated. waterdrop used an integration to Netsuite in order to process cancellation orders and amends. If customers make the request before the order has been processed, the request gets transmitted automatically and the order can be stopped in its tracks. AI agents can handle both routine and complex inquiries, automating responses and analyzing customer sentiment to ensure accurate and timely support.
Ultimately this process improvement means that it prevents further tickets being created with returns, refunds and replacements. But it can also remove an unnecessary order from the shipping backlog, making the process smoother for other customers, and saving on shipping costs. AI can deliver personalized support, improve response times, and help businesses provide personalized support experiences.
These improvements contribute to higher customer satisfaction.
Improving processes in CRMs and other platforms to boost customer satisfaction
For any online retailer, managing multiple systems for different purposes adds layers of complexity to simple tasks. During the course of any conversation with a customer, agents may have to look at a wide number of platforms. This may include a helpdesk, a CRM, a CDP, a loyalty platform, as well as carrier systems. Integrating these systems into one platform can improve support interactions and streamline processes by centralizing data and automating workflows.
By integrating these systems to an AI automation platform that can pull data from all these data sources, ecommerce teams can start to improve processes. AI agents can connect with the knowledge base to automate responses and suggest content updates, further enhancing support efficiency. For example, being able to pass relevant order information to a carrier system can allow the automatic generation of return labels for customers.
There are few limitations to what can be done if the integrations are right. waterdrop also uses automated processes to apply loyalty points to customers’ accounts when certain conditions are met, meaning that agents and in-store staff don’t have to spend time manually amending loyalty accounts. AI systems can analyze past interactions to personalize support and improve the help center by flagging knowledge base articles that need updates.
AI customer service solutions also integrate with CRM systems through APIs or built-in connectors to enable real-time data sharing.
Successful use of AI can transform business processes
When AI is used at its best, it is about removing the tedious, time-consuming tasks from support agents, allowing them to focus on high value interactions and deliver exceptional service. AI works alongside human agents to improve agent productivity and agent performance, ensuring more personalized, seamless, and empathetic customer experiences. AI agents can handle complex issues, complex problems, and complex queries, freeing up human agents for higher value work and improving overall support efficiency. Generative AI and conversational AI are transforming customer service by enabling more natural, context-aware interactions that better address customer needs and customer queries. AI purpose-built for customer service is being adopted by leading companies to improve support efficiency and customer satisfaction, while AI-driven insights help companies identify knowledge gaps and continuously refine customer service strategies. Predictive AI can anticipate customer needs and enable proactive outreach, improving customer satisfaction and reducing churn. AI also helps businesses build stronger customer relationships by providing personalized support throughout the customer journey and analyzing customer sentiment. By enabling support teams to operate with fewer resources, AI transforms the cost center into a value driver for the company. Choosing the right AI customer service solution requires considering technical expertise, budget, and ease of integration, and simple tools like chatbots can be a starting point for companies new to AI. Important metrics such as resolution accuracy and sentiment shift help measure the effectiveness of AI in customer service.
For the wider business, this can mean detecting patterns in data that suggest there is a problem, as well as improving business processes that can save the business time and money.
To discuss how AI can help you bring the most out of your systems book a meeting with our team today.
