How AI will Improve Customer Experience

As the digital customer experience continues to rapidly evolve, meeting rising expectations is a challenge for all start-ups. Exceptional has become the new service baseline and start-ups need to be armed with the right tools to achieve the personalized care that customers demand. 

Here at Enshored, we believe great customer experience depends on the human factor and our agents are the best in the business. But to optimize customer journeys, it’s important to get the right blend of technology and personalization.

CX Game Changer

This is where generative AI has a growing role to play in developing deeper insights and building a better user experience. Much has been said recently about how AI is changing customer experience and this follows significant tech breakthroughs like ChatGPT. 

Of course, AI is not new in CX, but in the latest CMSWire State of Digital Customer Experience Report, it was shown that in 2022 (before ChatGPT) a quarter of respondents had no AI applications in their CX toolset. Another 18% were just starting out, and 16% said AI was rarely used in CX. Only 8% said that AI was regularly used to improve “many parts of our CX strategy.”All that is about to change.

Transforming Chatbots

ChatGPT is the most advanced language processing system available and is poised to dramatically transform chatbots. With surveys showing that customers are frequently frustrated by chatbots because they are unable to resolve their needs, a significant breakthrough beckons.  

By integrating natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLM), ChatGPT has an increased capacity to understand wide variations in prompts and requests, making it able to answer most information based questions. 

These new customer service bots will replace a mechanical and scripted approach with one that’s more authentic and personalized. 

Other AI-powered tools like Google Bard, Microsoft Bing and ChatSonic will also help businesses transform their customer experience.

Not Without Limitations

Whether it’s analyzing customer feedback, reducing handling times and turning data into valuable insights or taking over FAQs, routine interactions and responding to social media posts, AI can increase customer engagement while reducing cost-to-serve. And it can do all this in multiple languages.

But while there’s understandably a buzz of excitement around the potential impact of AI on CX, it’s also important to recognise its limitations. 

ChatGPT is not always factually accurate and is prone to the odd fundamental – and potentially expensive – error. OpenAI has rightfully acknowledged that it’s a “preview of progress” and it will undoubtedly improve. Similarly, as with all technology, it can’t empathize or build relationships that will foster customer loyalty. 

With this in mind, AI is unlikely to replace human agents. Instead, a human-centered customer experience can be successfully supported by a smart AI strategy. While humans will continue to do the heavy lifting, AI can manage volume and ensure your business can go faster.

Early Days of Transformation

As Mahesh Ram, head of digital customer service at Zoom points out, AI can take over the repetitive elements of customer agents’ work. 

“Think of it as ‘AI in the front, human in the back’,” he says. “When a customer first contacts a company for support, they’ll be met with standard qualifying questions to be answered to understand the situation and adhere to security regulations. When implemented well, AI can act as the front line, providing low-cost support while reserving the more expensive, creative, human-powered support for second-tier escalations or more sensitive topics.”

Since the pandemic, customer experience has arguably entered an arms race to find continually quicker ways to deliver personalized experiences to drive customer engagement – and AI is now promising lightspeed.

“The market is in the early days of this transformation, but its potential is awe-inspiring,” says Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting.

Smarter, Faster, Stronger

One thing is certain: it’s unlikely to slow down, as according to research by Accenture, 64% of consumers wish companies would respond faster to meet their changing needs.

The global management consulting firm, McKinsey, estimates that AI technologies could potentially deliver up to $1Trillion of additional value each year, of which customer experience accounts for a significant portion.

And who wouldn’t want to get their fair share of that?

Enshored is a proven partner in integrating AI technologies to drive better customer experience. To find out more, contact our team.