Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a business buzzword, but rather an integral part of operations – especially in customer experience. In recent years, AI-powered tools have begun revolutionising the way businesses interact with their customers, from chatbots to personalised recommendations.
Despite AI becoming commonplace, the hype has ramped up thanks to the explosive arrival of ChatGPT. In this blog, we’ll explore the potential of advanced AI tools like ChatGPT and how best to harness them in customer service.
What are AI-powered Chatbots?
AI-powered Chatbots can understand and respond to questions and commands. They have been designed to mimic human conversation and can be used in many ways.
Chatbots combine AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to continuously improve automated customer service based on past interactions. This means customers can seek help on their channel of choice in that moment – and get a fast answer without having to repeat their query.
And how does ChatGPT fit in?
Because ChatGPT is specifically designed to handle a vast array of inputs (simple and complex) and respond naturally and conversationally, it’s been heralded as a game-changer in many areas.
Unlike traditional logic-based bots, ChatGPT uses natural language processing (NLP), modelling and machine learning to learn from past interactions and continuously improve its responses over time.
But while these advances in conversational AI hold great potential, organisations must have the right frameworks, processes and data security measures in place for customer service and contact centre optimisation before diving in headfirst.
That foundation should involve the ability to:
- Understand customer intent
- Deliver hyper-personalisation at scale
- Take action based on customer feedback
Let’s look at each of these elements in turn.
Start by being able to understand customer intent
Intent is at the heart of every customer interaction, whether or not AI is involved. When you understand a customer’s intent – what they’re trying to do every time they interact with you – you can identify their wants, needs, preferences and pain points.
At the most basic level, you can monitor intent through surveys, feedback forms and social media. But to get a deeper understanding, you can utilise data, AI and automation tools to monitor customer engagement across all channels.
When you truly understand your customers’ intent, you’re in a stronger position to optimise their journeys, whether it’s improving digital self-service, deploying intelligent routing to minimise wait times, or integrating disparate data sources to increase first-time resolution rates.
Then, build the ability to deliver hyper-personalisation at scale
Once you’ve done the work to understand your customers’ intents and expectations, you can leverage automation and AI to take things a step further: with hyper-personalisation at scale.
The secret to effective hyper-personalisation is real-time data. The more up-to-date customer data you have available, the more you can personalise their experiences. And the secret to real-time data? Automation.
When you automate aspects of your customer journey, you can combine data sources to give you a complete view of your customers, right down to a granular level. You can then leverage AI to turn that holistic view into bespoke, highly personalised journeys for individual customers – boosting satisfaction, increasing profit and optimising efficiency in one fell swoop.
Finally, have processes for turning feedback into action
Feedback is a valuable source of ideas for innovation and iteration, and customers who feel listened to and see their feedback actioned are more likely to stay loyal
It’s important, then, to have a plan for monitoring and actioning feedback. AI tools can support automating the collection, monitoring and analysis of feedback – empowering your teams to respond quickly and effectively.
Don’t run before you can walk
AI-powered tools like ChatGPT have the potential to improve customer service, but they shouldn’t be implemented in isolation. To get the most from any sophisticated AI tool, you need a solid foundation.
By really understanding what your customers want and identifying a path to automation and digital self-service, organisations will deliver a return on KPIs in the short- to long-term. That way, you can ensure these AI-powered tools enhance rather than detract from the customer experience and business goals.
—
To learn more about how Engage Hub can support your digital transformation journey, get in touch now.
