Artificial Intelligence has come a long way in the last few years, particularly in the customer service landscape. Clunky, complicated bots only capable of responding to queries with pre-set answers have now been replaced by truly innovative tools, capable of almost human-like responses.
Conversational AI, powered by machine learning, natural language processing, and large language models, has transformed the CX landscape forever. With the right tools, companies can not only better understand their customers and their journeys, but also create phenomenal self-service solutions, which minimize the strain on internal teams.
As the conversational AI space continues to grow at an accelerated rate, projected to reach a value of up to $41.39 billion by 2030, companies from all industries are beginning to discover the benefits of the technology for themselves. Here are some of the top reasons why businesses should consider investing in conversational AI during 2023.
- Improving Data Collection and Insights
Data is crucial to creating a fantastic customer service strategy. The more information companies can capture about the customer journey, and the needs of their target audience, the easier it is to produce an intuitive CX plan. Conversational AI can be a fantastic tool for not only collecting large amounts of intuitive data, but turning raw information into useful, actionable insights.
An advanced conversational AI solution can monitor conversations on virtually any channel, from social media to website messaging and voice, providing insights into patterns and trends in the customer journey. Many CCaaS and CRM vendors are even introducing tools into their platforms which use conversational AI to detect information about customer intent and sentiment.
These tools can then provide agents and employees with valuable guidance, next-best-action suggestions, and other forms of support, leading to a better overall customer experience.
- Reduced Customer Service Costs
In recent years, companies have begun to shift away from viewing customer service as a cost center. Business leaders have started recognizing the ROI excellent CX can provide in the form of increased customer retention, brand loyalty, and higher order values. However, in today’s complicated economic environment, most organizations are still looking for ways to cut costs.
Conversational AI tools could be an excellent resource in this regard, offering companies an opportunity to automate more of the mundane and repetitive tasks employees need to complete each day, so they can improve the productivity of their teams, and reduce hiring needs. Additionally, conversational AI solutions built into chat bots and self-service technologies offer companies the opportunity to offer 24/7 service, without hiring around-the-clock staff.
With the right technologies, companies can minimize their need for extra customer support agents, and make sure the employees they have are as efficient and productive as possible.
- Improved Productivity and Efficiency
While many companies investing in conversational AI focus on the benefits the technology can have on customer satisfaction scores, this technology can also be extremely useful for improving the employee experience too. As mentioned above, the right conversational tools, implemented into self-service strategies, can significantly reduce the volume of queries human agents have to handle.
Virtual assistants and bots can also provide agents with useful guidance and support in the moment as they work. They can immediately surface customer information and product data when they recognize a keyword or phrase, or provide next-best-action guidance based on historical data.
As an added bonus, when implemented into the contact center, conversational AI solutions can streamline the management of calls and customer conversations. By analyzing customer intent, sentiment, and needs, the right solution can intelligently route customers to the right agents every time. This reduces the need to waste time on transferring calls.
- Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
Perhaps the biggest benefit conversational AI can bring to today’s business leaders, is the ability to improve customer satisfaction rates. According to some studies, companies that focus on improving CX can experience up to 80% increases in revenue. While conversational AI needs to be implemented correctly to have a direct impact on CSAT scores, the right tools can deliver phenomenal benefits.
Utilizing conversational AI within the CX strategy allows companies to boost their reputation with customers in a number of different ways. For instance, conversational AI can be used to provide customers with more options on how to access support. Solutions can be built into IVR systems, voice bots, and even chatbots used on social media and messaging tools.
The right solutions can route customers to the right agents faster, based on intent and need, reducing the need for transfers. Plus, because these tools are excellent at collecting valuable information about customers and surfacing insights for agents, they can help teams deliver a more personalized level of service too. For example, a solution could immediately draw information from a CRM system to send to an agent as soon as they pick up a call.
- Opportunities to Increase Revenue
Conversational AI doesn’t just offer businesses a way to reduce potential customer service costs, it can also improve any company’s ability to earn profits and revenue. First and foremost, by offering a higher quality of personalized, convenient, and streamlined service, businesses will be able to benefit from higher levels of customer retention, and loyalty.
At the same time, conversational AI can be used to help businesses generate leads and opportunities. Bots with generative and conversational AI technologies built into a website or application can track a customer’s journey, and deliver suggestions or recommendations to them based on their potential intent. The right solutions can also be used to determine when it might be suitable for a sales professional to attempt to upsell a customer.
As evolutions in the technical landscape continue, conversational AI and generative AI tools can even be built into new onboarding applications for customers, helping to increase customer success rates. For instance, businesses could create generative AI bots in the metaverse that can walk customers through the process of using a new tool.
Unlock the Power of Conversational AI
Capable of so much more than simply enhancing self-service strategies, conversational AI is assisting businesses in unlocking valuable insights, empowering teams and even increasing revenue. As this technology continues to evolve, it’s becoming increasingly accessible, appearing in everything from CCaaS platforms to CRM tools.
Now has never been a better time for businesses to start investing in the power and potential for conversational AI.
