Poor customer service could be costing your business — and that cost can be measured.
Research by Qualtrics XM Institute found that poor customer service could be costing businesses around the world up to $3.7 trillion a year.
At the same time, 54% of support teams are using some form of chatbot, virtual customer assistant or other conversational AI platform for customer-facing applications, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that, by 2027, chatbots will become the main customer service channel for about a quarter of all organizations.
When done right, self-service solutions improve customer service while reducing costs by automating simple queries, so human agents can handle more complex tasks. While figures vary depending on the solution provider, it’s generally agreed that self-service tools can reduce incoming contacts by 30-40%.
Doing the math
So is a conversational AI chatbot worth the cost? Here are some ways to evaluate the ROI:
Identify eligible queries: First, audit the queries your business currently handles through a human agent and identify ones that could be handled by an AI chatbot. Try the 80:20 rule: 80% of queries are simple enough to be handled by a conversational bot, while the other 20% will need people involved.
Assess the average live-chat cost: Next, determine the number of queries handled each month, the number of live agents involved and the estimated time spent handling these queries. Multiply the hourly pay of your agents by the hours spent on these interactions to give you an idea of the average cost per contact.
Estimate monthly gains: Assuming that 80% of customer queries could be successfully handled by a chatbot, only the remaining 20% will need human intervention. The difference is your gain.
Consider the setup cost: The setup phase includes time spent planning the project, integrating the solution on your company’s website and, if necessary, training the team responsible for maintaining it. This is a one-off cost.
Consider maintenance costs: Maintenance and support costs will depend on your solution.
When figuring out the ROI, the calculation will be slightly different for the first month, when you need to include setup costs.
Beyond the numbers
Adding a self-service AI chatbot to your platform can give a major boost to your bottom line. But ROI isn’t the only advantage — it also offers intangible benefits that can be harder to measure.
A self-service chatbot lets you capture rich, qualitative customer data, along with actionable insights into your customers’ experiences and issues. This can help your company refine, change and develop new products or services as you see trends emerging.
And let’s not forget the customer experience. Getting the right answer quickly saves your customers time and trouble. The value to your business of keeping your customers happy? Priceless.
