Generative AI is transforming customer service. Its ability to generate text, images, even code, allows it to handle simple customer support tasks, freeing up human agents for more complex issues and boosting their productivity. Key benefits of GenAI include resource optimization, personalized interactions, content generation, after-hours support, omnichannel options, assisting human agents, and quality control.
Generative AI is the future of customer service. And the future is now!
Like its name suggests, GenAI can generate new content, such as text, images and code. This is thanks to Large Language Models (LLMs) that are trained on massive amounts of data to ‘learn’ and create original content. GenAI can also help virtual assistants understand queries and respond with a speed and accuracy that wasn’t possible before.
Yet Generative AI isn’t a replacement for human agents. Rather, it can handle simpler customer service tasks (and work off-hours), freeing human agents for more complex interactions. This can boost agent productivity while creating a more seamless customer experience (CX). It can also help contact centers deal with employee attrition and talent shortages.
Put AI to work for your customer service.
Here are 7 ways that Generative AI is changing the game in customer service.
1. Optimizing resources
Generative AI can be used to automate simple customer queries, which is a win-win for customers and agents alike. Customers get more relevant, personalized responses to their queries, reducing wait times and expediting how issues are resolved, while human agents have time to help customers with more complex issues.
2. Personalization
GenAI isn’t just a chatbot on steroids. With access to large datasets, Generative AI can also analyze customers’ previous interactions, preferences and behaviors to create much more personalized responses. For example, it could recommend an add-on to a recent purchase or offer customization options.
3. Generating content
Virtual assistants powered by GenAI can generate additional content to add value to a customer interaction. For example, if a customer is having trouble understanding how to use a product, it could create a personalized tutorial or share a step-by-step guide. This can also help to reduce service transfers up the chain of command.
4. After-hours support
By providing self-service support through virtual agents when human agents are off duty, GenAI can help customers get the support they need, no matter the time (or time zone). This can be particularly useful for companies with customers in multiple time zones. But it can also support human agents if there’s a surge in calls, as well as smaller businesses looking to maximize resources and larger business looking to expand to new regions.
5. Omnichannel support
Some customers prefer to speak with a human agent for more complex matters, while others don’t want to talk to a human at all. Virtual assistants powered by GenAI can provide another channel in an omnichannel support network, which also includes support via phone, email and social networks — giving customers more choice in how they can interact with your company.
6. Assisting human agents
Generative AI can create summaries of a customer journey, which can help human agents save time on data entry and other manual tasks. It can be especially useful for agents who deal with highly technical products and services. For example, it can access the company’s knowledge base and rapidly retrieve the precise documentation for a customer query to speed up the service resolution.
7. Quality control
Generative AI can also be used by managers to ensure customer service is consistently meeting quality standards, such as summarizing customer interactions to help improve service. It can also analyze customer feedback, identify common issues and provide guidance on how to improve over time.
While Generative AI holds enormous potential for revolutionizing customer service, it’s also important to consider issues around ethics, security and privacy. For example, the data being used to train GenAI chatbots needs to be high quality and accurate. A best practice is to start small with clean data, learn from mistakes and build from there.
In brief:
- GenAI can automate simple queries, reducing wait times and freeing agents for complex issues.
- It can analyze customer data to provide tailored responses and recommendations.
- It offers 24/7 self-service support across time zones.
- It adds another channel for customer interaction alongside phone, email, and social networks.
- It can summarize customer journeys and retrieve documentation to save time.
- It helps managers maintain service standards and analyze feedback for continuous improvement.
