How AI-Enabled Customer Service Can Boost Your Revenue

Technology has been changing the way brands communicate with their consumers for decades, but recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly benefited the way contact centers communicate with customers.

The use of AI technology has allowed customer service representatives to improve and scale their customer service effort, as well as helping them to improve the customer experience (CX) and reduce customer effort. 

The potential for AI in outsourced call centres is twofold. AI, chatbots and automated self-service technologies free up call centre employees from routine support requests so they can focus on more complex tasks, but AI also gives customer service reps more detailed and real-time information to help them handle complicated issues.

A recent study, from global management consulting business McKinsey & Company, claims marketing and sales is the top sector that will be transformed by AI technology - and the transformation is happening now.

The study, named Notes from the AI frontier: Applications and value of deep learning, says: “Improved speech recognition in call center management and call routing as a result of the application of AI techniques allow a more seamless experience for customers - and more efficient processing.”

“The capabilities go beyond words alone. For example, deep learning analysis of audio allows systems to assess a customers’ emotional tone; in the event a customer is responding badly to the system, the call can be rerouted automatically to human operators and managers.”

A personalized approach to more sales

AI can help boost your revenue by improving the customer experience, keeping your customers happy and enticing them back with good service, but it can also create a personalized approach that allows you to upsell your products or services.

AI technology combines customer demographics and past transaction data with social media monitoring to create individualized product recommendations, helping to increase your sales and boost revenue.

The McKinsey study cites the “next product to buy” feature that companies such as Amazon and Netflix have been successfully implementing. The AI sales tactic targets individual customers with recommended products they might like, and McKinsey claims this leads to a twofold increase in the rate of sales conversions.

No longer is customer customer service merely about making a customer happy after the sale. It’s about creating a seamless and easy experience that is proactive, as opposed to the conventional reactive approach of dealing with problems when they occur.

The McKinsey report mentions a case study, in which a travel company used AI technology to offer additional services such as hotels and airlines via a recommendation system algorithm that took into account product and customer data.

This personalized approach offered to the company’s customers led to a 10 to 15 per cent increase in revenue for the company.

How else can AI help the customer experience?

Chatbots - Automated chatbots are no longer a future concept, they are being implemented by companies with best-in-class customer service. Chatbots reduce the time it takes them to get an answer and lowers the customer effort by being available on whatever device they prefer.

Available 24/7 chatbots can solve tier one problems and learn more about an issue before directing the consumer on to the appropriate agents. This saves agents more time to work on complex tasks.

Response time is crucial - We live in a connected world where people expect immediate responses. AI substantially decreases wait time by offering automated virtual assistance or instantly connecting customers to a live representative as required.

If a customer has one bad experience with customer service there’s a high change they will simply move on to your competitor next time round.

Advantage Communications, can implement a successful customer service strategy that makes use of innovative AI technology to reduce your customer’s effort, improve the customer experience and boost your yearly revenue.