Can AI Provide a High Quality of Customer Service?

Over the years, we’ve joked about a world full of robots – about how they could drive us around or serve us at the grocery store.

18:35 02 November 2017

Well, that’s actually becoming a reality now, as we are seeing more and more robots and forms of AI being integrated into the workplace. Chatbots in particular have been seen within customer service departments across all industries, but many people are sceptical about how effective AI can be when it comes to high quality customer service. Sure, they will only need customer training once, but will they deliver customer service to a high standard on a 24/7 basis? Let’s find out.

 

They’ll Always Be Reliable

 

Because of the way AI is programmed, they are free from all conflicts and biases that occur in a human’s life. For example, they will never need days off of work for a holiday, and they won’t have a pre-existing negative relationship with a customer, making them a reliable when it comes to customer service. For a lot of customer service queries, a higher member of management needs to be alerted so that they can meet the requirements of the customer. Some customer service employees, may be tempted to take matters into their own hands, or worse, lose their temper at the customer. With AI though, this will never happen due to their programming, ensuring customer service is always at a high quality.

 

AI Can Be Incredibly Flexible

 

Customer service is such as broad area of work, as customers can inquire about anything from returning a product to when the next batch instant coffee will come in. With so much responsibility on the shoulders of those working within customer service, some can crack under the pressure and fail to deliver accurate and high-quality customer service. Due to the versatile programming within a robot, they should be able to tackle anything that’s thrown at them at a customer service desk, helping customers with almost anything! The same applies with chatbots on company websites – no matter what the customer asks, AI can be flexible and reply to the customer with appropriate information.

 

Customer Experience Can Be Personalised

 

Nothing is worse than dealing with someone at customer service who literally couldn’t care less about your circumstances. But when using AI, businesses can ensure that all customers receive a caring, personalised experience. For existing customers in particular, AI can feed customer data to an agent simultaneously, allowing the agent to provide the customer with relevant information based on their current needs but also their previous experiences at the company too. A personalised service like this can be achieved with humans, but it takes a lot longer. Studies have found that most customers value a speedy reply over everything else, so by using AI to create a personalised experience, customers will be satisfied with the quality of customer service.

 

The Over-Riding Issue? There’s A Lack of Human Touch

 

Have you ever found yourself leaving a customer service desk sarcastically thinking “well he was a happy chap today!” I know I have, and it’s painful when being served by someone with no emotion. Whilst AI are highly intelligent (suggested by their name) and capable of carrying out a massive amount of tasks, they still lack that emotional connection with customers. Sometimes, the best customer service comes from a nice friendly chat with the person who serves you, with numerous exchanges of laughs and smiles, which AI just cannot provide.