The adoption of technology to expand customer service is prolific. However, not all tools deliver the same results. Many use standard chatbots, which rarely reduce customer service costs or improve customer experiences. They might actually create more frustration than it does delight. What’s critical to deploying a solution that meets the demands of your customers and eases the strain on your agents is using conversational AI.
Customers Want to Engage with Chatbots but Have High Expectations
Customers are eager to find answers with chatbots. As customer buying behaviors have changed, so has their embrace of digital customer support. Research suggests that 86% of customers expect self-service on all websites, and 69% of customers prefer to resolve issues independently. You have a willing customer base that wants to interact with you digitally. That experience, however, must resolve their problems in the most effective way.
For customers to self-serve successfully, a standard chatbot often comes up short in delivering an accurate response. While they can answer very simple questions, these chatbots aren’t advanced enough to understand the nuances of human conversation.
Standard Chatbots vs. Conversational AI
A standard chatbot operates with decision-tree logic. It’s very rudimentary and involves targeting keywords to provide answers. It doesn’t have the capacity to understand the question. Conversational AI does. It uses NLP (natural language processing) and NLU (natural language understanding), which are subsets of machine learning. Because they can decipher sentiment and intent, this technology can have a more human conversation.
When deploying this solution to your customer support ecosystem, self-service is more effective, which means fewer tickets in agent queues. On average, conversational AI tools are 14.7% more accurate than standard chatbots. They rank as 90% or higher in the accuracy of ticket resolution and deflect tickets by up to 60%.
Additionally, conversational AI keeps learning based on interactions. That’s a clear advantage over standard chatbots.
The Conversational AI Savings: Time and Money
Staffing a support center can be an expensive endeavor. Ensuring your agents are efficient and productive is key, so deflecting common customer questions is vital.
When you deploy conversational AI, you can save time and money. Since it is more accurate and helps to deflect tickets, the investment pays off. First, you won’t have to add headcount to your agent team to keep up with ticket volume. Second, even if conversational AI doesn’t resolve the query, it continues working by assisting agents by providing macros, knowledge base articles, and past ticket history.
As a result, agents will be 20% more efficient and spend less time answering customer questions. If you give them this advantage, retaining great talent is easier, too. Thus you’ll incur fewer recruitment costs. It’s a winning approach for you and your customers.
Conversational AI Engagement: Delivering Better Experiences
Saving money is great, but AI can also improve customer experience. It’s critical to implement a solution that supports this, too. Your company, like so many others, prioritizes this, as you know that it influences satisfaction and loyalty. It’s just as much a consideration for customers as the quality of your product or service. Since customers are happy to self-serve, you have an opportunity to ensure the experience is positive.
Only conversational AI considers the entire query, which leads to greater accuracy in resolution. Meeting customer demands in delivering support in digital channels that are highly effective is crucial to building strong relationships.
Only the Right Technology Moves the Needle of Savings and Experience
Reducing costs and enriching experiences are not a given with customer service technology tools. Using a standard chatbot won’t likely move the needle on either. Instead, deploy conversational AI to save on customer service expenses and create meaningful experiences.
Our platform meets these two needs successfully. See how it can work for you by viewing a demo today.
