AI in customer service: benefits and use cases

Date:

Author:

Katharina Rainer

Artificial intelligence touches many aspects of our daily lives, making tasks easier. In customer service, the use of AI brings many benefits—for both customers and employees. In this article, we’ll explore how AI improves customer service and what the key advantages are.

ai in customer service

What matters to customers, and how can AI help in customer service?

The quality of support significantly impacts customers’ perception of a company and their purchasing decisions.

Most of us have interacted with customer service in the past year—sometimes more pleasantly than others. But what determines whether we are satisfied with customer service, and how does AI measure up?

Customers expect a satisfying customer service experience to provide an actual solution to their issue, short wait times, a streamlined process, consistent documentation of data, and professional contacts.

Let’s have a more detailed look at these expectations:

Actual resolution of the issue

Customers seek assistance with questions or problems related to products or orders. The best and most important outcome of contacting customer service is solving the problem.

Short wait time

Long wait times are one of the biggest annoyances for customers. People don’t want to stay in long customer service queues; they want immediate help and answers. Most expect a reply within 24 hours for emails, and even shorter response times on social media.

Targeted process

Customers get frustrated when they have to repeat their issue multiple times, and when key details get overlooked, making the process inefficient.

Consistent documentation

This includes not having to provide the same information again and again, like name, ID, or phone number. This is both time-consuming and frustrating.

Professional representatives

It’s also frustrating when service employees lack sufficient product knowledge. It also negatively impacts customers when different service clerks provide varying levels of professionalism in their responses.

How does AI work in customer service?

AI in customer service fundamentally changes and improves how customer inquiries are handled.

Instead of a human manually processing every request, AI can automate these tasks using intelligent systems trained to recognize patterns in inquiries and provide appropriate responses based on those patterns.

Additionally, AI learns from each interaction. The more it’s used, the better it becomes at understanding customer needs and delivering precise answers, leading to continuous improvement in customer service.

How can AI be used in customer service?

There are many ways AI solutions can be applied in customer service. Which customer service AI is most useful for a company depends on the specific use case. Below, we explore some common use cases.

1. AI chatbots in customer service

An AI-based chatbot is software integrated into chat applications on websites or in networks like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp to communicate with customers. A chatbot typically draws from a predefined set of documents and responses.

What can chatbots do?

Chatbots are now common as the first point of contact for many customers. Anyone who has interacted with a chatbot is aware of the system’s limitations.

Chatbots may struggle to understand and resolve complex or emotional issues, sometimes leading to unsatisfied customers and the need for human intervention.

2. Getting the right answers: AI-based helpdesk for customers

By integrating an intelligent Q&A solution, customers can search a helpdesk more efficiently and get immediate, accurate answers to their queries.

AI can extract relevant information from a large knowledge database and present it to the customer in clear, understandable language.

This not only reduces wait times but also improves customer satisfaction by providing quick and easy access to support.

An AI-based helpdesk also relieves service employees by automatically answering frequently asked questions, enabling the team to focus on more complex and personalized customer inquiries.

An AI-based helpdesk revolutionizes how customers find answers to their questions and resolve issues.

3. Handling emails in customer service with AI

Integrating AI into email processing revolutionizes customer service by significantly improving response efficiency and quality.

AI systems can understand, categorize, and summarize the content of emails, accelerating the response process.

AI-powered sentiment analysis allows a better understanding of customer emotions, ensuring appropriate responses.

Automated prioritization and routing of emails to the relevant departments ensure urgent issues are handled quickly. Additionally, AI can generate reply drafts that can be sent directly or reviewed and personalized by employees.

AI email handling can reduce repetitive and time-consuming manual work, increase employee satisfaction, and ensure consistent service quality.

Companies benefit from faster inquiry processing and an improved customer experience, as AI operates around the clock, enabling immediate responses.

More about ONTEC AI

ONTEC AI assists its clients in implementing AI solutions tailored to their business processes. We build solutions such as email handling, searchable helpdesks, or employee knowledge databases and guide clients throughout the process.

4. Internal knowledge database for employees

A Q&A-based knowledge database is a valuable tool for employees to quickly and efficiently access relevant information. This solution ensures all employees have access to the most up-to-date information on any matter, standardizing service quality.

These databases can also operate in a Q&A system, where employees use natural language to search for the information they need. They receive tailored responses, along with references to relevant documents.

Additionally, an AI-based knowledge database speeds up the onboarding process for new employees, allowing them to contribute quickly to the organization. At the same time, it relieves existing employees of the burden of providing training.

5. Artificial Intelligence in phone support: AI phone assistant

AI can also be used as a phone assistant in customer service. This software automates phone calls, answers simple questions, routes calls, or performs simple tasks like scheduling appointments or checking order statuses.

The challenge with phone calls is understanding the emotional nuances of callers and addressing their concerns individually.

Human customer care employees likely have better empathy in these situations.

However, AI can easily handle recurring questions, appointment scheduling, or order status checks.

A sensible solution could involve combining human customer care with AI. This way, simple inquiries are directed to the AI assistant, while human agents can focus on more sensitive requests and have more time for them.

What benefits does AI bring to customer service?

Both customers and companies benefit from AI in customer service:

Benefits for customers

Benefits for companies

How to implement AI in customer service: 5 tips

Here are some tips to make AI truly successful for customer care teams:

1. Customer experience comes first

Customer service teams should ensure that AI provides fast, precise, and personalized responses to maximize customer satisfaction. Regular review of responses is especially important at the beginning of implementation.

2. Choose the right AI solution for your specific use case

It’s essential to select the right customer service AI that addresses specific needs and challenges. If phone support works best for a particular company, it may be worth considering whether a chatbot is the right approach.

3. Security and data privacy

Data security and privacy protection must be fully ensured to build customer trust and meet legal requirements.

4. Robust systems and integration

Seamless integration of AI into the existing IT infrastructure is crucial to ensure smooth functioning and scalability.

5. Well-trained leaders and external consulting

Leaders should be well-informed about AI and the associated change processes. If necessary, external consulting may be advisable to effectively manage AI implementation and operation.

How AI in customer service can look: A practical example

Sunny Cars, a leading car rental service provider, faced the challenge of efficiently managing an increasing volume of customer inquiries.

By implementing AI in customer service—in collaboration with ONTEC AI—the company was able to optimize several processes, including:

These actions led to optimized processes and a significant reduction in processing time—while increasing customer satisfaction.

→ See the full Sunny Cars case study

Summary and Key Takeaways

The use of AI in customer service can significantly improve efficiency, relieve customer service teams, and reduce costs.