Companies today have customers who are increasingly seeking quick, easy, and reliable solutions. However, many self-service channels provided by organizations do not meet these expectations. A survey conducted by the Gartner highlighted that, although 70% of customers use self-service channels at some point in their service journey, only 9% are able to fully resolve their issues through these options. This often leads them to contact an agent, thus nullifying the purpose of the self-service experience.
This gap between customer expectations and the actual experience with self-service channels can significantly harm an organization’s reputation and customer retention rates. Effective self-service models not only enhance customer experience and satisfaction but also lead to significant cost savings and operational efficiencies by dramatically reducing call volumes to customer service centers, increasing deflection rates, improving self-service containment, and enhancing first-contact resolution times, helping organizations to address issues quickly. Additionally, they provide customers with the autonomy, speed, and personalization they desire for quick and effective solutions tailored to their needs.
No matter how successful a company may be, it must continue to innovate, adapt, and listen to its customers in order to improve and personalize the customer experience. While 81% of brands believe they deeply understand their customers, only 46% of global customers agree, underscoring the need to enhance customer experiences. Additionally, 64% of consumers say they would leave a brand if their experience was not personalized (Customer Engagement Report 2024).
In a competitive landscape, bridging the gap between customer expectations and reality when it comes to self-service channels is crucial for business success. Failing to meet customer expectations can have dire consequences. That’s why countless companies are placing a high priority on removing friction points and proactively addressing customer concerns – and artificial intelligence (AI), coupled with real-time customer data, can be the key to their success.
According to a recent BBC survey, business leaders worldwide recognize the benefits of AI but admit that their organizations are not ready to adopt it because they have not yet defined a strategy they feel comfortable with or understand well.
Incorporating AI tools into customer service strategies has become essential for companies looking to enhance customer experience. AI can analyze large volumes of customer data in real-time, helping customer service agents personalize interactions without being overwhelmed by information. AI-powered self-service features like chatbots and virtual assistants can handle routine inquiries, giving human agents more time to address complex issues.
Furthermore, AI can provide agents with summaries of past interactions with customers, enabling them to quickly understand and resolve the issue at hand, reducing the need for repetition and improving customer experience. This not only improves service speed and accuracy but also ensures that engagement is relevant and personalized.
By developing an AI-accelerated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) software strategy, companies can also enhance contact center efficiency by automating common queries and tasks, as well as routing more complex conversations to the appropriate agent skill set. In fact, improving IVR containment rates by 5 to 20 percent and enhancing authentication rates by 15 to 25 percent can reduce total call center costs by 10 to 30 percent in just three to six months, according to McKinsey.
It can also lead to increased operational efficiency. With a better understanding of the customer using conversational AI and natural language understanding (NLU), customers can enjoy human-like conversations with virtual agents, reducing resolution time by understanding the customer’s intent.
AI-based self-service can also help improve agent bandwidth by automating common frequently asked customer questions that often clog contact center queues. It can also lead to continuous agent improvement, gathering proprietary call data, using historical actions to predict customer needs, and enhancing IVR journey iteratively.
It is of paramount importance to transform modern customer service strategies by providing an integrated set of solutions that orchestrate seamless interactions across all channels. Companies can enhance the customer experience by designing customer journeys that start with intuitive self-service and scale up to resolving complex issues with active agents. Agents have access to real-time data and context, enabling them to offer a service that is not only efficient but also customer-centric.
Thus, optimizing AI for businesses is possible by leveraging its advantages. This helps companies become not only customer-aware but customer-focused, leading to better engagement and ROI.
