It shouldn’t come as a shock that the researchers at Gartner predict that “by 2027, chatbots will become the primary customer service channel for about a quarter of enterprises.” The straightforward and routine responsibilities that consume the vast majority of a contact centre agent’s working day present a significant chance for automation. There is little doubt that this can help firms save money. But most importantly, it can help to improve the overall experience of the consumer.
However, despite the significant potential offered by contact centre automation, the majority of chatbots available today fall short of their goals. They still do not have the ability to reply to enquiries from customers in an effective manner.
There is some truth to the claim that bots can perform thousands of simple activities more quickly and accurately than humans. However, many tasks are still difficult and call for intuitive thinking, common sense, and the kind of empathic service that can only be provided by a person. It is for this reason that, from the point of view of customer experience (CX), machines should help and complement agents rather than replace humans. It’s also the reason why humans (and maybe even AI itself) need keep a close eye on those bots to make sure they’re providing the appropriate level of service to the consumer.
According to the results of a poll conducted by TechSee in the year 2022, “43% of respondents switched goods or cancelled a contract owing to bad customer service.” That’s a 4% increase over what it was in 2019. The stakes are too high to take the risk of living off of AI alone or to presume that your AI is behaving properly given the varying experiences that individuals have had with chatbots.
When You Should Think About Using a Chatbot
Having said that, it could be time to implement a chatbot to support human agents if you’re encountering any of the following issues:
- Your representatives are unable to keep up.
Every merchant is aware that there are certain high-demand times of the year, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when contact centres receive an overwhelming number of phone calls. Agents are frequently overworked as a result of spikes in traffic, despite their best efforts to assist as many consumers as possible. Meanwhile, the amount of time customers are need to wait in line for representatives continues to grow. At this crucial juncture, chatbots and interactive voice response systems can be of great assistance.
However, there must still be people involved in the process for it to be successful. The vast majority of customer service representatives will tell you that AI helps them resolve client issues more quickly. AI not only relieves agents of the burden of handling a greater number of incoming calls, but it also supplies them with the client history they require in order to tackle more complex problems.
Therefore, the possible advantages of chatbots are not restricted to the services that they may give for clients. They also improve the ability of human agents to service customers by reducing the high call volume that often results in the stress that comes along with it. There are a lot of businesses that offer chatbots as a way for customer service representatives to get the information they require to assist a client.
The issue arises when businesses implement chatbots with the intention of isolating their agents from consumer interactions or completely removing humans from the contact centre. Customers eventually figure it out, at which point they are no longer considered customers.
- Your clients are constantly active.
Customers are frequently dispersed across a significant number of time zones. They don’t care where they are, but they want service that is prompt and effective at all hours of the day.
Millennials and members of Generation Z are accustomed to the gratification that comes from the fast resolution of problems. However, there are others around them. The findings of a recent survey indicate that 88 percent of customers regard a company’s customer experience (CX) to be just as important as the products and services it offers.
Not only do chatbots not require sleep, but they also have the potential to be bilingual, which enables them to communicate with clients located all over the world. However, having these chatbots available around the clock in multiple languages is not sufficient. Customers still want the ability to take their complaints to a real person if they can. If this option is not available around the clock, there must be a system in place that notifies the consumer that a real-life representative will get in touch with them during regular business hours when one is available.
But there’s more. It is not possible to send a chatbot out into the wild like the Night’s Watch does in Game of Thrones and expect the Wall to remain standing. Similar to Jon Snow, that bot needs to undergo extensive training and be tested on a consistent basis. This helps ensure that your chatbot will always be helpful and won’t ever let you down. If there is anything that is preventing that from happening—whether it is as a result of the bot’s training or the performance of the network—by checking in on the bot on a frequent basis, you will be able to remedy issues before they are experienced by your consumers.
Finally, you will want to make sure that your customers can easily access your chatbot through all of the channels in which they will search for it. Your website, smartphone app, and various social media platforms are included in this category.
- You aspire to go global.
I spoke about the support for the user’s native tongue that a good number of today’s chatbots provide. The most advanced ones are able to accommodate a broad variety of regional accents, idiomatic expressions, and even slang. This is important “worldliness” for businesses who want to service customers in any part of the world, regardless of their location.
Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing have made it possible for businesses to gain access to the huge volumes of data required to train their bots. Speaking a language that belongs to another person does not entail that you are “speaking their language.” And how can someone who only speaks French know that their bot can communicate with others who speak Hindi anyway if they only speak French?
At this point, AI can lend a hand in keeping AI in check. The natural language understanding (NLU) engine that sits in the background of any chatbot should be considered indispensable. Here is where having flawless training data is absolutely necessary, which is something that should be ensured through analytics. They can also help guarantee that your chatbot offers an experience that is entirely inclusive, regardless of the customer’s background, which is something they can contribute to. These kinds of evaluations enabled by AI can also assist your chatbot in getting around grammatical errors, abbreviations, and misspellings.
Put Your Chatbot Into Action, But Make Sure You Do It Right
The automation of the contact centre is a prudent investment for many businesses that are preparing for the possibility of a recession. In order to compete in a global market that operates around the clock, businesses need to investigate technologies that are powered by artificial intelligence.
However, if not implemented correctly, chatbots have the potential to turn customers against the firm and drive them away. Keep in mind these basic guidelines:
- It is impossible for a chatbot to serve by itself. Automate routine operations and make it simple to contact a representative when assistance is required.
- Invest in the up-front training of your chatbot so that you can guarantee a consistently great experience for your users. Utilizing data gleaned from actual encounters between customers and agents in the wild helps guarantee that the bot is properly educated.
- Perform tests on the chatbot from a variety of perspectives, such as natural language understanding (NLU), regression testing, multichannel performance, and load/stress testing, to ensure that the chatbot is able to deal with high volumes.
If you follow these best practises, your chatbots should reduce the workload of your already overworked customer service crew and may even assist drive revenue for the company. Instead of adding to the pain of your clients, chatbots should do the opposite.
