Seven ways AI can improve customer service

From providing product recommendations to simplifying search, AI has changed how customers interact with a business today. While the potential of AI is being explored in various business functions, many businesses have begun to experiment with using AI in their customer service operations and benefit from this growing technology.

According to Gartner, Gen AI is one of the top three priorities of customer service leaders, and around 83% of leaders either have plans or have already implemented it in their customer service operations. The applications of AI in customer service are set to continue growing, and here are seven ways how you can leverage the power of AI to improve your customer service operations.

1. Enhance customer experience

AI chatbots can provide instant responses 24/7 by analyzing each customer's question and automatically matching it with the responses available in your knowledge base. It can also handle multiple conversations simultaneously to allow your agents to focus on the important stuff while increasing customer satisfaction levels.

2. Streamline ticket management

There's a lot that goes on in the background before a ticket reaches an agent. AI helps streamline this process with its predictive capabilities. For instance, tickets with certain issues need to be classified as urgent and assigned to a specific team quickly. AI predicts the urgency of the ticket, which in turn triggers accurate workflows in the backend. This reduces manual effort and ensures you don't miss urgent tickets.

3. Increase agent efficiency

AI acts as an assistant that saves time by eliminating the need for agents to search for the right answer or labor over crafting the perfect response. Customer service AI can help your agents craft the right message by providing response suggestions and the option to modify responses based on your brand's tone and customer temperament.

4. Improve self-service

AI keeps note of all the incoming tickets and categorizes them by analyzing ticket content so you can track the type of questions or requests customers are submitting most often. Using this information, you can create knowledge base articles to answer customers' commonly asked for questions, increase the self-service deflection rate, and reduce agent workload.

5. Optimize agent management

In customer service, not all days are the same. AI examines patterns in your ticket activity to predict the volume of tickets expected each day. This allows you to organize service tasks and oversee teams efficiently.

6. Simplify agent onboarding

Training customer service representatives from various backgrounds to communicate in your brand's voice and answer customers' questions accurately can be difficult. AI can help by directly suggesting answers to your representatives so they can confidently and accurately provide quick responses in your brand's voice.

7. Drive long-term business growth

By attending to requests on time, allocating resources effectively, and enhancing your customer's happiness, you ensure that your customers stay with you for longer, thereby reducing churn and, at times, even costs spent on fixing your brand's reputation. AI can also assist in analyzing the general sentiment of your customer base and identifying the specific issues that caused each sentiment. This allows you to address these areas proactively before they develop into significant problems.

The use of AI in customer service is increasing and improving by the day (with the help of human intelligence). Having native AI capabilities in your customer service software can help you get the maximum benefit out of chatbots and other AI-powered features in your customer service operations.

If you're looking for customer service software that makes AI easy to use and get started with, consider Zoho Desk. Our value-focused customer service solution offers AI capabilities at no additional cost. Zoho Desk's reliable and secure AI, Zia helps your agents do more in less time and empowers your customers to find answers 24/7 instantly.

Explore the AI capabilities of Zia in detail here. To see it in action, feel free to request a demo.