Whether it’s a midnight online shopping spree or early-morning tech support – customers today expect help 24/7. These days we (luckily) have a solution. AI can deliver seamless support that keeps customers satisfied whenever they need a helping hand.
Instead of robotic replies, AI can make customers feel heard and supported, much like your human agents can, right when they need it. And the best part? It can handle thousands of customer requests at once – without breaking a sweat.
Conversational AI also helps your teams become more effective. While it manages the mundane questions, your support agents can invest time in tougher challenges – like answering trickier questions, or building better customer relationships.
Meaning happier customers and more productive teams.
So, what is Conversational AI?
Conversational AI talks to your customers just like a human would – through a messenger chat, or voice.
Ever tracked your package through a chatbot, or asked Siri to play a song for you? Then you’ve already experienced conversational AI.
But conversational AI doesn’t just answer simple questions. It understands what you’re asking, no matter how you phrase it. If you ask “What’s your return policy?” or instead say, “How do I send this back?” conversational AI is smart enough to respond with the same answer, just like a real person would.
How does conversational AI work?
Conversational AI is basically a genius.. Here’s a quick breakdown of the steps it goes through to answer a question:
1. Understands the customer inquiry
Using natural language processing (NLP), the AI can make sense of everyday human language. By choosing the important details of a customer’s message, it can figure out exactly what they need. It wraps its head around what the customer’s asking, even if it’s not perfectly phrased.
2. Processes and finds the right answer
Once the AI understands the question, it dives into available information. It checks a database like your company’s help center for the answer, then it feeds the information back to your customers. This is where it saves your support team time, because the AI does the searching in seconds.
3. Learns over time
As it chats with more customers, Conversational AI gets better at understanding different ways people ask the same questions. This process is known as machine learning. Over time, the AI gets better at future conversations.
Conversational AI: making customer support bots a little more human
Conversational AI isn’t just cool tech – it’s changing how businesses handle customer service!
1. 24/7 availability
Customers always want instant answers. With conversational AI, your support is always ready to chat to customers. It never tires, offering help at 2 a.m., when your team’s on holidays, even at Christmas lunch!
2. Instant responses
Conversational AI answers common questions (like tracking an order or resetting a password) almost instantly. Faster responses mean happier customers and a smoother support experience.
3. Scalability
Conversational AI can handle thousands of customer inquiries at once, without needing to add more employees. Whether you’re experiencing a holiday rush or a service outage, AI makes sure no customer is left waiting for answers.
4. Cost efficiency
By answering your customers’ routine questions (like FAQs or product recommendations), conversational AI frees up your staff to do things that will be more profitable for your business. Plus, it reduces the need to hire many agents for repetitive tasks.
5. Personalization
Conversational AI uses customer data to learn how to talk to your customers in a personal way. It can suggest products based on a customer’s previous orders, and remember past inquiries. These personal experiences can surprise and delight customers, making them feel more valued. It could even inspire customers to spend more, or stay longer with you.
6. Consistent service
Everyone can have an off day. AI doesn’t. It provides the same level of high-quality service. Depending on how you set up, all your customers should get accurate and polite responses, no matter when they reach out.
7. Multilingual support
Conversational AI can speak multiple languages. That means it can provide support across many regions and cultures. If you work at a global company, AI can deliver the same quality of customer service in the language your customers speak.
8. Proactive customer engagement
AI can proactively reach out to customers browsing your site or lingering on a product page, offering assistance or recommendations. This not only helps customers find what they need but also improves conversion rates and satisfaction.
How conversational AI is usually used in customer support
Conversational AI can do heaps of different stuff. Here’s just a few:
1. Resolving Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Conversational AI can quickly take care of questions like “What’s your return policy?” or “Where is my order?”
2. Troubleshooting and tech support
Conversational AI can guide customers through step-by-step instructions. It’s also smart enough to know when it can’t resolve the problem, in which case it will collect your customer’s information and pass the conversation over to a human agent.
3. Order tracking and updates
If a customer loses their tracking number, they can ask conversational AI for an instant update.
4. Personalized product recommendations
Conversational AI can suggest products to a customer based on their previous purchases. This adds a personal touch to online shopping and could lift sales.
5. Automating sales inquiries
If a customer has questions about product pricing, availability, and details in real time, conversational AI can help them make a decision. It can even help them at checkout, creating a smoother sales experience.
6. Customer feedback collection
Whether it’s a simple “How was your experience?” or a detailed survey, AI helps businesses gather insights to improve service.
How conversational AI improves the customer and agent experience
Conversational AI benefits both customers and your support team. Here’s how:
1. Faster answers for customers
Conversational AI gives customers instant answers for simple questions, leaving your support team free to solve more complicated problems.
2. Seamless support across your apps
Whether customers are on your website, app, or social media, conversational AI gives the same quality of support, and can pick up a conversation on your website where your customer left things in the app.
3. Personalized interactions
Customers love service that has a personal touch. Conversational AI can make sure each interaction feels relevant and customized.
4. Reducing agent workload
While AI takes care of repetitive inquiries, your team can do what they do best – solve problems that need a human touch.
5. Efficient escalation to human agents
When AI can’t handle a customer issue, it collects the necessary information and passes it on so the agent can pick up where the AI left off – without the customer needing to repeat themselves.
The different types of conversational AI for customer support
Different types of conversational AI offer varying levels of sophistication. Here’s a quick rundown:
1. Traditional chatbots
These chatbots follow a script, providing responses based on pre-programmed rules. They’re best suited for handling simple, predictable inquiries like answering FAQs or routing customers to the right department.
2. Generative AI bots
These bots use machine learning to write responses on the fly. This allows for more dynamic, natural conversations and the ability to handle a broader range of customer inquiries.
3. AI agents
These are advanced systems that can manage complicated questions without any human intervention. They’re trained by your documents, and can write answers based on them for things like account management, troubleshooting, or subscription updates.
4. Voice assistants
Think Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. These assistants let customers interact by speaking. These systems help when your customers need hands-free support.
5. Interactive voice response (IVR) systems
IVR systems let customers speak naturally, free from any button pressing. This makes navigating phone support just like speaking to a human.
6. AI copilots
These AI copilots help your customer service team with suggestions, rather than talking to your customers directly. They improve your team’s response time by finding documentation for them, and giving them chunks of text to copy and paste.
What’s next?
Today, conversational AI is fast becoming a must-have for fast, efficient, and personalized customer support.
By handling large numbers of questions, AI improves both productivity and satisfaction.
As AI technology keeps improving, it will understand more, become more empathetic, and be more proactive with customers.
Businesses that invest in conversational AI now will be better equipped to meet the future demands of customer support.
Ready to improve your customer service with AI?
eesel AI gives you seamless, personalized service at any time without overloading your team.
Whether it’s automating routine inquiries, improving response times, or offering 24/7 support, eesel AI is designed to make customer interactions faster and more efficient.
Try eesel AI for free today, and see how it can streamline your customer support, boost satisfaction, and help your team build stronger customer relationships.
Get started with a 7-day free trial today!
