Using Technology to Create the Perfect Hybrid Customer Support Model

Using Technology to Create the Perfect Hybrid Customer Support Model

Daniel Hall 27/10/2024
Using Technology to Create the Perfect Hybrid Customer Support Model

What differentiates your company from your competitors? Pricing and innovation make a difference, but the effects are short-lived.

The best way to stay ahead is to deliver better service. This allows you to build a loyal fan base that helps you promote your business. 

Unfortunately, providing the level of service that customers expect can be labor-intensive. Many clients expect you to be available 24/7 if they have a question. Keeping a support team running around the clock is expensive.

You can save money by outsourcing your customer support. You can have a professional team deal with website, email, phone, and social media queries at a reasonable cost.

However, many companies are looking for ways to further enhance their support teams. To do this, they often work closely with the development team to find and implement more effective solutions. Artificial intelligence offers a cost-effective way to do just that. In this article, we’ll look at how you can supplement your support team with AI. 

The Role of AI in Customer Support

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You probably automatically think of chatbots or virtual assistants in a support context. Companies use both to resolve issues and provide the answers clients need. For example, a customer might ask the bot to track a parcel. 

You can also use this technology internally in your organization. Virtual assistants can: 

  • Divert calls

  • Look up information

  • Provide advice

  • Schedule reminders

  • Suggest answers to call center consultants

The downside of AI in these capacities is that it’s only able to handle simple queries. 

Key Benefits of AI in Customer Support

Why choose AI-based products at all? Some of the main benefits include: 

  • 24/7 Availability: A bot doesn’t need to rest or sleep. You can have it running all day and night, every day of the year. This capability is useful when you’re working with customers in different time zones.

  • Instant Responses and Lower Wait Times: AI can scan lots of data in seconds. Therefore, the bot can answer a question while your human consultant is still typing it into the search. You can, therefore, free your team up to deal with more difficult tasks. 

  • Handling Repetitive Tasks: AI doesn’t get bored like humans do. It’ll provide consistent answers to repetitive questions. Your consultants will, therefore, have a more satisfying job experience and be able to offer your clients more personalized experiences. 

  • Cost Efficiency: Your bot is generally a once-off expense with minimal maintenance costs. It’s easy to scale, saving you money training new support consultants. 

  • Data-Driven Insights: Do you want to find out how well your team’s doing? AI can analyze many data points to give you a rounded picture. For example, it can look at query resolution times in conjunction with callbacks to see if the team is answering the questions properly. 

AI’s Limits

There are many advantages to deploying AI-based solutions, but you have to consider the downsides:

  • No Emotional Intelligence: AI can’t feel like we do, so it can’t be empathetic. This is fine when you’re dealing with quick queries, but a problem when it comes to more sensitive issues. 

  • Escalation Issues: You must clearly define when to escalate the query to avoid frustrating your client. It’s worthwhile to give the customer the option to speak to a consultant. 

  • Training and Maintenance: It takes a while to train your model, even if you’re tweaking an existing LLM base. You also have to update it periodically.

  • Risk of Over-Automation: We saw this happen during COVID-19 when companies relied more heavily on AI-based solutions than ever before. Customers complained that they weren’t getting the attention they deserved. 

Getting the Balance Right

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The key to successfully implementing AI-based solutions lies in creating a hybrid support model. You can have your consultants deal with complex, emotionally charged, or high value interactions. They can then apply advanced problem solving and work with empathy. 

You can leave your chatbot to deal with routine tasks like:

  • Answering simple questions

  • Working through basic troubleshooting

  • Providing support to your consultants

When it becomes necessary to escalate a query, you must make the process as seamless as possible. You bot must tell the customer what’s happening. More importantly, your consultant must be able to see the conversation between the bot and the client. This means that the client doesn’t have to repeat themselves.

You can use AI to enhance your service by personalizing recommendations. Say that a client calls in with a particular issue. Your bot can search for solutions that match the query. It can also make product recommendations for your consultant to present to the customer. 

In either case, you need to monitor the results with an eye to improving them. You can ask your customers and consultants for their feedback so that you can constantly improve your AI-based systems.

Conclusion

AI can be a useful tool in customer support. However, you have to be careful about how and where you implement it. It can’t replicate human empathy and has limited problem-solving abilities. You must, therefore, provide your clients with access to consultants for the more complex issues. 

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Daniel Hall

Business Expert

Daniel Hall is an experienced digital marketer, author and world traveller. He spends a lot of his free time flipping through books and learning about a plethora of topics.

 
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