In the era of digital transformation, Conversational AI has emerged as a powerful tool that is reshaping various sectors, including sales, medicine, and most significantly, customer support. It’s revolutionizing the way businesses interact with their customers, offering a level of engagement and support that was previously unattainable.
Conversational AI in Various Sectors
In sales, tests have shown that conversational AI significantly increases close rates in challenging areas such as insurance. It helps actively engage with potential customers through website chats and product inquiries, making interactions feel more personal and insightful. In medicine, it’s being explored for use in medical kiosks, potentially allowing for faster access to necessary remedies when medical professionals are scarce.
The Profound Impact on Customer Support
However, it’s in customer support where conversational AI could have the most profound impact. It has the potential to not only help customers at scale but also create a deeper connection between customers and the companies that serve them.
A prime example of this is Dell’s customer support. Decades ago, a support call to Dell, despite taking an hour, left customers feeling closer to the company. This was due to the personal connection formed during the call, where the support person and the customer got to know each other while troubleshooting the issue. This personal connection created an impression that Dell genuinely cared about its customers, leading to increased customer loyalty. This was despite Dell PCs not being as well-made or attractive as Sony PCs at the time. The superior service experience outweighed the lower reliability of the product.
Conversational AI: The Solution to Short Staffing
Today, with widespread staffing shortages, companies can’t staff to the level that Dell once did. So, how can they achieve the same level of loyalty and engagement? The answer lies in conversational AI.
Conversational AI can create a far deeper relationship with customers at scale than people can, particularly during times of endemic short staffing. To reap the full benefits, the AI must be trained to engage with the customer, create a relationship with them, and truly become the friendly face of the company.
The Benefits of Conversational AI
Conversational AI offers numerous benefits. It can improve customer engagement with 24/7 availability and ongoing customer support and assistance. It can streamline customer communication by offering human-like interactions, freeing your team to work on other tasks. It can also help generate leads, keep track of your leads, automate the sales process, and collect payments.
Moreover, conversational AI can help reduce call volumes to contact centers. A large majority of live customer service calls involve simple, FAQ-oriented issues which can be easily answered by a chatbot. It costs very little to set up a chatbot and start experimenting. Better still, this minimal upfront investment can be quickly offset by using your chatbot to help optimize the cost of running your contact center.
