AI has massive potential for businesses in all niches. Perhaps its most transformative niche, however, is in making customer service better. Many companies have already embraced AI customer support. In fact, when you contact customer support, you might be talking to an AI assistant without even knowing it! AI has immense power to help businesses provide faster customer service. Today, we explore just some ways AI is changing how companies help their customers.

How AI Customer Support Makes Service Better

As we’ve noted before on the blog, AI is best thought of as a super-helpful digital assistant that never gets tired. Anyone who has worked in customer service knows how invaluable that could be. AI can answer customer questions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Now, picture your customers enjoying that constant access. No more waiting until Monday or after lunch to get the help they need.

Of course, generative AI in customer experience is still a tool, not a master. It can’t understand every single niche customer query it encounters. However, AI assistants can handle many common customer questions right away. Think of simple, common queries like “Where’s my package?” or “What is my account balance?”.

AI can help with that in seconds. This means customers get answers faster and don’t have to wait for a human agent to become available. For those with complex issues to address, AI customer support can forward the matter to a human to deal with properly.

Real Examples of Generative AI in Customer Experience

You have already seen generative AI in customer experience in action. Think of those pop-up chat boxes that are now common on most websites. These chatbots use generative AI to understand customers’ questions and provide helpful answers.

Big companies like Amazon and Apple are already using AI to figure out what customers might need help with. Often before they even ask! For example, if you’ve bought something recently, the AI might show you tracking information as soon as you contact customer service.

As you can see, the results are subtle and aren’t always a case of AI ‘pretending to be customer support.’ Instead, AI has become a useful tool to simplify the support cycle while still allowing for human help where needed.

Making Things Personal with AI Customer Support

Personalization has become a key marketing tool. People don’t want to see things that are sort of relevant to them. They want direct, relevant and personal suggestions.

AI can ‘remember’ previous conversations with individuals. This allows it to personalize responses and other cues for the user. If you’ve talked to customer service before about your shoe size, the AI will remember that next time you shop. This makes the experience feel more personal, like talking to someone who knows you.

AI can also offer smart suggestions based on what customers usually buy.  It can recommend other things people may like and easily offer that coveted personalized experience.

Helping Human Agents Do Better

So, AI isn’t a replacement for a great customer service team. It’s another team member who helps them work better. When customers have complicated problems, AI can quickly give the human agents all the important information they need.

This means the agent can focus on solving the problem instead of searching for information. The AI agent can offer advice directly when the inquiry is simple and straightforward. This leaves the human agent ready to help the next person in the queue with a complex query.

Making Sure Customers Are Happy

Using generative AI in customer experiences also lets businesses police their service. AI can analyze customer feedback, reviews and even the tone of voice in phone calls to understand how customers really feel.

The quicker you can spot a customer service issue, the better you can respond to it. It’s also useful to tell who is simply ‘having an opinion’ and where there is a genuine service issue. This lets you take any steps needed to address the matter.

Nor has generative AI in customer experiences reached its full potential yet. Developers are working hard to help AI customer support better understand emotion, solve complicated problems and predict customer needs. They’re also working hard to improve how it communicates. There’s a bright future ahead for human-AI collaboration.

Making AI Customer Support Work Better for Everyone

Using generative AI in customer support has benefits for everyone concerned. For business owners, AI in customer service means:

• Helping more customers without hiring more staff
• Keeping support services running 24/7 without extra cost
• Understanding customer needs better
• Making sure problems get fixed faster

On the other side, for customers, it means:

• Getting help right away, any time of day
• Not having to explain the same problem multiple times
• More personalized service
• Faster solutions to common problems

In short, the future of generative AI in customer experience is burning brightly. The key for businesses looking to implement AI customer support is to start small and build from there. Trial a simple chatbot trained on your most common service questions. Begin to use AI tools to organize your customer information.

Once you have a few implementations in place, you can add more as you learn what works. And always remember: AI works best when it’s part of a team. The goal is to make things better for your customers, not to replace human connection completely.

AI customer support has immense potential to reshape customer service for the better. It’s helping businesses provide faster, more personal service while making things easier for both customers and employees.

As AI keeps getting better, we can expect even more improvements in how generative AI customer experiences help businesses help their customers. If you’re ready to embrace the potential of AI customer support for your business, reach out to AI-First Mindset™ today to help you get started.