Like it or not, artificial intelligence is changing things. And that’s particularly true when it comes to customer support. Bots now man our social media pages and websites, answering questions at any time of the day or night. Are they ready to replace human consultants? Not by a long shot.
While AI has come a long way, it’s not a match for human empathy and ingenuity. And that’s extremely important when dealing with clients. But there’s no denying that AI can reduce wait times and costs. So, how do you take advantage of the benefits without negatively impacting service?
It’s pretty simple, you choose a hybrid support version. You can look into ecommerce customer support outsourcing to build up your consultant team cost-effectively. When you work with the right team, they have the AI tools that make support much more efficient.
Is it hard to make this model work in the ecommerce sector? Not as difficult as you might think. In this post, we’ll look how you can effectively merge AI tools and your human support team.
The Evolution of Customer Support in Ecommerce
The traditional model is where you have a team of consultants. Your customers call in or reach out online and get the support they need. This is an effective option but has limitations, it’s:
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Expensive: Having a team available 24/7 is costly. You have to plan for time off, sick leave, and other redundancies.
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Difficult to scale: Your team can only handle a certain number of queries a day. It’s difficult to scale up operations because you have to recruit and train new members.
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Unfulfilling: A lot of customer queries are repetitive. These make the work more boring for your consultants.
Now, let’s fast-forward to the new call center evolution. Today AI allows us to automate many tedious functions, like call forwarding. AI has become so sophisticated, it can detect clients who seem particularly frustrated, and prioritize their calls.
AI can also answer easy questions. What it can’t do, however, is to problem solve like a human. And, while it can emulate a sympathetic ear, it can’t understand the customer’s emotions.
Which is why most companies are opting for a hybrid model.
How Does a Hybrid Model Work?
You simply augment your team with AI tools and automation. So, you could set up a CRM system that has ticketing capabilities, for example. The AI in this case would automatically divert queries to the right department.
You could also have a bot working on your site or social media pages. It could answer simple questions and be available whenever the customer needs help.
You could also have AI help your consultants. It can search your policies, customer histories, and other data sources to make helpful suggestions. It can also analyze the sentiment of messages, highlighting those that require more careful handling.
The Benefits
You’ll reap several rewards using a hybrid support system:
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Reduces response times: AI handles simple queries instantly, taking care of a large proportion of support requests.
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Better cost efficiency: You don’t need to have as large a support team. Many businesses address this by turning to customer service outsourcing, which, when combined with AI tools, creates a scalable and cost-effective support solution.
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24/7 availability: Bots don’t need time off and never have bad days.
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Better customer satisfaction: Human agents deal with more complex or emotional issues.
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Better agent productivity: AI makes it easier for your consultants to do their jobs. It also gives insights for improvements.
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Easier to scale: Bots are pretty powerful. They can handle thousands of queries just as easily as they can hundreds.
How to Implement a Hybrid Support Model
It’s very exciting to think of all the benefits you can get from AI-based tools. But before you rush out, here are some things to consider.
Training the AI
Should you use a generic program or train your bot yourself? The latter is the better option even though it costs a little more. You’ll need to feed it examples of past customer interactions and give it access to your knowledge base and other records.
There is a caveat here. You need to protect your client’s privacy throughout the training process. You’ll do that by anonymizing the data before feeding it through.
You can improve the AI by having your human consultants rate suggestions the system makes. That way, the AI can learn which options are more correct.
You’ll also want to update your AI from time to time.
Empower Your Human Agents
Start a conversation with your team about what tools they want to use. What would make the most difference to them in their day-to-day interactions with clients. If you plan on using AI-based tools to draw useful insights, explain how this will work with your team.
You should also regularly measure how both the AI and your human team are doing.
Conclusion
Having AI tools support your human consultants is the smart way to balance efficiency and empathy.
