Exceptional customer service sets your business apart in today’s competitive market. Companies must utilize all the tools available to enable them to help customers achieve success with their products. 

In 2023, global AI market size was worth $454.12bn. Integrating AI-driven automated support can elevate your support team, turning them into customer service heroes. AI tools are the co-pilots to your exceptionally skilled customer service team, enabling them to deliver better service with the help of technology. 

Combining personal, hands-on support enhances support roles, boosts efficiency, and empowers teams to provide better customer experiences. Customer service heroes can accomplish more with the help of AI, leading to better customer satisfaction and loyalty. 

Balancing AI automated support and agents results in superior customer service. Outstanding support makes customers happier and encourages loyalty to your business. 

1. The current challenges experienced by customer support

High volume of requests

What’s likely to impact the quality of service? Too many tickets! 

As your customer base expands, the growing number of customer queries are a challenge for your customer support heroes. There is a pressure to respond to tickets in a timely fashion, meet customer expectations, and solve problems quickly. A backlog of unsolved tickets results in unhappy customers and decreased satisfaction. 

Increasing expectations

Your business has a reputation to protect, and delivering exceptional customer service is part of that. 

Customers now expect more from brands in terms of service. Three out of five customers say that good customer service is vital for them to feel loyalty to a brand. It’s up to your support heroes to provide faster, more personalized service that contributes to a better customer experience. 

Pressure on support staff

Customer service is a tough job, and you need to do all you can to make life easier for support agents. 

Staff can come under strain, impacting team productivity and employee well-being. The morale of your support staff suffers as they struggle to meet the demands of your customers. How well support staff respond to your customers is dependent on the atmosphere of your team. 

AI has the potential to support human staff and solve these challenges, without requiring you to hire more agents.

2. What AI-enhanced automated support looks like

AI chatbots and virtual assistants

Common queries are easily handled by chatbots and virtual assistants. These tools can automate repetitive tasks and streamline customer interactions by deflecting minor tickets with AI. AI can interact with your customers naturally and provide solutions to typical problems. 

Automated ticket routing

Customer support tools implement AI to categorize and prioritize support tickets, ensuring the right person tackles the right issue. Streamline workflows with AI to make it easier to get through a high volume of tickets. Eliminate mundane tasks with automation, reducing administrative load. 

Knowledge base automation

AI-powered knowledge bases help agents find and deliver answers quickly with self-service content. AI delivers the right content at the right time, with AI-driven search to identify user intent and suggest relevant articles. Knowledge base content deflects customer support tickets and solves common customer problems. 

Real-time assistance for agents

Save time with AI-driven recommendations that offer solutions or responses during live support sessions. Agents benefit from assistance with drafting their responses, speeding up their ability to help customers with intelligent suggestions. 

Customer sentiment analysis

AI detects how customers are feeling so agents can draft the right response. AI increases empathy for the customer and the quality of the support communication. It suggests the tone and helps draft responses for customers based on their emotional state. 

3. Advantages of AI for your support staff

Reduced workload and burnout 

Taking repetitive tasks off the plate of your support staff frees up their potential and prevents burnout. AI handles the routine matters, allowing staff to focus on more complex issues like providing exceptional customer service, performance analysis, or administrative tasks. 

The creativity and innovation of your staff can flourish when AI is acting as copilot, benefiting from a reduced workload, contributing to a higher functioning support team.  

Faster resolution times

90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as essential or very important when they have a customer service question. This means that you can use chatbots and AI knowledge bases to provide instant support for your customers, instead of requiring them to wait around for agents to become available. AI plays a key role in expediting support processes and shortening wait times.

Scalability

Utilizing AI allows customer support teams to scale without needing to increase headcount. You can handle more customers with the same number of agents, effectively implementing technology to keep costs under control. AI functions as another valuable team member that never gets tired or asks for a pay rise. 

4. Turning support staff into customer service heroes

Equipping agents with the right tools

Relationships are key to customer support. When agents have more time, they are free to engage more with customers. They know who their customers are, and can deliver better service. 

Much of customer service work is repetitive, and can benefit from automation. AI reduces mundane tasks and gives agents more time to build customer relationships. This increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. 

More job satisfaction

With routine tasks taken away, agents are happier in their roles. They are free to fulfill more of their potential with higher-order tasks. They can use their skills to create better customer experiences that drive revenue. 

When staff members are relieved from repetitive tasks, they can invest more in solving problems creatively. Better problem-solving results in better service and happier support staff, which translates to happier customers. 

Personalization with AI

With AI handling the basics, agents can focus on delivering a more human, tailored experience. They can treat each customer as an individual when they have more time to devote to each interaction, driving customer success and satisfaction. 

Personalization means each interaction is targeted to that particular customer. Agents can make relevant suggestions and increase the value of the support experience. 

5. AI and human support: a powerful team

The complementary nature of AI and human support

AI and human support work together to provide better customer service. AI has the capability to automate repetitive tasks, help customers with basic queries, and improve customer service for agents. 

AI and human support are two sides of the same coin. They are both designed to help customers, while AI uses technology and humans interact directly with customers. 

Automation can’t do everything. Balancing automation with human empathy and judgment results in a better customer experience. AI takes care of business while human agents are focusing on the customers. 

AI as a co-pilot, not a substitute

Human support agents need the right tools to serve customers. AI has the potential to elevate customer service and improve the support experience. But machines can never offer the human, personal service of your agents. 

AI assists but does not replace support agents, enhancing their capabilities. Agents do their jobs better when AI is working behind the scenes to make customer service easier. AI handles mundane support queries and tasks while agents focus on the more complex issues. 

Case study: Glassix

Consider Glassix if you want AI-powered support to elevate customer service teams. Glassix offers a no-code chatbot to provide instant support to your customers, using GPT-4's conversational AI capabilities to communicate. Have your chatbot up and running in minutes, ready to serve your customers.

Email automations are another feature of Glassix that set our solution apart. Improve email customer support by triggering dynamic business rules including agent assignment, priority routing, welcome message settings, and more.

6. Practical steps to adopt AI-driven support in your team

Choosing the right AI tools 

With the growth in AI, there are a number of platforms out there to choose from, and many of them in the customer support space. Cost and ease of implementation are both factors when adopting a new tool. 

Key features to look for in AI support solutions are NLP, machine learning, and seamless integration. If you choose Glassix, you’ll access an easy-to-use chatbot builder and email support automations to make your customer service top-notch. 

Look for tools that can grow with your business and take customer support to the next level. 

Integrations with current systems 

What systems are you already using? Is it possible to choose an AI tool that can integrate well with existing support systems?

Look for APIs to connect your tools together and streamline workflows. Native APIs with existing tools such as help desks set AI tools apart and make them easier to integrate. 

Asking your team to adopt a new tool isn’t easy. Showcase business value and choose a tool that has a simple learning curve to encourage adoption. 

Training your team 

Onboard your team with new AI tools so that they can work with them effectively. Provide training to level up skills and encourage motivation to use AI to make work easier. 

Ensure that team members understand AI is there as an assistant and not to replace them. Educate them on the benefits of AI in customer service and how these new tools will help them to assist customers. 

Training helps agents to adopt AI tools to support their workflows and ensure that AI is successful in customer service. 

Measuring success 

Use data to see where AI has made improvements. Measure the success of your AI customer service tools over time in improving operations, and ensure you’re getting the most out of your investment.  

Use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track the impact of AI on customer service quality, such as First Response Time and First Issue Resolution. 

7. Overcoming typical objections about AI in customer service

Job displacement fears

AI is there to support your customer service team, not replace them. Humans have a very important role to play in providing quality customer service. Automation frees up time and enables agents to do their best work in helping customers. 

AI ensures that customer service heroes are treated as highly skilled workers with an important contribution to make. Although AI enables teams to do more with less, it also creates job opportunities. Team members can become AI experts and oversee the systems that assist with customer service. 

AI reliability

AI is becoming more and more reliable all the time. As the software develops, AI becomes increasingly human-like without being prone to error. AI systems become more intelligent as they process more data. 

Agents can oversee AI to check that it is handling customer issues correctly. If a customer issue can’t be solved, chatbots can hand them over to your human agents for a more helpful response. 

Ensuring data security 

When implementing any new tool, there is a concern about privacy and data protection. 

Emphasize the importance of AI security protocols and data privacy when choosing any tool and look for a company with an impeccable reputation. 

Glassix’s comprehensive security measures ensure your data is protected according to the highest industry standards, including full compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 standards.

Final remarks

Empower support staff to become customer service heroes with the right AI tools. AI can enhance both the productivity and well-being of customer support staff, while at the same time improving the overall customer experience. For support staff, AI is a job well done.

AI is the co-pilot for your high-performing customer service team, enabling them to excel to greater heights.  

Consider using AI-enhanced tools to create a version of your team where agents are capable of doing their best work, and customers are happier. Combine AI automations with the empathy and skills of your support staff to build a better customer service team. 

Start exploring AI solutions such as Glassix, and embark on your journey to turning your support team into customer service heroes.