In the era of digital modernization, artificial intelligence seems to replace humans nearly everywhere. The research expresses a majority of people prefer the help of AI in customer services. But if we look closer, we can see that the number of those who prefer human customer service remains significant. At Simple Contact, we believe that the best efficiency can be achieved only with collaboration between human agents and advanced technology. Today we are going to share with you our insight into the role of human agents and AI in customer support. Also, we will review the improvements it could bring to the service.
What is Human Customer Support?
Human customer support means that interactions with customers involve human operators. So, if a person calls, writes an email, or uses a live chat function they always have an opportunity to reach a human agent for conversation. The main goal of human customer service is to create and tailor personalized and empathetic customer experiences. Customers want to be heard and valued. Even the best program has its limitations on this point and may fail to give users what they want and need the most. A real person, meanwhile, can react more naturally and provide the desired level of help.
It is important to understand that human support does not exclude the use of modern technologies. Artificial intelligence tools can be used to augment an agent’s capabilities. They can automate processes for time reduction. As a result, a customer may get more positive impressions from interactions. The advanced tools serve as partners and helpers for the operators but do not fully replace them, allowing them to be in charge at any moment.
Why is Human Customer Support More Relevant Than Ever?
Several main reasons make human customer services irreplaceable:
Complexity of tasks
The products and services are getting more complex, sophisticated, and problematic. Sometimes it is difficult to explain the source of a problem to a machine with correct words. Sometimes the issues require different levels of understanding and problem-solving skills. If the AI is limited to the data it was trained with, the human operator can adapt faster and find the solution.
Building personal connection
As much as chatbots and other automated means increase speed and comfort, the customer may still experience a lack of connection. Interactions with human staff make the procedure more personalized. Building strong and reliable connections with the customer is critical for a loyal client base. Also, it reduces the chance of their leaving for competitors.
Escalation issue
In situations when customer service needs to handle any escalation, human agents are more reliable. Even mimicking human behavior, AI can fail to read the customer’s emotional state the right way. Meanwhile, humans can feel the individual’s tone of voice better and understand how to fix the situation smoothly. Such soft skills help human support members to handle even the most sensitive issues appropriately.
Importance of Human Interaction in Customer Support
So what lies in the ground of human interactions' importance?
Human agents can empathize with customers’ frustrations, worries, or lack of knowledge. As a result, customers can get more positive and simpler instructions.
People can better navigate cultural differences and adapt their communication styles considering them.
Human customer service representatives are not bound to predefined scenarios and scripts. They are more flexible and can use creative approaches if required.
Human staff can handle unexpected and unusual situations that might confuse the automated systems.
The interaction can be tailored to a specific situation and the customer will get more relevant solutions or advice.
Human agents can notice and provide valuable insights into issues that AI may miss if the pattern hadn't been provided before.
If the system catches errors or fails to understand the customer, a human agent can intervene and fix the issue by providing more accurate information.
As much as automation can improve efficiency by covering routine tasks, human interactions will remain vital for complex issues. They can offer more personalized service, and build deeper connections between customers and the brand.
How AI Tools Can Foster Human Customer Support?
AI-powered tools can significantly augment human customer support by speeding up repetitive operations. The range of technological means can enhance the capabilities of support agents with prompt insights. So, let’s check how exactly artificial intelligence can improve the productivity and work of human staff.
No more routine work
Repetitive tasks take a lot of time and effort which could be useful for more complex objectives. The good thing is AI can successfully take care of general issues like frequently asked questions and let humans focus on other matters.
Information search
Personalized experience requires information about purchase history, past interactions, and preferences. AI can analyze large amounts of various data types in no time and provide agents with valuable insights.
Team up with a chatbot
Chatbots and virtual assistants can ensure instant real-time support for the customer. At the same time, the human agent can step in after getting a notification if their assistance is required at any moment.
Smart prioritization
It is difficult to define more urgent requests on overloaded days with many customer queries. AI can analyze the queries. It can prioritize urgent requests and route them to the required agent, ensuring that critical issues will be taken care of first of all.
Language translation
Language translation tools fix the problem of a language barrier. They translate the conversation with a customer in real time. So, the agent can help the customer in various languages even without knowledge of foreign ones.
Training and development
AI can be used for interaction analysis. It will help to collect feedback on the agent's performance, find weak points, and identify areas that require future improvements. AI can also suggest specific training programs and resources.
Those are only a few examples of the possibilities of improving customer support performance with the help of AI. Giving priority to human support doesn't mean saying "no" to modern technology. In essence, AI tools can become a force multiplier for support teams. They can significantly enhance effectiveness. AI is a tool for raising the number of solved cases. It can also help to fulfill our main mission - to provide exceptional service quality to customers.
The Secret of Balance: AI Software and Human Agents
First, remember that it is not a fight or competition between humans and machines. It is a partnership, a symphony of cooperation intended to reach better results. Any innovation should augment your team so as not to disturb the operating process. In our experience, the most productive tandem works when humans know all the strength of technology and can leverage it in practice. So today, we will share with you the secret of our balance strategy.
Make AI the Key to Your Team’s Productivity
You need to evaluate the working process and decide which tasks should be delegated to AI. Find out where the automation will be the most useful and how to streamline the workflow. You need to analyze customer support operations and interactions. It will help to define where the implementation will be the most valuable. Artificial intelligence is good at handling repetitive operations. It helps work with large amounts of data and general tasks. Your human team, meanwhile, will be able to take care of complex matters that require empathy and creativity.
Prepare Your Employees for New Technologies
Collaboration with advanced technology requires relevant skills and training. Show and teach your team how to utilize AI and automation effectively. The more they know about the processes, the more you will raise your support service's general productivity and satisfaction. However, training is not only about technical preparation. It is also about tolerance and acceptance of new implementation. Your team must refer to AI as the helper and partner, not as the replacement for their presence. First, it is a tool to empower their capabilities and make the workflow easier and more effective.
Define the Responsibilities
Our goal is to avoid the confusion of both humans and artificial intelligence. You can avoid it if you establish certain responsibilities for AI and your support team. Both staff and AI should know and understand their roles in the process. It will allow us to reduce the chance of potential mistakes and inefficiencies. Human teams will know what part of the work is covered by AI and will be able to fully focus on their part of the tasks. As a result, you will get seamless operations on multiple tasks and increased productivity.
Monitor and Improve
In our experience, AI implementation into the workflow is not a one-day job. It is the process of constant monitoring and updates to reach better results and outstanding performance. Regular checks and audits can help identify areas for improvement. Create your automation strategy by considering your business goals and the company's and staff's needs. In time, your objectives and requirements may change. The more tasks can need automation. So you may align the process accordingly.
Encourage Feedback within Human Customer Support
Open communication is critical for productive work, especially regarding AI automation. We value feedback from both customers and the support team. It will help to see the real picture of workflow, its weaknesses, and strong sides. Allow your team to express their worries and concerns. Let them offer suggestions about improvements. The insights of those engaged in the system can serve as a reliable correction base. Also, it will engage your team in the adjustment process and make them feel heard and valued.
You can use these five simple rules to build transparent communication with the customer support team. They are the first steps to achieving a balance between human force and machine capabilities. Contact us, and we will gladly share our experience in implementing AI into outsourced customer support.
Best Practices of Augmented Customer Support
You can count dozens of ways to augment human customer support with AI implementation. But today, we will review our recommendations on the best practices, in our opinion.
Enhance the team with AI-powered tools
Choose the tools that will help empower the agent's work. For example, machine learning technology could significantly affect workflow by providing insights into customer interactions. It can utilize predictive analysis and ticket routing to improve agent's productivity. MLT can give instant access to all relevant data during the phone call or in other situations when the agent may need it.
Enable self-service
AI chatbot customer service is one of the most effective ways to help clients with FAQs and order data. Hundreds of people contact customer support to check their order status daily. With the help of AI, they can get help on general issues. AI can give updated information about order progress, delivery time, or any details without engaging human agents.
Invest in training
By training, we mean both human and AI parts. Human customer support needs to upgrade their skills regularly. AI, meanwhile, needs high-quality data for model training to improve its capabilities. Humans can learn new technologies, tools, and various customer support practices. The technology part can be updated with the latest advancements and relevant tools, as well as with new data, rules, and scenarios.
Implement language translation
This practice will help you to work with customers all over the world without hiring multilingual staff. Real-time language translators can be implemented into your existing CRM system. They detect the language of the dialogue and provide accurate AI-powered translation. The glossaries can be customized according to your company's products and terminology.
Monitor the performance
Analytics and reporting will give you access to regular performance metrics. Study response time, solving and satisfaction rates, and feedback to identify aspects to change. Stable work on performance improvements will help you achieve outstanding service delivery. Use the reports to find inefficiencies and fix them to build reliable support.
How to Arrange a Seamless Transition from Chatbots and Voicebots to Human Agents?
The effortless transition from bot to human agent is crucial for high-quality customer support service. We formed a few tips that could help to arrange the transition as smoothly as possible:
First of all, make sure that there is an integrated option to be transferred to a human agent in the conversation window.
Set a specific criteria, trigger, or keyword that indicates the need for human assistance. The agent should also receive the notification that their help is required.
The conversation should continue in the initial chat window. It will help avoid confusion or data loss within several windows opened simultaneously.
Ensure that after the transition, the bot provides a human agent with all relevant information. It could be problem description, context, chat history, and offered solutions.
Provide the notification that the conversation is being transferred to a human representative. It would be wise to let know how long the response time could take.
If there is no available agent, the person should receive a notification to try later. Alternatively, they may be able to leave the contact information for further contact.
Ensure that your AI and human staff have access to the same information via CRM or support systems. It will prevent the customer from repeating their request.
You can implement the feedback solutions. It will help to see how smooth the process goes so you can make in-time adjustments to the technical side if required.
At Simple Contact, we are sure that AI is an exceptional tool for customer service augmentation. It offers various functions that could make the agent's work easier and more efficient. However, artificial intelligence is not a replacement for human customer service agents. It is rather the opportunity to empower the service system. It will improve the customer satisfaction score with more accurate and prompt responses.
Want to learn more about how AI can elevate your customer service strategy? Read the full guide.
AI is learning and getting more person-like in its customer reactions and interactions. It offers quicker and more task-covering services. It does not get tired and can ensure 24/7 help and responses to queries.
However, many people still prefer to communicate with a real person instead of clever bots. The empathy, creative approach, and ability to react to situations beyond prescribed scenarios make humans irreplaceable in customer support. Humans are exceptional in handling complex issues and emotionally charged situations. It makes them the key to raising satisfaction from support service interaction.
The good thing is that we don't have to choose between human customer support and the advantages of AI implementation. Let's consider it a profitable and useful coexistence where AI and real-human agents can augment each other, bringing the support quality to a different level
Conclusions
The benefit of AI use in customer support service is obvious and valuable. But it doesn't mean that AI needs to exclude human agents from the process. The most efficient way to provide high-quality, customer-oriented service is to keep the balance between human agents and AI augmentation.
Our outsourcing customer support company works closely with artificial intelligence tools to utilize the best technology. It allows us to offer exceptional customer service without overloading with routine tasks. We consider it the working solution to improve quality and reduce the time and costs required for operation. Skilled employees equipped with advanced AI-powered tools focus more on complex tasks and can reach more customers within the working day. It opens the full potential of human staff, keeping their back with round-the-clock assistance.
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