9 ways AI can help you communicate better with your customers

From chatbots to intelligent routing systems, AI is transforming how companies communicate with customers. According to Servion Global Solutions, artificial intelligence (AI) is set to power 95 per cent of all customer interactions by 2025.

And it’s not just businesses that love AI: Zendesk’s CX Trends Report 2022 revealed that two-thirds of customers approve of AI for making their lives easier, saving time, and improving their overall experience.

So let’s explore how this powerful tool is redefining what’s possible in customer service, and how you can harness it to improve both customer engagement and communication.

1. Understand your customers

Data-driven decisions are the foundations of business success. But data analysis is often a tedious and drawn-out process. Fortunately, AI can sift through huge amounts of data in no time for insights into things like customer behaviour, preferences, and demographics.

This information can then help you better understand what your customers want and how you should communicate with them. Plus, AI is also great at picking up on things that your team might have missed.

Data-driven decisions are the foundations of business success. But data analysis is often a tedious and drawn-out process. Fortunately, AI can sift through huge amounts of data in no time for insights into things like customer behaviour, preferences, and demographics.

This information can then help you better understand what your customers want and how you should communicate with them. Plus, AI is also great at picking up on things that your team might have missed.

2. Focus on self-service

Modern customers are busy and meeting their expectations can be a challenge, especially with limited resources. But the Harvard Business Review reports that 81 per cent of customers prefer to help themselves rather than speak to an agent. So sometimes you really say it best when you say nothing at all.

AI-powered self-service options give customers the power to solve problems, complete purchases, and find useful resources on their own. AI chatbots, for example, can guide customers to relevant knowledge base articles or help centre pages, saving valuable time for both customers and agents.

3. Real-time all the time

Assisting more customers in less time and effort is the goal of any customer service team. The CX Trends Report revealed that 69 per cent of customers are happy to chat with bots on simple issues, making them a great option for providing 24/7, real-time support. After all, bots can respond to customers at any time and even create tickets for agents to look at when they’re back in the office.

Solving customer issues quickly also helps build stronger relationships. Plus, more tickets solved by AI chatbots means more time for agents to focus on complex problems. But don’t forget: if a bot isn’t solving a customer’s issue, it should hand the ticket over to an agent quickly and seamlessly.

4. Personalise, personalise, personalise

Customers want personalised experiences—and businesses want to provide them. After all, personalised customer communication helps reduce churn and increase customer lifetime value (LTV). Nevertheless, personalisation remains a major challenge for many companies due to the time and effort it requires.

But AI is just the machine for the job. AI chatbots, for example, can use existing customer data to provide personalised customer service. What’s more, AI also makes it easy to send personalised offers, follow-ups, and even automated birthday messages for a whole new level of customer engagement.

5. Automate

AI can help you automate simple and repetitive tasks like updating records and managing queries to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Automating these processes will give agents more time to focus on delivering the best customer service possible. Plus, automated customer outreach ensures a consistent tone of voice in all marketing messages.

AI also makes it easier to respond to customers quickly and accurately by collating data from multiple systems, executing service requests, and updating customer profiles. And when customers get in touch by phone, interactive voice response (IVR) systems can automatically route customer queries to the right agent thanks to AI-powered speech recognition.

6. Multichannel made easy

In the near future, 75 per cent of customers will contact companies across multiple channels according to McKinsey. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because customers also expect a consistent experience across these channels and the option to switch between them seamlessly.

That’s enough to stress out almost any customer service team. Fortunately, AI can help centralise communications, making it easy to provide an omnichannel experience for all customers. For example, AI chatbots can collect information and provide support across multiple channels, bringing data back to a central source.

7. Predictive analytics

When it comes to customer support, AI chatbots may be the stars of the show, but machine learning (ML) is the brains of the operation. It’s what makes conversational AI more responsive by helping chatbots learn what they should do, and when, e.g. collecting information or handing off to an agent.

But machine learning can also support agents by helping anticipate customer needs. Analysing data from previous customer service interactions not only helps predict likely future results, but can also provide actionable insights, e.g. which solution may prove most helpful based on previous conversations.

8. Create engaging content

Great self-service relies on top-notch content. According to Social Media Today, 91 per cent of customers are happy to use online knowledge bases if they’re available and tailored to their needs. That’s where AI comes in.

AI is great at spotting trends that can help customer service teams create more relevant and engaging content. For example, machine learning can analyse support tickets for insights on how to improve help articles and support pages. What’s more, it can also help you understand customer feedback and single out the most important recommendations.

9. Analyse sentiment

According to CXM, only 1 out of every 26 unhappy customers complain. The rest churn and never come back. That’s why it’s vital to understand how your customers feel about your service and where you need to improve.

Fortunately, AI can help you collect feedback, analyse customer interactions, and monitor customer sentiment. This helps businesses pinpoint what’s working well and what customers think could be better—all the information you need to improve your customer communication and provide amazing customer experiences.

AI in action

Fútbol Emotion

Fútbol Emotion is one of the top football retailers in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. What started as a small family-owned business in Zaragoza, Spain has grown into a global player with more than 3 million customers.

As the company grew, it was increasingly held back by its established support process and tools, which lacked metrics, data, and scalability. A new solution was needed, and fast. The team loved Zendesk thanks to its ease of use, customisation options, and unified workspace.

After rolling out Zendesk Suite, Fútbol Emotion then levelled up its conversational experience by integrating a third-party AI chatbot using Zendesk’s flexible APIs. With customers taking full advantage of the self-service options, ticket volumes have fallen as much as 80 per cent for individual channels. The next project: using AI to offer customers personalised recommendations for football shoes.

“If a customer wants to know the status of an order and starts a conversation with our support team, the AI bot knows who they are without asking for the order number, because that metadata is already stored in the system.” – Daniel Hsu, eCommerce Manager at Fútbol Emotion

Read the full customer story