Answer Bot^® is here to help: better comprehension, more languages, less effort

Some have been slow to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning as a part of their customer service strategy, but as organisations face resource and staffing constraints due to the pandemic, automation is not just nice to have – it can really help.

Customers still need support, and AI-powered tools such as Answer Bot, our self-service bot, can help meet demand without requiring hands-on help from an agent.

Answer Bot delivers on that promise and takes it one step further. We’ve implemented a new language model that allows Answer Bot to handle slang and uncommon vocabulary. This is especially helpful for companies selling whatchamacallits, thingamajigs and other products with unusual names. Answer Bot understands the lingo that your customers use and provides more accurate answers, decreasing the number of customers who need agent assistance.

Read on to see how adding Answer Bot can help your support team during the pandemic and beyond.

1. Deliver more accurate answers

   
   To resolve customer issues without agent involvement, you need to provide customers with the right information, something that has historically been a challenge for bots. Customer questions often contain uncommon vocabulary that can trip up a bot; however, these terms are critical to understanding the context of a customer’s issue. Now that Answer Bot understands this type of language, it can surface more accurate answers from your knowledge base, allowing you to resolve more issues while reducing the effort required from your support team. See it in action below.

2. Offer support in more languages

   
   As customers worldwide face disruptions in the products and services they buy, they need to be able to communicate with you. With Answer Bot, you can be more accessible to customers who speak other languages. We recently introduced 11 new languages to Answer Bot, bringing the total languages supported up to 17, including languages that aren’t based on a 26-letter alphabet, such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian. See the full list of languages.

3. Maintain customer satisfaction

   
   Ticket volumes have surged in many industries, which means that customers are facing longer wait times to get the help that they need at this critical time. More companies are relying on Answer Bot to help meet the demand. Requests handled by Answer Bot increased by 95% from late February to early May, according to COVID-19 Benchmark data. With Answer Bot, customers can get the ease and convenience of a conversational experience, and in many cases, a speedy resolution. It’s one small way in which you can make life easier for your customers, keeping satisfaction high even when times are tough.

No one knows what the future will hold, but we’re already seeing more companies turning to AI and automation to help field customer requests. With Answer Bot in tow, your customers are happy because they get immediate help, and your agents are relieved because they get a chance to catch their breath.

If you’ve been waiting to add Answer Bot to your self-service stack, now could be the time. Follow these instructions to enable Answer Bot in Zendesk Guide.