Enhance Customer Communications with AI-Powered Virtual Assistants: Benefits, Challenges, and Trends

2024-02-29 21:00:21

You can combine traditional customer service and the latest innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the fluidity of your customer communications.

New technologies come and go all the time, but one thing is eternal: the importance of strong customer relationships. Nowadays, you can combine traditional customer service and the latest innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the fluidity of your customer communications. We asked two leaders, Andres Rojas, Managing Director, Applied AI, at the Vector Institute, and Brian Keng, Managing Director, Research, at Borealis AI, to tell us regarding the benefits, challenges and trends associated with virtual assistants based on AI in the context of customer service.

Enrich your customer interactions with AI-powered virtual assistants

In the digital age, customer questions can come at any time of the day. If responses are slow to arrive, due to lack of a human agent, these customers might turn to your competitors. One of the biggest challenges for businesses of all sizes is setting up a chat service that can quickly answer customer questions, regardless of their geographic location or language. AI-powered virtual assistants can enable businesses to expand their customer base internationally by promptly providing accurate answers to these questions.

“AI-based virtual assistants are always available, and they can communicate with a virtually unlimited number of customers simultaneously, in a multitude of languages,” says Keng. He adds that such a service allows customers to get support anytime, anywhere.

Mr. Rojas specifies that these virtual assistants can even further personalize the customer experience, and make it more interactive and interesting. With copywriting, they can analyze user questions and retrieve relevant information from your company’s data to provide personalized responses consistent with your customer communications strategy. Each time the same question is asked, the virtual assistant can perfect its answer, which means that the quality of communication improves over time.

“When a customer asks a question, it is integrated into your company’s historical data. Subsequently, the virtual assistant can refer to all the answers that have been provided previously and produce an accurate answer based on past experiences,” he explains.

Furthermore, these references to past interactions allow virtual assistants to integrate regionalisms and natural turns of phrase into their dialogue, which adds to the authenticity and human character of the communication. All these factors strengthen customer relations.

For this strategy to work well, it is essential to choose a virtual assistant that balances human dialogue and automation well. Rojas advises businesses to be transparent and make this clear to their customers when interacting with a virtual assistant to maintain their trust. For his part, Mr. Keng suggests that they assign a virtual assistant to certain tasks, and maintain human contact for more complex interactions, for example in the event of hierarchical recourse or when the subtleties of a subject exceed the capacities of AI.

Operational efficiency and savings

The costs of establishing an AI-based virtual assistant can be high, but Rojas says that in the long run, this technology can significantly reduce operational costs. According to him, it can allow companies to streamline their customer service, especially when it comes to frequently asked questions. By directing these questions to a virtual assistant, businesses can free up their customer service agents’ time so they can address more complex issues that require in-depth support. This strategy can also be beneficial in terms of career advancement for agents, who will be responsible for monitoring the virtual assistant’s responses to ensure that they are consistent and that the customer experience is positive.

Mr. Keng explains that the setup costs are high since the virtual assistant must have an exhaustive pool of information to be able to function optimally. Additionally, the AI ​​system should be tuned to reflect your company’s communication style and replicate the human customer service experience. This is a process that takes time. He emphasizes that this is a justified expense, since it is these initial measurements that allow the virtual assistant to provide precise and relevant answers.

Benefits that go beyond the dialog box

Mr. Keng suggests that companies monitor typical performance indicators (e.g., call duration, satisfaction surveys, escalations) to gauge the success of virtual assistant integration. They can also measure ROI to assess the overall impact of this technology on customer satisfaction and quality of interactions.

Either way, both our experts agree: AI-powered virtual assistants can be a rich source of useful information for businesses. This is one of their main advantages. Data collected during interactions can help you better understand your customers’ preferences, concerns and behavior. AI can also offer new solutions that will allow you to improve your products and services and enhance your customer engagement strategy.

The Future of AI-Driven Customer Service

Mr. Rojas and Mr. Keng do not believe that the scope of virtual assistants will remain limited to chat; both anticipate that they will be integrated with other modes of communication, such as audio and telephone conversations. “These multi-modal AI technologies will offer businesses new ways to interact with their customers and build strong relationships with them,” says Keng.

Mr. Keng and Mr. Rojas agree that businesses have a lot to gain by integrating an AI-based virtual assistant into their customer service strategy. Reducing costs and improving the customer experience are just two of many benefits. By understanding the challenges, finding balanced solutions and ensuring data protection, businesses can leverage virtual assistants to strengthen customer relationships. As for the future, the evolution of multimodal AI suggests that businesses will have even more ways to enrich their communications and customer relationships.

By exploring the potential of virtual assistants today, you can prepare yourself to seize these opportunities. If your business depends on communication to attract customers, consider making learning regarding virtual assistants a priority.

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This article is intended to provide general information only and is not intended to provide legal, financial or other professional advice. Please consult a professional advisor regarding your particular situation. The information presented is believed to be factual and up to date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be considered an exhaustive analysis of the subjects discussed. The opinions expressed reflect the judgment of the authors as of the date of publication and are subject to change. Royal Bank of Canada and its entities do not promote, either explicitly or implicitly, the advice, opinions, information, products or services of third parties.

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