How AI can help you provide more human CX

Traditionally, customer experience is a fundamentally human endeavor. It’s all about how you anticipate needs, listen to requests, and respond with empathy. And as you scale—particularly into new markets and geographies—maintaining that ability becomes more crucial.

But the most effective CX programs are enabled by integrated, easy-to-use tech stacks. This is because technology that extracts actionable insights and supports daily operations is fundamental to successful CX.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help supercharge both of these areas—taking your CX capabilities to the next level while giving your agents time and space to be more, well, human.

Many customers will tell you that when it comes to customer service, they prefer speaking to a person. In fact, 69% say that talking to a live agent by phone is one of their top three preferred methods of communication, while 46% described an online chat with a live agent in the same terms.

But if you can solve a customer’s problem instantly without forcing them to queue, the rules change. According to PSFK, 74% of users prefer chatbots when seeking answers to simple questions.

of consumers say talking to a live agent is one of their top preferred methods of communication

of consumers say they live chat is one of their favorite methods of communicating with a brand

of consumers prefer chatbots to answer simple questions

thing customers want from a chatbot is the ability to escalate to a human

AI gives you the ability to handle thousands of minor requests simultaneously—so customers can solve their problems without taking significant time out of their day. At the same time, you can free up human agents to deal with more complex interactions that require out-of-the-box thinking or empathy.

That way, the people who need to speak to agents can do so faster and more often. It all adds up to lower costs, as agents are deployed where they can be most effective, which in turn leads to a higher level of customer satisfaction.

AI can also help to equip your CX teams with more relevant information that can feed into better processes and interactions. On a macro scale, it can analyze customer sentiment surrounding particular products and services.

This gives you a much clearer idea of how your business is perceived than anecdotal evidence, and provides the basis to update products or improve CX. On an individual call level, AI can analyze the customer’s language or tone and automatically escalate the call to a supervisor if necessary.

AI can also improve the quality of agent interactions. Programs that listen in on calls can provide human agents with real-time prompts that empower them to serve customers faster. This again saves time, costs, and improves overall CX.

It goes without saying that AI isn’t ready to take over your CX operations, and likely never will be. Human empathy remains a fundamental part of customer service. The No. 1 feature customers want in a chatbot is the ability to escalate to an agent. Meanwhile, AI allows you to ensure you provide those human experiences at the right moments, freeing up your agents from minor tasks and engaging them in more fulfilling and effective work.

While AI can save costs and speed up service, it can’t help people feel heard, and it needs human oversight. If overused, AI can damage your brand by frustrating customers and driving them elsewhere. Repeating yourself numerous times over the phone to an Interactive Voice Response System (IVR) is one classic example. (IVR call containment can be powerful when done right, but it rarely is.)

So for best results, combine the empathy of human agents with the speed and analytical power of AI. Balanced well, they complement each other and help you provide a more human CX.

Ubiquity can help you find that balance—and deliver outstanding CX that provides a serious competitive advantage.