Will AI replace human customer service agents?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer the future of work - it's the present. 

Harnessing the Power of AI so your Agents want to Stick Around

The Geneys Xperience: Rabobank and AI Agent Assist 

Deepdesk and Google Cloud: changing the CX landscape

It’s easy for us to talk about how Deepdesk’s AI technology can help make the jobs of customer service agents and advisors easier, while at the same time enabling them to have more meaningful conversations with their customers. 

What makes companies like Zappos, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, Disney, Virgin Atlantic, and Coolblue great? Of course, their products and their branding. But what distinguishes them from the competition is their customer service. To be more specific: those companies value their customer service agents. But what makes customer service agents so important?

Customer service agents are mentally overloaded because of all their open tabs. The constant switching between them makes it hard for them to pay attention to the customer. Only by giving them intuitive interfaces can we help them focus. This will boost concurrency and customer satisfaction.

Remember Tom Cruise in Minority Report? On a big screen, all the information about the future murder is displayed. His job is to make sense of it, enlarging or reducing pictures, conjuring up contact details and other personal information, dragging in or discarding elements with a wave of his hands. He is under pressure. The clock is ticking. Now imagine customer service agents behind that screen.

Chatbots are great tools, but why are you using them? Don’t try to save money or quickly solve your staffing problems with chatbots. Instead, do it all for your customer and use chatbots for the right purpose. And don't forget your agents.

The pandemic boosted digitization, but most organizations were not at all prepared for how the pandemic would impact them. So, they acted, but not strategically. It is about time to rethink your digital customer service. Otherwise, the next wave of hyper-automation may become your extinction event, according to the NTT 2021 Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report. Here is my take on the report and a critical remark.

Many organizations struggle with their customer service, facing rising costs and unsatisfied customers. But with the right intention, the right technology, and the right people, you can change things around.