The quality and speed of your customer service can make or break your business. Recent studies are proof. According to one survey, 86% of United States respondents said poor customer service caused them to switch companies after two poor experiences. On the other hand, 88% of consumers said they are likely to make additional purchases with a company after a good customer service experience.

That said, providing exceptional customer service is time-consuming. Small businesses may need more staff or resources. That’s where artificial intelligence can help. See BBB’s tips for leveraging AI in your business to improve your customer experience from start to finish.

Ways to use AI in customer service

• Take advantage of chatbots. One of the more common uses of AI is via chatbots, and with good reason. Nowadays, people expect fast responses from customer support. Chatbots can help clients resolve common customer support issues by giving them solutions directly or sending them to support pages. Chatbots can answer routine questions about order status, personal accounts, and service usage. Not only does this keep your live customer service team from focusing on redundant questions, it means customers can get answers to their questions 24/7.
• Look into conversational AI. Not all chatbots are created equal. Some use minimal AI and base answers on a set of if/then rules. Many need specific verbiage from the customer to give the right answers, which can be frustrating if your client doesn’t ask the question exactly how the chatbot requires. A chatbot powered by conversational AI, on the other hand, can use contextual awareness and analyze incoming customer queries to understand sentiment and intent. This means your client is more likely to get their question answered the first time they engage.
• Offer support in multiple languages. Multilingual chatbots can expand your audience. When people can do business with you in their preferred language, you can expect more customer engagement and loyalty.
• Use AI to assist agents. AI can also benefit your customer service agents by proactively suggesting the next actions. This automated knowledge search can reduce Average Handle Time, Time to Resolution, and your business’s overall customer satisfaction score.
• Let AI automate ticket creation and routing. Eliminate confusion about how to submit a support ticket by using an AI. AI widgets can create support tickets when an issue is not resolved immediately. AI can also automate directing tickets to the person or office best equipped to resolve them. This can help your company avoid bottlenecks if a single employee is assigned to manually label incoming support tickets.
• Improve sales with personalized offers. AI can analyze your customers’ behavior and purchasing patterns to offer personalized recommendations for products and services during customer onboarding when they check out or at other convenient times during your sales process. AI takes the think work out of personalized offers that can help you boost sales and customer loyalty.
• Prevent churn with customer data. Chatbot analytics can help you understand your customers’ biggest pain points by showing you what they complain about or what improvements they ask for. This is invaluable data that can help you significantly improve your customer experience.

For more information:

Ready to implement AI in your business? Read the BBB Tip: AI for small business. Where to start? Also, read these BBB tips about using chatbots from customer service.

See BBB's artificial intelligence HQ for more AI tips and resources.

Visit the BBB small business page and discover new ideas to help your business grow and overcome a variety of common business challenges. Read these tips for running your small business more efficiently.

Learn how to become a BBB Accredited Business.

To review this article and hyperlinked references in full, visit: https://www.bbb.org/article/business/28632-bbb-business-tip-how-to-use-ai-to-improve-your-customer-experience