Customer support software is an important area of SaaS. It’s aimed at helping customers and encompasses everything from help desks, to CRM software, to knowledge bases. In recent times, it has come to include chatbots, and intelligent self-service platforms, as AI has grown and begun to take over another industry.
Customer service is the backbone of every business so it’s worth learning about these new tools. AI is everywhere, and can help your customer service department increase satisfaction and help more customers.
69% of organizations believe generative AI can help humanize customer interactions. It’s not about just handing your customers off to robots. AI has more potential for human interaction than you might think.
How AI is changing the landscape of customer support
AI is becoming part of a collaboration between human agents and technology. Agents are becoming supervisors of AI, amplifying human intelligence according to 75% of CX leaders. AI will be used to handle the bulk of customer queries, freeing agents up for more higher-order tasks like reorganization and leadership.
AI is revolutionizing the landscape of customer support by changing working practices and how we interact with customers. Many processes are automated including answering the majority of customer queries, freeing the burden on your support team.
A business without AI is now one falling behind the times. AI is driving us into the twenty-first century and customers expect it. Customer support tools are integrated with AI so that many interactions are automated and customers may not even realize they have been helped by AI.
Types of AI tools in customer service
Self-service
AI-powered self-service platforms enable customers to find the right answers in the knowledge base utilizing machine learning algorithms. Search responds to natural language queries to point customers to the correct information, and recommend related articles.
Chatbots
Chatbots are AI-driven answer machines that interact with customers through natural language. Customers type in a query or a question to the chatbot and it returns the answer, or else points the customer to a human agent.
Help desks
Help desks can be AI-driven customer support tools which provide a ticketing system for businesses to keep track of customer queries. AI can help keep customers updated about orders or AI can help to resolve interactions.
What customers expect from support
Customers have come to expect a certain level of automation from customer support. If you don’t provide at least a basic knowledge base for their queries, customers are going to be unhappy. They are also fine with interacting with chatbots for minor queries. As long as they can reach a human when they need to, customers are satisfied with businesses deploying AI to help them.
Customers expect a blend of human and AI support, with machines taking up the bulk of the slack and an agent always available when you need them. Customers want to be helped by AI but they don’t want to be dominated by it. They will appreciate a well-constructed knowledge base but not at the expense of providing human support.
Chatbots are familiar to customers now and they know how to use them so using chatbots is fine for support. As long as your chatbot is well-trained and up-to-speed, customers will be happy to use these tools.
The future of AI in customer support
AI in customer support will only become more popular. Businesses are adopting AI-driven support tools at a rapid pace and it will become the norm. AI will automate more and more tasks and agents should be trained in the new technology.
We are advancing towards a world where 100% of customer interactions will involve AI in some form. It’s a question of when this will happen and whether businesses are ready for it. If your business is not using AI then you’re likely to fall behind.
AI is for both businesses and customers. It makes life easier as technology is a helping hand. AI can help both behind the scenes and in customer-facing interaction.
Challenges of AI in customer support
That all being said, there are a few challenges of AI in customer support.
Quality of data
AI is dependent on the data it has trained on and if you’ve not used quality data, the output won’t be good. Quality data relies on humans to create it such as the content that chatbots and self-service platforms use. It requires thoughtful construction and maintenance.
AI is not empathetic
AI platforms are not empathetic, which restricts their response to angry or upset customers. Being sent to a chatbot when the product is not working is likely to enrage a customer further, since they were expecting a human reaction and immediate solution to their problem.
Security
AI platforms can be potentially targeted by cyberattacks, raising questions about the vulnerability of customer data. This would be a catastrophe for your company.
Popular AI customer support tools
ClickHelp
ClickHelp is an AI-powered documentation tool that allows you to author, host, and deliver your technical documentation in a single portal. AnswerGenius is an AI assistant within the ClickHelp platform that allows you to help readers find answers. It respects reader permissions, only returning answers that a reader has access to. It always includes links to the source material, making the answers more trustworthy.
Other features of ClickHelp include rich topic content (videos, surveys, quizzes, feedback forms) and smart interactive tables with sorting. It offers cloud hosting for your content and authoring environment, all with unlimited version history.
ClickHelp is a powerful help authoring tool designed to help your technical writers to serve quality content to your users. It does this supported by AI AnswerGenius which enriches your content by helping users find what they need.
Document360
Document360 is an AI-driven knowledge base that offers AI assistant Eddy to help with your documentation. On the client side, Eddy has AI-powered search that responds to natural language when helping users find documentation. On the authoring side, Eddy offers many AI features to help write your documentation.
AI title generator helps you come up with titles. Meta descriptions are taken care of by Eddy. AI writer helps you write your articles and the article summarizer comes up with quick summaries. FAQ generator and business glossary generator does what it says on the tin.
As a documentation tool, Document360 offers powerful features for your business. You can create a customizable knowledge base with unlimited version control to allow your company to work as a team.
Zendesk
Zendesk is an AI-first ticketing system with AI Copilot that understands customer experience. Automation plays a big role in resolving customer queries and boosting agent productivity with AI built into their workflows.
Copilot provides insights and suggested replies to turn every agent into a top-performer. Agent copilot can follow business procedures to guide agents through complex interactions. Generative AI offers text expansion and tone shift to help agents work on their replies.
Save time and turn a few bullet points into a complete article with Generative AI. Then use AI to help customers find the right content. Zendesk offers AI agents that automatically help customers while your agents are busy.
Intercom
Intercom answer bots provide 24/7 support to your customers and resolve 50% of support volume instantly. Fin AI Copilot works in the inbox to level up your agents. AI-driven insights optimize your team’s reporting.
Intercom is a full-stack customer support system that utilizes AI to support customers. AI helps agents to tackle the tickets and also serves customers in the front-end. AI sources from your knowledge base to find the right answers that help customers.
As customer support software Intercom is a top choice for solving customer queries and proactively reaching out to customers on the website. Customers are never left hanging when you have Intercom at your back.
Conclusion
AI is fully incorporated into the customer support software landscape, so it’s relatively easy to find support tools with AI. AI cannot solve every customer query but it can certainly lend a hand to your human agents, especially when launched behind-the-scenes.
AI has the potential to only become more incorporated in customer service tools. As mentioned earlier, fully 100% of customer interactions will involve AI in some form and customers will come to expect it.
There are a range of customer support tools that already have the potential to revolutionize your business’s customer support department. Resolving queries will become faster, finding information becomes instantaneous and customers are happier.
