JONATHAN ELCOCK: AI chatbot technology reshapes customer service infrastructure

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in almost every facet of our daily lives has become a remarkable story of mankind’s ability to consistently develop and innovate.

Every person with access to the standard tools of technology (smartphones, personal computers, tablets) has had some form of interaction with AI, with or without knowing it — whether it be Google Assistant, which uses AI to respond to voice commands, or how social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok use AI-based algorithms to curate content that is personalised based on your behaviour. Even Gmail uses AI to automatically detect and filter out spam.

Just last month rumours started emerging online that Apple was developing a generative AI-powered Siri successor that would, on top of responding to voice-activated commands and queries, also maintain a personality, enhancing the interactive experience for iPhone users and giving the technology a more human touch.

This is just one of many new developments in AI chatbot technology that has transpired, reshaping the way businesses set up their customer service infrastructure.

Before the advent of AI-powered chatbots, more commonly referred to as smart bots, they were coded with rules-based systems that relied on predefined scripts or keywords to guide the conversation with a customer. Think of those Web-based chatbots in the early 2010s that had a set of questions you could click on but did not allow for a unique query to be entered.

Since then, the prevalence of AI chatbots has become more dynamic, enabling human-like conversations, fuelled by machine learning and natural language processing that helps further improve interactions with humans over time.

There’s a motive for this shift by businesses to further automation of customer service: enhancing the experience and convenience for the customer and increasing sales leads simply because smartbots can handle a variety of FAQs, build customer relationships, and provide instant responses.

Traditional practices such as cold calling and call centres are becoming obsolete for a variety of reasons. The digital information age has reorientated consumer behaviour to be around the clock, desiring instant gratification from the online experience. A customer is no longer willing to wait until 8am the next morning to call customer care and resolve the query they are experiencing at 10pm that night.

Meanwhile, smartphone apps such as TruCaller have dramatically affected call centres’ ability to get through to potential customers without being flagged as spam on the app. Consumers do not want to be bothered with spam calls all the time, and they are showing it.

Businesses are throwing away hundreds of thousands of rand each month trying to acquire new customers through traditional customer acquisition practices, and much of it is wasted. Smartbots take it to a whole new level and allow you to connect, convert, and retain those customers.

While businesses can only connect with 52% of clients using traditional methods, smartbot technology can increase engagement significantly and improve customer satisfaction while also reducing overall operational costs. They can increase customer leads by up to 300% and create higher rates of engagement, offering a stark comparison to businesses that can only reach 50%-60% of people who have expressed an interest over the phone.

The trend of smartbot leveraging is going even further with WhatsApp integrations. If any business does not have a WhatsApp line they could be losing up to a third of their customer base. Users spend most of their smartphone screentime on WhatsApp. What better way to make it convenient for customers than to provide asynchronous communication with them right next to their family group chat, engaging them on their terms and on the virtual doorstep of their phone?

This is critical for increasing conversion rates on sales and trust between customer and brand. Think of how airlines such as FlySafair allow passengers to check in through their WhatsApp account. It saves the busy passenger critical time instead of going through the full check-in process on a standard internet browser.

This is especially useful if they have just arrived at the airport and their boarding gate has just opened. Small, detailed integrations like these enhance the experience and convenience for the customer.   

Smartbot technology can also be used for the most mundane and difficult tasks for the customer: contract cancellations. There is nothing more frustrating for a consumer than wanting to cancel a service such as a cellphone or internet package, especially when they are attempting to do so through traditional customer care channels such as emails or call centres.

Smartbots can eliminate this arduous experience and facilitate a smoother, more immediate process for the consumer, especially because it is so unethical for a business to make a consumer jump through hoops to cancel a contract or service. Deploying a smartbot to perform the function above can retain brand trust for the consumer and make them more likely to want to come back and take out a contract or service with the same business at a later stage.

The world is fast heading towards the democratisation of services. Whether it’s debt counsellors, HR bots or medical adherence monitoring, smartbots are becoming essential to delivering efficient, personalised services.

There is no limit to how they can be explored and deployed for other uses, whether it’s for mental health tracking, diet and physical training, or even financial coaching. The technology is endless, and we need to start working with it. 

• Elcock is CEO at Rather.Chat