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How AI in customer service can turn pain points into wow moments

The use of Generative AI (GenAI) in customer service can provide layers of data-driven customization, speed and innovation.


In brief

  • GenAI can help eliminate the customer disconnect that happens with automation, reduce response times and personalize customer experiences.
  • New products and services, designed with the customer in mind, can result with the careful implementation of GenAI.

Excellent customer experience is non-negotiable for a thriving business.

In fact, 80% of customers say that the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services. Despite this, organizations seem to be missing the mark. More than half of consumers report feeling like mere numbers and that they are communicating with separate departments, not one company.1

 

In today’s fast-paced, digitally driven world, customers value their time more than ever while also yearning for personalized and relevant experiences. The unique ability of GenAI to synthesize large datasets and generate new content uniquely positions it to enhance customer experiences.

 

With AI in customer service, sales and marketing, businesses can better align with customers, anticipate their needs, learn from previous interactions, and make them feel heard and valued. GenAI can alleviate common customer pain points that include:

 

Scripted interactions and lack of empathy

Customers feel disconnected when they receive generic responses, even when delivered through an actual person at the end of a line.

 

Example: Jamilla calls her credit card company about potential fraud. The customer service rep sticks to a scripted request for information, without addressing her stress.

 

GenAI can help businesses extract insights from past customer experiences and compose personalized communications to address their needs. This leads to meaningful, empathetic dialogue that makes customers feel truly valued and understood.

Long wait times

Whether it’s waiting on hold during a phone call or standing by for an email response that seemingly never shows up, long wait times make customers feel deprioritized.

Example: While the Tam family is leaving for the airport, their flights get canceled. They call the airline and are put on hold with an estimated three-hour wait time to speak with a representative.

GenAI can help businesses handle inquiries and concerns in real time, catering to customers’ desire for instant acknowledgment.

Repeating information

Customers may need to repeatedly provide the same information during a single customer service experience, especially when transferred from one department to another.

Example: Paul’s Wi-Fi stops working, so he calls his service provider. He explains the issue in detail to the customer care team, only to find himself repeating it all to the technical team after his call is transferred.

GenAI can help businesses autonomously synthesize and summarize disparate customer touchpoints to enable faster and smoother follow-ups.

Impersonal services

Generic services and messaging make customers feel undervalued and less likely to engage with business.

Example: Jean is a single professional who lives in a one-bedroom apartment. Their electricity provider continuously mails them promotions for family-sized energy plans that are only suitable for a large household.

GenAI can help tailor product offerings and service delivery models to customer needs balancing speed, customization and frequency.

GenAI can take prior customer interactions, behaviors and preferences to craft relevant and individualized solutions with speed and at scale, converting customer pain points into opportunities to wow customers. Additionally, GenAI is constantly learning, meaning every customer experience will be better than the last application of GenAI. These benefits exist in both B2B and B2C environments and span key domains, including marketing, customer service and sales enablement.

Companies across industries can explore several use-cases to enhance their customer experiences:

Store retail genie

Offer real-time inventory analysis and predict transaction trends, ensuring timely communication about product availability to customers and ensures effective order fulfillment.

Pricing and promotion maestro

Assess current pricing and promotion strategies and compare against competitor offerings to enable accurate pricing decisions for customers.

Augmented segmentation and real-time personalization concierge

Expedite customer segmentation approaches to support resource and capital allocation decisions, provide more customized product and service delivery models, and instantly deliver tailored and relevant messages.

Sales samurai

Synthesize product information for large volume of SKUs to generate more tailored enablement collateral and training for sales representatives.

New account leads wizard

Identify target accounts for hunters in a specific territory to expedite the sales cycle, optimize cost of sales and improve conversion.

Archana Sarathy, Senior Director at EY-Parthenon, Ernst & Young LLP and Lori Kim, Consultant at EY-Parthenon, Ernst & Young LLP also contributed to this article.


Summary

GenAI in customer service can help businesses enhance customer experiences by addressing challenges such as impersonal responses, long wait times and repetitive information sharing. This can transform customer pain points into satisfaction opportunities. Because GenAI can continuously improve outputs, each customer interaction can be better than the last. GenAI use cases can be developed to manage real-time inventory updates, competitive pricing strategies, personalized marketing messages and more efficient sales enablement.

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