How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing Customer Service

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First Up:

Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how companies are currently incorporating artificial intelligence into their customer experience. For example, 1-800 Flowers uses GWIN, which is powered by IBM’s AI system known as Watson, to help you pick out gifts. GWIN asks you questions, you give “her” answers, and then “she” makes recommendations to you based on the answers you give.

Shep says that if you are not on board with artificial intelligence, don’t understand it, and are not at least considering AI for your business, then you may find yourself playing catch up with your competition. You want to be ahead of the game.

Featured Interview:

Shep begins his interview with Anthony Goonetilleke by asking if we have reached the point of HAL, the computer in 2001 A Space Odyssey. Should we be nervous or scared of that type of technology?

Anthony Goonetilleke says rather than being intimidated by new technology, we need to reach the customer where they are. For too long, we have thought that if you need to interface with Company X, you should be required to use the customer service application from Company X. But Millennials and Generation Z want more convenient service on the technologies that they prefer. If they are on Twitter, they want to tweet something out. If they are on Facebook, they will want to message or post on there. When you talk about the customer experience, you can incorporate a layer of intelligence and then start adding these various channels on top.

It is important to note that we don’t even know what channels will be available two years from now. But once you have the proper framework built to provide a customer experience system, adding these unique channels when they become available, should be just like adding an a la carte menu.

Artificial intelligence should interact with you as though you are communicating with another human. This is because AI can know who you are, and your story, and has the ability to contextually learn what’s going on. For example, if all you need to do is change your billing address, rather than call and wait on hold for 10 minutes to talk to a person, using AI can get you through this basic customer service interaction in a matter of seconds.

Top Takeaways:

Artificial Intelligence tools are available today. What we are in the process of doing is stitching them together in the right way, to make the process seem more human.
A lot of developmental work is also being done within artificial intelligence trying to analyze customer sentiments and conversations. A frustrated customer is a great precursor to churn. The faster you can determine the frustration the better the experience will be for the customer.
Artificial intelligence won’t take jobs away from people. Artificial intelligence won’t replace humans, but it will replace many basic tasks that humans don’t want to do.

About:

Anthony Goonetilleke is the Group President – Chief Technologist and Head of Product at Amdocs. Amdocs is a leading software & services provider to the world’s most successful communications and media companies, enabling their digital and network transformation through innovative solutions, delivery expertise and intelligent operations.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author, award-winning keynote speaker and your host of Amazing Business Radio.

“There is a big revolution going on right now. It’s the digitization of the network, the virtualization of the network. This will have a material impact on the customer experience, because it will just happen, you won’t have to think about it.” – Anthony Goonetilleke