How to Enhance the Customer Experience with AI (2023)

By
Afifa Shafi
May 30, 2023
min read
Updated
September 19, 2023
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Learn how businesses are leveraging AI in customer experience to stay ahead of the competition.
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Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the power to transform how we interact with our customers. With all of this advancement at our fingertips, it's no wonder we're quickly finding ways to boost our engagement and improve business performance.

Everyone wants white-glove service, but personalization gets harder with each new customer. If we use AI to templatize workflows, automate interactions and predict behavior, we can quickly achieve what I'll call customer-centricity—the ultimate approach to customer service.

But AI is just one piece of a much larger effort to customer-centricity. And we have to think about how all of those parts work together first.

Organizations should think about their customer service operations holistically and not just focus on the AI part. The key is to consider how all the pieces of your customer service operation fit together and ensure they're working in concert with each other.
So when you're thinking about implementing AI in your customer service operations, consider how it will impact every aspect of your business—not just how well it performs in isolation. – Gauri Manglik, CEO and Co-Founder, Instrumentl

In this article, we'll explore how AI can help businesses of all sizes change how they interact with consumers while seamlessly fitting within your greater customer service operations.

AI in customer experience: What does that mean?

Artificial intelligence (AI) enables machines to carry out tasks that ordinarily require human intelligence, such as learning, thinking and problem-solving. 

There are several types of AI tools, all of which serve different functions. For example, AI chatbots and virtual assistants respond quickly to customer questions, while recommendation engines and predictive analytics can predict demands and deliver customized solutions. 

By leveraging AI software, organizations can offer each customer a smooth and personalized experience—improving customer engagement, satisfaction and business performance.

‎Top 3 benefits of AI in customer experience
1. Reduce Average Handling Time (AHT)

AI can improve your workflow efficiency and customer response metrics.

How?

Imagine, for instance, that a customer reaches out to an eCommerce website to ask product questions. An AI-powered chatbot could automatically respond to the query in a few seconds. This enhances the customer experience while boosting the business' response KPIs.

AI revolutionizes customer service by enabling faster response times, personalized interactions and improved efficiency. In the future, I think AI will become even more sophisticated, enhancing predictive analytics and natural language processing capabilities. – Maria Harutyunyan, co-founder, Loopex Digital

2. Better customer behavior predictions

Because AI uses real-time data to make predictions, you can easily estimate how consumers might behave based on their purchasing patterns, past purchases and individual preferences.

Predictive AI can help you identify trends and take preventative action to improve the customer experience.

3. Increase sales by customizing product offerings

The current development in customer service is personalization. Clients want to feel seen, understood and recognized. This personalization can be used in numerous service delivery contexts.

For instance, online clothes retailers can tailor campaigns by recommending products depending on the customer's past purchases, fashion interests and geography. 

AI has been pivotal in enabling personalization at scale. By analyzing customer data, AI can predict customer preferences and behavior, helping organizations deliver personalized experiences. For example, AI chatbots can remember past interactions and use this information to provide tailored responses, creating a more engaging and satisfying customer experience. – Tony Guo, Co-Founder, AI Scout

3 Real-life examples of how businesses are using AI to improve customer experience

Here are a few real-life examples of how businesses use AI to improve customer experience today.

1. Crexi

Crexi is a marketplace for commercial real estate listings that introduces new product features every two weeks. As a result, internal and external help documentation quickly becomes outdated.

The Customer Success team at Crexi uses Scribe, an AI writing tool, as their standard for updating internal training materials and responding to ad hoc client inquiries. Because of Scribe's simplicity, the team can produce and distribute documentation and SOPs quickly.

AI customer experience - Crexi logo, woman smiling with mug
With Scribe, Crexi's CSM team can spend 70 percent less time responding to ad hoc customer questions, giving them more time to offer their clients great service. Additionally, Scribe has reduced the time needed to write documentation by 90 percent.

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2. Unity

Unity, a 3D programming platform, has seen an increase in inbound tickets. By integrating Zendesk's AI-powered self-service options, the organization effectively diverted about 8,000 tickets and saved approximately $1.3 million in one year.

Automation also increased Unity's first—response time by 83 percent, which inevitably resulted in happy customers—the company's CSAT score increased to 93 percent.

3. Sephora

Color IQ and Lip IQ technology from Sephora, a beauty brand that generates up to $10 billion annual revenue, provides customers with an easy and effective approach to identifying their correct foundation, concealer and lipstick shades without trial and error.

By scanning the face, the technology provides personalized recommendations, making the makeup purchasing process easier and less stressful for customers.

Top 3 AI tools for enhancing the customer experience

1. Scribe

Scribe for Customer-Facing Teams
(Source: Scribe)

Scribe is an AI-powered process documentation tool that creates your SOPs, guides and manuals for you. With Scribe, you can easily document your online workflows and turn them into engaging, step-by-step guides with detailed text and annotated screenshots. 

Scribe enables you to educate your customers on self-service options and trains your employees on the best practices for providing outstanding customer care.

Customer-facing teams can make beautiful step-by-step guides — in seconds!

Just download the Scribe ChatGPT extension or desktop app, click 'Capture' and walk through any process. Then sit back and relax while Scribe creates your visual instructions.

In seconds, you can create aesthetically appealing documents that effortlessly:

  • Highlight and display new features.
  • Train and advise your valuable customers.
  • Simplify even the most complex procedures.
  • Provide universal updates to keep everyone up to date.
  • Ensure the highest level of protection for sensitive data.
  • Edit, share, save and integrate with your favorite tools easily.
  • Export to various formats, including PDF, to meet your needs.

But hold on, there's more! Combining Scribes with videos, photos and other media can take your documentation to the next level with Scribe Pages. And with new AI-powered features, you can build longer, stronger process documents — instantly.

📌 ‎Create eye-catching templates, detailed customer service training manuals, or engaging user guides that will leave an impression.

We’re not exaggerating, here’s what our trusted users say:

2. Zendesk Answer Bot

Zendesk AI
(Source: Zendesk)

‎The Zendesk answer bot ensures that customers can reach you whenever they need help. By acting as the first point of contact for clients and connecting their inquiries with solutions from its database of FAQs, the software boosts your current customer support personnel.

There are several benefits to using the Zendesk answer bot, some of which include the following:

  • Compatibility with a variety of support channels, such as email and chat.
  • Provides you with the ability to create discussions between the bot and your customers using Flowbuilder.
  • Integration with the Zendesk software gives you complete flexibility when connecting to your current bot.

3. Freshdesk

Freshdesk
(Source: Freshworks)

Freshdesk—the perfect tool for improving the efficiency of your customer service desk. Using a single interface, this tool makes handling all customer interactions, including emails and social media sites, simple. 

You can also integrate with other software programs and mobile apps to streamline your customer support process. 

Some of Freshdesk's benefits include:

  • Accessible for live chat, mobile, web and other contact centers, ensuring support for numerous communication modes.
  • Service representatives get a thorough awareness of their clients, which enables them to offer quick and informed solutions.
  • Strong routing capabilities that drastically reduce client call wait times.

10 Customer experience implementations of artificial intelligence

Thanks to AI, there are many opportunities for enhancing the consumer experience. Here are ten practical examples that show how organizations can leverage AI to build stronger client engagement.

1. Customer service automation

Effective customer service automation provides 24-hour availability and rapid responses, reducing turnaround time. Automation improves client engagement through self-service support and comprehensive training manuals. 

By facilitating efficient and error-free communication, automation frees up agents' time for difficult questions, optimizes resource allocation and gives vital customer insights for process development. 

It also lowers service costs by eliminating the need for extra agents and reducing expenses.

Benefits of customer service automation
(Source: SourceBench)
📌 Related resource: How to Transform Your Approach To Customer Support Using AI

2. Chatbots for 24/7 customer support

AI-powered chatbots can offer 24-hour customer support and quickly resolve client issues. Chatbots can also shorten wait times, raise customer satisfaction and cut support expenses.

AI is a versatile tool that can bring diverse benefits to organizations, including our own which we’ve been using for years to enhance personalization and customer satisfaction. Even implementing something as common as chatbots reduces customers’ wait time in gaining support, helps brands like ours triage customer issues to maximize solutions and quickens customer support turnover for our teams. – Guna Kakulapati, co-founder & CEO, CureSkin

3. Personalized product recommendations

Businesses can use AI to evaluate customer data and make personalized product recommendations based on their customers' preferences, actions and past purchases.

Personalization can boost sales, client retention and customer happiness.

4. Predictive customer service

AI can assist companies in identifying potential customer problems before they arise. Predictive analytics can examine consumer data to find trends and predict issues—enabling organizations to provide proactive customer support.

5. Customer sentiment analysis

AI can evaluate customer reviews and feedback to ascertain their sentiments. Businesses can use this information to find areas for improvement, customize marketing campaigns and raise consumer happiness.

6. Voice assistants

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is used by voice assistants powered by AI to comprehend consumer inquiries and deliver rapid, precise responses. As a result, this reduces wait times and enhances customer satisfaction. 

7. Fraud detection

AI-powered fraud detection can assist companies in spotting fraudulent transactions and safeguarding client information—enhancing trust and customer security. 

8. Visual search

Users can find products using AI-powered visual search by simply uploading an image. This technology improves customer engagement and experience.

9. Social media 

AI can monitor online discussion forums and blogs for user comments and reviews. Businesses can use this information to understand customer needs, increase client satisfaction and establish a strong brand identity.

10. Voice recognition for customer authentication

Voice recognition powered by artificial intelligence can confirm customer identities and increase security. By removing the need for passwords and usernames, this technology can also enhance the client experience.

Transform customer service with AI

As the future unfolds, AI will keep developing rapidly and pushing the limits of what's possible in customer service.

Virtual assistant and chatbot interactions will become even more natural and seamless due to technologies like speech recognition and natural language processing.

By integrating AI, businesses can reach new heights of personalization, effectiveness and customer happiness. The use of AI in customer service has a bright future and this is the time to seize its enormous potential.

Looking to implement AI in your customer experience strategy? Scribe can help! Sign up for free now and discover how our powerful platform can help you exceed your customers' expectations.

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