The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on E-commerce Customer Service

Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere – in agriculture, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, retail, and social media. And now AI tools and models are also finding their way into e-commerce, particularly in customer service (CS) and customer experience (CX).

With its foremost undeniable role in ensuring flawless 24/7 connectivity, AI is proving to be a great asset in improving customer satisfaction – so say the customer support workforce around the globe.  Among those representatives, almost 20% say that with AI tools, they can deliver personalized and meaningful customer experiences. The benefits of AI in customer service are quite clear among the corporates, therefore it is not a wonder when they expect AI to power 95% of customer interactions by 2025.

Let’s unpack these benefits of AI in greater detail.

Enhances Customer Experiences

Enhanced customer satisfaction is one of the biggest benefits that AI tools can bring. With AI, e-commerce contact centers can track conversations in real-time and deliver feedback to improve interactions. AI tools can also monitor customers’ language, sentiments, and speech patterns to help agents better understand customer preferences and needs. They can then tailor their conversations to personalize and elevate customer experiences across multiple channels.

AI and Machine Learning tools can even “learn” from multiple agent-customer interactions and customer behaviors to create a unified and complete view of each customer. The e-commerce brands can then leverage this information to create accurate customer personas and design relevant content at the right time, through the right channels. These tools can also determine the performance of different messages, and overall content, and make suggestions to improve the brands’ customer experience strategies.

Speeds Up Response Times

AI tools can identify the needs of each customer based on their behavior and purchase history. They then display this information to agents, allowing them to act quickly to match customers’ expectations. Some tools automatically pop up Real-time Assist (RTA) cards on agents’ screens when customers speak certain keywords. Agents can use this information to quickly address the customer’s query or complaint.

Other tools include recommendation engines that use ticket and remediation history to proactively suggest the next steps for agents. Equipped with fast connectivity to data lakes and natural language understanding (NLU) capabilities, these tools can help reduce the time to resolution, and even improve customer loyalty and satisfaction – the one you can measure through the Net Promoter Score (NPS).

With AI tools, e-commerce contact centers can also measure customer wait times. Aided by computer vision, AI can collect actionable insights on each interaction to reduce wait times and thus deliver best-in-class customer service.

Guides Customers’ Decision-making Processes

AI-based intelligent chatbots can provide lightning-fast responses to common or recurring questions, such as questions about shipping fees, product discounts, and out-of-stock items. To speed up responses and reduce redundant workload from human agents, intelligent chatbots provide standard answers to basic queries. Quick resolutions also enable customers to make faster and better decisions about what they want. Also, with personalized conversations, customers don’t feel as if they are talking to a non-human robot. Rather, they feel heard, understood, and appreciated, which can go a long way towards improving their brand experience.

If a customer doesn’t get their desired answers, the chatbot can automatically transfer the conversation to a human agent who can seamlessly take over the interaction to guide the customer’s decision-making process and help them reach their desired goal.

Generates Predictive Insights for Hyper-personalization

Some AI tools generate predictive data that enables e-commerce brands to understand what customers may want. With AI and predictive personalization, they can make customers feel that each product or piece of content is specifically tailored for them. Agents can use predictive insights to tailor every interaction and offer the options or information that are most relevant to each customer. Further, providing customers with information that’s most relevant to them is a great way to improve customer relationships, which can make them more loyal to the brand.

They can also scan through the inventory to recommend items that are most likely to match the customer’s preferences. These offerings can delight customers and enhance their shopping experiences.

Offer Interrupted Customer Service

In a world where brand loyalties are fading, customers expect to get service on their terms and through their desired time and channel. If these needs are not met, they will switch brands without hesitation. That’s why e-commerce brands must be available and responsive to customers at all times. AI-powered automated customer service can help them achieve these objectives.

With AI, e-commerce brands can deliver always-on customer service. They can answer queries at any time and resolve issues as soon as they arise. Since customers don’t have to wait for long periods to get a response, they feel more satisfied with the brand and are therefore more likely to stick with it. They can also take better and faster purchase decisions that boost the brand’s revenues and profits.

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence is already creating numerous opportunities for e-commerce brands to improve customer experiences. Over the coming years, AI tools will completely change the way e-commerce brands approach customer support and customer experiences. We hope you are prepared for and excited about the coming change!

Want to know how AI can transform your e-commerce brand’s customer support department? Contact Ergode. Our innovative AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science applications can help you scale up and augment your customer support and customer experience functions. Talk to us to know more.

 

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