How voice AI will supercharge customer service in 2024 and beyond

It’s no secret that great customer service builds brand loyalty. In fact, 96 per cent of customers will leave your company for a competitor as a result of bad customer service. But keeping up with contact volume is a monumental challenge for customer-facing businesses that are facing unprecedented staffing shortages and budget cuts.

 

In an effort to provide service that is – at the very least – fast, many companies have shifted towards digital self-service channels such as apps, chatbots, webchat and comprehensive customer help centres. But customers still call. 

 

The past three years have seen a surge in digitisation due to more employees working remotely, and customers wanting to communicate with brands from the safety of their own homes. Why then, are 70 per cent of clients taking more calls now than they did before the pandemic?

 

Talking is the most natural and efficient way for people to communicate. Sure, customers may appreciate the availability of multiple self-service options, but the phone is the most dynamic and direct way to interact with a service representative, and that human touch can galvanise relationships with loyal customers.

 

As capabilities mature and competition stiffens, voice will progressively play a more intensive role in customer service. However, there will be some key trends that shape how voice is leveraged.

 

TREND: businesses will continue to see an upward investment in the total customer experience (CX)

 

A TELUS International survey indicated almost three-quarters of enterprise executives spent more on digital CX in 2023 compared with 2022, with 68 per cent upping the budget by 25 per cent or more. At the top of the list? AI. Business leaders know a single excellent interaction can boost the long-term customer value (ie, money spent) and result in a greater chance of earned word-of-mouth marketing. Happy customers breed happy customers.

 

As part of this investment, companies are focusing on improving their omnichannel customer service capabilities, including the development and deployment of technologies that can automate tasks while providing a more personalised and proactive customer experience. Enter intelligent voice assistants.

 

TREND: there’s a clearly defined shift towards AI-powered automation.

 

Responsible automation is one of the biggest trends in customer service today. Companies will invest more in improving customer experience through automation, with advanced generative AI models fueling much of that effort to create more natural, expressive interactions via conversational assistants. This will pose new risks associated with ungated (and unregulated) language models, prompting the need for organisational efforts to develop AI competency centres within various operational functions. But it also introduces a revolutionary tool in digital support, and a novel approach to the customer experience.

 

Voice assistants can be used to automate a wide range of tasks, such as answering customer questions, providing order or tracking information, booking a restaurant reservation and resolving simple problems. This frees up human customer service representatives to focus on more complex tasks that require a deeper understanding and an empathy automated bots cannot provide.

 

TREND: companies are abandoning traditional IVRs because customers can’t stand them

 

Consumers prefer to use voice assistants to interact with customer service, in lieu of dated interactive voice responses (IVRs). Traditional IVRs will be forced to evolve or die, as consumer/end user expectations will expand with maturing technological capabilities, meaning the already strained patience for “press 1 for accounts” or “tell us in a few words...” will all but disappear in the wake of an influx of agile automated agents greeting callers with “Hello Hakim, thanks for being a customer since 2017. How can I help?”

 

Thanks to rapidly advancing AI, next-generation voice assistants are becoming increasingly intelligent. They are now able to understand and respond to a wider range of requests, including complex and nuanced questions, and with proper integrations, can book hotel reservations, make account changes, track packages without tracking numbers, hire a home service provider for a niche project, and more.

 

TREND: customers can expect better service from businesses they engage with the most

 

Both behind the scenes and on the phone, AI can be used to provide more personalised and proactive customer service. For example, voice assistants can synthesise return customer data to predict their needs and offer solutions before they even ask.

 

Voice assistants can also be used to learn about each customer’s individual preferences and habits, allowing businesses to provide more timely and helpful customer service. Imagine calling your lawn care provider to schedule a leaf cleanup, to be reminded by a bot that your recently installed sod is due for fertilising, or tracking an order of kid’s clothes for your seven-year-old and getting notified that the next size up for their previously purchased school blazer is on sale?

 

TREND: companies are making themselves more accessible

 

In the past, this meant a social handle for support, or a single phone number that relied on a dated system to route you to the right personal or division. Now, businesses are earnestly looking to shorten the path to customer service – creating a more accessible approach for people with disabilities or who may speak a language non-native to a company’s primary call centre. For example, sophisticated voice assistants can detect a caller’s language, provide real-time translation and instantly continue the call in that dialect.

 

This makes it possible for businesses to provide targeted, personal customer service to all their customers, regardless of their environmental circumstances (crying baby, loud airport, raucous sporting event, a beekeeper convention), manner of speech, or fear of not knowing what to ask for. It also lessens the need for more complex means of communications, catering to customers who aren’t comfortable using (or don’t have access to) the internet to solve their issues.

 

Preparing for the future of customer service

 

There are a few ways that businesses of all sizes can stay competitive in this next evolution of CS:

 

Start small

 

You don’t need to buy a complex and expensive voice assistant solution to get started. There are many affordable and easy-to-use voice assistant solutions available.

 

Focus on the customer experience

 

When choosing a voice assistant solution, be mindful of which offers the best customer experience. Make sure the solution is easy to use and can understand and respond to a wide range of requests. It should act like your very best agent.

 

Get feedback from your customers

 

Once you’ve implemented a voice assistant solution, get feedback from your customers to see how they’re liking it. Use surveys or sentiment analysis tools to quantify the experience.

 

Collect and actively use customer data

 

There are valuable insights with every customer interaction, including trend detection in frequently asked questions, concerns and preferences. This data can then be used to refine what’s offered on your other digital properties, hone your marketing efforts and develop new products and services.

 

Monitor your voice analytics

 

These metrics can be used to track the performance of your voice assistants and identify areas for improvement. Just like a human agent, these solutions work best when continuously trained.

 

Consumers are offering businesses fewer and fewer chances to resolve their support issues before moving on to your competitor. In a recent Zendesk survey, roughly 61 per cent of customers say they would switch to a new brand after one bad experience. Why take the risk?

 

By investing in scalable voice assistants and using them to offer your valued consumers a sense of urgency rarely experienced over the phone, you can supercharge your contact centre teams to take on the future of customer service.

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To hear more about how leaders in retail, logistics, hospitality and other industries are using AI in their business, check out the PolyAI Vox talks or reach out to one of our Voice AI experts here