As artificial intelligence advances, proponents and detractors often find themselves in the middle of an interesting debate. Does artificial intelligence enable the scaling of the customer service experience? Or does it take away the human touch needed to make these experiences meaningful and helpful to customers?

While there is often a perceived conflict between the idea of using artificial intelligence or applying the human touch, Han Butler, president and co-founder of ROI CX Solutions, sees things differently. As he explains, the right balance of using increasingly advanced AI tools, while still maintaining a sense of the human touch, is what ultimately enables enterprises to deliver the best outcomes.

Overcoming Efficiencies In the Customer Experience

One of the areas where Butler sees the biggest potential in applying AI is by improving working conditions for the support reps who provide that desired “human touch” in the first place.

“Effective customer service requires understanding what the person who is speaking to your needs — what information will help them, what contacts they’ve had with your organization in the past, and so on,” Butler explains.

“Historically, customer service reps often have to spend a lot of time digging through menus or databases to find the information that will actually resolve the issue for their customer. That can take a lot of time and hurt the overall customer experience. With AI, we have powerful agent assist tools that can instantly deliver the information the service rep needs to resolve the issue.”

The ability to resolve service concerns in a timely manner is one of the most impactful ways where AI can deliver a better human-led experience. While there are good arguments that organizations shouldn’t make call length the be-all end-all of measuring customer service, there is no denying that customers want to have their issues resolved as quickly as possible. With AI support, agents can reduce hold times by providing prompt and reliable information. 

AI support also makes it easier for contact center representatives to offer personalized support — something that is expected and desired by 71% of customers. As reported by ABC, some organizations are specifically employing AI chatbots to ensure customers are transferred to the right department right away, so they can immediately reach a representative equipped to help them.

“With AI assistants able to serve up relevant personal information right away, contact center reps are equipped to better personalize each interaction,” Butler explains. “This is especially important when dealing with a more complex service issue, where a more hands-on approach can make all the difference between a satisfied and angry customer.”

Scaling Service

Of course, much of the current focus in the world of customer experience is the possibility of AI completely taking over support center operatives’ responsibilities and eliminating the human touch altogether. 

Even though some organizations have used AI to shrink their customer experience teams, for his part, Butler doesn’t see AI fully replacing human-led support. “AI has proven incredibly useful in scaling service center operations by taking over the mundane and routine support tasks,” he explains.

“But ultimately, we still need well-trained service representatives who can handle the more complex needs. This allows a service center to handle a much higher volume of support inquiries than in the past, while still ensuring that each customer gets the level of care that they want and need. Customers want to feel valued, and a lot of the time, that means getting their issues addressed by a real person.”

This setup could prove especially important given that 57% of contact center leaders expect their call volumes to increase in the near future. As demand for customer support increases, AI is in many cases essential to ensure that organizations can handle the growing workload. Without AI enabling organizations to scale their responsiveness, workers could become overwhelmed, while customers become frustrated with extended wait times and decreased service quality.

Butler also sees AI’s scaling potential as an opportunity to further improve the quality of human talent. “In addition to training support staff on how to use AI resources, making sure that we train them to have greater empathy and problem-solving capabilities will go a long way in providing more personalized and helpful support. With AI there to take over more routine tasks, we actually have the setup to deliver this kind of growth.”

By applying AI in a strategic manner that supports both service representatives and customers, organizations can scale their output while still maintaining a high level of service.

Delivering a Better Customer Experience

While AI and human customer service representatives aren’t always fully in sync as enterprises try to find the right balance, Butler is overall optimistic about the technology’s potential. “As we continue to make improvements in AI and how it can support human customer service reps, we’ll be able to achieve the best of both worlds,” he says.

“Enterprises will be better equipped to scale their customer support by giving their human reps the support they need. Customers will get the human touch they want, but with a level of efficiency that is only made possible with the help of AI. And as we improve the overall experience for both reps and customers, it will create better outcomes for everyone involved.”