There has long been critical feedback from customers worldwide, that conversations with a customer service team are more scripted than empathetic. More robotic and less human, so to speak, due to the templated/scripted answers that the customers receive. There used to be jokes about the kinds of answers received during a phone call with an IT helpdesk, such as:
Caller: My Outlook is not working
Helpdesk: Send us an email with a screenshot and we will investigate into it
We can all relate. However, in the current “technology adoption towards automation” environment, the first line of assistance in Customer Service has now truly become robotic; digital chatbots attend, answer, and try to provide resolution for customers’ queries. Therefore, it is critical that businesses strengthen their understanding of chatbots to enhance customer experience.
The common expectations of a typical chatbot solution are grouped into the following categories:
- Getting a quick answer to questions – FAQ
- Resolving a complaint or problem – Simple solutions, within agreeable limits and rules
- Getting a more detailed answer to a query – Pointer to additional help material
- Identifying a human customer service agent – Route the call to the appropriate human agent
With the above understanding, businesses restrict the extent to which chatbots can contribute. The assumptions and restrictions about the capabilities of a chatbot are pictorially represented as:
What all chatbots can do?
Well, much more than organizations fully grasp. The following table illustrates the shortcomings of traditional chatbots, and the feature-rich new capabilities of ‘Conversational AI’
What is Conversational AI?
Conversational AI promises to solve the integration of people and systems. The conversational approach allows anyone to develop and create workflows around their own business needs. Simple conversation-based workflows empower sales, customer service, field operations, finance, or IT professionals to increase internal and external customer satisfaction. Conversational AI is just like describing a conversation between the people and the systems.
How is Conversational AI different?
Conversational AI provides intelligent automation using NLU and AI in a complete platform. This platform includes everything an organization needs to automate and engage with people. The solution can be built for web and mobile clients or can connect to the existing collaboration tools and:
- Automates end-to-end business outcomes
- Reduces complexity for end-users and IT
- Minimizes total cost of ownership
- Builds trust in AI for decision support
