Whether your business sells e-commerce products or offers software-as-a-service, it must be available 24/7. In fact, 72% of customers expect immediate responses when they contact a business. The good news is that companies don’t have to choose between hurting the customer experience or burning through their budgets. More customer service teams are embracing voice AI in call centers.
Implemented correctly, this technology has the power to improve response times, enhance personalization, and automate routine calls. Learn how to improve efficiency with voice AI and what it looks like to implement AI in call centers.
What Is Voice AI in Customer Service?
Voice artificial intelligence (AI) allows machines to understand and respond to spoken commands or questions quickly. Since it uses natural language processing, machine learning, and voice recognition, voice AI can reply to customer queries in real time, just like a human agent.
Voice AI has so many applications, but it’s especially powerful in customer service:
Routing: Instead of requiring customers to press a number to route the call, they can simply tell the voice AI what they need.
Self-service: With customer support automation, agents can spend their time on higher-value calls. The platform also empowers customers with self-service options for asking questions, accessing account information, or troubleshooting simple problems.
Personalized help: Eighty-one percent of customers prefer personalized experiences. Implementing AI in call centers makes it possible to weave personalized data into the customer conversation.
AI Benefits in Customer Service
With the right approach, conversational AI for business has the power to improve the customer experience and business processes — without cutting corners. There are many AI benefits in customer service, from cost reductions to improved employee morale.
Improve Efficiency
Voice AI improves organizational efficiency by handling low-value or repetitive tasks. Not only does it allow agents to focus on more complex issues, but it also improves performance on a business-wide scale. In some cases, generative AI improved resolution rates by 14% per hour and time handling by 9% per hour.
Reduce Costs
A report by McKinsey found that 37% of business leaders consider the cost of customer service a key priority. That’s no surprise, given that call centers account for as much as three percent of a business’s operating expenses. Automation and outsourcing are the most common solutions to high call volumes and costs. In fact, solutions like calldesk reduce service costs by as much as 50% without compromising on quality.
Improve Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores are essential to understanding the efficacy of your service team. Since just eight percent of customers report experiencing greater-than-expected service, customer service centers have much to improve. CSAT improvement is one of the most significant AI benefits in customer service. In one report, a bank reduced incidence ratios by as much as 30% by embracing customer support automation.
Tips for Implementing Voice AI in Customer Service
Voice AI is a powerful tool, but like any tool, success comes down to how you use it. Follow these tips to implement voice AI in customer service effectively.
Check System Compatibility
Before choosing a voice AI, list your current technology stack. The right solution will connect seamlessly with your current tech ecosystem, ensuring the team can work smoothly with zero hiccups. Ensure the AI is compatible with:
Customer relationship management (CRM) tools
Customer and product databases
Your telephony solution
Your ticketing platform
Train Employees
Voice AI handles many tasks on your team's behalf, but it can’t replace human labor. Avoid rework and confusion by training your team on how the AI works, what it can and can’t handle, and how to troubleshoot common issues. When your team understands how the AI works, they’re less likely to make errors, helping you see a faster time-to-value.
It’s also worth noting that your voice AI will need training, too. Training the AI model to handle customer queries correctly can take a few weeks.
Follow Usage Best Practices
Voice AI best practices will help your business streamline workflows and cut costs more effectively. Follow these best practices to get more value out of AI in call centers:
Delineate responsibilities: Work with management and employees to define specific use cases that the voice AI will manage, such as order tracking questions or tech support.
Offer escalation options: Don’t trap customers in an AI loop — always allow them to escalate the call to a human agent.
Optimize performance over time: Track CSAT, resolution time, and transfer rates to understand call center AI performance. It’s also good to allow customers to leave feedback after the call, which can help you identify and fix gaps in the AI’s capabilities.
Future Trends in Voice AI
Today’s voice AI platforms are human-centered and capable of completing high-level tasks. Still, AI technology is always changing. Experts predict these trends will have a tremendous impact on customer support automation in the near future.
Multilingual Support
As businesses globalize, customer service needs to globalize, too. Just twenty percent of the world’s population speaks English, so businesses must offer support in multiple languages.
Fortunately, AI voicebots are becoming more skilled at offering multilingual support. Some systems can identify a caller’s language and effortlessly switch to their native tongue. Voice AI solutions are adding more languages to their platforms every year, so it’s likely that your AI will soon be able to speak Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, French, and more.
Emotional Intelligence
Human emotions can confuse AI. For example, some voice AI can’t detect when a customer is angry or yelling, which would require a different approach. Fortunately, more voice AI can identify a caller’s tone, pitch, and pace, helping it determine the person’s emotional state. In the near future, we expect more voice AI to conduct sentiment analysis, which allows the AI assistant to adjust its tone based on the customer’s mood.
Omnichannel Customer Support
Business leaders expect call volumes to increase at least by one-fifth within two years. Increasing call volumes and new digital platforms will make it even more challenging for businesses to offer quality customer support. However, some leaders believe automating 100% of customer interactions with AI is possible. In the future, visionary business leaders will expand AI to accommodate all the channels customers use to stay in touch with brands.
calldesk: The New Standard for Customer Service
Two-thirds of businesses compete on the quality of their customer service. In an age where customers expect always-on experiences and quality 24/7 service, voice AI assistants are a game-changer.
The key is in the implementation. That’s where calldesk comes in. Our generative AI platform automates routine calls and streamlines customer service. See the calldesk difference: Book your demo now.
