AI for Customer Support: Top Tools and Real-World Examples
Gone are the days of waiting on hold for a human agent. Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming customer support, offering businesses powerful tools to enhance efficiency, personalize experiences, and keep customers happy.
In this blog, we will discuss AI in Customer Support Systems. We'll explore the best tools available, showcase real-world examples of successful implementation, and answer all your burning questions about AI's impact on the future of customer service.
Make sure to read until the end.
What is an AI Customer Support System?
An AI Customer Support System is a technology that combines traditional AI and Generative artificial intelligence to automate and enhance customer service interactions.
When you have a question or need help with something, you can talk to the AI system using your computer or phone. The AI system is designed to understand human language like you and I do. It can figure out what you're asking and give you the right answer or solution.
The AI system has a large database of information that it can use to help you. It knows a lot about the company's products or services and can answer frequently asked questions. It can even be used for online lead capture. So, if you're looking for information about a product or have a common question, the AI system can answer immediately.
How Can AI Help Customer Support?
AI can help customer support in several ways, offering significant benefits for both businesses and customers:
Instant Availability: AI-powered chatbots or virtual assistants can provide immediate assistance to customers at any time. They don't need breaks or sleep, so they can be available 24/7.
Quick Response Times: AI systems can analyze and understand customer inquiries in real time, providing prompt responses. Speed is king! 72% of consumers say they're more likely to stay loyal to companies that offer faster service. Customers no longer have to wait in long queues or on hold to speak with a representative.
Handling Routine Inquiries: AI excels at handling repetitive and routine inquiries. It can quickly retrieve information from databases and knowledge bases to provide answers to frequently asked questions, freeing up human agents to focus on more complex or specialized customer issues.
Personalization: AI customer support systems can integrate with customer databases and CRM systems to access and analyze customer data. This allows them to offer personalized recommendations, suggestions, or solutions based on the customer's preferences, purchase history, or previous interactions.
Continuous Learning and Improvement: AI systems use machine learning algorithms to learn from customer interactions continuously. They can analyze patterns, identify trends, and improve their responses over time. This means that the more AI systems are used, the smarter and more accurate they become.
Multilingual Support: Generative AI systems can be programmed to understand and respond to customer inquiries in multiple languages. This enables companies to provide support to customers around the world, regardless of language barriers.
Cost-Effectiveness: Implementing AI customer support systems can be cost-effective for companies. They can handle many inquiries without requiring a large team of human agents, reducing labor costs.
Consistency: AI systems provide consistent and standardized responses, ensuring that customers receive the same level of service regardless of the time or the agent they interact with. This helps maintain a high level of customer satisfaction and brand reputation.
Benefits of AI in Customer Support Systems
Customer support is undergoing a significant transformation thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI). These intelligent systems are no longer science fiction but powerful AI revenue tools that can significantly improve the way businesses handle customer interactions.
Here's a closer look at the key benefits of AI in customer support systems:
For Businesses:
Enhanced Efficiency: AI chatbots and virtual assistants can handle routine inquiries and basic troubleshooting, freeing up human agents for complex issues. This reduces wait times and streamlines the support process.
24/7 Availability: AI never sleeps! These systems offer round-the-clock customer support, ensuring customers can get help whenever they need it, regardless of time zone.
Reduced Costs: AI helps businesses reduce overall customer support costs by automating routine tasks and improving first-contact resolution rates.
Data-Driven Insights: AI can analyze customer interactions, provide valuable data on trends, capture leads automatically, and understand customer sentiment. There are easy AI lead generation steps that you can take to capture leads and ultimately optimize the customer support strategy.
Also read: 10 Benefits of AI-Powered Help Center To Boost Customer
SatisfactionFor Customers:
Faster Resolutions: AI chatbots and virtual assistants provide immediate assistance for basic inquiries, leading to quicker problem resolution and reduced frustration.
Personalized Experience: AI can personalize the support experience by tailoring responses based on customer data and past interactions. This creates a more relevant and helpful customer journey.
Improved Accessibility: With 24/7 availability, AI ensures customers can get help whenever they need it, regardless of the time or day.
Proactive Support: AI allows for preventive measures and proactive outreach to customers, minimizing disruptions and enhancing their experience.
A Good AI Customer Systems Example
Imagine you're a customer who just purchased a new smartphone. You have a question about how to transfer your contacts from your old phone to the new one. Choose between a helpdesk or a knowledge base so you decide to visit the company's website instead of calling a customer support hotline and waiting on hold.
On the website, you're greeted by an AI-powered virtual assistant, a chatbot. The chatbot pops up in a small window and asks how it can assist you. You type in your question: "How do I transfer contacts to my new phone?"
The chatbot uses natural language processing (NLP) to understand your question. It quickly scans its database and knowledge base, which contains information about the company's products and frequently asked questions.
Within seconds, the chatbot generates a response and provides step-by-step instructions on transferring your contacts. It even includes helpful links to video tutorials or written guides if you prefer more detailed instructions.
Throughout the conversation, the AI chatbot is learning from your interaction. It analyzes the effectiveness of its responses, learns from any corrections or clarifications you provide, and improves its performance over time.
In this example, the AI customer support system enabled you to get an instant response to your question without having to wait for human assistance. It provided accurate and helpful information, guiding you through the process of transferring your contacts. The AI system also offered a convenient and user-friendly experience by allowing you to chat via website chat.
8 Best AI Customer Support System Tools
Frequentli- Best AI Customer Support System
Image Source: Frequentli
Discover the power of Frequentli, the ultimate AI customer support system that revolutionizes self-service support for your business. Unlike traditional FAQs, Frequentli utilizes cutting-edge AI technology to predict customer needs and provide instant product information, all within seconds.
With Frequentli, your website visitors can find answers to their questions before they even ask, eliminating friction and optimizing the sales process.
What sets Frequentli apart is its ability to drive revenue. Research shows that more than 70% of website visitors have product inquiries before making a purchase. Traditional FAQs often fail to address these questions, leading to potential lost sales.
But not Frequentli. It bridges this gap by offering immediate information and a user-friendly experience that engages visitors and boosts conversion rates.
Key Features of Frequentli
User-Friendly Interface: The Frequentli widget is easy to set up and integrates seamlessly into your website, offering customers and support agents a user-friendly and intuitive experience.
Continuous Improvement: Frequentli is committed to continuous learning and improvement. It uses customer interactions to refine its AI algorithms and provide increasingly accurate and relevant responses.
Customization Options: Frequentli allows businesses to tailor the customer support experience by customizing the widget's appearance, behavior, and integration options to align with their brand and website.
Analytics and Insights: Frequentli provides valuable data and insights on customer interactions, enabling businesses to identify trends, common pain points, and opportunities for improvement.
Easy Setup: Setting up Frequentli is easy. You enter the website URL or upload documentation, allowing the AI to crawl and understand the content.
Multiple Installation Options: Frequentli offers flexible installation methods, giving businesses the freedom to choose the most suitable option.
Custify- Best for Understanding Customer Life Cycle
Image Source: GetApp
Custify empowers customer success teams in SaaS companies to leverage customer interaction data for business growth. Here's how:
Centralized Data Hub: Custify consolidates customer data from various sources into a single platform, providing a holistic view of each customer.
Actionable Insights: Using advanced analytics, Custify extracts valuable insights from customer data, including:
Customer lifecycle stages and satisfaction levels
Upsell and cross-sell opportunities
Potential churn risk
Automated Tasks: Custify automates repetitive tasks, freeing up customer success teams to focus on higher-value activities like customer interaction.
By combining centralized data, insightful analytics, and automated tasks, Custify equips customer success teams with the tools they need to drive business growth and customer success.
Churn360- Best for B2B SaaS Companies
Image Source: The CX Lead
Churn360 helps B2B SaaS companies fight customer churn by transforming data into actionable insights. It has an AI-powered Churn Prediction called "Eddy.” It analyzes data to identify customers at risk of leaving, allowing for proactive intervention and churn reduction.
Additionally, here are some of its key advantages:
360° Customer View: Gain a holistic understanding of your customers' journeys with Churn360's comprehensive data consolidation.
Customer Segmentation: Segment your customer base by demographics, purchase history, or other criteria for more personalized marketing and service.
Actionable Insights: Go beyond raw data. Churn360 extracts valuable insights to guide customer success strategies.
However, as a potential downside, some users report limitations in email template customization and dashboard flexibility.
Churn360 offers tiered pricing:
Startup: $199/month
Professional: $499/month
Enterprise: Contact for a quote
Kustomer AI- Boosting Customer Service with AI
Image Source: Kustomer
Kustomer AI, also known as KIQ, supercharges the Kustomer customer service CRM platform. You can free agents from repetitive tasks like password resets, allowing them to focus on complex issues and higher-value interactions.
Here are some of its AI-powered features:
Self-Service Knowledge Base Integration: KIQ utilizes your existing knowledge base content to suggest relevant articles to customers across channels (email, chat, forms), empowering them to find solutions independently.
Conversational Assistant: This feature intelligently prompts customers for additional details, ensuring agents clearly understand the issue from the start, leading to faster resolutions.
AI-powered Insights & Context: KIQ enhances the unified customer view by providing agents with real-time, AI-powered insights about the customer's situation. This eliminates the need to switch between tabs or deal with duplicate tickets, allowing for faster and more informed decisions.
Kustomer offers tiered pricing for the main platform, with KIQ Conversations billed separately based on usage. Enterprise starts at $89/month per user, and the ultimate starts at $139/month per user.
Yuma AI- Best AI Ticket Assistance
Image Source: Yuma AI
Overwhelmed by customer support tickets? Yuma AI Ticket Assistant can be your secret weapon. This AI-powered tool seamlessly integrates with your existing help desk software to streamline your workflow and empower your agents.
Yuma analyzes past tickets to learn your brand's voice and writing style. This ensures that drafted responses are accurate, personalized, and consistent with your brand identity.
Here's how Yuma AI tackles your support challenges:
Smart Ticket Analysis & Response Drafts: Yuma's AI analyzes incoming tickets, suggests the most appropriate response, and even drafts responses for high-confidence cases.
Automated Knowledge Base Building: Say goodbye to manual knowledge base updates! Yuma automatically builds and maintains your knowledge base based on past interactions.
Conversation Thread Summaries: Get a complete picture of your customer interactions. Yuma provides summaries of entire conversation threads, giving agents all the context they need.
Shopify Integration (for Shopify users): Use live product data to guide customer interactions. Yuma integrates directly with Shopify, allowing agents to access real-time product information and provide accurate support.
Yuma AI Ticket Assistant offers a free trial, with paid plans starting at $239 per month.
FreshDesk- All In Customer Support
Image Source: Freshdesk
Freshdesk isn't just any customer service software; it's an AI-powered powerhouse built to empower your support team and delight your customers. Freshdesk offers a comprehensive toolkit for managing tickets, automating tasks, and engaging customers across various channels (WhatsApp, SMS, social media).
Here's what sets Freshdesk apart:
Freddy AI for CX – Agent Assist: This AI engine is your secret weapon. It continuously learns from past interactions to suggest relevant responses, accelerate resolution times, and ensure consistent agent replies.
Smart Ticket Management: Leverage AI for automatic ticket prioritization and classification, streamlining your support team's workload.
Real-time Engagement: Freddy AI empowers self-service with AI chatbots that can answer queries, look up order statuses, and even book appointments directly in the chat interface.
AI-powered Routing: Never route a ticket to the wrong agent again! AI analyzes queries and automatically assigns them to the most qualified team or agent.
Omnichannel AI Bots: Deploy AI-powered chatbots across your messaging channels (WhatsApp, SMS, etc.) to provide 24/7 self-service support for your customers, regardless of their preferred communication method.
Freshdesk offers a free trial and a free plan. Paid plans start at $15/agent per month, with AI features available as add-ons (availability may vary by plan).
7. Tidio- Best for Real-Time Customer Interaction
Image Source: Software Advice
Tidio goes beyond basic customer service software. It's a comprehensive suite that combines live chat, chatbots, and email marketing to bridge the communication gap between you and your customers, offering real-time support and personalized interactions.
Here's what Tidio offers:
Live Chat & Email Integration: Provide real-time support through live chat and manage email communications all in one place.
Reply Assistant: Enhance your customer interactions with AI-powered suggestions to improve your message content before sending it.
Lyro AI (separate product): Take your customer service to the next level with Lyro, an AI-powered virtual support agent. Lyro chatbots can engage with customers naturally, mimicking real-person conversations to improve experience and streamline service processes.
Rule-based Chatbots: If you're looking for a chatbot solution without the full power of AI, Tidio also offers rule-based chatbots that can automate simple tasks and answer basic questions.
Tidio offers a free trial and a free plan. Paid customer service plans start at $29 per month, while Lyro AI Agent plans start at $39 per month.
You might also want to check out How an Automated Customer Service can Help Business Outreach
Companies Using AI Customer Service
Businesses can effectively benefit from AI customer service. Many companies across various industries are leveraging AI customer service solutions to enhance their customer support operations. Here are some well-known companies that are using AI customer service:
Amazon: Amazon utilizes AI-powered virtual assistants, such as Alexa, to provide customer support and assist with inquiries related to their products and services.
Apple: Apple incorporates AI technologies, like Siri, to offer virtual assistance to customers, guiding them through troubleshooting processes and answering common queries.
Google: Google employs AI in its customer service operations, utilizing chatbots and virtual assistants to provide automated support and answer customer inquiries.
Microsoft: Microsoft employs AI in its customer service solutions, including chatbots and virtual agents, to deliver instant support and address customer queries across various channels.
IBM: IBM's Watson Assistant is an AI-powered virtual agent that helps companies deliver automated customer support and engage with customers in a personalized manner.
Salesforce: Salesforce offers Einstein AI, a suite of AI-powered tools that help businesses automate customer service processes, analyze customer data, and provide personalized support.
Uber: Uber integrates AI technologies into its customer service operations, using chatbots and AI-powered algorithms to handle customer inquiries, address issues, and streamline support processes.
Bank of America: Bank of America utilizes AI chatbots and virtual assistants to provide customer support, offer financial guidance, and assist with banking transactions.
Delta Air Lines: Delta Air Lines employs AI customer service solutions to enhance its customer support, providing automated assistance for flight information, baggage tracking, and other travel-related inquiries.
Marriott International: Marriott's AI chatbot, "Marriott Bonvoy Chat," allows guests to book reservations, ask questions about hotel amenities, and even access loyalty program information.
Hilton: Hilton utilizes AI chatbots to answer guest inquiries about reservations, amenities, and local attractions, providing 24/7 support.
Shopify: Shopify uses AI chatbots and virtual assistants to provide customer support for its e-commerce platform, helping merchants with order management, inventory tracking, and other queries.
FAQs
What is the AI Model for Customer Support?
Many systems combine Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand customer queries, suggest solutions, and even automate tasks. These AI-powered tools can analyze data, predict customer needs, and personalize the customer service experience.
How can AI help customer support?
AI improves customer support by automating repetitive tasks like answering FAQs and troubleshooting. It can also analyze customer data to predict needs, personalize interactions, and identify frustrated customers for faster intervention. This frees up human agents for complex issues and leads to happier customers.
How AI is changing customer support?
AI is transforming customer service from reactive to proactive. By automating tasks and analyzing data, AI anticipates customer needs, resolves issues faster, and personalizes interactions. This translates to 24/7 availability, quicker resolutions, and a more satisfying customer experience.
Why is AI the future of customer service?
AI offers the future of customer service by providing 24/7 availability, personalized experiences, and data-driven insights that human agents alone cannot match. This translates to increased efficiency, happier customers, and a competitive edge.
What is a customer intelligence system?
A customer intelligence system is a technology that gathers and analyzes customer data from various sources. This analysis provides valuable insights into customer behaviour, needs, and preferences, allowing businesses to make data-driven decisions to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Excited to learn more about how AI can improve your customer service system? Check out some helpful resources in our blogs!
