What Customers Expect from AI in Customer Service

Modern customers are looking for real help from artificial intelligence.

Customers have high expectations for artificial intelligence, but many businesses are falling short due to implementation challenges, a new Zendesk CX Trends report states.

“As with each new technology that rewrites the customer service rulebook—the internet, live chat, mobile phones, and AI—businesses must commit to rethinking their mindset and their approach,” the Zendesk report states. “Anything less and they risk frustrating customers, or worse, undermining their ability to deliver the quality experiences that keep them coming back.”

The good news: the survey found customers are more open to AI, with 13 percent growth from the previous year in customers who say they are willing to interact with chatbots for simple issues.

So, what do customers want from artificial intelligence customer service? Here’s what customers expect to get from AI when it’s used by businesses:

1. Time savings. In an ideal world, AI will help businesses quickly and easily handle common issues and answer simple questions, freeing up humans to provide more complex, nuanced and personalized customer service. That’s what consumers want: in fact almost half (48 percent) of customers say AI should save them time when they contact a company, according to the report.
2. More efficient (and less annoying) interactions. One of the most annoying  and time consuming aspects of dealing with multiple points of contact is having to repeat your situation or problem over and over again. That applies when you start with a chatbot and switch to a human, or when you start out talking to a representative and need to be transferred to a manager or someone in a different department. The same percentage of customers (48 percent) say AI should save customers from having to repeat themselves, the survey found.
3. Quick understanding of their issue. The key word in artificial intelligence is, well, intelligence. Customers want AI to live up to its name by asking the right questions, quickly grasping their issue and moving on to a solution. In practice, that’s often not what happens: in fact, over half (55 percent) of consumers say chatbots ask too many questions to try to understand an issue and decide how to offer a solution.
4. Accurate answers to their questions. In a perfect world, AI would draw from multiple resources to offer efficient, accurate answers to customers’ questions. Over time, it would get smarter, incorporating answers to past customer questions into its knowledge base. In practice, many customers (47 percent, according to the survey)  report having trouble getting accurate answers to their questions from chatbots.
5. The option to talk to a human. Customers may know upfront that their question or concern isn’t suited to a chatbot. In these cases, they want the option to skip the chatbot entirely and jump straight into consulting with a human. In fact, the survey found that almost half (46 percent) of customers say they’re frustrated with not being given the option to talk to a person right away.

Companies are investing more in AI technology, which is constantly improving. Right now, there’s a fairly wide gap between what customers want from AI and what they actually get. But they’re optimistic that this growing technology ultimately will help companies provide them with better customer service.

The bottom line, according to the Zendesk report: “Customers primarily see AI as a force for good—one that can improve their interactions and experiences with businesses.”