How can you offer more customer support without overburdening your team? Could the secret lie in AI?

The more clients your company has, the more tickets your support team will be handling. In such cases, offering timely, tailored customer support becomes difficult. That is where the power of AI-enabled customer support tools comes in.

Imagine a digital assistant able to process all of the mundane requests and frequent customer issues, enabling your support staff to deal with higher-order questions. Is it too wonderful to be true? Continue reading to see how it can do all of this and more.

What is AI Customer Support?

Customer support using AI is the application of any form of artificial intelligence technology that helps, improves, or automatically performs the process of rendering assistance or replying to customer requests. This may encompass a wide range of tools and applications:

·         Chatbots: They are automated messaging systems that may engage with consumers in real-time, whether through a website, chat platform, or voice. They may answer commonly asked questions, walk consumers through troubleshooting steps, and assist with product selection.

·         Virtual Assistants: These AI-powered assistants are more advanced than chatbots since they can interpret complicated inquiries, interface with backend systems, and deliver individualized replies based on user profiles or previous encounters.

·         Predictive Analytics: These are AI algorithms that evaluate client data to predict future requirements or difficulties, allowing for proactive help.

·         Automated Ticketing Systems: Systems that can categorize, prioritize, and route client questions based on the severity and urgency of the problem.

·         Knowledge Bases: AI may be used to manage and update a dynamic database of information that customers can use for self-service, ensuring that only the most relevant and up-to-date information is provided.

·         Voice Recognition Systems: These systems are used in phone customer service to recognize and transcribe client voice inputs, route calls, and deliver automated solutions.

Why Use AI Customer Service Solutions?

Integrating AI into customer service allows teams to operate more effectively, similar to having a smart assistant that streamlines daily duties. It is about changing the service dynamic by making each encounter smarter and more intuitive. 

AI improves the customer experience by rapidly accessing and applying consumer information to create unified and memorable support interactions. 

AI also streamlines customer support operations, helping clients and even proactively resolving possible escalations by providing solutions upfront. Furthermore, it improves agent well-being by eliminating repetitive chores such as case summary and after-call work, allowing them to focus on more meaningful issue-solving.

How do AI-powered customer support tools work?

AI customer support tools may help simplify your day-to-day activities. Here are a few ways AI is used in customer support software. 

1.      Tailored support experiences: Customer service software powered by generative AI hyper-personalizes every encounter with laser-sharp relevance, steady tone, and high accuracy.

2.      Performance visualization: AI assesses and visualizes agent performance data, identifying gaps and successes for plan modification and personalized coaching.

3.      Automated post-call workflow: Streamlines case summaries and dispositions, providing agents with essential points from discussions right at their fingertips.

4.      Self-service enablement: Helps consumers address problems using conversational bots and a well-organized knowledge base, lowering the number of direct inquiries.

5.      Strategic insights: Provides detailed data for making educated decisions, enhancing client experiences, and developing customer service strategies.

6.      Operational and agent efficiency: Improves service quality with AI-powered quality checks and improves workforce management to provide a consistent customer experience.

Advantages of Using AI Tools for Customer Support

AI has transformed customer assistance in a variety of ways. Here are some of the top advantages of adopting AI for customer assistance.

·         Around-the-clock availability

Unlike human operators, AI can assist you by giving uninterrupted 24/7 service. This guarantees that clients from different time zones and those seeking assistance outside of typical business hours may obtain a rapid response.

·         Scalability

AI-powered support systems are capable of handling a huge number of requests at once. As a company expands, AI may expand its operations without incurring a commensurate rise in expenditures.

·         Continuous Learning and Improvement

AI systems, particularly those built on machine learning, can continuously learn from fresh data and feedback. This guarantees that they improve and become more efficient over time, hence offering greater assistance to consumers.

·         Personalized Customer Experience

AI can assess a user's history, preferences, and behavior to make more personalized suggestions.

For example, a streaming service may employ AI to assess a user's viewing history. If a user contacts help about a streaming difficulty with a certain type of material, the support AI may rapidly cross-reference the user's preferences and present a list of alternate recommendations while the problem is being handled.

·         Cost Efficiency

Implementing AI for customer service implies that your staff can operate at peak efficiency while also saving money in the long term. Routine requests can be automated, allowing human agents to focus on more complicated duties.

Top 5 AI Tools for Customer Support

Based on the 2024 study, here is a list of the top five AI customer support tools that every organization may use.

1.      Wonderchat

Wonderchat AI is a cutting-edge conversational AI technology developed to enable organizations and people to have really human-like discussions with their audience. The chatbot Wonderchat has been trained with relevant and human-like responses that would allow it to cater to a wide number of support questions.

Wonderchat is GDPR compliant and can be placed immediately on a website, providing rapid 24/7 service while lowering the support burden by up to 70%. Moreover, it features top-of-the-line LLM models, making sure you get the best performance for your bucks.

Here are some of the advantages of Wonderchat’s AI tool:

·         Wonderchat builds ChatGPT-powered chatbots from website content or PDF files in just 5 minutes.

·         It allows tailoring of the chatbot’s role, tone, style, and behavior to align with brand identity.

·         Wonderchat trains chatbots for improved performance over time and corrects any unsatisfactory responses.

·         The AI chatbots can escalate complex queries to human support via email or live chat.

·         Wonderchat monitors the efficacy of chatbots with customer feedback and detailed conversation analytics.

·         It can provide the chatlog history while ensuring adherence to stringent data protection regulations for peace of mind.

Pricing:

Wonderchat has 4 pricing plans:

·         Free: Start with 20 free messages to test the chatbot.

·         Lite: $49.99 per agent per month, charged yearly.

·         Basic: $99.99/ 3 agents per month, payable yearly.

·         Turbo: $249.99/ 5 agents per month, payable yearly.

·         Professional: $499.99/ 10 agents per month, payable yearly.

2.      Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a customer service platform that uses artificial intelligence. It gives support teams the tools and flexibility they need to handle client requests effectively. Freddy, Freshdesk's cheerful support bot, responds to clients quickly via chat and email, answering questions successfully.

Freddy AI, the foundation of Freshdesk's AI service, is continually learning from previous tickets and outcomes. This continual learning helps to recommend suitable replies to new client inquiries and reduces resolution time.

According to user evaluations, Freddy has certain limits despite its ability to assist with simple activities such as ticket recommendations and email template creation. Freddy AI is not available in a variety of languages, including French, therefore, the chatbot can be difficult to comprehend.

Here are a few advantages of Freshdesk's Freddy AI software:

·         Freddy AI bot may be deployed across many chat channels, ensuring that clients receive care via their preferred communication medium.

·         Agents may quickly tailor their service using Freddy Copilot, which displays all client interactions from many platforms on one screen. This AI assistant can also propose responses, advise on future steps, and provide concise recaps of previous talks.

·         Freddy Insights uses powerful AI to continually monitor performance data for ways to improve efficiency and identify possible concerns. It even provides solutions and helps to apply them.

·         Freddy AI can do activities immediately in chat, such as verifying order statuses or scheduling appointments, minimizing the need for human participation.

·         Freddy AI intelligently routes client tickets to the appropriate teams or agents based on the context of the ticket.

Pricing:

Freshdesk has four price levels.

·         Free: Starter plan with limited features.

·         Growth: $15 per agent per month, charged yearly.

·         Pro: $49 per agent each month, payable yearly.

·         Enterprise: $69 per agent per month, payable yearly.

3.      Intercom

Fin, Intercom's AI-powered bot, is a cutting-edge customer care solution built with powerful language models from OpenAI. Fin's cutting-edge AI language model raises the bar for bot-human interaction. Unlike typical bots, it can organically answer assistance questions, providing clients with a more human-like experience.

It does this by accessing existing support content via public URLs and synchronizing it. Business executives and management teams may also use this solution to reduce agent workloads by automating handoffs and follow-ups.

Here are some advantages of Intercom's AI-Fin:

·         Fin sources all of its responses from your company's support center to assure their legitimacy and relevancy. Furthermore, for transparency, it goes back to the original articles, allowing buyers to check the facts.

·         With the "Fin Conversations in Inbox" functionality, support personnel can easily monitor all of Fin's interactions, ensuring that customer inquiries are answered appropriately and on time.

·         Organizations may use Intercom's Custom Answers functionality to prioritize responses for certain inquiries, ensuring that Fin offers these tailored answers above its default AI-generated ones.

Pricing:

Intercom's price chart may appear confusing at first, but in a word, it provides four distinct payment categories.

·         Essential: $39 per month, per seat

·         Advanced: $99 monthly per seat.

·         Expert: $139/month per seat.

Note: Intercom costs Fin $0.99 for each successfully answered customer query, known as a "Resolution." To qualify for this discount, you must have a current Intercom plan.

4.      Zendesk

Zendesk AI is an enhanced component of the Zendesk customer support tool that incorporates powerful artificial intelligence capabilities to improve customer interactions. This includes the use of sophisticated bots, AI-powered tools for agents, and intelligent triage.

Specifically, the Answer Bot, a key component of Zendesk AI, uses machine learning to respond to customer concerns automatically. Zendesk's Answer Bot provides clients with immediate solutions by scanning your knowledge base, community forums, and other assistance resources.

Here are some advantages of Zendesk's AI:

·         The "Intelligent Triage" AI function guarantees that all client inquiries are correctly prioritized. Its capacity to detect the type of questions assists in routing them to the most appropriate agent or resolving them without human interaction when possible

·         Beyond reactive reactions, Zendesk AI provides predictive insights into customer interactions and happiness. These insights enable firms to strategize proactively and increase client engagement.

·         Zendesk AI handles common requests automatically by deploying bots to harvest core data such as customer name, email address, and problem type. This allows human agents to focus their attention on more subtle and consequential activities, resulting in more effective resource usage.

Pricing:

Zendesk's Support package offers three price tiers.

·         Team: $19 per user/month.

·         Professional: $55 per user/month.

·         Enterprise: $115 per user/month.

Zendesk also has a Suite plan with four pricing options.

·         Team: $55 per user/month.

·         Growth: $89 per user each month.

·         Professional: $115 per user/month.

·         Enterprise: Custom

5.      ChatSonic

ChatSonic AI is an advanced conversational AI platform developed by Writesonic. It is a new generation of intelligent chatbot solutions, leveraging the latest developments in NLP and machine learning to power the automation of customer support and other activities, improving user engagement and facilitating a variety of different business operations.

Integration with websites, apps, and messaging platforms can be very smooth, thereby making ChatSonic AI a versatile tool for any business.

Some advantages of ChatSonic are:

·         ChatSonic pulls in real-time information from Google, keeping conversations current and relevant.

·         It remembers past conversations to provide better responses and avoid repetition, with an option to turn this off.

·         Built-in personas help tailor responses to match different needs and tones.

·         Chatsonic does more than generate text. It also allows users to make digital artwork to complement their texts.

·         You can generate material using voice commands by using the record function.

Pricing:

ChatSonic offers three price tiers.

·         Free trial: $0 per month.

·         Unlimited: $20 per month.

·         Business: From $19 to $499 per month.

Need a customer support product that has all of the key features but is also cost-effective? Wonderchat is your companion! This user-friendly alternative is ideal for startups and small businesses seeking a quick and cost-effective approach to respond to typical consumer inquiries. It's also great for growing firms that want a chatbot that can scale to meet their demands.