AI-Based Helpdesk Solutions Boost Small Business Innovation

Key points:

  • Artificial intelligence(AI) is lately democratizing which has put a drastic impact on small businesses as well.
  • Small business innovators are now investing their time and funds to implement AI and benefit from it.
  • This has helped small enterprises deliver a great customer experience by assisting customers from navigating the sites to issuing refunds.

Innovation hinges on advanced technology. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain have become ubiquitous terms. But what effect will these new technologies have on your small business? They will, no doubt, impact your business. If you invest the time to understand and incorporate these changes, you will benefit. If you don’t, you’ll be left in the dust. This has always been true for adapting to innovation.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are tools that will profoundly impact customer experience and improve every customer interaction substantially. According to the global survey of experts in machine learning, compiled by the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, it will be 120 years before all human jobs are automated and 45 years until half of the jobs currently filled by humans are taken over by AI systems. Sounds scary? We — and our offspring — still have some time to make sense of it and adapt.

One key feature every future-oriented small business should integrate now is an intelligent customer helpdesk. The efficacy of the helpdesk can impact customer experience tremendously. No matter the area of your business, you have to attract customers, maintain them and grow your customer base. To be able to do so, you have to analyze customer interactions so you can understand customers’ needs and desires in the past, the present and the future. A customer-focused smart helpdesk will always be a competitive advantage.

Let's look at the example of a small business owner who runs an e-commerce business. A small business faces many challenges and finding new customers is just one of them.

Customers may need assistance at multiple steps during their experience with a business, including:

1. Navigating the site

Customer problems could revolve around understanding how to access sections, apply filters, etc. When a website visitor contacts customer service, an AI-based helpdesk program can predict such issues and assist the agent in guiding the customer through the process. AI-based help desks and predictive analysis through AI are advancing almost all the industry realms today. For instance, the search industry giants like Google and Yahoo are constantly improving results based on artificial intelligence.

2. Delivery issues

Many delivery issues are predictable and can be solved through FAQs or bots that have been fed with standard customer questions regarding the delivery of their order. This frees up agents to only handle exceptions that require their interference. The system also provides the agent with the history of the problem and possible solutions.

Cogito, a company specializing in machine learning and behavioral science, helps to improve the emotional intelligence of support executives. This helps them solve critical problems such as problems with delivery and payments.

3. Payment glitches

Payment glitches can seriously irritate customers, and they would want to speak to an agent immediately. AI-based helpdesk software assists agents in understanding the kinds of problems customers have faced in the past, including adequate solutions. It also alerts the respective department in charge, just in case an expert needs to get involved. The process of helping the customer becomes more efficient, quicker and more meaningful for everyone involved.

4. Technical issues

Technical errors can seriously alter customer experience on an e-commerce website. An AI-based help desk diagnoses any technical problems and alerts you, so you can fix the issue immediately. Resolving technical glitches timely helps improve the customer experience on the website and AI makes it easy for many enterprises. Great brands like Amazon use artificial intelligence significantly to improve customer experience on the site and predict buying behavior.

5. Issuing refunds

A scenario in which a customer is seeking a refund because a transaction did not go through successfully, but the amount got debited from is account. The system would analyze past cases of such instance, the agent behavior and suggest a solution to the agent which he could recommend to the customer. Here the agent takes the support of the system to resolve the customer request, because he may know how to handle the request, but with suggestions from the past, he can deliver better. The AI-based system learns from your customers and employees and boosts productivity. The technology is based on two sets of intelligence — the agents’ and that of the machine. Human-machine collaboration has success stories and is the future of the workplace too. The software crunches data in order to recommend a solution to the customer. This way technology becomes a resolution to the customer problem and the agent’s trusted advisor.

Small businesses are typically short on time. In order to be able to meet customers’ demands, the small business, therefore, needs to operate efficiently, accurately and smart. Traditional helpdesk solutions use conventional programs, which don’t allow the agent to look at the customer problem holistically.

That’s where artificial intelligence and machine learning can help. AI-based helpdesk software and other AI-based technologies make the process of handling customer problems holistic, faster and take customer experience beyond expectations. Many small businesses are implementing intelligent technology to be able to realize innovation and move forward into the future.

Systems based on machine learning — the understanding machines derive from data and knowledge they’re fed by human intelligence — help make each interaction better for the customer: The system can predict what the customer wants and analyses existing agent behavior to suggest the best solution to the given customer problem. What’s more, the self-service feature can help the customer to resolve many simple issues themselves.

There are many more ways new technology can help small businesses innovate their business processes. The technology market offers a myriad of tools for innovation. Small businesses need to understand their functionality to be able to choose the right solutions and apply them to their individual business scenario and industry.

Speak to us. We can help your business innovate with AI-based solutions at surprisingly low costs and turn you into an artificial intelligence evangelist.

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