Customers will not hesitate to take their business elsewhere if brands fail to deliver a satisfying experience. In fact, businesses that deliver poor experiences can expect significant financial turbulence.
The Qualtrics XM Institute has found that poor customer service could collectively result in losses of USD 3.7 trillion annually. So, for business leaders looking to succeed in the Asia Pacific region, top-notch customer service capabilities are non-negotiable. It’s unsurprising then that in the Asia Pacific, artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, is quickly becoming businesses’ go-to solution in revolutionizing their customer service.
Boundless flexibility
By enabling businesses to integrate enhanced data management and retrieval capabilities, generative AI enables the kind of flexibility that facilitates personalized experiences for customers of all stripes. Through the ability to accurately search all kinds of data, from text to audio to images, generative AI enables the building of new experiences through what is called vector search. Essentially, this means leveraging machine learning (ML) to capture the meaning and context of unstructured data and transforming it into a numeric representation. Leveraging generative AI can also facilitate semantic similarity queries that – unlike traditional keyword-based searches which rely on matching specific words – interprets the intent and contextual meaning behind the words.
Businesses can also help reduce the frustrations customers typically face when chatting with traditional chatbots that are limited by ruled-based systems; generative AI-powered chatbots are trained to provide more accurate, relevant, and useful results that help build responses from proprietary data. Not to mention, there is the added bonus of being able to provide precise and personalized support around the clock.
However, it’s not just by answering customer questions that generative AI adds value. For example, it can:
- Personalize recommendations based on customer data and previous interactions.
- Provide conversational search functions. FAQs online can be more impactful when generative AI takes natural language prompts like “Where’s my package?” and either directs the customer to the correct FAQ response or delivers a tailored response.
- Optimize data to support customer service operations. Generative AI can turn vast amounts of data into actionable insights. This would shed light on metrics like the most common complaints, as well as track and categorize customer trends.
- Support the productivity of human customer service agents. This could look like automatically generating responses to common queries, providing summaries of previous complaint resolutions that agents can use in conversations, and generating product recommendations.
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Reimagining Customer Service
The use of generative AI isn’t new. Very recently, online fashion retailer ZALORA made headlines when its AI-powered chatbot significantly boosted customer satisfaction. Its Singapore and Hong Kong markets saw over 20% year-on-year improvements in Customer Satisfaction Score and over 80% in Net Promoter Score.
Not only that, when deployed at scale, strategic management consultants at BCG found that generative AI can boost customer service productivity by 30-50%. Thanks to its capabilities to process vast amounts of data quickly, generative AI-powered customer service solutions can efficiently handle customer queries and support tasks. This then reduces the burden of agents, allowing them to focus on improving and personalizing service delivery.
With the ADB projecting growth in Asia and the Pacific at 4.8% this year, quality customer service is a key differentiator for brands. It can make or break a business.
One thing is certain: with generative AI redefining the landscape of customer service in the Asia Pacific region, businesses that are already leveraging the technology to improve their service delivery will be able to differentiate through outstanding customer experiences. AI-powered customer service capabilities mean streamlined operations, reduced costs as well as strategic and better-allocated resources. On the opposite end, beginning to expect seamless, personalized experiences that promote loyalty and satisfaction, are the customers. Additionally, customer service agents are freed from repetitive tasks, enabling them to focus on high-value interactions. At the core of it all, there’s a powerful cycle of improvement, where innovative businesses can stay ahead of the competition and set new standards in the market.
