--- description: A CX thought leader explains how AI-powered customer service solutions and outsourced agencies enable service centers to scale operations. image: https://gdm-localsites-assets-gfprod.imgix.net/images/capterra/og_logo-e5a8c001ed0bd1bb922639230fcea71a.png?auto=format%2Cenhance%2Ccompress title: CX pro shares tips on enhancing customer service with AI --- # AI in customer service: Insights from a CX pro’s playbook Canonical: https://www.capterra.ca/blog/7188/ai-customer-service Published on 2024-10-11 | Written by Niels Juist. | Contributor: Shep Hyken. ![AI in customer service: Insights from a CX pro’s playbook](https://images.ctfassets.net/63bmaubptoky/1iDspfOzIBYHPMM3hNZBQT/6a5b722dbb4b33fa857d818a11a38e72/10-CAP-INTL-Call_center_technology_INTL_1200x630_DLVR.png) > CX pro Shep Hyken shares insights on how AI-driven customer service technology and external agencies can help service centers grow their operations and elevate customer experience. ----- ## Article Content CX pro Shep Hyken shares insights on how AI-driven customer service technology and external agencies can help service centers grow their operations and elevate customer experience.When you’re getting more customer service queries than your business can handle, short-term fixes like extending call centre hours won’t be enough to keep up with demand.Instead, as a business owner, you need to reevaluate your tech, training, and staffing as proactively as possible. That’s what Shep Hyken, a customer experience (CX) thought leader and consultant, advises growing companies. \[1\]“Companies that don’t invest in the right technology at the right time will soon be playing catch up,” he says. “If your competition is doing something that you're not and you're starting to see churn in your business, perhaps it's time to look at your investments.”In fact, a 2024 Capterra survey of customer service centre employees shows that nearly half (44%) indicate that their company plans to upgrade its current call centre software within the next 18 months.\* In a series of interviews such as the one below, Hyken shares his tips for maximizing these investments as you prepare your operations for long-term growth. The Future of Customer Service is Powered by AI1. Enhance agent performance with easy-to-use AI-driven customer support software“Some technologies may be great for the customer, but not so great for the employee,” says Hyken. “I believe we have to look at both sides: the employee experience as well as the customer experience.”Hyken says CX leaders trying to save their agents time could actually waste it if the system requires extra steps to perform common tasks. He recommends systems with AI-enabled capabilities that can automate a wide range of functions to speed up staff workflows without sacrificing the customer experience. That thinking is in line with most of the service agents we surveyed. More than half (56%) say the use of AI will lead to faster customer response times, among other positive impacts. The added benefit of an AI-powered system is it can help you anticipate future customer queries in addition to fielding current ones. Hyken explains that this tech can interpret customer data by running predictive analytics and issuing recommendations, such as when a client might be interested in related products based on buying patterns from others in similar business sizes or industries. “As an agent using AI and the data that AI gives us, we can ethically upsell, cross-sell, and support that customer better than ever before,” he says.Here are some other use cases that vendors might offer. Be sure to ask about availability as you evaluate call centre solutions:AI suggestions to create FAQs that proactively address common customer queries by analyzing customer support emails or chat transcripts. AI looks for common themes or questions that are frequently asked, or it can look at Google Analytics to see what keywords people are using to find your website.AI copilot to draft responses tailored to the specific inquiry while ensuring language and tone consistency. It provides relevant articles, knowledge base articles, and context based on the ongoing conversation. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of customer service and support organizations will be applying generative AI technology. \[2\]Workflow templates that leverage AI to automate customer support tasks and processes, such as customer follow-ups, automated responses, self-service troubleshooting, or knowledge base guidance.AI-driven monitoring system to identify priority conversations based on unassigned issues, customer sentiment, or high ticket volume. It comes with an overview of all ongoing conversations across channels, such as chat, email, or social media.Reshaping ticketing process with AI in call centre software (Source)Tech tip: If you want to make an informed decision about what kind of call centre software would work for your business, you can read more about the different features in this guide.2. Optimize customer service workflows to reduce data quality issues during growth“As you add new products and services over time, AI needs to continue learning—it will make mistakes,” warns Hyken, though he adds any short-term growing pains are worth the long-term productivity gains. “We just need to make sure that it's delivering the most accurate, up-to-date information.” An example of where an AI-assisted query might go wrong is if a customer asks about product features only to get an outdated answer because the new information hasn’t been uploaded into the system. This kind of inaccurate information could hurt your clients’ trust—which are the top two challenges of adopting AI-enabled customer service software cited by our survey respondents. Hyken says this challenge actually presents an opportunity to create a new role in your company’s service department that oversees AI-related quality assurance (AIQA) and training for staff. The scope could include everything from identifying mistakes, biases, and areas for improvement in AI-prompted responses to tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) related to AI quality and effectiveness. Reallocating resources to this kind of initiative aligns with Hyken’s prediction that the most effective AI-driven call centers will not eliminate jobs but rather use the technology to find the right balance between self-service and human-to-human interactions. That said, there are a number of other crucial components companies should include in their process to ensure data quality:Draft and distribute essential practices and processes. Create data quality rules and standards, perform regular data cleansing based on those rules, and then constantly monitor your shared data to ensure that it is clean.Assign critical roles and develop data quality management skills. While it’s imperative to have a designated data governance point person, ensuring business-wide data quality and data accuracy will always be a team effort.Leverage modern data quality technology. Most of the tedious, time-consuming data quality tasks such as data collection, auditing master data, flagging data errors, and data cleansing will be handled behind the scenes automatically by data quality software.Data report in call centre software (Source)Tech tip:Protecting your customer data is another priority that becomes more complex as your business grows and more employees need access to your databases. Read here what steps you should take to protect data in case of a cyber incident. 3. Choose a customer support agency that aligns with your evolving business needs“If your business is seasonal, and you have certain peak times during the year, a customer support agency can help out,” explains Hyken. “Then you are always sure you are staffed properly at busy times, and you can easily scale down when there is less demand.”As Hyken points out, even the most digitally mature companies need some extra staffing sometimes. Capterra’s survey found that among respondents handling customer service phone calls in house, 64% say their company is either considering hiring an outside agency or already has formal plans to do so. An outside agency can provide companies with a number of services, such as:Inbound customer support via phone, email, or other avenues. If a customer support agency offers inbound call centre services, they will likely make agents available to your clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week.Outbound customer support that involves contacting customers directly, and in some cases lead generation services, which involves making outbound calls to prospects.Technical assistance when users need help. This could involve website issues, problems with the ordering process, or even directly supporting the products you sell.Receiving and acknowledging complaints, recording and categorizing them, and then seeking to resolve them by engaging with customers and processing refunds or returns.Customer satisfaction surveys to help you find out how your customers feel about your business or the quality of the support they receive. Such surveys can identify areas for improvement based on customer needs and expectations.Hyken recommends using agency partners to handle lower level, or “tier one,” service requests so the more complex queries are still being routed through to your most highly trained and capable in-house agents. He says your evaluation criteria should include vendor interviews covering the following: Tech tip:Are you not sure if you should compliment your in-house tech and tools with inbound call centre service? Read more about when you should consider outsourcing. Scaling your customer service requires a strategic, long-term approachGrowing your customer service operations requires a strategic approach that combines AI technology, as well as rigorous audits of customer service workflows to ensure data quality. As Hyken explains, AI will help your customer service agents work more efficiently and focus on what matters most: attending to customer needs. As you are scaling your service you might not have the bandwidth to handle all customer queries yourself. If that’s the case, you might want to consider hiring an agency service to handle some of the heavy lifting for you. While the agency focuses on simpler customer queries, the in-house trained service staff has more time to handle the more complicated issues.Looking for customer support software? Check out our catalogue \! ## Disclaimer > SourcesShep Hyken, LinkedInGartner, Three Technologies That Will Transform Customer Service and Support By 2028GetApp, What Is Data Quality, and Why Is It Important for Your Business?Methodology\*Capterra's 2024 Customer Service Technology Survey was conducted online in May 2024 among 2,307 respondents worldwide, of which 200 in Canada. The goal of the study was to explore how emerging call centre technologies are enabling brands to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Respondents were screened to be full-time employees at organizations with one to 2,499 employees. They must be involved in customer service operations, use or buy customer service software, and handle customer service phone calls in house or externally. ## About the authors ### Niels Juist Niels is a Senior Content Analyst for Capterra Netherlands. He writes about IT, software and business trends in SMEs. Graduated in Journalism and lives and works in Barcelona. ### Shep Hyken Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert and the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books and has been inducted into the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement in the speaking profession. 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