How chatbots can personalize self-service interactions

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Speed is an important element of self-service, but it’s not the only thing that matters. 

Balancing speed and quality is particularly important for developing trust in generative AI. Customers are open to chatbots, but they’re not willing to risk traditional service for a theoretically faster experience, experts said at a webinar last week hosted by CCW Digital and Zendesk.

“If they feel as if they have to trade some semblance of empathy, if they have to trade a better resolution, if they have to trade relevance of what they’re getting just to save some time, it’s going to feel like a choice they don’t want to make,” Brian Cantor, managing director and principal analyst at CCW Digital, said during the presentation.

Generative AI chatbots aren’t suited for offering the human touch, but they can excel at offering a personal touch. The right approach to self-service, backed by the right data, can make customers feel like chatbots understand their needs.

Personalization is a significant pain point for modern contact center operations — only 20% of consumers say they feel the typical customer service interaction is highly personalized, according to Cantor.

Simply showing off what you know about the customer isn’t proper personalization, Cantor said. Companies need to tap into that knowledge to change a customer’s experience, and AI is well-suited for taking actionable consumer data and automating interactions based on that information.

No chatbot is going to ask about a customer’s pets or vacation plans like a good customer service agent might, but the technology can look at prior interactions to inform possible solutions. A well-informed chatbot doesn’t make customers repeat information and can tailor its responses based on past interactions.

However, creating a personalized experience requires careful data management, according to Jason Maynard, chief technology officer at Zendesk. 

Businesses need to ensure all relevant data is properly integrated into the tech stack before it will be useful for powering chatbots. This includes ensuring customer metadata, the answers to common customer inquiries, and knowledge about the company’s products and services are readily accessible to chatbots.

“Make sure your content is complete, robust and kept up to date,” Manyard said. “Those are the big areas that I think are really going to be an enabler for this technology.”