How AI improves customer communications and customer experience
The following is a guest post by Anthony Mancini, Manager, Client Success at KUBRA
Today’s customers are accustomed to receiving top-notch customer experiences from their favorite brands. With companies like Amazon setting a high bar for personalized communications and instant answers, customers increasingly expect the same experiences from their utilities.
Due to these ever-evolving customer demands, many utilities and companies in other industries are struggling to keep up. However, there is a secret weapon many innovative companies are using to meet and exceed these expectations: artificial intelligence (AI).
On March 5, KUBRA will be hosting a webinar exploring the topic of AI and how it can help facilitate more authentic communications between utilities and customers. Read on for a sneak peek of the highlights.
AI is used by more than 90% of companies with world-leading brand recognition and high levels of customer satisfaction, such as Lexus and Alibaba, to increase customer satisfaction.[1] For utilities, it’s more important now than ever to adopt AI, especially when you consider that 59% of consumers expect public service organizations to use innovative technologies to improve service delivery.[2]
If you’d like to learn more about how AI bots can help carry on real conversations with your customers, register for the “STOP” Using Keywords and Start Having Real Conversations webinar by KUBRA on March 5, 2020. Sign up today by clicking here.
Improving Customer Communications with Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots, and Natural Language Processing
Artificial intelligence helps provide fast and efficient self-service options, consistent experiences, and personalized interactions through multiple channels such as text messages, smart speakers, webchats, and more. Aiding these personalized interactions are chatbots powered by natural language processing (NLP), a branch of artificial intelligence.
A chatbot is a computer program that simulates and processes both written and spoken human conversation. By applying natural language processing, computers can better understand, interpret, and manipulate human language. NLP is single-handedly helping to improve customer communications by facilitating more personal, authentic, and automated interactions between customers and organizations.
“STOP” Using Keywords and Start Having Real Conversations
Many utility customers utilize text messages to connect with their utilities regarding power outages and account balances. These customers often have to remember keywords like “STAT” and “BAL” to request the information they need. However, with NLP customers can request information using complete sentences such as “What’s the status of my power outage?” or “How much do I owe?” to get their answers. When a utility’s alerts and preference management system is powered by NLP technology, it can automatically respond in a natural, human-like manner, facilitating an authentic interaction between the customer and utility. This is key because organizations that focus on personalized communications see a 55% increase in customer experience and a 39% improvement in brand perception.[3]
Text messaging is not the only channel to benefit from NLP. It is also helping to change customer expectations across a variety of other channels, such as text messages, smart speakers, and webchats. For instance, one-third of smart speaker owners want to contact customer service departments by voice.[4] This isn’t a statistic to be overlooked given that smart speaker ownership is expected to triple to 8 billion global devices by 2023—an upsurge from 2.5 billion in 2018.[5] Customers crave easy interactions and there’s nothing more convenient and effortless than a customer asking an Amazon Alexa device to pay a utility bill, especially compared to mailing a check or logging in to an account. Even more, offering these automated, intelligent, and high-quality customer experiences can help lower customer support costs by 33%—a win-win for the customer and utility alike.[6]
If you’d like to learn more about how bots can help carry on real conversations with your customers using an alerts and preference management system, register for the “STOP” Using Keywords and Start Having Real Conversations webinar by KUBRA on March 5, 2020. Sign up today by clicking here.
[1] MIT Technology Genesys, Artificial Intelligence is Fueling the Customer Experience Strategies of the World’s Top Brands Today, 2017.
[2] KUBRA, 2019 Citizens Billing and Payment Report, 2019.
[3] Evergage, 2018 Trends in Personalization, 2018.
[4] Voicebot.ai, U.S. Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report, 2019.
[5] Techcrunch, Report: Voice Assistants in Use to Triple to 8 Billion by 2023, 2019.
[6] Deloitte, The True Value of Customer Experience, 2018.
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