Because my work includes tracking thousands of conversations that businesses have with their customers, I’m able to see when new problems arise and spread quickly. Recently, that has been the case with a challenge that’s getting far too little attention. It’s slowing sales, frustrating customers, and leading to a lot of lost revenue. The good news is that it can be fixed with new technology.
The problem boils down to a knowledge gap between consumers and sales agents. All too often, customers these days know a company’s offerings better than the agent they’re speaking to. Every time I listen to a customer service representative in this situation, I cringe.
So it was no surprise to me that in one survey, 83% of shoppers said they believe they’re more knowledgeable than store associates. That survey, from Tulip Retail, was taken several years ago; the number has likely risen since then. And based on what I see in my work, the same problem now applies to a great many online representatives outside of brick and mortar.
This problem is tough to overestimate. TomasNet reports that, “31% of consumers consider a knowledgeable agent to be the most important factor for a positive customer experience.” Customers should never have to feel that they’re the ones explaining to the company what its own products are.
Why is this happening? Today’s consumers are resourceful and have access to unprecedented amounts of information. Many search for answers online before they contact a company. They also know how a company’s products compare to those of its competitors. Since they’re generally doing research about a single product — or even a specific issue with a single product — they’re increasingly likely to have a level of detailed knowledge that customer service representatives don’t.
The role of AI
Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence can help to solve this problem, but only if humans make it so. It takes leadership and proactive steps to fend off these situations.
Because of its virtually limitless abilities to collect, hold onto, and process information, AI can outperform humans in this part of a customer service operation. It can learn so much about each product and competitors that it’s able to “speak” with authority to the customer.
This requires special training. In addition to being equipped with NLP (natural language processing) and data about the company’s products and services, AI tools need to cast a wide net and “read” huge sums of publicly available information.
These tools should read reviews of the products on various websites, including problems that consumers point to. They should read about competitors’ products and specific reasons that people like those better. The tools should also read news articles that refer to the products or similar ones.
The more your AI solution does this, the more ready it will be to discuss customers’ interests and concerns, including minute details. In fact, it should be able to know more than any consumer, since no human can take in that much information.
Businesses have a long way to go in achieving this. As Fast Company reported recently, customers see chatbots as only slightly more likely than humans to be consistently accurate, and far less likely to handle complex problems well.
The perception conundrum
AI tools also face another hurdle in this arena: People don’t trust them to know what they’re talking about. “Research has shown that humans usually have lower confidence in chatbots’ performance and are thus skeptical about these digital conversational agents,” professors Gabriele Pizzi, Virginia Vannucci, Valentina Mazzoli and Raffaele Donvito wrote in a study published last year. “As a result, chatbots are perceived as less knowledgeable and empathetic than humans.”
As I wrote recently, AI is coming for empathy as well. When it comes to knowledge, companies need to help customers gain trust in chatbots. I expect that will happen over time — if companies ensure that their chatbots are equipped with the latest information at all times. As researchers Nitin Liladhar Rane, Anand Achari, and, Saurabh P. Choudhary wrote in another study, “Customers need to feel confident that AI-based service providers have the necessary knowledge and expertise to address their needs effectively. Accurate and reliable information is essential to instill confidence in customers.”
For now, this is another reason that humans and AI should join forces to deliver customers the best experiences possible. Each brings strengths, and each set of strengths can help empower the other to do a better job. It’s not a contest between humans and AI. The right approach is for humans and AI to work in harmony.