Why Machine Learning Can Change Customer Service As We Know It
Does anyone remember how 10 years ago the first point of contact for customer service was the phone? Organizations could rely on their call center advisers to respond to their clients in a couple of days. It took a long time, and the communication options were very limited. Today, the emergence of e-Commerce, multiple communication channels and the proliferation of mobile devices have marked a significant change in consumer behavior. Now we demand immediate access to information and we want our problems to be solved instantly with just one click.
However, even as advances such as the move to mobile versions and e-commerce have driven the customer service industry to improve, it is technology that continues to evolve, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, which will have a greater impact on the business world and its relationship with customers.
Understanding big data and its analysis
Consumers have been keeping busy adapting to technological changes and also sharing more and more information. As a result, more organizations are tracking the customer engagement histories of the brands you use through various sources of information such as social media, purchase histories, and service shifts.
In fact, 82% of retail companies believe that big data is changing the way they interact and engage with their customers. However, while most businesses recognize the power of big data and its analytics, there are still some who have not discovered the potential of data through machine learning.
The potential of machine learning
Technology such as machine learning amplifies and expands the scope of data analysis and helps to solve customer service problems more efficiently. Visionary organizations harness the power of machine learning algorithms to deliver faster and more convenient customer service in every way possible.
Technology takes traditional analysis to another level, offers predictive and prescriptive analysis, recommends solutions at the moment and tailored according to each consumer based on previous experiences. Therefore, instead of adding human analysis, machine learning replaces it, creating more efficient care teams that dedicate their time and resources to critical situations that require personalized attention.
Machine learning will also allow companies to learn more about the preferences of each of their clients, which can be stored in an information center, so that it becomes a center of "collective intelligence" to which all teams of customer service can access and learn about a particular customer and thus offer a more personalized service.
The future of machine learning
So what can we expect from machine learning? Well, we at Zendesk believe that machine learning will radically change the way business software is used. If we think about the previous revolutions of technology, the era of steam created the industrial revolution by substituting man for coal, the era of robotics has also caused the manufacturing industry to stop depending on human labor. In the future, artificial intelligence and machine learning have the potential to replace the cognitive functions of the human mind.
However, as in all previous technologies, we do not say that they can replace humans completely, rather, our capabilities as workers will be expanded thanks to the information obtained by machine learning. Even when sometimes machine learning cannot solve a situation with customers, it will be of great support to the customer service advisor as it will provide valuable information about the customer, all at their fingertips.
Machine learning offers infinite memory capacity to store a large amount of data, allowing this technology to match and discover endless levels of behavior patterns - far beyond the capacity of the human mind. In the next 10 years, we will be able to observe machine learning systems capable of understanding the nuances of human language. Yann LeCun, who leads Facebook's AI Research team, recently mentioned that "we must take into account the emergence of more intelligent artificial intelligence agents through dialogue, question-answer, adaptive robot control and even planning systems."
Businesses need to find new ways to serve an ever-changing audience. It is clear that we are facing a new revolution in the way organizations serve their customers, in which advances in technology make it possible for humans to be replaced by intelligent algorithms. The balance of change makes machine learning a priority, not only for large corporations such as Netflix, Facebook or Google, but for all types of companies.
Having effective yet adaptable customer service has never been more important than now, and that will not change anytime soon. Both consumer data analytics and machine learning will continue to progress, as will customer demands. Businesses will need to find a way to create comprehensive strategies that can keep track of “I need it now” consumers to provide quick and accurate answers, and machine learning will be critical to shaping customer-business relationships in the future.
