The future is here: Around 70% of customer experience professionals are already using AI and automation in their day-to-day, according to Gorgias’s 2024 industry report. Leaders and agents alike appreciate AI for its ability to streamline workflows, reduce repetitive tasks, and instantly generate new content, according to a Gorgias survey.
But if you’re still on the fence about integrating AI into your support processes, we’ll tell you why you should be paying attention now.
Let’s zoom in and see how AI can increase support efficiency and scalability, save on operational costs, initiate proactive support, shift agents’ focus from tedious to strategic work, and meet evolving customer expectations.
AI and automation excel at tackling the repetitive tasks your agents would rather not be spending their time on — and at exponential speeds. These are tasks like answering the same FAQs or copy-pasting your shipping policy. With the tedious tasks out of the way, support teams can focus on more complex and value-driven interactions like supporting repeat customers and upselling.
For support teams, working with AI means handling a larger volume of inquiries without a proportional increase in workload.
Customers will benefit from faster response times and more accurate resolutions to their issues. No longer do they have to wait a few business days for a simple answer — just seconds to minutes.
To achieve this, use an AI-powered helpdesk like Gorgias. With AI connected to your customer conversations, you can watch repetitive tickets like "where is my order" (WISMO) and other frequently asked question tickets resolved as soon as you receive them.
When tickets increase, your first instinct may be to expand your team with new agents. Today, AI can often be as good as your human agents. With the ability to take instructions, remember them, and intake new data quickly, AI can easily reduce operational costs while increasing productivity.
Just 30 days after deploying Gorgias’s automation and AI features, brands saw an average 1% increase in CSAT. This small improvement had a long-lasting impact on team morale, improved customer interactions, and a more positive experience for shoppers.
For example, Obvi, a collagen supplement company, was able to handle 150+ tickets daily during Black Friday-Cyber Monday (BFCM) 2023 with just one customer service agent plus one part-timer because of AI and automation features.
AI in customer service is not just about responding to tickets. It's about taking action and delivering quick resolutions. With AI and automation, customer issues are resolved 52% faster based on Gorgias customers.
For support teams, this means fewer escalations and less time spent on follow-ups, allowing them to focus on more complex issues. For example, luggage retailer July resolved tickets 52% faster with automation than when they weren't using Gorgias AI and automation. In other words, 450 tickets a month were completely resolved without agent intervention.
For customers, AI-driven resolutions translate to quicker and more satisfactory experiences. The result is a more responsive and comprehensive support system that can meet customer needs promptly.
Normally, support work is an isolated job that is wholly focused on catering to customers, their concerns, and orders. But now, with AI handling the bulk of the responding work, support work has the ability to evolve.
Agents can spend less time putting out small fires and more time strategizing ways CX can fit into the bigger company picture.
Some ways agents can partake in strategic CX looks like:
On the receiving end of support, customers benefit from more personalized and thoughtful interactions because agents have more time to understand and address their needs.
For example, Topicals leveraged Gorgias Automate to handle 69% of incoming tickets, allowing agents to focus on reducing return rates by providing helpful pre-checkout information. As a result, Topicals saw a significant drop in return rates, a 78% increase in sales from customer support, and a customer satisfaction score of 4.8/5.
ChatGPT-4 was trained on 300 billion words and is continuously expanding based on new data and user input. Similarly, as your customer support AI tool is continuously fed new information, like customer interactions, it will have no problem meeting evolving customer expectations.
For support teams, implementing AI into workflows will entail an easier onboarding process due to its built-in knowledge. They can also build better strategies with AI's ability to identify trends from customer support interactions.
Customers, on the other hand, enjoy a more responsive and tailored experience. Thanks to AI, customer experiences can consist of:
Before you bring AI into your team, there are a few best practices to follow to ensure happy customers. Remember that AI shouldn't be used to offload complex work, as it isn’t meant to completely replace human support. Instead, it should enhance the capabilities of your support team.
Here are four best practices to keep in mind when using AI and automation:
AI and automation are productivity tools for support teams and satisfaction boosters for customers. Happily welcome them into your support processes, and you unlock new ways of delivering CX while improving sales, customers, and agent satisfaction.
Blend smart analytics, marketing, and CX excellence with the Gorgias and Triple Whale integration. Learn more here.
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