How can robots help in customer service

Zendesk has developed a customer service platform designed to bring the company closer to its customers. Zendesk has more than 114,000 customer accounts. These customers are widely distributed in 140 countries and regions around the world and provide support in more than 40 languages. Zendesk was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and South America.

The rising artificial intelligence robot may sound a bit like the scene in science fiction, but in fact, the development of robots is not terrible, it is a technology that brings tangible benefits to businesses and customers. Robots have become an important part of customer service. In 2018, the global robot market size was USD 1.274 billion, and it is forecasted to reach USD 7.5 billion by 2024.


When it comes to the application of robots, people often think of interacting with chatbots. The survey shows that 60% of consumers have communicated with chatbots; 48% of consumers have indicated that they are willing to chat with robots for services. If consumers are still skeptical about the significance of robots to business, there are a few key things to know when using artificial intelligence robots in customer service.

What is an artificial intelligence customer service robot?

Customer service robots are a technology that provides interactive answers to customer questions in real time. Organizations provide robots with pre-written instructions to answer questions that customers usually ask, and robots provide answers in the form of conversations. Customer service robots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) use aggregated data from each customer service interaction to understand the most effective methods and improve response over time.

How can robots help in customer service

5 ways artificial intelligence customer service robots can help

Some organizations may initially feel uncomfortable with the idea of replacing human interaction with robots, but customer service robots are not replacing human agents. They should be deployed in specific scenarios to benefit agents and customers. When used in this way, they can bring huge benefits.

1. Customers get answers faster

With the popularity of self-service, more than two-thirds of consumers said they prefer to use self-service rather than talking to an artificial intelligence customer service robot, which makes it easier for customers to get the answers they need quickly.

During peak hours, human agents must work in turn as they deal with customer inquiries. The artificial intelligence customer service robot can provide answers to any number of customers at the same time, and the waiting time is zero.

89% of customers stated that it is important to quickly answer customer service questions when deciding which company to buy from. Artificial intelligence customer service robots can provide faster customer service at any time, which is difficult for human agents to do. In a survey, when consumers asked what they saw as the main benefits of robotics programs, the two most important answers were to get 24/7 customer service (64%) and immediate responses to customers' questions (55%).

2. Human agents spend less time on repetitive issues

Artificial intelligence customer service robots cannot provide instant solutions to every customer service problem, but there are many types of customer service interactions that can be implemented without human response. If an organization's technicians spend several hours answering simple questions, such as "when is the business hours?" Or "when does my order arrive?" These questions will take up a lot of time for the technicians.

Robots can take up to 80% of these routine question queries, which is good for boosting the morale of the organization's employees. No one wants to provide repeated answers all the time. In fact, 79% of customer service human agents say they can improve their skills when they focus on complex issues, while 72% of customer service agents think it makes them more valuable.

3. Robots can help personalize

At this time, the most obvious use of artificial intelligence robots is to transfer simple problems with obvious responses. However, if robotics is integrated with other systems of the organization, it can begin to provide customers with personalized information.

Customer service bots can use an organization's customer relationship management (CRM) database to determine whether people visiting their website are existing or potential customers. For an e-commerce company, when a customer visits their website, an artificial intelligence customer service bot can suggest relevant options, such as "Hi, welcome back, do you want to check the status of your recent order?".

And on the same site, new visitors will see a different question: "Coming here for the first time? Want to see our popular items or learn about our story?"

In addition to providing a personalized experience instantly, customer service robots can also pass relevant information to humans. You can track whether your organization's customers have attempted to solve the problem themselves and let human agents know which help articles and web pages the customer has visited. Human agents can avoid repeating answers that customers already know, which saves time for human agents and customers.

4. The robot works on multiple channels

Today's customer service is comprehensive. A survey by research firm Forrester shows that 95% of customers use three or more channels in a customer service interaction. Beyond popular channels like email and phone, customers are increasingly using messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Customers now expect to use these services in many different places, and they know which new channels will be added to the portfolio in the coming years.

The good news is that robots can work in all directions. Organizations can deploy bots to answer common questions in email, websites, Slack, and various messaging applications. The more places an organization has an artificial intelligence robot, the more it will need to offload reduced work.

By ensuring that AI robots are connected to the rest of the technology stack, they can be used to provide a self-service experience across all channels. Customers can get the answers they need through the channels of their choice in a short period of time.

5. Artificial intelligence robots will only become smarter

Another advantage of artificial intelligence robots is that they can learn. An artificial intelligence customer service robot will track the customer's response to each answer. Over time, as they collect data about customer interactions, they continuously analyze this information and turn it into meaningful insights.

More and more robots understand the emotions behind people's words better. They are learning new languages and learning the nuances of different wording. They have perfect memories and keep track of what works and what doesn't in each of their interactions.

With the information obtained by the customer service robot, you will know which answer is a good response in each case. It will better determine which questions can be answered with links to help center articles, and which questions are best transferred to human agents.

Artificial intelligence robots are very good at learning, and as the amount of data grows rapidly each year, they will only become smarter, and organizations and their customers will benefit from it.

Artificial intelligence robots and human agents: collaboration that benefits everyone

Artificial intelligence robots will not replace customer service human agents, and customers will always want them to have access to real workers. However, for simple answers that do not require customer service artificial intelligence, they provide a faster solution that can save human agents time and effort and provide customers with the answers they need faster than human agents.