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How Will Generative AI Shape Retail Customer Service?
Customer service reps (CSRs) continue to land on lists of the top ten jobs at risk due to advances in conversational artificial intelligence (AI). Some observers, however, are hopeful the technologies only reinvent the role for the customer’s benefit instead of replacing jobs.
Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s group chief executive, technology and chief technology officer, writing for the Harvard Business Review, predicts AI will automate a few repetitive tasks for CSRs, augment others and add “new, high-value tasks” to the CSR role.
“The ability of generative AI to put massive amounts of information at the fingertips of CSRs greatly increases their capacity to resolve the customer’s problem more thoroughly and quickly than either a chatbot alone or a CSR following a rote script,” said Mr. Daugherty. “But because conversational AI can sometimes produce plausible sounding but nevertheless incorrect, irrelevant, or nonsensical responses, a human must remain in the loop to ensure the accuracy and trustworthiness of machine-generated suggestions and information.”
Writing for Unite.AI, Eli Israelovk, CEO of CommBox, a communications automation platform, said AI could reduce stress and increase job satisfaction for CSRs. “They can deal only with the most complex or valuable calls, while bots and other automated features serve more simple queries,” he wrote.
Yoon Kim, assistant professor of computer science at MIT, speaking to Scripps News, believes that while humans will be necessary for monitoring, ChatGPT-enabled chatbots “can cover a wider range of customer queries, and moreover, enhance the engagement of the customer with the chatbot, and ultimately widen the scope of problems that can be potentially addressed.”
Artificial intelligence was being touted for its potential to reduce
waits and problem resolution times in a 24/7 timeframe, tailor responses based on individual consumer preferences and drive down costs even before ChatGPT and the hype around it arrived.
Gartner last year predicted that by 2027, chatbots will become the primary customer service channel for roughly a quarter of organizations. Uma Challa, a Gartner analyst specializing in customer service and support technology, said in a release, “When designed correctly, chatbots can improve customer experience and drive positive customer emotion at a lower cost than live interactions.”
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Generative AI Will Enhance — not Erase — Customer Service Jobs — Harvard Business Review
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Chatbots won't ever fully replace customer service reps, expert says — Scripps News
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Gartner Predicts Chatbots Will Become a Primary Customer Service Channel Within Five Years — Gartner
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UJET Research Reveals Chatbots Increase Frustration for 80% of Consumers — UJET
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ChatGPT may be coming for our jobs. Here are the 10 roles that AI is most likely to replace. — Business Insider
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IT'S AI'LL OVER I’m an AI expert – ‘customer service and analysis’ jobs will be taken over by artificial intelligence — The U.S. Sun
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California workers are at ‘high risk’ of being replaced by artificial intelligence, report says — KTLA5
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Goldman Sachs says generative A.I. could impact 300 million jobs — here’s which ones - CNBC
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How artificial intelligence will impact customer service: 5 Benefits AI has to offer — Robots and Automation News
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Will chatbots replace customer service reps? — Gartner
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What role will conversational artificial intelligence play in retail customer service? Will the technology result in more customers being satisfied with the customer service they receive from retailers?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Georganne Bender
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
Shep Hyken
Chief Amazement Officer, Shepard Presentations, LLC
In a word, the impact will be huge. Many retailers are already struggling with delivering good quality, timely service, and the careful implementation of conversational AI could significantly improve the service experience. If customers get good, timely answers and their issues resolved, I doubt that most will care who or what provided the answer.
Despite increasing exhaustion with the topic, I do believe generative AI will, without question, revolutionize retail customer service. It’s only a matter of time before we learn how to effectively train, monitor and evolve these new tools to deliver high-quality, accurate and efficient service. And when we do, the potential impact on service will be tremendous. Instead of trying to train a high-turnover team of humans to learn about the vast number of details about our product assortments, sourcing, care, etc., we can teach one machine to find, collate and communicate all that information far more efficiently and (perhaps most importantly) consistently.
Generative AI will drive the interaction with a customer to a point, but a human will have to still be available to intervene the moment the customer becomes frustrated or senses that s/he is not getting the correct answers, or is being routed to the incorrect resource. With generative AI in place, one of the most important features offered to the customer will be an “interrupt” button (it can be a keyword) that immediately routes the customer to a live CSR. Retailers will need to monitor how often and under what conditions customers resort to the “interrupt” button in order to determine the efficacy of generative AI and what improvements need to be implemented.
I totally agree Bob. My immediate reaction was, “it depends on how brain dead the AI is” which correlates with the continued need for human intervention if the quality of the information is not complete. This has lots of potential but it is not simple. Standards in claiming AI capabilities need to be high.
It is already proven that AI-powered customer service will add efficiencies and job satisfaction to existing customer support organizations. What may be more exciting to watch is how lowering the cost of quality customer service makes it easier for customer-facing start ups to grow and compete faster than in years past–especially in retail.
Like any new step-change technology, AI has its pros and cons. I do see it greatly enhancing customer service capabilities through its ability to quickly sift through massive amounts of data to find an anomaly or a new insight, but a human will have to complement this service to close the loop with a customer. How many of you have been frustrated with a chatbot, when it can only go so far in resolving your issues and your questions? In many cases, it turns into an infinite do-loop that is maddening. The potential is great, and smart companies will develop amazing techno-human linkages that solve vexing problems.
Initially, generative AI has the potential to shorten the various gaps that exist in human-based customer service by providing CSRs with instantaneous access to vast amounts of customer-service oriented, company-specific data (assuming the application is trained as such). As Mr. Daugherty said, used as a partner to existing customer service efforts, generative AI can decrease time to service and quality of service resulting in greater customer satisfaction. Due to the lack of actual intelligence, the potential for error and the current stage of natural language processing, I believe the days when technology will replace human CSRs and deliver high quality customer service are still relatively distant.
Well, let’s see. I’m so frustrated with today’s chatbot experience that I could scream—and frequently do. The fake background keystrokes drive me crazy. Is anyone fooled by that? Now, there’s a reason that some very smart people want to slam the brakes on generative AI. It’s getting too good, too fast. Tomorrow’s retail-ready, AI-powered chatbot is not what we’re frustrated by today. Here’s what AI-based CSR will look like soon, if not by this afternoon:
Retail has perhaps the widest range of customer service needs of any industry, from simple product questions to complex complaints and returns. On the phone or online, AI will be faster and more accurate than any CSR. The bot will know real-time stock levels for every SKU (only if the retailer has this capability in real life, of course). It will cross-sell, upsell, and haggle in real time to make a slightly discounted sale instead of losing it (already possible). And it should know how to detect returns fraud as well. And no more fake keystroke sounds. There will be no time for that. But, as always, this is also a brand choice. The human touch still makes for a warmer, friendlier brand. For now.
Ken, you are right. There’s a reason that some very smart people want to slam the brakes on generative AI. The reason is it will act more and more like humans–and that is the problem.
Amen, Gene!
Notwithstanding Italy’s recent announcement to ban ChatGPT (and other countries are considering it), I can’t help but wonder if this genie can be put back in the bottle – I don’t think so.
There is no doubt that generative AI will be able to handle many queries and automate many customer service processes. Most of these will be highly beneficial to the customer–including the ability to quickly ask questions and get answers without having to go through multiple steps. However I still see a need for human involvement both to oversee and to deal with things that need empathy and emotion–at least for the time being!
I can’t see companies like L.L.Bean, that are renowned for outstanding customer service, trusting their reputations to AI–but who knows?
If AI can provide an interactive, friendly and human-like version of its website FAQ page then it should be a hit. Still, there is nothing like human interaction.
If the generative AI on the other side of the dialogue can tell by the tone of my voice that I am frustrated and need to talk to a human, I will be happy.
On that count of course, it is up to the instructions given by the company. Do you ever feel that the single job of the automated interface is to be sure you never talk to a human, no matter how simple or complex your question is?
Get retail people together, and this is the topic they’ll all choose to discuss. One reason is that none of us know how this is going to play out. Will there be spectacular failures or game-changing successes? How will retailers vet AI resources? Will customer expectations be changed? No one knows, and we’ll have to wait to see how this plays out.
AI, ChatGPT, etc. will positively impact customer service–and agents–in the following way. The AI can handle the preliminary (easy) calls. This allows agents to focus on the more difficult calls. Agents will appreciate not having to answer the same simple calls again and again. This makes for a more fulfilling experience for both customers and agents. Also, AI can be used to support agents, not just customers. Big opportunity there!
I have yet to encounter a chatbot that was able to resolve a customer service issue to my satisfaction. They’re fine for segmenting conversations, directing customers to various sections of the website, and ensuring consumers have their documents in order before reaching the right person.
However for every intro conversation where chatbots direct me to the right people, there are another five instances where CX bots volley my query between automated phone messages and online chat. If I can’t reach a person when I need to and hours of time are wasted, the chatbots have ensured I never shop with that retailer again.
Retailers need a holistic view of their entire CX process — and a willingness to quickly direct calls to real people when desired — for chatbots to be effective. Complex conversations still require humans.
Conversational AI is another capability that will disrupt the customer service operating model. In what has been a human-dominated engagement model, AI’s conversational capabilities could be compelling to consumers, mainly if it solves the waiting game we all experience when faced with a problem.
We have seen this space evolve quite a bit, and customers are often disappointed when the AI-generated customer service agent does not solve the problem. We opt to speak to a live representative. As with any AI conversation lately, there is a degree of uncertainty and controversy, especially regarding jobs being eliminated. However, ultimately customers are indifferent if they speak to a live agent or a conversational AI bot, especially if their problems are solved efficiently.
We see it over and over again. Whenever there is a significant advancement in tech, there is a ripple effect of fear of losing jobs. We should assume that whenever a job can be automated, it will—just a matter of time. We should look forward to it, as repetitive tasks will be automated and free up to work on more meaningful tasks. We saw it with computers, robots, and now AI with support and customer service tasks. When AI cannot answer, a live person is engaged to fulfill requests. As look as it is executed well and the customer experience is well thought through and presented, it should not matter, especially if the customer issue is resolved faster.
Most of the time, when customers engage in a conversation with a customer service representative, the end result is unsatisfactory. The reason could be from long hours of executing repetitive chores, which can lead to frustration. Retailers who are genuinely interested in improving the lives of their CSRs will not be afraid to implement technologies or tools such as generative AI or chatbots.
In my opinion, CSRs can use AI to avoid a number of mundane tasks, allowing them to take on more exciting roles that enhance the quality of their work and ultimately elevate the customer service experience.