Customer services: the majority of the population is already open to artificial intelligence (AI)

58 percent of residential customers support the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by customer services in order to satisfy their needs at a higher level. It is true that 93 percent of them expect to be able to ask for the help of an agent when necessary during such administration, according to United Call Centers (UCC ) from a recent survey. The percentage of those willing to share personal information with service providers for the sake of customized service is very high, 77 percent.

The nearly half a thousand responses received during the UCC survey show that 78 percent of residential customers still consider live support more reliable than artificial intelligence. At the same time, a number of cases have been identified, which are already being handled in a self-service, automatic system, without the involvement of staff. These include simpler matters such as checking the status of an order (mentioned by 81%), making appointments (81%), data reconciliations and checks (60%), and preparing cases for live assistance (41%) .

Customers insist on using live support most often in complaint handling cases (87%), invoicing-related problems (81%), and in solving technical problems.

The telephone is still the favorite support tool

By far the most popular tool for customer service support is the telephone, 86 percent of respondents use it regularly when communicating with service providers. The second most common interface is e-mail, which 56 percent of customers regularly use in such cases. 37 percent of them manage their affairs on the websites of the respective companies, and now a third of them also use the mobile applications of the respective companies to manage their affairs. At the same time, it may seem surprising that, despite the wide range of options, 36 percent still prefer visiting customer service offices.

Although current preferences are even less reflective, the customer service industry is increasingly moving towards digital channels. The various social media platforms, chats and mobile applications are starting to gain more and more weight, especially in the age group under 30, which will soon fundamentally change the related consumer habits.

„Nowadays, an average customer manages his affairs on 3-4 different channels, even in parallel, in order to ensure the right customer experience, service providers now have to develop state-of-the-art services that also use artificial intelligence in parallel on all available channels," said Zsolt Máté Juhász , managing director of United Call Centers. - According to our survey, the negative experiences that arise in the absence of this fundamentally influence the opinion of 43 percent of the respondents, and another 34 percent significantly, about the organization concerned."

The use of AI is inevitable

The number of customer service contacts and the complexity of the tasks are also increasing, so it is a fundamental task that service providers can use the limited available skilled workforce to solve tasks that require special, complex or soft skills. According to a McKinsey consulting firm's analysis last year, in the long term, about 65 percent of the tasks in customer service systems controlled by artificial intelligence will be solved automatically, while 50-70 percent of contacts will be made without the assistance of a live operator. Benefits of using AI for customer service include:

- Speed - As a result, the time spent waiting can be significantly reduced (in the UCC survey, 73 percent of the respondents consider long waiting times to be a serious problem)

- Large amount of data processing - This enables companies to increase the customer experience with personalized and proactive problem solving

- Flexible accessibility – AI facilitates the non-stop availability of customer services (Continuous access is considered a serious problem by 54 percent of customers)

- Scalability and cost savings - The operation of AI-based systems can be ensured at a lower cost level, in addition, they can more easily adapt to growing customer needs without the need to carry out further significant developments.

- Consistency - The consistent level and consistent provision of answers strengthens the trust of customers

Balázs Kopcsó (Head of IT and Development) gave an interview to one of the largest economic radio stations, Trend FM, discussing the conclusions drawn based on the results. You can listen to the original radio interview in Hungarian by clicking on this link or in English, German, Italian, Spanish and French subtitle by clicking on the following banner.

United Call Centers

United Call Centers (UCC) is one of the market-leading providers of outsourced customer service solutions. The main profile of its activity is multilingual customer support by phone, email, and chat, the automation of business processes, and the development of services based on artificial intelligence.

The Hungarian-owned UCC, founded in 1999, operates in more than 50 languages and 40 countries and works with 700 employees worldwide. Its clients are companies that represent outstanding quality in their respective fields in the telecommunications, food-, energy-, health industry, e-commerce, and e-mobility. The basis of UCC’s success is the constant effort to provide its clients with an outstanding customer experience with the help of the most advanced technologies available.