Intro: The Increasing Expenses of Customer Support
For all businesses, customer support remains a key function. However, it is also one of the most costly to manage. As a company scales, paying for and managing their customer service teams turns into a significant problem. Contact centers face steep operational costs due to personnel, training, infrastructure, and software.
Today, businesses can greatly reduce expenditure while keeping their customer experience levels high due to the emergence of AI customer service assistants. Automation of mundane activities, the ability to engage with large volumes of inquiries, and streamlining of agent functions maximizes savings.
The Cost Challenges Facing Contact Centers
Let’s examine the cost drivers for traditional call centers before diving into how AI helps reduce these costs.
Agent Salaries and Training Costs – The constantly changing staff composition in support-centric roles results in high hiring and training costs.
Call Volume and Resolution Time – The higher the number of inquiries a contact center deals with manually, the higher the cost of interacting per inquiry.
Infrastructure and Software Expenditure – Telephony, CRM, and ticketing systems are required to run a contact center.
Operational Inefficiency – Inefficient processes increase the long wait times and manual workflows which only serve to escalate costs.
AI-Powered Assistants Can Reduce The Expenses For Contact Centers
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- Automated Responses to Routine Questions
AI-powered assistants automate repetitive questions like:
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- Order tracking
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- Refunds and returns
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- Account details
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- Basic account issues
Through automation, businesses can manage requests more effectively and increase the human agent’s ability to deal with intricate and value-rich interactions.
Case Study: Boohoo Group’s AI Transformation with Sentiment
Boohoo Group, a global fashion retailer company is one of the most innovative examples of AI-enabled cost savings. Sentiment integrated the whole AI assistant infrastructure of Boohoo Group. Subsequently, AI customer service could manage up to 40% of the customer inquiries. This change provided them with operational cost benefits in the range of millions by automation while also sharpening their efficiency and operational metrics. If you would like to demo our platform or learn about our done for you AI assistant build services please contact us here
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- Savings on Employee Related Expenses
AI-enabled automation means additional scale to customer support without proportionate increases in hiring and training expenditures. AI assistants have no downtime and so eliminates the need for large overnight or weekend support teams.
Impact: Businesses utilizing AI assistants report a staffing cost reduction of as much as 30% as they can take care of a high volume of customer calls and questions.
For more information on the capabilities of AI and human agents, visit: AI vs Human Agents: How AI Powered Assistants Help Your Support Teams.
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- Reducing Call Center Expenses
Customer service via live telephony is perhaps the most expensive servicing channel because of:
Elevated staffing requirements
Expensive call center infrastructure
Equipment and employee overheads
AI voice and chat assistants greatly reduce the operational costs associated with a need for live agents. Rather than having every inquiry addressed over the phone, simple issues can be solved in seconds by AI chatbots through emails or self-service portals.
For additional reading on how AI omnichannel support technologies are revolutionizing customer service, read: Omnichannel Customer Support: How AI enhances chat, voice, and social interactions.
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- Improving First-Contact Resolution (FCR)
The costliest factor in customer servicing is addressing repeat inquiries. If a customer doesn’t get the service they requested on the first contact attempt, they will try to contact the company again, incurring costs.
The use of AI-based assistants increases first contact resolution through:
Automated answering with proper information
Properly guiding the customer to the correct support channel
Providing options that allow immediate solving of problems through self-service
By enabling fewer repeat inquiries, overall contact center expenses are reduced due to lowered interactions per customer.
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- Decreasing Average Handling Time (AHT) or Time Spent on the Phone with a Customer
AHT, or average handling time, is another important performance indicator for contact centers. Spending more time on customer calls and chats increases costs.
AI powered Assistants reduce average handle time (AHT) by:
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- Instantly access customer details
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- Pre-filling ticket formats before handing off to agents.
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- Providing agents with AI-suggested responses.
Additionally, shorter handling times enable an agent to resolve more inquiries per hour, which results in lower operational costs.
For more details on AI’s impact on customer response times, read: How AI Assistants Improve Customer Satisfaction and Response Times.
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- Cost-Free Customer Support Anytime
Hiring agents for overnight or weekend shifts considerably exacerbates contact center expenses.
- Cost-Free Customer Support Anytime
AI powered assistants offer 24/7 customer service at no additional staffing cost, fulfilling the need for instantaneous support.
Impact: Businesses that utilize AI powered assistants save 40-60% on after-hours support operations.
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- Decreasing Ticket Backlogs and Agent Tasks
AI assistants resolve routine requests autonomously, preventing ticket backlog problems. Further, they aid human agents by:
- Decreasing Ticket Backlogs and Agent Tasks
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- Classifying and prioritizing tickets automatically
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- Using historical data to suggest responses
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- Summarizing customer’s issues for quicker resolution
This leads to agents addressing increased inquiries at the same level of efficiency, which in turn reduces the overall cost per interaction.
To learn about AI’s role in automating customer service workflows, see: Automating Customer Support: Real-World Use Cases of AI Assistants in Contact Centers.
The Main Technologies of AI That Help Companies Save Money
NLP – Natural Language Processing: Allows customer service representatives to perceive and reply appropriately to customer requests.
Sentiment Analysis: Measures customer’s emotional state, quickly prioritizing ones needing immediate support from personnel.
Powered If Chatbots And Virtual Assistants: Manage frequently asked questions and common questions in different platforms.
Predictive AI: Uses previous conversations to understand customer needs and provide timely interventions.
Is Artificial Intelligence A Suitable Investment For Your Contact Center?
Despite the possibilities provided by AI-powered assistants for cost reduction, companies should reflect on:
The time required to set up and train the system.
How well the AI integrates with current customer relationship management and helpdesk/ ticketing systems.
The appropriate mixture of AI interaction and human touch.
For those contemplating whether to DIY or go with a managed AI service, read: Building AI Assistants for Contact Centers: DIY vs. Done-for-You Solutions.
If you would like a free consultation to see how your enterprise could deploy AI Assistants or improve existing ones please contact us here
In Conclusion: Assistants Fueled By AI Represent The Next Era Of Affordable Customer Support
AI powered assistants for customer help are emerging which enables the efficient lowering of operational expenses and the boosting of customer satisfaction. AI makes it easy to minimize expenses and still maintain quality service by automating common queries, reducing the number of employees needed, and increasing overall efficiency.
Sentiment’s AI implementation at Boohoo Group is a true case study of AI efficiency in action where AI handled 40% of the queries, resulting in multi-million dollar savings each year.
As technology continues to advance, it is clear that companies adopting AI automation now will have an unprecedented cost advantage over their competitors. This emphasizes the need for AI in the operational landscape of future contact centers.
