Building Trust using Generative AI in Customer Experience

Generative AI is a subset of artificial intelligence technologies that can generate new content, from written text to voice, images, and even videos. It learns from vast amounts of existing data and then uses patterns from that data to generate new content.

In the realm of customer service, generative AI is making strides as a powerful tool for enhancing interactions between businesses and customers.

It can automate responses to customer queries, personalise communication, and provide insights on customer behaviour by analysing past interactions.

However, as with any new technology, questions abound:

• To what extent are consumers ready to trust this new technology when they interact with their favourite brands?
• And how can businesses leverage AI to build trust in their customer experience (CX)?

In our recently published Singapore Consumer Engagement Report 2023, we sought to shed some light on these matters.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

Human-AI synergy in customer experience

ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022 might have accelerated growth in public awareness of generative AI. However, when it comes to customer support at least, consumers appear to still be wary of AI.

For example, we discovered that although 85% of consumers are aware of AI in customer service, only 44% trust chatbots for accuracy, and a mere 46% are comfortable interacting with AI virtual agents over the phone.

This gap between the public’s general awareness of AI and their trust levels with it highlights an opportunity for a more balanced human-AI synergy.

Take for instance the fact that AI excels in processing data and providing quick responses but often lacks the ability to grasp complex human emotions and specific needs.

This is exactly where human intervention becomes essential.

By integrating AI for routine tasks and data analysis with human agents for situations requiring deeper understanding and empathy, businesses can create a more effective and trustworthy customer experience.

In other words, AI and human agents will not be competing with one another – rather, they will be complementing each other’s abilities synergistically in the contact centre.

The end goal here is for customers to receive a more understanding, empathetic, and effective service experience with agents assisted by AI, which in turn will build trust with the brand.

For a deeper discussion on the broader promise of generative AI in building trust with customers, check out pages 51-52 in the full report:

>> Explore The Promise of Generative AI

Preventing customer churn

Now, let’s dive into how generative AI can help with a thorny issue every brand faces: customers losing patience and leaving for a competitor.  

Our research uncovered two important data points:  

1. Customers typically tolerate 3 to 4 unsatisfactory encounters before switching to a competitor 
2. Most customers expect their issues to be resolved on average within two interactions 

These two numbers tell us there is a tight window of opportunity for businesses to make amends and avoid customer turnover.  

3-4 unsatisfactory encounters might sound like you have plenty of wiggle room to try and win back the customer’s trust. 

But we must remember that with every negative experience, trust will dwindle a little bit more. If you wait till the third negative encounter to start repairing the damage, the trust level might be so low that it’ll be really challenging to win it back.   

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That’s why it is so critical to nip the problem in the bud, which is where AI comes into the picture.     

AI can really shine in improving customer experiences to avoid turnover by:  

• Analysing the tone and sentiment in voice calls, or the subtleties of language in text messages, and hence discern customer satisfaction levels, detect frustration, and even predict potential churn.   
• Monitoring communications, analysing text messages and voice calls in real time to detect and flag specific phrases that signal key customer concerns or interests 

This level of detail allows supervisors to not only identify potential issues early on but also to capture opportunities.  

For instance, if a customer mentions phrases related to the topic ‘new update’ during a call, the AI tool can alert the supervisor to follow up on this interaction. This could involve ensuring the customer is provided with comprehensive information about the update or flagging the interest to marketing teams as a lead for further engagement.   

If you are a CX leader looking to improve customer retention and satisfaction, you should definitely be excited about AI because it has immense capacity to listen and process information in the background even as your agents are interacting with consumers.  

The aspect of ‘listening to assist with enquiries’ is especially compelling.

After all, customers are unlikely to trust the quickest answer, but rather the most thoughtful one that demonstrates they are being listened to and understood.

Meeting customers’ AI preference with an AI-powered contact centre

AI-powered customer support is revolutionising how businesses manage customer interactions. However, it can be challenging to figure out which are the simpler, routine queries that can be handled by AI vs the complex ones that demand human agent attention.

That’s why we broke down the numbers by different scenarios and asked consumers how open they are towards chatbot support over human support for a range of different enquiries.

We discovered that

• Consumers are more open to chatbots for straightforward tasks like order updates (53%) and booking confirmations (52%).
• Meanwhile, they are more reluctant to accept chatbots when it comes to important, finance-related queries.

Our Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solution, Toku Contact Centre, is one possible solution that seamlessly blends human agent and AI interactions to meet customers’ comfort levels with Gen AI.

By employing a range of cutting-edge AI technologies designed to streamline customer communication and enhance efficiency, the platform can help your business:

• Efficiently manage simple, routine inquiries using AI
• At the same time, route the more complex queries can receive more dedicated attention from human agents

In recognition of our efforts and leadership in this field, we were recently honoured with the Frost & Sullivan 2023 Competitive Strategy Leadership Award in the Southeast Asian Cloud Contact Centre Services Industry.

For more details on the innovative AI features that we built into Toku Contact Centre, check out the full award writeup below:

>> Download the full Frost & Sullivan Competitive Strategy Leadership Award 2023 Report

Generative AI will empower – not override the human touch

In the realm of customer service, generative AI is emerging as a powerful ally, enhancing our ability to understand customers at a deeper level than ever before. This advanced technology is not about supplanting human interaction, but rather augmenting it with a layer of intelligence that can interpret and anticipate customer needs with remarkable precision.

AI’s role is to sift through data, identify patterns, and offer insights that enable human agents to engage with customers in more meaningful ways. This results in a more personalised service, where the customer feels truly heard and understood.

When customers experience the nuanced care that comes from this synergy, their confidence in the service grows, and they grow to trust the brand more.

By harnessing the power of AI to deepen customer connections, we’re not just streamlining processes; we’re transforming customer interactions into moments of trust and loyalty, reinforcing the irreplaceable value of the human touch in CX.