How to Train Your AI Assistant For Christmas Customer Service

Got a pet at home? You know, you’ve got to train the chap. The same serves true for an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant. Businesses need to coach these smart robots about how to get on the task they’ve been assigned, in this case how to attend to customer queries: needs and problems. For the holiday season, the customer service AI bots need to be upskilled with humanized settings. Perhaps a plain “hello” can be polished with “Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas” for holiday buyers.

AI Chatbots – Yes or No?

In a matter of one or two years, artificial intelligence has become an integral part of business communication. By 2025, the worldwide chatbot market will stand at $1.25 billion at a CAGR of 24% reports Grand View Research, Inc.

On the other hand, a study of 500 participants by CGS Global Consumer Customer Service Survey revealed that 52% of US customers and 49% of UK buyers prefer human assistance over chatbots, especially for complex customer support interactions.

This proves that although businesses are using robots or considering to use one for customer service engagements, people still want a humanistic touch in conversational commerce. This is why, if you’re willing to cut costs of hiring humans then you at least need to humanize your AI assistants for Christmas customer service.

Smart Ways To Train Your AI Assistant For Christmas

If you have an artificial intelligence powered agent conversing with customers on a day-to-day basis during the holiday season, then it’ll be a good idea to add empathy in this mechanical species.

1) Data-Driven Conversations

Use deep learning algorithms to understand customer behavior and response on chat applications. Co-Founder and CEO of Phobio, LLC Stephen Wakeling suggests that in a competitive digital landscape, companies need to provide “near perfect customer experiences to win over new customers and retain existing ones.” Instead of prophesying, it’s best to evaluate customer insights in real-time and interact accordingly.

Image Source: Unsplash/Franki Chamaki

2) The Female Charm Tactic

Why are AI assistants on Google Home and Amazon Echo set to a woman’s voice mode? In an experiment by Phil McAleer, a University of Glasgow psychologist, it was concluded that female voice is comforting and the pitch is a sign of certainty and trust. Another study by Karl MacDorman, a professor at Indiana University, found that softer female tones appeared to participants as warmer. So my voice is more welcoming than my male counterpart, as long as it’s not heavy or coarse I guess.

Explore: Ways to Integrate Artificial Intelligence in Your Ecommerce Email Marketing

3) A Face For Identification

If your e-Commerce business is using virtual assistants for holiday season customer service then it’ll be a good idea to give the robot a face. It’ll be better to make it look more like a real human being rather than a plastic doll. Robots similar to Sophia will help build a strong relationship with your customers, but she too needs to be more humanized to be able to naturally communicate with humans. Perhaps a human face image will be friendlier than a mechanical species icon on your 24/7 customer support window placed in your website.

Image Source: Unsplash/Franck V.

4) Make It Sound Natural

Marketing Director at Kin + Carta, Stephen Kenwright shared in 2016 that 40% of adults use voice search at least once per day. AI Tools, like Otter by AISense, have advanced speech recognition capabilities that help businesses to enhance customer support. Conversation API short for Application Program Interface aids in robot-to-human interaction and customer support question-answer in natural language instead of a machine-like programming. These APIs can be used for customer service by businesses and organizations in the healthcare, banking or retail.

5) Provide Instant Gratification

Google’s prediction regarding ‘micro-moments’ wasn’t one of those fake news. Consumer behavior has indeed become “intent-driven moments of decision-making and preference-shaping that occur throughout the entire consumer journey.” Customers want instant gratification whether it’s about getting an answer to a question or about finding the right stuff to buy for Christmas. In this time of the year, human assistants may fall short but artificial intelligence agents can be computerized in a way to give quick solutions using a live-chat interface for instance.

Also Explore: Branded Chatbots Changing The Way We Deal With Customers

6) Integrate Emotions In AI

Just like humans, AI needs an emotional quotient that according to Wikipedia is “the capability of individuals to recognize their own emotions and those of others, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, and manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt to environments or achieve one’s goals.” That’s a mouthful definition yet a much-needed ability in times of holiday season bustle. Tools like Kairos’ Face Recognition API can help detect age, gender and expressions to enhance customer service experience using artificial intelligence technology.

Image Source: Unsplash/Rawpixel

7) Scale Human Intelligence

In an article on Forbes Artificial Intelligence: How to Scale the Human Mind, Co-founder at Centerview Capital Sandhya Venkatachalam shared that AI is there to “scale the human mind, not replace it.” So an AI powered system such as Google Duplex will assist humans in quicker decision-making by mimicking human behavior. Basically this technology is “directed towards completing specific tasks” says the company on its blog. It’s built for “conducting natural conversations” over the phone. This way people aren’t limited to social media, and they can contact the company or the brand via other means as well and receive a human-like effect.

The point to note is that artificial intelligence isn’t here to take over the customer service job market. It is a useful and smart technology that should be used to augment a buyer’s journey. Whether you use inbound methods or intrusive, these machines can help businesses improve their communication-related processes during Christmas and New Year.

Have you trained your AI assistant for Christmas?