Customer service teams feel more empowered by automation and artificial intelligence

Via Salesforce

Today’s service leaders are struggling to meet growing customer expectations amid a 19% average annual turnover rate and tightening operational budgets. Salesforce Service Cloud CEO Clara Shihand Global Innovation Evangelist Brian Solis see automation and AI as a solution.

Why it’s important: Shih and Solis, who recently joined the Blazing Trails Podcast, discussed how service teams feel more empowered by technology, and backed their statements up with data from Salesforce’s latest State of Service report.

The Salesforce perspective: With automation and AI, Shih explained, organizations can drive growth by empowering agents to do more with less, increase efficiencies by streamlining time-intensive processes, and deliver immediate cost savings to organizations across every industry.

“Every organization is facing cost pressure right now, while also being asked to hire more service agents across field service, contact centers, and business-to-business support teams,” said Shih.

“To find efficiencies, we are seeing companies embrace automation and AI,” Shih observed. “These technologies free service professionals from mundane tasks so they can get back to customers faster, focus on higher-order problem solving, and build meaningful, long-term relationships with customers.”

Using automation and AI for service teams has another critical benefit: better customer service.

“Ninety-four percent of consumers say that good customer service makes them more likely to make another purchase. And in these times, the ‘Great Resignation’ isn’t just about employees, it’s also about customers — they’re willing to quit on you,” said Solis.

“So with service, using tools like automation can actually help you — to not only update dated processes — but also create the new types of processes that customers expect,” Solis continued.

Fast fact: The fifth edition of Salesforce’s State of Service report features perspectives from more than 8,000 customer service professionals in 36 countries.

Listen to the conversation here.