How AI-Powered Bots Improve Customer Satisfaction

Last week, I shared how Gen AI is moving us from the age of information to the age of intelligence. Technology is changing rapidly and the way customers shop and buy is changing, too. We need to understand how the customer journey is evolving in order to drive customer connection today. That is our bread and butter at HubSpot - we’re deeply curious about customer behavior! So I want to share one important shift we’re seeing and what go-to-market teams can do to adapt. Traditionally, when a customer wants to learn more about your product or service, what have they done? They go to your website and explore. They click on different pages, filter for information that’s relevant to them, and sort through pages to find what they need. But today, even if your website is user-friendly and beautiful, all that clicking is becoming too much work. We now live in the era of ChatGPT, where customers can find exactly what they need without ever having to leave a simple chat box. Plus, they can use natural language to easily have a conversation. It's no surprise that 55% of businesses predict that by 2024, most people will turn to chatbots over search engines for answers (HubSpot Research). That’s why now, when customers land on your website, they don’t want to click, filter, and sort. They want to have an easy, 1:1, helpful conversation. That means as customers consider new products they are moving from clicks to conversations. So, what should you do? It's time to embrace bots. To get started, experiment with a marketing bot for your website. Train your bot on all of your website content and whitepapers so it can quickly answer questions about products, pricing, and case studies—specific to your customer's needs. At HubSpot, we introduced a Gen AI-powered chatbot to our website earlier this year and the results have been promising: 78% of chatters' questions have been fully answered by our bot, and these customers have higher satisfaction scores. Once you have your marketing bot in place, consider adding a support bot. The goal is to answer repetitive questions and connect customers with knowledge base content automatically. A bot will not only free up your support reps to focus on more complex problems, but it will delight your customers to get fast, personalized help. In the age of AI, customers don’t want to convert on your website, they want to converse with you. How has your GTM team experimented with chatbots? What are you learning? #ConversationalAI #HubSpot #HubSpotAI

🧠 Is Generative AI Just Cool, or Does It Really Have an Impact? That's the big debate in tech circles these days. A study led by researchers from Stanford University, MIT, and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) sheds light on this question by examining the real-world impact of deploying generative AI in a customer support environment. Their analysis offers empirical evidence on how AI tools, specifically those based on OpenAI's GPT models, are transforming customer service operations at a Fortune 500 software company. The researchers employed a mix of methodologies: a randomized control trial (RCT) and a staggered rollout, encompassing around 5,000 agents over several months. By analyzing 3 million customer-agent interactions, the study assessed metrics such as resolutions per hour, handle time, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction (Net Promoter Score). To understand the AI's impact over time, dynamic difference-in-differences regression models were used. Here is what they found: 1. 𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲: The AI tool led to a 13.8% increase in the number of customer queries resolved per hour, particularly benefiting less experienced agents. 2. 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐩: AI tools accelerated the learning curve for newer agents, allowing them to reach the performance levels of seasoned employees more quickly. 3. 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: The AI deployment resulted in higher customer satisfaction scores (as shown by improved Net Promoter Scores) while maintaining stable employee sentiment. 4. 𝐋𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬: Interestingly, the AI support led to reduced attrition rates, especially among new hires with less than six months of experience. 5. 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬: The AI system reduced the need for escalations to managers, improving vertical efficiency. However, its impact on horizontal workflows, like transfers between agents, showed mixed results, suggesting more refinement is needed in AI integration. 6. 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐈 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: The software wasn’t off-the-shelf; it was a custom-built solution tailored to the company’s needs using the GPT family of language models. This emphasizes the importance of context-specific AI applications for effective outcomes. For leaders, managers, and AI practitioners, these insights are invaluable—highlighting not just the potential of AI, but also the nuanced ways it reshapes workflows, impacts employee dynamics, and transforms customer experiences.So, does generative AI really make a difference? According to this study, the answer is a resounding yes—but it depends on how thoughtfully it is deployed. Link 🔗 to the paper: https://lnkd.in/ejhUfufz

Klarna’s AI-powered customer service is a masterclass in how to scale CX without sacrificing quality. OpenAI helped them automate 66% of their CX workload and add $40M in profit to their bottom line. Here's how it went down: When they rolled out their AI assistant (powered by our friends at OpenAI), Klarna wasn’t just testing the waters—they were making a huge bet to transform their customer service. With over 150M customers worldwide, this was a bold move. But it paid off. According to Klarna's CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, AI agents got them some wild outcomes: → 2.3 million conversations handled in 1 month (2/3 of their total service chats) → Replaced the need for 700 full-time human agents → 11-minute resolution times down to 2 minutes with CSAT scores rivaling human agents AI in customer service can be a double-edged sword: If it works, it’s transformative. If it doesn’t, you lose customer trust—and fast. Klarna understood this and made their AI assistant feel like an extension of their brand. How? → Made it available 24/7 in 23 markets and 35+ languages → Matched the AI with the brand’s tone and style to make interactions consistent → Designed core features like the personal financial assistant to align with Klarna’s values of smart banking Their success highlights a bigger trend: as AI agents rapidly become more capable, brands that leverage them well will have a competitive advantage by exceeding customer expectations. This involves really molding the AI around your business logic to look up data, take actions, and more. That is exactly what we do at Decagon. Klarna would never have been able to add $40M in bottom-line revenue without using AI agents in their CX motion and I'm seeing more and more brands have the same realization: AI agents are the most effective and proven path to efficiency and quality at scale in CX.

Lately I’ve been reading a lot about hyper-personalization and AI customer experience, something we’re evolving day in and out with Zendesk AI. A recent CMSWire article caught my attention, alluding to the retail industry leading the charge on personalized AI experiences and I couldn’t agree more. Many retailers have nailed tailoring interactions to individual customer needs, because in such a competitive marketplace they need their customers to feel seen, heard, and understood to retain them.  And retailers aren’t just focusing on personalization with AI, but efficiency and customer satisfaction as well. A great example of this is one of our global retail customers, Next, who has found Zendesk AI has allowed their customer representatives to focus less on simpler tickets and more on complex issues. This has led to a 15% decrease in average handling time and the ability to roll out AI tools at scale across the 127 different countries they operate in. As Head of Customer Contact Experience Technology Raz Razaq says, “The driver [for adoption] was to maintain our high-level service, especially as we’re growing organically.” For retailers operating at scale, AI can be a well-managed solution to fully transform the CX experience, from personalization to self-service to omni-channel support. I love great stories like the one from NEXT, the kind that really show the practical application and far-reaching potential of AI in the industry. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gZxc6Aip #CX #CustomerStory