Generative AI is rapidly transforming a variety of industries, not the least of which is customer service. Large corporations have been attempting to leverage AI to streamline their customer support departments through the power of Generative AI, using it to analyze customer interactions and improve responses through machine learning. This in turn has been used to create lifelike chatbots that can speak multiple languages and use “easier-to-understand accents than foreign call-centre agents,” as reported by The Economist. These technologies are intended to help companies reduce costs and improve their overall efficiency, especially as it related to hold times, but they’ve also raised concerns about the loss of the human element.
Amid a Sea of Sameness
For small businesses, this is a critical inflection point. Large companies will be tempted to over-rely on AI, replacing as many of their human agents with bots as possible to reduce their massive payrolls. But while they do this, they risk alienating customers. While AI critics will at least admit that this technology has the potential to assist with process efficiency, even its most ardent supporters admit that it lacks the empathetic, human touch that customers still crave. In fact, “64% of those surveyed by Gartner said they would prefer companies not to use AI for customer service, mostly because they worry it will make it even more difficult to reach a person.”
At The Brandt Group, we believe that small businesses continue to be uniquely positioned to maintain that crucial personal connection to their customers, offering a serious competitive advantage over those big companies that sacrifice their personal touch for automation. Large corporations collect vast amounts of customer data to predict behavior or refine interactions, a reality that makes many customers uncomfortable. The situation is only worsened when customer service is handled by AI, leading to an increasingly impersonal experience. We believe that when customers call with issues, they don’t just want solutions—they want empathy, understanding, and the feeling that their problems matter to real people on the other end of the line. This is where small businesses can shine.
Changes Coming On
Generative AI tools are going to become more and more democratized, available beyond the large partnerships in the news today (e.g. T-Mobile’s and OpenAI’s announcement that they’re working together on customer-service platform IntentCX). In time, they’ll become available to small businesses, too, and their pricing will almost assuredly be competitive, especially compared to paying a staff of customer service agents.
But we would urge you to view these tools as complements for the talents of your team, not as replacements. While AI can certainly help to streamline your operations, from assisting staff with real-time data insights to answering simple inquires, you should look at these tools as a way to free up your employees to focus on what really counts: providing a superior customer experience.
A Personal Touch
Maintaining a personal touch in your customer service (or sales, for that matter) is an opportunity for differentiation. Small businesses are uniquely positioned to build lasting customer relationships through real conversations, care, and attentiveness—qualities that customers will always value and that complex data algorithms will never be able to adequately simulate. As more and more large companies (and probably some small ones before too long) push towards automated solutions, your small business should continue to prioritize its greatest advantage: the ability to offer a more authentic and engaging experience. That’s how you build customer loyalty.
In truth, the best way forward is to seek a balance between innovation and human connection. At The Brandt Group, we specialize in helping businesses evaluate and optimize their customer experience with our industry-leading mystery shopping programs. We can provide you with actionable insights to help you understand what areas of your sales and customer service processes are in need of streamlining. Perhaps some of those areas might benefit from AI. But we’ll always make sure you maintain the heart of your operations—your people.
Let’s work together to create a customer service experience that harnesses the best of all worlds, leveraging the efficiency of technology with the unbeatability of human service. Reach out to The Brandt Group today, and together we can design a customer experience strategy that sets your business apart in this rapidly changing world.
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