It’s estimated that the average professional receives around 65 emails per day in the working week. And that’s excluding all those that fall into the spam folder. For those working on the frontlines of customer service, this email volume expands enormously.
In 2024, manually handling customer emails or relying on traditional ticketing systems seems highly inefficient amidst the rapid tech innovation in global markets, particularly in Southeast Asia. This region has leapfrogged the dot-com boom, normalised mobile wallet usage, and even pioneered vertical farming technology.
So then, why is it that in an age marked by the rapid progression of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly through generative AI and Large Language Model (LLM) technologies, Southeast Asian customer service agents continue to grapple with the relentless influx of customer emails? And what implications do businesses face when their agents are unable to address the mounting queries flooding their inboxes?
Shortcomings of traditional ticketing systems
Global research reveals that 54 per cent of consumers prefer using email for customer service, making it the most popular channel for support inquiries. However, traditional ticketing systems present several limitations that hinder their effectiveness.
Firstly, scalability remains a significant challenge, with high costs associated with infrastructure, personnel, and licenses. These systems often require substantial investment in maintenance and training, contributing to prolonged downtimes and delays in addressing customer inquiries.
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Moreover, the lack of 24/7 availability and manual processing bottlenecks lead to increased workload and slower response times, resulting in frustrated customers and reduced satisfaction levels. Traditional ticketing systems also struggle with personalisation due to manual data handling and limited access to customer information. These systems often rely on outdated processes for content updation, leading to inconsistent responses and prolonged resolution times.
Indeed, almost two-thirds of consumers have experienced being ghosted by company customer service, and 84 per cent of customer service agents cannot answer questions on the first interaction. In a market where customers are being more cautious with their spending, brands need to ensure these customers come back and remain loyal. And very often, these essential customer interactions start in the email inbox.
Impact of unsatisfactory resolutions: Unhappy customers and revenue loss
It is no secret that Southeast Asians have high expectations from the brands they purchase from. And brands that fail to meet these expectations risk losing that customer’s loyalty for good. A recent study revealed that Southeast Asian consumers will significantly cut their spending on a brand after a poor experience.
The same report found that SEA companies risk losing 14 per cent of their revenue due to poor customer experience – around US$165 billion across the region. This is a staggering figure that businesses cannot afford to ignore in an increasingly competitive landscape.
But, business leaders need to be mindful that SEA is not a homogenous region. Instead, SEA is a cultural melting pot of 655 million people spanning hundreds of ethnicities and over 1200 languages spoken. Consumers in each market not only expect communication in their own language but also in a manner and tone that reflects their linguistic and cultural nuances.
How can email automation help in instant and personalised human-like support
Despite being one of the most ubiquitous parts of business operations, email innovation has remained relatively stagnant and under-valued when compared to other facets of digital transformation. But that is rapidly changing with solutions that are enabling instant, personalised, and scalable customer support like never before.
In the past, email automation technology was mostly limited to sending one-size-fits-all email communications to customers. However, advances in generative AI and LLMs are widening the scope of this automation significantly.
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Unlike outdated automation tools, which largely generate generic and robotic responses, modern email automation solutions have the capability to understand complex, unstructured emails, deciphering various tones, intents, and entities.
Recognising the value of authentic human connection, these advanced solutions, powered by LLM technology, are adept at providing accurate and empathetic responses in natural human language. They seamlessly extract relevant information from knowledge bases, facilitate escalations, and route queries to agents, if required, ensuring a swift and efficient resolution process.
Moreover, through the integration of customer insights from databases and alignment to content guidelines, these solutions generate contextually relevant responses, effectively addressing customer issues while maintaining consistency with brand messaging.
Gen AI-powered Email Automation solutions also enable quick automatic classification of email queries based on intent, urgency, and customer segment to reduce time spent by human agents in prioritising incoming emails manually. For example, if a service has gone down, AI tools can help segment all emails relating to that particular incident, ensuring efficiency and promptness in their customer service teams. This has a significant impact on improving agent productivity.
Critically for SEA business leaders, advanced email automation tools can be personalised for different linguistic markets. Using the right language for the right SEA market will ensure an instant connection between the brand and the individual customer.
This simple but critical solution can overcome a huge barrier in customer interactions. With this, customer representatives reduce the risk of miscommunication and can focus on problem-solving as opposed to language translation.
No SEA business, whether large or small, is immune to the headaches of a mounting inquiry inbox. However, innovation in email automation means this should no longer be the case.
Thanks to generative AI-powered email automation, businesses have the potential to both speed up and enhance their customer service. Those who are prepared to think big can create a truly scalable email support operation by self-serving incoming email queries in multiple languages, round-the-clock.
From a bottom-line perspective, automating email queries will naturally save businesses costs in hiring and training more agents. Above all, though, it will free vital time and resources to concentrate on the elements that matter the most to customers: incredible products and services and an empathetic, meaningful human engagement when it’s required.
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