Guide to Using AI for Better Customer Interactions

Customer loyalty is becoming the main competitive advantage and the greatest currency for ecommerce brands. To thrive in the “loyalty economy,” brands need lasting, high-value relationships with customers. For this reason, companies are looking for every technological advantage possible to improve CX and interactions with shoppers.

The brands most successful at creating optimal customer experiences leverage AI to improve interactions in effective ways. They do so while navigating the common challenges of scaling support centers without losing efficiency.

A brand that thrives in the loyalty economy balances volume and personalization. To that end, AI can provide immediate, transformative benefits to brands that want to make human agents’ lives easier, their work more effective, and their relationships with customers more fruitful for the company overall. We’ll look at how the most celebrated brands in the CX space have succeeded in using intelligent solutions that transform the functional prowess of the modern support center.

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Using AI for Better Customer Interactions

AI doesn’t have to be an impersonal technology. In fact, using it correctly — and with the right existing interfaces — can improve customer experience. The key is for brands to understand how AI can play the most effective role in improving interactions fundamentally, and where to maintain a human agent touch.

Consider these moments when CX tasks could create roadblocks or friction within the overall user journey. These time-absorbing tasks can be reduced, removed, or replaced entirely via AI.

Key Customer Interactions for Leveraging AI

• Scenarios involving tasks that are tedious, slow, or repeatable
• Summarizing conversations post-chat to maintain a record of the interaction
• Providing store or retail location details
• Sharing promo codes or discount details

Times when agents need specific customer data or brand information

• Customers requesting information about similar or alternate versions of products
• Customers asking about formulations or ingredients from a recent purchase
• Shoppers having questions about allergens or materials in a product

Instances that don’t require a human that can be handled by self-service

If a customer simply wants an update on shipping information or to cancel an order
When a customer asks about return policies, warranties, hours of operation, or how to cancel or pause a subscription

When agents could respond faster to individual messages — using thoughtful responses thanks to supporting technology

• Agents pride themselves on being product experts — and they don’t have to achieve that title alone. If customers come to them with more detail on product selection or recommendation, they want to know that the person they’re speaking to can respond confidently.
• Generative answers are an essential aspect of using AI for better customer interactions. They can help formulate faster responses to brand- or product-specific questions, and recognize customer preferences based on previous purchases.

Times when agents don’t have the bandwidth to go further with their interactions, missing out on loyalty-driving or upselling opportunities

• Busy CX teams that aren’t matched to the scale of an ecommerce brand are often just working to keep their heads above water. In those cases, proactively trying to drive more revenue is practically impossible.

Maintaining a Human Touch in Customer Service

Despite its wide range of usefulness, AI is only effective in the support center when CX leaders make an effort to balance it with a human touch. On its own, AI can’t provide personalization — rather, it can better facilitate delivery from human agents.

In particular, brands should not rely solely on AI to do the following:

• Handle difficult customers or customer situations that require critical thinking
• Build relationships with customers over time
• Identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities with customers based on past preferences

How Gladly Customers Are Improving Customer Interactions With AI

By tapping into AI for better customer interactions, these popular brands free their agents from repetition and time-consuming tasks. Here’s how some of our own ecommerce partners have done just that, and unlocked valuable results in the process.

A Health Company Transforms Pharmaceutical CX

In the time-sensitive and essential business of healthcare, Bonafide wanted to provide a modern and effective solution that the industry lacks. To do so, the brand utilized Gladly’s customer service AI to drastically reduce high ticket volume, and improve customer and agent satisfaction.

• Bonafide achieved a 98% CSAT rating and 91% ROI with Gladly’s customer service AI.

A Clothing Brand Uses AI to Drive Loyalty

A clothing company widely touted for its deep customer connections, Bombas has always made a point of prioritizing CX in the loyalty economy. So when they noticed friction in daily interactions, the brand turned to AI to make improvements — driving customer loyalty in the process.

• With Gladly’s customer service AI, Bombas reduced their time to first response by 81% and time to resolution by 35%.

An Accessory Brand Finds Power in Proactivity

During seasonal shopping spikes, one accessory brand felt the pressure on their CX team and wanted to find a cost-effective solution without bringing on BPOs or external help. The brand leveraged Gladly AI tools to alleviate a burdened staff at an affordable price, which made agent capability instantly greater.

• The accessory brand leveraged AI to resolve 52% of its peak-season conversations.
• The accessory brand brought down annual hiring by 51% thanks to efficiencies achieved through AI.

A Beauty Company Elevates a Partnership With a BPO

Like many Gladly customers who use BPOs as supportive CX solutions, one beauty brand wanted to make their BPO spend into a smarter overall investment — with the right solutions. That’s why this company sought out AI to empower their existing agents, creating greater financial balance with their external spending.

• The beauty company used AI responses and agent-support tools to clear out 100% of its service backlog.
• They also achieved a 5x increase in their year-over-year ROI from their CX team.

An Ecommerce Giant Implements AI and Rapidly Scales CX

One ecommerce brand faced a common challenge — needing to scale their support center in step with the overall business. To do so, they searched for a quick and effective way to ensure the growth pace was kept across their organization. After initially struggling to scale their CX team as rapidly as the rest of the business, the company found that AI provided an instant solution.

• The ecommerce brand improved time to first response by 200% thanks to AI support and generative responses.
• They also brought in an ROI of 433% in the first six months from its support center.

Take the Path Toward Superior, AI-Driven CX

As these brand stories and numerous others prove, a tactful implementation of AI in your CX solutions — with options like Gladly’s AI-powered Customer Service Platform — can be transformational to loyalty, sustainability, and overall CX ROI. Gladly can help create entirely new value, turning support centers into revenue drivers and agents into customer service heroes who more effectively contribute to the overall success of the brand.

To see the success these brands were able to achieve, and to become a success story of your own, try a demo of Gladly to see how these intelligent and effective tools can make a transformative difference.

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