Artificial intelligence can do a lot of things these days, but you shouldn’t put AI in charge of your distribution company. That would be like putting a hammer in charge of your construction business.
The fact is that AI is a tool, and like any other tool, it needs to serve a function to be useful. That function should not be to replace the human element in your company. Rather, it should make the humans who form the heart of your company more efficient, more productive, and more engaged. We developed CARE – our Customer Assistance Response Engine – with that philosophy in mind.
Customer service reps want to provide the best experience possible; after all, it’s hard to go into that line of work without being a people person. But even the most patient, energetic person only has so much bandwidth.
CARE tackles the preliminary tasks in the customer support workflow, freeing up bandwidth so your reps can dedicate more of their time and energy to adding more value to the customer relationship, handling escalations and ensuring a positive outcome for the customer.
CARE stands for Customer Assistance Response Engine. It’s a module that can be integrated with Microsoft Outlook and your chosen customer service management platform. When a customer request comes in, CARE uses natural language processing to determine the customer’s sentiment – Are they upset? Frustrated? Satisfied? – as well as their intent. What are they asking for?
With sentiment and intent established, CARE figures out where to get the information necessary to meet the customer’s request. That might involve writing SQL code to query a data warehouse or making an API call to collect order status information. Then, CARE structures that information into an email draft or internal note, depending on the platform you’re using.
The human customer service rep can then edit that draft or note as necessary before sending it to the customer. With all that initial legwork done, they can focus on adding the personal touches that make customers more comfortable. If the ticket requires further action, the rep will have more of that precious bandwidth left to handle those more complicated tasks. It’s the difference between building a car from scratch and adjusting your mirrors in a car that’s already been built for you. Only the latter would leave you with enough energy for a road trip.
CARE creates kinetic energy in your customer support workflow, which translates to momentum for your reps. To extend the car metaphor, think about what it’s like to get into your car in the middle of winter. If your engine starts cold, it’s going to take a while for it to warm up. But if you can start the engine while you’re still inside the house, you can step right into a warm car and be ready to go.
CARE gets your reps past the cold engine of the blank screen so that they can find more creative ways to serve the customer and solve their problem. Rather than exhausting themselves by swiveling back and forth between systems, your reps will have a starting point that leads to a better experience for themselves and for the customer. Over time, that difference shows up in the bottom line.
Because of the way we built CARE, you can do all that without having to re-platform or overhaul your existing technology.
Our approach to building CARE hinges on the concept of composable architecture. That means that we build the software in such a way that you can lift and shift features, components or services as needed. It’s not a monolithic “what you see is what you get” system. You can decide what your front end is going to be, what your back end is going to be, and what modules will best serve your needs.
We looked at the existing customer service management solutions and saw that there was value to be added with an AI-powered module that takes care of the initial heavy lift. We designed it so that you can easily install it to get that added value right away — and then, if your customer service management platform provider comes out with a built-in tool that does the same thing, you can swap it out. Our goal is not to lock you into one approach; rather, it’s to meet you where you are and provide a runway to growth.
We chose the name CARE not just because it helps your reps care for your customers more effectively. It also resonates with our approach as a software provider. The relationship doesn’t end when you implement CARE. We work with you to identify new opportunities and problems to be solved.
We know that there needs to be a strong business case for any tech investment you make. You can’t just buy technology for the sake of buying technology; that’s playing not to lose rather than playing to win. You need a roadmap with distinct phases and a partner who can guide you through each one.
When your requirements change, or when ChatGPT releases a new feature in its API that you want to take advantage of, we’ll help you adjust. CARE can be a light-lift/high-impact first phase for your company.
If you’re interested in seeing how CARE can help your company, reach out to our team of experts today.
