Telecom is a tough industry to crack with high capital expenditure, longer gestation periods, demanding customers, and falling average revenue per user (ARPU). There is a constant need to play catch up with each new generation (3G/4G/5G) of services and spend on infrastructure and software upgrade. Also, there is a high risk of customer churn and thus, driving a superior customer experience is paramount for telecom providers.
Today more than ever, given the high risk of customer churn, telecom providers cannot ignore customer experience. That is where an AI-powered chatbot or voice bot comes into the picture to help the already burdened contact center agents. Customers call telecom providers for varied reasons, including – upgrading plans, adding double or triple play services, troubleshooting connection issues, reporting billing inaccuracies, and more. Today’s conversational AI chatbots have evolved to drive human-like conversations at scale, understand the context, and resolve calls faster, cheaper, and with a better customer experience. Let us dig deeper into some of the benefits of AI-based chatbots in telecom customer service.
Chatbot improves telecom customer service
#1. Resolve repetitive queries
Chatbots drive increased self-service rates for repetitive customer journeys, including checking the status of a recent order, network downtime, address change, billing, and more. With advances in AI, machine learning, and natural language processing, frequent telecom conversations are resolved quickly and with a better customer experience. Conversational bots also save millions of dollars every year for telecom providers.
#2. Offer technical support
Another significant chunk of customer query is about technical support. AI chatbots or voice bots handle complex technical questions, and in most cases, eliminate the need for human intervention. The query could be about troubleshooting the issue of an internet outage. Now this same problem could have half a dozen probable reasons. A machine pinpointing the exact cause of the situation based on what the customer says is no mean task. It also boils down to asking the right questions, which for machines, with enough training, context awareness, and complex Machine Learning models, is achievable. Supporting chatbots with AI-powered knowledge management helps resolve technical queries faster. If all else fails, then the bot can forward the call to the technical staff.
#3. Reduce customer churn
Telecom companies face one of the highest churn rates of any industry. Often it is possible to pinpoint if a particular customer would churn, thanks to predictive analytics. It is in this context that AI-based chatbots can offer immense benefits. Leveraging AI-driven chatbots to predict sentiment and resolve customer service interactions at the right time with a better experience will reduce customer churn. It is also possible to leverage pre-built telecom intent models with integrated AI to upgrade digital customer experiences. Artificial Intelligence bots offer 24/7 seamless, omnichannel support with full context awareness, thus improving customer satisfaction. Delivering easy, personalized conversations your customers will love is vital to reducing churn, and chatbots can help you do just that.
#4. Support sales and collections
Sales and collections are what keep your revenue engine humming. Bots deliver a personalized experience when it comes to selling, cross-selling, or upselling. AI-powered bots develop context awareness, know if a customer is likely to pay or not, find the optimal way to approach an individual customer, etc. This way, it improves the overall customer experience, and at the end of the day, it helps the company enhance revenue and plug revenue leaks.
#5. Offer value-added services
Today telecom services have become so ubiquitous that many other value-added services depend on it – entertainment, for instance. Telecom providers often bundle games, movies, and songs with their internet services. That is where a digital personal assistant can come in handy. The AI-based chatbot can help choose the right games to play, the genre of movies to watch, and the songs to listen to based on history, customer’s situation, and context. AI-powered chatbots with digital avatars can be your buddy, and telecom players are already reaping such bots’ benefits. Thus, improving the overall telecom customer experience and build long-term loyal customers.
Learn how Uniphore can help you build an intelligent chatbot for your telecom company now!