The Gist
- AI chatbots are growing in popularity and capabilities. What potential do they have to improve customer experience (CX) by answering questions and holding conversations?
- Bing AI, you’re up. We conducted experiments with ChatGPT and Google Bard in this three-part series and conclude today with Bing AI, asking it four different CX-related questions.
- How did Bing AI do in CX circles? After analyzing the experiment, we discuss the pros and cons of using Bing AI.
Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have been a hot topic of conversation for months now and are only continuing to grow, both in popularity and capabilities. These bots can do more than just answer simple questions; they can also hold a conversation.
But what about when it comes to giving advice, particularly in the world of customer experience? That’s the big question we’re exploring here today and in this series of articles that explored how ChatGPT, Google Bard and now Bing AI can assist in customer experience scenarios.
Can these chatbots really help improve customer service? And if so, how?
This time, we’re taking a look at Bing AI. I obtained early access to Bing AI after joining the waitlist. We put it to the test by asking it four questions from the perspective of a customer experience leader.
The questions are as follows:
- How should my contact center agents handle a conversation when the person’s been on hold for more than 10 minutes?
- What should I do if they’re still angry? (follow-up)
- How can I improve customer loyalty to my company?
- How can I improve the marketing strategy at my company?
Below is the full text exchange for the four questions. Bing AI offers three options for the “tone of responses.” Options include creative, balanced and precise. For this experiment, I chose “precise.” I will also note that since Bing AI offers follow-up prompt suggestions, I selected one of these after Question 1. This follow-up question was included in the tests of other chatbots.
Contact Center and Long Customer Hold Times
Prompt No. 1: How should my contact center agents handle a conversation when the person’s been on hold for more than 10 minutes?
Bing AI Response: Look to Your Contact Center Training
- One way to handle a conversation when a person has been on hold for more than 10 minutes is to look at the training you’re giving your call center employees on dealing with customers who have been on hold. When a customer has been on hold, your team must be able to placate and calm the customer before even addressing the issue at hand.
- Is there anything else you would like to know?
- Learn more:
Prompt No. 2: What Should I Do if They’re Still Angry?Bing AI Response: Let Customers Express Concerns
- If the customer is still angry after trying the above techniques, you can try to let them talk and express their concerns. Focus on the words they’re communicating and not the anger behind their words. To show the customer you’re actively listening, paraphrase their complaint, ask clarifying questions, and don’t interrupt them. This is often the most effective way to handle angry customers at the outset of the situation. Is there anything else you would like to know?
- Proffered follow-up prompts:
- What if they’re still angry?
- How can I train my agents?
- What are some other ways?
Customer Loyalty Improvements
Prompt No. 3: How Can I Improve Customer Loyalty to My Company?
Bing AI Response: Maximize Efficiency of Customer Service Department
- There are many ways to improve customer loyalty to your company. Here are some methods you can try:
- Maximize the efficiency of your customer service department: This includes upgrading customer service training initiatives, regularly reviewing feedback and making changes or improving customer service channels like messaging platforms, email communications or phone communications.
- Collect consumer feedback: A foolproof way to improve your customer loyalty strategy is to hear straight from the source 2.
- Implement a customer loyalty rewards program: If you are trying to attract more consumers to your store, you may also want to implement a rewards program 3.
- Is there anything else you would like to know?
- Learn more:
- Proffered follow-up prompts:
- What are some other ways?
- How can I train my agents?
- What should I do if they’re still angry?
Marketing Strategy
Prompt No. 4: How Can I Improve the Marketing Strategy at My Company?
Bing AI Response: Think Strategically and Test, Test, Test Your Marketing Campaigns
- There are many ways to improve your marketing strategy. Here are some methods you can try:
- Strategic thinking: To have a successful marketing plan requires strategic thinking, alignment, a willingness to test, and a close eye on key performance indicators (KPls) as they’ll tell you how to be more efficient and deliver better results 1.
- Update your website: Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly and regularly updating your landing page with up-to-date information can help drive more conversions and sales online 2.
- Tailor campaigns: A marketing strategy related to creating personas is tailoring campaigns. This can entail both customizing your actual marketing campaign messaging, as well as researching the channels in which you send these messages 3.
- Is there anything else you would like to know?
- Learn more:
- Videos (thumbnails for related YouTube videos)
Conclusion: Practical for CX, Marketing Leaders?
Bing AI’s responses were in line with what many CX leaders have told CMSWire.
The first two questions dealt the most with customer emotions and reactions. It’s worth noting that a main aspect of CX is empathy. That is, to ensure a good experience for customers, employers must demonstrate an ability to empathize with them. This has been a source of concern as AI enters the field of CX. AI chatbots may be incredible at working with mathematical issues. However, any chatbot’s ability to show (or at least react appropriately to) human emotions is also important.
Bing AI demonstrated a sort of “understanding” of this. For example, the very first prompt made no mention of anger or any sort of emotion. However, Bing AI inferred that this could be an issue, pointing out the importance of placating customers in frustrating situations.
The third and fourth questions dealt more with marketing. Bing AI offered advice on a growing topic: campaign personalization. It also discussed the importance of analyzing campaigns from multiple angles.
Bing AI also provides citations and additional sources for its comments, without even being asked for them. As it provided advice here, it quoted existing sources for its responses. In fact, the responses we analyzed here were quite similar to the source text. While Bing AI rephrased passages slightly, it was easy to find the paragraphs from which it drew responses.
In summary, Bing AI’s responses were relevant, helpful and focused on the main areas of CX. It was even able to emphasize the importance of empathy — an ability that many worry is a blind spot for the technology. Another plus to this chatbot is its automatic inclusion of sources: helpful for both fact-checking and for finding more information.