Leveraging AI to Drive Revenue Growth in Customer Service

Customers are more likely to buy right after their problem has been fixed. How can we develop agents to create “golden moments” where an ordinary service encounters become something extraordinary?

By: Gal Rimon, Centrical CEO and Founder

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This article was originally published as part of Centrical CEO and founder Gal Rimon’s “The Future of Work” newsletter. For more insights on CX, EX, and industry thought leadership, subscribe today and follow Gal on LinkedIn.  

It is well known in sales and service that customers are more likely to buy when you have just fixed a problem for them. How can service providers use AI to maximize these “golden moments” with their customers? How can they help service agents become trusted advisors?

In the age of AI, customers increasingly opt for self-service, non-human interactions with service providers through various channels such as websites, mobile apps, and chat platforms, with AI enhancing the functionality and effectiveness of these channels. But if these channels do not meet their needs, they will move on to a human agent. And when this interaction is a great experience, it creates a golden moment.

A “golden moment” in service refers to those critical instances during customer interactions where service providers can significantly enhance the customer experience, leading to increased satisfaction, loyalty, and the potential for positive word-of-mouth. These moments are pivotal because they can turn an ordinary service encounter into something extraordinary.

The challenge: how can we develop agents to create these valuable opportunities?

The brief answer is AI. A more detailed answer is to develop an employee experience that matches the level of customer experience we aim to deliver.

So, what is the definition of a great employee experience?

The main element is that it is personalized. Think of your Netflix recommendations, YouTube feed, and TikTok feed – all tailored to you. But the experience companies offer to their employees is usually more like that of a single TV channel.

For instance, consider a telco service provider. It is probable that the telco’s service agents will have to upsell KPIs, such as increasing customer service plans. The provider will have a training program to upskill agents to effectively upsell, and so on. However, ALL employees will receive the same training and will be evaluated (according to their roles) on the same criteria. Essentially, the training will be one-size-fits-all – quite different from the personalized experience we want to provide.

But what would this experience be like with AI?

Let’s look at Jane, a hypothetical telco agent who achieves her service targets every week. While she is very driven and has a lot of expertise, she needs improvement when it comes to upselling.

How an AI Copilot Can Support Jane

The AI Copilot will examine why, despite meeting her service goals, Jane still falls short of her upselling goals. By analyzing her successful service calls, the AI Copilot will determine the root cause: Jane is not asking enough discovery questions. By not asking these questions, she lacks a complete understanding of the customers’ needs and as a result, misses golden opportunities.

The first step to help her improve is to make her aware of this issue by asking a simple self-reflection question about asking more discovery questions. The next step is training on related best practices, perhaps assigning Jane to a targeted learning campaign to boost the quantity and quality of discovery questions she asks. When she increases her discovery question numbers, the system will alert her direct manager.

The manager then assists Jane with refining her discovery questions and creating the best value propositions for her customers. After a few weeks, Jane has improved the frequency at which she asks discovery questions and the quality of the questions and upsell conversations. The system will reward her, publicly acknowledging her achievement and suggesting her manager send Jane Kudos for her progress.

This is just one personalized experience.  Now imagine this with 10,000 employees and thousands of issues, root causes, and enhancement paths.

The key to success is to integrate the separate elements of Performance Management, Training Campaigns, Self-reflection, Learning and Development, Rewards and Recognition, Evaluations and Coaching, and more into an integrated experience that is personalized, guided, and engaging – and to do it on a large scale.

The only way to achieve this is to employ AI and offer a CoPilot Employee Performance Experience for agents and their managers.

Learn more about an Employee Performance Experience CoPilot.