Chatbots were once seen as the future of customer service, offering the promise of 24/7, automated support. However, the gap between expectations and results is immense. Because let’s face it, when was the last time you had a great experience with a chatbot? Probably never. Companies are finally realizing that chatbots are falling short, leading to frustrated customers and underwhelming ROI.
With conversational AI now raising the bar for customer experiences, there’s a better alternative to outdated chatbots. Here are five reasons why it’s time to move beyond chatbots and embrace AI agents.
1. Bots can’t understand people
Customer satisfaction is crucial to your business, but chatbots often fail to understand customer requests, leaving them frustrated and disappointed. Imagine a customer trying to exchange a pair of recently purchased headphones. The chatbot keeps asking for an order number, but the customer can't find it. Despite the customer explaining, "I can't find my order number, is there another way?", the bot simply repeats its request for the order number, offering no alternative solution.
Sierra’s AI agents communicate with empathy
Sierra's AI agents understand the complexities of customer interactions. In this scenario, they would not only recognize the customer’s mood, but offer alternative solutions, such as using an email or address to process the exchange. This ability to communicate and understand natural language leads to a smoother experience and higher customer satisfaction, turning a headache into a fast and delightful transaction.
2. Bots don’t represent your brand
Your brand’s identity is carefully crafted, and every customer interaction should aim to reinforce it. Imagine a couple who is a loyal member of a hotel rewards program and has booked their honeymoon at an associated property. They strike up a conversation with a chatbot to adjust their reservation, and the bot responds with cold, impersonal messages that don’t align with the hotel’s brand promise of a personalized, luxurious experience. Instead of feeling valued, the couple is left disappointed, questioning whether the brand truly cares about their special occasion.
Sierra’s AI agents are tailored to your brand
Sierra’s AI agents are designed to embody your brand’s tone and personality, whether communicating with sophisticated language or keeping it light with jokes and emojis. For one of our customers, OluKai, it was crucial that their AI agent maintain the “Aloha Experience” they’ve come to be known for, so their agent was carefully crafted to represent their Hawaiian-inspired brand. Another Sierra customer, Chubbies, wanted to infuse their agent with their fun, irreverent personality and tone. They’ve named their AI agent Duncan Smuthers, and he responds to customers with wit and punny jokes. By aligning your AI agent’s personality and tone with your values, Sierra’s AI agents act as brand ambassadors, helping reinforce trust and build long-lasting customer relationships.
3. Bots can’t adapt to nuanced requests
Chatbots are glorified, hard-coded rules engines, making them inflexible and unable to handle complex queries. For example, if a cable customer is writing in to modify or cancel their service, the cable company will want to understand the reason for the change and potentially present offers or plans that might be a better fit for the customer. But, if the chatbot isn’t able to understand the nuances of the situation or update a plan, it will struggle to share the appropriate promotion and communicate about it in the right way. This inflexibility leads to missed opportunities and higher operational costs as cases get escalated to service team members.
Sierra’s AI agents manage complexity with ease
Sierra’s AI agents excel at managing complex and unique requests. In a scenario where a customer is making a change to their service or considering canceling it, the AI agent could investigate the reason for canceling a plan, explain new promotions in the context of the customer’s specific needs, adjust the subscription package, and apply discounts, all without needing to escalate to a call center team member. This capability not only improves case resolution rates but also enhances customer satisfaction by providing a swift and accurate response.
4. Bots can’t multi-task
Chatbots lack the ability to understand the context of a conversation or manage multiple tasks simultaneously. Picture a customer trying to return a pair of new hiking boots while also searching for a replacement pair. The chatbot, unable to connect the dots, recommends the exact style the customer is trying to return.
Sierra’s AI agents manage many tasks at once
Sierra’s AI agents have both memory and multi-tasking capabilities. They recognize the evolving but related requests, and can bob and weave to adapt to customer’s preferences, all within the same conversation. This ability to handle multiple tasks seamlessly ensures that the customer feels supported and understood, leading to a more productive and satisfying experience.
5. Bots don’t evolve with your business
One of the main drawbacks of traditional chatbots is their inability to learn and improve over time. This is largely due to the fact that as a business evolves - adding or changing products, services, policies, and processes - bots are hard to manage and update in parallel. Imagine a customer trying to troubleshoot an appliance installation. The chatbot provides outdated setup instructions because it hasn’t been updated with the latest product information. The customer’s frustration grows as the chatbot repeatedly fails to address their current needs, leading to an ineffective and disappointing experience.
Sierra’s AI agents evolve with your customers and business
Sierra's AI agents are designed for continuous improvement. They can be continuously tweaked and tuned to better handle specific scenarios or meet new customer demands, constantly enhancing their performance. For instance, using Sierra’s Experience Manager, a tool designed for quality assurance and continuous improvement, CX teams can inspect interactions, suggest updates to the AI agent, and make changes to the agent’s knowledge bases to ensure the agent always provides the most accurate and up-to-date information. This proactive approach keeps the service relevant and effective, meeting customers’ needs with precision.
The time is now to say goodbye
In a world where consumers are regularly interacting with modern AI services like ChatGPT and Gemini, the limitations of chatbots are obvious. From delivering poor customer experiences to failing to effectively represent your brand, chatbots simply don’t meet the demands of modern customer service. Sierra’s AI agents offer a more advanced, adaptable, and effective solution that delivers delightful, conversational experiences for your customers and meaningful ROI for your business. It’s time to say bye bye, bots.
