Improve your customer experience by combining artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence

Recently, while traveling abroad for work, I purchased something on Amazon that I could not find in local stores. However, this purchase was delayed although I paid extra for on-time delivery. By the time the package was ready for delivery, I had already moved to a recent hotel in one other a part of town. I could not update the location on my order and I needed it ASAP, so I called Amazon customer service to see what I could do.

Amazon definitely went to great lengths to forestall me from talking to anyone, keeping me on the phone for 10 minutes and bouncing me back and forth through a maze of unhelpful menu options and generic FAQ pages that did nothing to assist resolve my specific inquiries. Not once did any of those options even offer the choice to “talk to a live person.” So naturally I needed to interrupt the bot and ask (demand) that I speak to someone myself.

The power of empathy

And when I finally got redirected to a human, guess what happened?

Furious, I explained my situation to the agent. She listened and replied, “Ma’am, I understand this must be very frustrating and I’m very sorry, but we are unable to update the address once the item is ready for delivery. The only solution is to cancel the order and order again.”

Ironically, although she did nothing to resolve the problem except give me more work, my anger disappeared. Just having someone, a real person, empathize and genuinely apologize for the inconvenience made every part a little higher.

And that, my friends, is something related to artificial intelligence jargon do (at least not yet). Imagine an AI trying to precise empathy in a robotic and terrifying way – it isn’t the same.

Supplementing AI with emotional intelligence training

Most employees struggle with the difficult reality of artificial intelligence, which takes over many previously human tasks. People are actually losing their jobs or are at risk of losing their jobs, so these fears are not unfounded. As a change management leader who has helped firms implement AI in their workflows, I have seen each the fears and real-world consequences of mass layoffs and reorganizations in many of my client firms.

While AI has drastically modified the way businesses operate, I might argue that it is still not ripe for it replace most customer-facing features – just extend them. Companies should think twice before replacing humans completely and replacing them with artificial intelligence.

First, take a look at some of the statistics published in the creator’s report CAUGHT recently regarding the use of AI bots for customer service:

• 80% of shoppers said that using chatbots increased their level of frustration.

• 78% of consumers were forced to contact a human after their needs did not be resolved via an automated service channel.

• 63% indicated that their interaction with the chatbot didn’t result in a solution.

• 72% believed that using a chatbot for customer service was a waste of time.

• More than half of consumers (54%) imagine that talking to a live agent over the phone provides the fastest resolution and the best overall customer service.

Survey conducted by Wake up found that of 1,554 consumers worldwide, 30% were turned off by a brand resulting from a negative experience with a chatbot.

It is true that in many cases, for more general problems, a bot can assist solve the problem through a predictable workflow and pointing to some online resource.

However, most customers who take the time to contact customer service have already searched publicly available sources of data and have been unable to search out a solution to their problem.

When artificial intelligence is not as effective as humans

Rest assured, there are still areas where human intelligence outshines artificial intelligence. Here are a few:

1. Innovation: : While AI can generate modern ideas and artworks, it often lacks the depth of human creativity. People excel at combining disparate ideas, emotions and experiences to create truly original solutions.

2. Complex problem solving: : Artificial intelligence is powerful when it involves solving specific, well-defined problems in a structured environment. However, it struggles with ambiguity and may not adapt well to completely recent or unexpected situations where human intuition and creativity are key.

3. Ethical decision making: : AI has no moral compass. While it will probably be programmed to follow ethical guidelines, it cannot all the time make morally sound decisions in complex scenarios that require an understanding of nuances, cultural context, and human values.

4. Interpersonal communication and negotiations: : Building relationships, understanding subtle signals, and negotiating effectively are skills that humans excel at, but can pose challenges for AI, especially in dynamic and unpredictable social interactions.

5. Intuition and hunch: : People often make decisions based on intuition or gut feeling, relying on subconscious processes that are difficult to copy in AI systems that rely on explicit algorithms and data.

Almost all of those examples have a common thread that I might summarize as emotional intelligence.

And while there is little question that artificial intelligence will proceed to advance and turn into increasingly higher at imitating human emotional intelligence, probably to an incredible level, it could be a very long time before we will truly persuade it as a suitable substitute for human connection.

To sum up, my message to employees is to maintain your head up and invest in soft skills in these difficult times.

And also to employers: do not forget about the importance of emotional intelligence.

Certainly invest in incorporating AI into your operations, but at the same time, remember to speculate in the offering emotional intelligence training — can definitely make or break a customer’s experience!