Salesforce and AI: Optimize your customer service 

AI seems to be the solution to everything. We wouldn't go that far, but in some cases it is very useful. For example, for a customer service department using Salesforce. That's because AI can reduce telephone customer service congestion, indicate which product or service best suits the customer and monitor customer satisfaction. Applications that reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction. Pretty useful, in other words! 

Want to apply AI to improve your customer service? Then you can get started with Salesforce's AI applications, which they have brought together under an aptly named Salesforce Einstein.  

Reduce pressure on customer service 

AI and chatbots: a good marriage, as long as you apply it the right way. Our experience with support chats that run entirely on chatbots is not great. But chatbots can very well take over some of the work, such as the first part of a conversation. Think of a greeting, collecting data and asking the question that the customer can be helped with. In some cases, chatbot can answer the question itself by referring to online documentation. If not, it puts the customer in touch with most relevant service person or department.  

They seem like small improvements, but for every action that doesn't require a service person, they can help a customer where they do. Over a long period of time, you may even find that you need fewer service agents because their time is allocated more efficiently. So the targeted use of AI in chatbots ensures fast and effective communication between customer and employee, and possibly a need for less capacity.  

- Because chatbots have unlimited availability 24/7, you can deploy them even when no service employees are available. This can be done both when all employees are busy or outside working hours. Can the chatbot not solve the question itself and does it take too long before an employee is available? Then a case can be created with the collected information. A service employee can pick up this case and handle it as soon as it becomes available again. - 

Predicting customer needs 

Do you offer multiple services? Then it soon becomes custom work to match customers with the right service. Einstein Prediction Builder can perform predictive analytics that help with this. With user data in the CRM, services are compared to user behavior. This allows you to make product recommendations that actually add value for customers. For example: 

• Phone providers and subscriptions 
  Providers can advise their customers on buying a new subscription by comparing their usage with available subscriptions. For example, a customer may hardly use any calling minutes, but in terms of Internet MBs goes out of bundle. Based on this, customer service may recommend purchasing a new subscription with fewer calling minutes and more mobile data.  
• Access to gyms  
  Some gyms have multiple products that provide access to their facilities, such as a subscription or strip card. An AI-generated analysis reveals which type of subscription best suits a customer. For example, a customer with a strippenkaart may be more advantageous with a subscription, or vice versa.  
• Additional insurances 
  An insurer may advise on supplemental insurance based on previous years. For example, consider someone who has supplemental dental insurance, but did not use it in previous years. The insurer may then advise to remove it from the insurance package because it is more advantageous for the client. This could just as well be the other way around, if the insured was not supplementary insured, but goes to the dentist often. 

Monitoring customer satisfaction with sentiment analysis 

Sentiment analysis is used to investigate how your target audience feels about your brand, product or service. With Einstein language, you can process reviews, social media posts and chat conversations to measure customer sentiment. These touch points are analyzed for such things as tone and emotions, which are linked to themes. For example, you can see what your customers are happy about, or what is frequently the subject of complaints.  

Investment in AI inevitable 

Applying Salesforce Einstein can significantly improve your customer service. It helps you serve customers better, reduce costs and analyze data. The question is not whether Salesforce Einstein can help, but rather "how. Paul Drews, Managing Partner at Salesforce is open about his vision: "We are already seeing AI change the way the world works, and we are excited to build on the momentum of our Generative AI Fund." This is substantiated by Salesforce's investment in the Generative AI fund doubling to $500 million by 2023.