First Steps Automating Support For Small Business Growth

Customer support, while often viewed as a cost center, is actually a vital growth engine for small to medium businesses (SMBs). Exceptional support builds loyalty, fuels positive word-of-mouth, and directly impacts customer lifetime value. However, as SMBs scale, traditional customer support Meaning ● Customer Support, in the context of SMB growth strategies, represents a critical function focused on fostering customer satisfaction and loyalty to drive business expansion. methods become strained.

Hiring more staff is expensive, training is time-consuming, and maintaining consistent service quality across a growing team is challenging. This is where AI-powered automation Meaning ● AI-Powered Automation empowers SMBs to optimize operations and enhance competitiveness through intelligent technology integration. enters as a game-changer.

Understanding The Automation Opportunity

Automation in customer support isn’t about replacing human agents entirely; it’s about strategically augmenting their capabilities and streamlining processes. AI tools Meaning ● AI Tools, within the SMB sphere, represent a diverse suite of software applications and digital solutions leveraging artificial intelligence to streamline operations, enhance decision-making, and drive business growth. can handle repetitive tasks, provide instant answers to common questions, and free up human agents to focus on complex issues and high-value interactions. For SMBs, this translates to several key benefits:

• Reduced Costs ● AI can handle a significant volume of routine inquiries, minimizing the need for large support teams.
• Improved Efficiency ● Automated systems offer 24/7 availability and instant responses, drastically reducing wait times and improving resolution speed.
• Enhanced Customer Experience ● Faster response times and consistent service contribute to happier customers. AI can also personalize interactions based on customer data.
• Scalability ● AI systems can easily scale to handle increasing customer volumes without requiring proportional increases in staffing.
• Data-Driven Insights ● AI tools provide valuable data on customer interactions, allowing SMBs to identify pain points, improve processes, and personalize service offerings.

Many SMB owners are hesitant to adopt AI, believing it’s too complex or expensive. The reality is that the landscape of AI tools has evolved dramatically. Today, there are numerous user-friendly, affordable AI-powered solutions specifically designed for SMBs, requiring little to no technical expertise to implement.

For SMBs, AI-powered automation in customer support is not a futuristic concept, but a present-day necessity for efficient operations and scalable growth.

Identifying Quick Wins With AI

The key to successful AI implementation for SMBs is to start small and focus on quick wins. Trying to automate everything at once is overwhelming and often leads to failure. Instead, identify specific areas where automation can deliver immediate, measurable improvements. Here are some prime candidates for initial AI automation:

Automating Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

A significant portion of customer inquiries are often simple, repetitive questions about business hours, shipping policies, return procedures, or product information. An AI-powered chatbot can be easily trained to answer these FAQs instantly, freeing up human agents from these routine tasks. This is perhaps the most straightforward and impactful starting point for SMBs.

Basic Chatbots For Website Support

Implementing a chatbot on your website provides immediate 24/7 support for visitors. Even a basic chatbot can handle a large percentage of common inquiries, guide users to relevant resources, and collect lead information. Many no-code chatbot platforms are available, making setup quick and easy.

Automating Email Responses

AI can automate the initial triage and response to customer support emails. AI-powered email management tools can categorize emails, identify urgent requests, and even generate automated responses for common inquiries like order confirmations or ticket acknowledgements. This ensures customers receive prompt confirmation that their issue is being addressed.

Social Media Monitoring And Basic Response

Managing customer inquiries across social media platforms can be time-consuming. AI tools can monitor social media channels for mentions of your brand and automatically respond to simple inquiries or direct users to appropriate support channels. This helps maintain brand reputation and ensures timely engagement with customers on social media.

Choosing The Right Tools For Your Needs

The market is saturated with AI-powered customer support Meaning ● AI-Powered Customer Support: Smart systems enhancing SMB customer interactions for efficiency and growth. tools, and selecting the right ones can feel daunting. For SMBs just starting, the focus should be on tools that are:

• User-Friendly ● No-code or low-code platforms are ideal, requiring minimal technical skills for setup and management.
• Affordable ● Look for tools with pricing plans suitable for SMB budgets, often offering tiered pricing based on usage or features. Many offer free trials or freemium versions to test before committing.
• Scalable ● Choose tools that can grow with your business and adapt to increasing customer support needs.
• Integrable ● Ensure the tools can integrate with your existing systems, such as CRM, email marketing platforms, and website platforms.
• Focused on Specific Needs ● Start with tools that address your most pressing customer support challenges. If FAQs are overwhelming your team, prioritize a chatbot for FAQ automation.

Here’s a table comparing some beginner-friendly AI customer support Meaning ● AI-powered tech enhancing SMB customer interactions for efficiency, personalization, and growth. tools:

Step-By-Step Implementation ● Your First Chatbot

Let’s walk through a simplified step-by-step process for setting up a basic chatbot to handle FAQs on your website, using a no-code platform like Tidio as an example. This demonstrates how quickly SMBs can realize tangible benefits from AI automation.

1. Sign Up For A Chatbot Platform ● Choose a platform like Tidio, ManyChat, or similar that offers a free trial or freemium plan. Sign up and familiarize yourself with the interface.
2. Identify Your Top 5-10 FAQs ● Analyze your existing customer support interactions (emails, phone calls, live chat transcripts if available) to identify the most frequently asked questions. Alternatively, brainstorm common questions customers typically ask about your products or services.
3. Create Chatbot Flows For Each FAQ ● Using the chatbot platform’s visual builder, create simple chatbot flows for each FAQ. This involves defining the trigger (e.g., user types “What are your business hours?”), the chatbot’s response (e.g., “Our business hours are Monday-Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM”), and any follow-up options (e.g., “Can I help you with anything else?”). Keep responses concise and direct.
4. Integrate The Chatbot With Your Website ● Most chatbot platforms provide a code snippet that you can easily embed into your website’s header or footer. Follow the platform’s instructions to integrate the chatbot. This typically involves copying and pasting a few lines of code ● no coding skills required.
5. Test And Refine ● Thoroughly test your chatbot flows by asking the FAQs yourself through the website chatbot. Ensure the chatbot provides accurate and helpful answers. Monitor initial chatbot interactions and refine the flows based on user feedback and common questions the chatbot struggles with. Iterate and improve over time.
6. Promote Your Chatbot ● Make sure customers know about your new chatbot. Add a clear call-to-action on your website, such as “Chat with us now for instant answers!” or “Have a question? Ask our chatbot!”.

Starting with a simple FAQ chatbot is a low-risk, high-reward entry point into AI-powered customer support automation Meaning ● Customer Support Automation for SMBs is strategically using intelligent tech to proactively, ethically, and personally enhance customer experiences for sustained growth. for SMBs, delivering immediate improvements in efficiency and customer experience.

By taking these fundamental steps, SMBs can begin to unlock the power of AI to automate customer support, reduce operational burdens, and enhance customer satisfaction, setting the stage for sustainable growth.

Scaling Support Operations Through Intelligent Automation

Once SMBs have experienced the initial benefits of basic AI automation, the next step is to explore more sophisticated tools and strategies to further optimize customer support operations. This intermediate stage focuses on leveraging AI to enhance personalization, improve agent productivity, and proactively address customer needs. Moving beyond basic chatbots, SMBs can integrate AI deeper into their support workflows to achieve significant gains in efficiency and customer loyalty.

Personalizing Customer Interactions With AI

Generic customer support experiences are becoming increasingly inadequate in today’s market. Customers expect personalized interactions that demonstrate an understanding of their individual needs and preferences. AI empowers SMBs to deliver this level of personalization at scale, even with limited resources.

Customer Segmentation And Targeted Support

AI algorithms can analyze customer data Meaning ● Customer Data, in the sphere of SMB growth, automation, and implementation, represents the total collection of information pertaining to a business's customers; it is gathered, structured, and leveraged to gain deeper insights into customer behavior, preferences, and needs to inform strategic business decisions. (purchase history, browsing behavior, demographics, past interactions) to segment customers into distinct groups. This segmentation allows SMBs to tailor support interactions to specific customer segments. For example, high-value customers could be prioritized for faster response times or offered proactive support, while new customers might receive onboarding assistance and helpful resources. AI-driven CRM platforms facilitate this segmentation and personalized communication.

Sentiment Analysis For Proactive Issue Resolution

Sentiment analysis, a branch of Natural Language Processing (NLP), enables AI to understand the emotional tone behind customer communications (emails, chat messages, social media posts). By analyzing sentiment, SMBs can identify customers who are frustrated, dissatisfied, or at risk of churn. This allows for proactive intervention.

For example, if a customer expresses negative sentiment in a chat interaction, the AI can automatically escalate the conversation to a human agent or trigger a follow-up email offering assistance. Proactive issue resolution Meaning ● Proactive Issue Resolution, in the sphere of SMB operations, growth and automation, constitutes a preemptive strategy for identifying and rectifying potential problems before they escalate into significant business disruptions. can significantly improve customer satisfaction Meaning ● Customer Satisfaction: Ensuring customer delight by consistently meeting and exceeding expectations, fostering loyalty and advocacy. and retention.

Dynamic Content And Knowledge Base Personalization

AI can personalize the content delivered to customers through knowledge bases and self-service portals. Based on a customer’s past interactions, browsing history, and profile, AI can dynamically surface relevant articles, FAQs, and troubleshooting guides. This reduces the effort customers need to expend to find solutions and increases the effectiveness of self-service support. Personalized knowledge bases empower customers to resolve issues independently, freeing up support agents for more complex tasks.

Boosting Agent Productivity With AI Assistance

AI is not just about automating customer-facing interactions; it’s also a powerful tool for empowering human support agents and enhancing their productivity. By providing agents with AI-powered assistance, SMBs can improve resolution times, reduce agent burnout, and deliver consistently high-quality support.

AI-Powered Agent Assist Tools

Agent assist tools leverage AI to provide real-time support to human agents during customer interactions. These tools can:

• Suggest Relevant Knowledge Base Articles ● As an agent interacts with a customer, the AI analyzes the conversation and automatically suggests relevant articles or FAQs from the knowledge base, allowing agents to quickly access and share helpful information.
• Provide Suggested Responses ● For common inquiries, AI can suggest pre-written responses or response templates that agents can quickly adapt and send, saving time and ensuring consistent messaging.
• Summarize Customer History ● AI can quickly summarize a customer’s past interactions, providing agents with context and background information without having to manually review lengthy interaction histories.
• Automate Data Entry and Task Completion ● AI can automate repetitive tasks like logging call summaries, updating customer records, and triggering follow-up actions, freeing up agents to focus on the human aspects of customer interaction.

Agent assist tools effectively augment human capabilities, allowing agents to handle a higher volume of interactions, resolve issues faster, and provide more personalized and informed support.

Intelligent Ticketing And Workflow Automation

AI can significantly enhance ticketing systems by automating ticket routing, prioritization, and workflow management. Intelligent ticketing systems can:

• Automatically Categorize and Tag Tickets ● AI can analyze the content of support requests and automatically categorize tickets based on issue type, product, or urgency, ensuring tickets are routed to the appropriate agent or team.
• Prioritize Tickets Based on Urgency and Customer Value ● AI can prioritize tickets based on factors like customer segment, sentiment, and issue severity, ensuring that critical issues and high-value customers receive prompt attention.
• Automate Ticket Assignment ● AI can intelligently assign tickets to agents based on their skills, workload, and availability, optimizing agent utilization and ensuring efficient ticket resolution.
• Trigger Automated Workflows ● AI can trigger automated workflows based on ticket status or content. For example, if a ticket is marked as urgent, it can automatically escalate to a supervisor or trigger an automated notification to relevant teams.

Intelligent ticketing systems streamline support workflows, reduce manual tasks, and ensure that support requests are handled efficiently and effectively.

Intermediate AI automation Meaning ● AI Automation for SMBs: Building intelligent systems to drive efficiency, growth, and competitive advantage. focuses on enhancing personalization and agent productivity, moving beyond basic automation to create a more intelligent and customer-centric support operation.

Case Study ● Streamlining Support For An E-Commerce SMB

Consider a medium-sized e-commerce business, “Trendy Threads,” selling clothing and accessories online. They were experiencing growing pains in their customer support department. Email inquiries were overwhelming their small team, response times were slow, and customer satisfaction was starting to decline. Trendy Threads decided to implement intermediate-level AI automation to address these challenges.

Implementation Steps:

1. Implemented An AI-Powered Ticketing System (Zoho Desk) ● They upgraded to Zoho Desk’s higher tier plan, which included AI-powered features. The system automatically categorized incoming emails, tagged them with relevant keywords (e.g., “shipping,” “returns,” “damaged item”), and routed them to the appropriate support team (shipping inquiries to the shipping team, returns to the returns team, etc.).
2. Integrated Sentiment Analysis ● Zoho Desk’s sentiment analysis Meaning ● Sentiment Analysis, for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), is a crucial business tool for understanding customer perception of their brand, products, or services. feature was activated to monitor the sentiment of incoming emails. Emails with negative sentiment were flagged and prioritized for immediate attention. This allowed the team to proactively address potentially dissatisfied customers.
3. Deployed Agent Assist Tool (Zoho Desk’s “Answer Suggestion”) ● They enabled Zoho Desk’s “Answer Suggestion” feature, which used AI to suggest relevant knowledge base articles and pre-written responses to agents as they responded to tickets. This significantly reduced agent response times and ensured consistent answers to common questions.
4. Personalized Knowledge Base ● They organized their knowledge base content and enabled Zoho Desk’s dynamic content feature. Based on customer login information and past interactions, the knowledge base presented more relevant articles to logged-in users, improving self-service resolution rates.

Results:

• Email Response Time Reduction ● Average email response time decreased by 60% within the first month.
• Improved Agent Productivity ● Agents were able to handle 30% more tickets per day due to AI assistance and workflow automation.
• Increased Customer Satisfaction ● Customer satisfaction scores, measured through post-interaction surveys, increased by 15%.
• Reduced Ticket Escalation Rate ● Proactive sentiment analysis and faster response times led to a 20% reduction in ticket escalation to higher support tiers.

Trendy Threads’ experience demonstrates the tangible benefits of intermediate AI automation. By strategically implementing AI-powered ticketing, sentiment analysis, agent assist tools, and knowledge base personalization, they significantly improved their customer support efficiency, enhanced customer satisfaction, and scaled their support operations without proportionally increasing staffing.

Choosing Intermediate AI Tools

When selecting intermediate-level AI customer support tools, SMBs should consider tools that offer:

• Advanced Chatbot Capabilities ● Chatbots with NLP for more natural and conversational interactions, integration with CRM and other business systems, and ability to handle more complex queries.
• AI-Powered Ticketing Systems ● Ticketing systems with intelligent routing, prioritization, sentiment analysis, and workflow automation.
• Agent Assist Tools ● Platforms offering real-time knowledge base suggestions, suggested responses, and automated task completion for agents.
• Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) Integration ● Tools that can integrate with CDPs to leverage customer data for personalization and segmentation.
• Analytics And Reporting ● Robust analytics dashboards to track key metrics, identify areas for improvement, and measure the ROI of AI automation initiatives.

Here’s a table comparing some intermediate AI customer support tools:

By strategically implementing these intermediate-level AI tools and techniques, SMBs can build a more efficient, personalized, and scalable customer support operation, driving customer loyalty and fueling continued growth.

Transformative AI Strategies For Customer Support Leadership

For SMBs ready to push the boundaries of customer support and achieve a significant competitive edge, advanced AI strategies offer transformative potential. This level focuses on leveraging cutting-edge AI technologies to move beyond reactive support to proactive engagement, predictive issue resolution, and continuous optimization Meaning ● Continuous Optimization, in the realm of SMBs, signifies an ongoing, cyclical process of incrementally improving business operations, strategies, and systems through data-driven analysis and iterative adjustments. driven by AI-powered analytics. At this stage, AI becomes not just a tool for efficiency, but a strategic asset for creating exceptional customer experiences and fostering long-term loyalty.

Predictive And Proactive Support With AI

Moving beyond reactive support, advanced AI enables SMBs to anticipate customer needs and proactively address potential issues before they even arise. This proactive approach elevates customer support from a cost center to a value driver, enhancing customer satisfaction and building stronger relationships.

Predictive Customer Service Analytics

Advanced AI algorithms can analyze vast datasets of customer data ● including past interactions, purchase history, website behavior, social media activity, and even external data sources ● to identify patterns and predict future customer behavior and needs. Predictive analytics Meaning ● Strategic foresight through data for SMB success. can be used to:

• Predict Customer Churn ● AI models can identify customers at high risk of churn based on their behavior patterns. This allows SMBs to proactively engage with at-risk customers, offer personalized incentives, and address their concerns before they decide to leave.
• Predict Support Needs ● By analyzing customer behavior and product usage data, AI can predict when a customer is likely to need support. This enables proactive outreach, offering assistance or helpful resources before the customer even initiates contact.
• Personalize Proactive Engagement ● Predictive analytics can inform personalized proactive engagement Meaning ● Proactive Engagement, within the sphere of Small and Medium-sized Businesses, denotes a preemptive and strategic approach to customer interaction and relationship management. strategies. For example, if a customer is predicted to need help setting up a new product feature, the AI can trigger a proactive email or in-app message with relevant tutorials and support resources.

Predictive analytics empowers SMBs to shift from reactive to proactive support, anticipating customer needs and preventing issues before they escalate.

Proactive Chatbots And Intelligent Outreach

Advanced chatbots can be deployed proactively to engage with website visitors or app users based on predicted needs and behavior. Proactive chatbots Meaning ● Proactive Chatbots, within the scope of Small and Medium-sized Businesses, represent a sophisticated evolution of customer interaction, going beyond reactive query answering to initiate relevant conversations that drive sales, improve customer satisfaction, and streamline business processes. can:

• Offer Assistance Based on Website Behavior ● If a visitor spends an extended time on a specific product page or pricing page, a proactive chatbot can initiate a conversation, offering assistance, answering questions, or providing personalized recommendations.
• Provide Onboarding Support for New Users ● For new customers or users of a product or service, proactive chatbots can guide them through the onboarding process, offering tutorials, tips, and answering common setup questions.
• Offer Proactive Solutions to Predicted Issues ● Based on predictive analytics, proactive chatbots can reach out to customers who are predicted to experience issues, offering solutions or preemptive guidance. For example, if a customer is predicted to encounter a billing issue, a proactive chatbot can initiate a conversation to clarify billing details or offer payment assistance.

Proactive chatbots move beyond reactive query answering to become active engagement tools, enhancing customer experience Meaning ● Customer Experience for SMBs: Holistic, subjective customer perception across all interactions, driving loyalty and growth. and driving proactive issue resolution.

AI-Driven Continuous Support Optimization

Advanced AI not only automates and enhances customer support interactions but also provides powerful tools for continuous optimization and improvement of the entire support operation. AI-powered analytics and feedback loops enable SMBs to identify areas for improvement, refine processes, and continuously enhance the customer support experience.

AI-Powered Customer Feedback Analysis

Collecting customer feedback Meaning ● Customer Feedback, within the landscape of SMBs, represents the vital information conduit channeling insights, opinions, and reactions from customers pertaining to products, services, or the overall brand experience; it is strategically used to inform and refine business decisions related to growth, automation initiatives, and operational implementations. is essential, but manually analyzing large volumes of feedback data (surveys, reviews, chat transcripts, social media comments) is time-consuming and often inefficient. AI-powered feedback analysis Meaning ● AI-Powered Feedback Analysis for SMBs: Transforming customer voices into actionable growth strategies through intelligent automation. tools can automate this process, providing valuable insights from unstructured feedback data. These tools can:

• Automate Sentiment Analysis of Feedback ● AI can automatically analyze the sentiment expressed in customer feedback, identifying positive, negative, and neutral feedback at scale.
• Identify Key Themes and Topics in Feedback ● AI can analyze feedback data to identify recurring themes, topics, and pain points mentioned by customers. This helps SMBs understand the most common issues and areas for improvement.
• Prioritize Feedback Based on Impact and Urgency ● AI can prioritize feedback based on sentiment, frequency of occurrence, and potential business impact, ensuring that critical issues are addressed promptly.
• Track Trends in Customer Sentiment Meaning ● Customer sentiment, within the context of Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs), Growth, Automation, and Implementation, reflects the aggregate of customer opinions and feelings about a company’s products, services, or brand. over time ● AI can track changes in customer sentiment over time, allowing SMBs to monitor the impact of support improvements and identify emerging issues.

AI-powered feedback analysis provides actionable insights from customer feedback, enabling data-driven improvements to the customer support operation.

Dynamic Agent Skill Routing And Optimization

Advanced AI can dynamically optimize agent skill routing and workload distribution based on real-time data and predictive models. This goes beyond basic skill-based routing to consider factors like:

• Agent Skill Level and Expertise ● AI can assess agent skill levels and match tickets to agents with the most relevant expertise for specific issue types.
• Agent Availability and Workload ● AI can dynamically adjust ticket routing based on real-time agent availability and workload, ensuring balanced workload distribution and minimizing wait times.
• Customer Sentiment and Complexity of Issue ● For complex or emotionally charged issues, AI can route tickets to more experienced or specialized agents.
• Predicted Resolution Time ● AI can predict the estimated resolution time for different issue types and route tickets to agents who are predicted to resolve them most efficiently.

Dynamic agent skill routing optimizes agent utilization, reduces resolution times, and ensures that customers are connected with the most appropriate agent for their needs.

Advanced AI strategies focus on proactive and predictive support, combined with AI-driven continuous optimization, transforming customer support into a strategic differentiator for SMBs.

Case Study ● Proactive Support In A SaaS SMB

Consider a SaaS SMB, “Cloud Solutions,” offering project management software. They aimed to reduce churn and improve customer lifetime value Meaning ● Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) for SMBs is the projected net profit from a customer relationship, guiding strategic decisions for sustainable growth. by implementing proactive customer support Meaning ● Anticipating customer needs and resolving issues preemptively to enhance satisfaction and drive SMB growth. using advanced AI strategies.

Implementation Steps:

1. Implemented Predictive Churn Analytics ● They integrated an AI-powered predictive analytics platform that analyzed user behavior within their software (feature usage, login frequency, project completion rates, etc.) to identify users at high risk of churn.
2. Proactive In-App Chatbot Engagement ● For users identified as high churn risk, they implemented proactive in-app chatbot engagement. The chatbot would trigger when a user exhibited specific risk behaviors (e.g., infrequent logins, low feature usage) and offer personalized assistance, tutorials, or troubleshooting guidance.
3. Personalized Proactive Email Campaigns ● In addition to in-app chatbots, they launched personalized proactive email campaigns targeted at at-risk users. These emails offered tailored support resources, success tips, and invitations to personalized onboarding sessions.
4. AI-Powered Feedback Analysis Loop ● They implemented an AI-powered feedback analysis tool to analyze customer support tickets, in-app feedback, and user reviews. This tool identified recurring pain points and areas for software improvement, which were then fed back into product development and support process optimization.

Results:

• Churn Rate Reduction ● Churn rate among at-risk users decreased by 25% within three months of implementing proactive support Meaning ● Proactive Support, within the Small and Medium-sized Business sphere, centers on preemptively addressing client needs and potential issues before they escalate into significant problems, reducing operational frictions and enhancing overall business efficiency. strategies.
• Improved Customer Engagement ● Proactive chatbot and email engagement led to a 40% increase in user engagement with support resources and tutorials.
• Increased Customer Lifetime Value ● Reduced churn and improved customer engagement contributed to a measurable increase in customer lifetime value.
• Faster Issue Resolution ● Proactive issue identification and early intervention led to faster resolution of potential problems, improving overall customer experience.

Cloud Solutions’ experience highlights the transformative impact of advanced AI strategies. By leveraging predictive analytics, proactive chatbots, personalized outreach, and AI-powered feedback analysis, they moved beyond reactive support to proactively address customer needs, reduce churn, and build stronger customer relationships.

Selecting Advanced AI Tools

For advanced AI customer support, SMBs should look for tools and platforms offering:

• Predictive Analytics Capabilities ● Platforms with built-in predictive analytics or integration capabilities with dedicated predictive analytics tools.
• Advanced NLP And Machine Learning ● Tools leveraging sophisticated NLP and machine learning algorithms for sentiment analysis, intent recognition, and proactive engagement.
• Proactive Chatbot Functionality ● Chatbots capable of initiating conversations based on user behavior, predictive models, and personalized triggers.
• Comprehensive Analytics And Reporting ● Robust analytics dashboards with predictive metrics, trend analysis, and customizable reports for continuous optimization.
• Integration With Broader Business Systems ● Seamless integration with CRM, marketing automation platforms, product usage data platforms, and other business systems to leverage a holistic view of the customer.

Here’s a table comparing some advanced AI customer support platforms:

By embracing these advanced AI tools and strategies, SMBs can transform their customer support operations from reactive cost centers into proactive value drivers, achieving customer support leadership and gaining a significant competitive advantage in the market.

References

• Kaplan, Andreas; Haenlein, Michael. (2019). Siri, Siri in my hand, who’s the fairest in the land? On the interpretations, illustrations, and implications of artificial intelligence. Business Horizons, 62(1), 15-25.
• Parasuraman, A.; Colby, Charles L. (2015). Animiated Analytics ● Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Customer Service. Business Expert Press.