How Natural Language Processing Can Improve the Customer Experience

Natural language processing, or NLP for short, is a machine learning capability that enables AI to not only process text or speech, but to interpret the meaning of them in context and deliver an appropriate response.

Put simply, NLP is what helps AI figure out what the “right response” is when engaging with customers. There are several benefits that come from employing a capability like this as part of your customer service and support. Most commonly, you’ve probably seen natural language processing in action in the form of chatbots. 

As AI continues to evolve, these chatbots are getting more and more intelligent. The result? They can provide a more personalized, detailed response to whatever the customer query may be. If you don’t yet have one of these, ask how Smith.ai can deliver a custom chatbot solution, and even an AI voice assistant that integrates all the best features of live agents and conversational AI. 

Let’s take a closer look at exactly how NLP can help you improve the customer experience. 

Chatbots 

Since we’ve already mentioned them as an example, why not take a closer look at the benefits here? Chatbots have been deployed for customer service in droves over the past few years. As more customers demand self-service options and 24/7 availability, tools like AI-based chatbots are providing a cost-effective alternative to keeping staff on hand at all hours. 

With natural language processing, you can automate a lot of customer service tasks and general queries. In the time it takes one agent to handle a handful of requests, a chatbot can field a million customers if you need it to. 

With AI-based chatbots, customers get accurate answers around the clock and if a live agent is needed, you’re the first to know. As technology continues to evolve, it’s likely that these chatbots will continue to get smarter, providing even more value to the customer experience. 

Marketing and outreach 

Another great use of NLP and AI is in your advertising and marketing. You can create highly-targeted and ultra-personalized marketing campaigns. These can be implemented across all channels to reach every audience, making it more likely that you get more clicks and conversions than before. 

NLP can go through social media and look for brand or product mentions, purchase intent or completed purchases, and other data that it can use to create a more targeted marketing campaign. It can also use keyword matching to look for people who match customer criteria and find expressions of interest. 

Best of all, NLP can actually take in the context of the mention, making sure that customers get marketing content they are genuinely interested in. 

Reputation management and sentiment analysis 

The Internet is full of places where companies can find endless insight about customer opinions, needs, and intent. NLP gives companies the chance to cull those sources to understand the customer’s voice and the emotion attached to it. Being able to capture sentiment and emotion is invaluable because that is what will determine a customer’s decisions. 

You can use NLP to scour the web for any references to your company or products/services, and then find out whether those references were good, bad, in-between, or somewhere else entirely. It’s not just about gathering the information for you—we’ve been able to do that for years. NLP takes it one step further by interpreting the data so you can make smarter decisions. 

Creating connection and empathy 

Because generative AI models can use data to train themselves on how to respond, they can do something that once was only capable of humans: respond with empathy and understanding. NLP can use paraphrasing and dialogue training to help your AI chatbot respond to the customer in a more personalized, connected way. That gives them the benefit of self-service without missing out. 

If your AI models are more empathic, they’ll also be more capable of anticipating needs as time goes on. This is an important part of the customer experience. People often speak highly of companies that can anticipate their needs and deliver solutions accordingly. This means that you can drive business and growth when you invest in the right NLP resources. 

Automated responses and self-service 

We already talked about chatbots above, but this is more about the activity than the feature. Within chatbots, as well as email responders, voice assistants, and other AI tools, you will be able to use NLP to come up with automated responses to simple questions, repetitive inquiries, and other common customer concerns. 

NLP takes it one step further than simply using a text or speech input to provide a response. It actually considers intent along with the input so that it can find the best possible response. This is enhancing customer service and the entire customer experience, both in self-service features and elsewhere online. 

Enhanced understanding of the customer experience 

NLP does so much while it’s helping you with other aspects of your business that it’s also doing something in the background. Your continued use of NLP and generative AI will deliver insights on the customer experience and what your customers need. As your AI models train themselves, they will report to you with relevant updates and insights. 

You will also be able to learn more about user intent and what people seek when they’re looking for a company like yours, which can enhance your marketing and outreach. The value of the insights gained from NLP is something that every company can appreciate. 

Improve the customer experience even further 

If you’re looking for support and thinking about AI, look no further than the virtual receptionists at Smith.ai. In addition to our new AI voice assistant, we can also provide tons of support to enhance the customer experience. 

Ask about our assistance with outreach campaigns, including lead intake and appointment scheduling. Need help with a chatbot or live chat service? We can do that, too. Plus, we also have a 24/7 answering service so you never miss a single customer, even when you’re not on the clock. 

To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai.