Solving customer problems before they become customer service problems – what witchcraft is this?

These days, simply responding and reacting to customer queries is no longer the sign of great customer experience (CX), it’s the bare minimum. We’re already juggling work, family, attempting to keep fit and maintaining a social life, all while wondering if it’s physically possible for fuel prices to get any higher…

The last thing anyone needs is to keep tabs on, and chase companies about, routine life admin.

So, how can you get proactive and help customers solve predictable issues before they even have to think about getting in touch with your customer service team?

Automation, with brainsssss

Sure, automation can do a decent job of proactively alerting your customers to something that needs their attention. Let’s say a payment fails. Standard automation would then send the customer a text message telling them they need to update their card details. Great!

But then the customer has to add sorting it to their mental to-do list.

They may need to find the time to get in touch, update their card details and redo the original order. If they get stuck, it can become another thing for your customer service team to pick up.

Agentic AI on the other hand, is like automation with a brain. It assesses the customer’s situation, works out the approved next step, and helps them take that step – all within built-in rules and safeguards you set. So, if a payment fails, this time the Agentic AI Agent checks the account and payment history, works out which options are relevant to the customer, and then helps them update their details and redo the purchase there and then.

To take it a step further, with the right data and permissions, Agentic AI can even check the systems ahead of an upcoming payment, notice that a customer’s card will expire before the payment is made and proactively reach out to help them update the details. Now we’re talking.

No witchcraft, just Agentic AI

Being proactive is about more than alerting your customers to an issue as early as possible. It’s about giving them everything they need to sort something quickly, easily, and before it lands on their never-ending to-do list (or yours).

In fact, Agentic AI can do so much it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and have no idea where to begin. But you don’t need to transform your organisation overnight.

Our top tip? Think about the biggest reason customers keep getting in touch with you and start with that. Is it an issue you can warn your customers about, or even better, proactively help them sort out before they even have to contact you? That’s the sweet spot.