Typically, businesses have human receptionists and front desk assistants to handle calls from customers and potential leads. With AI, things are changing. Many companies, including small businesses, have switched to AI receptionists from services like https://www.signpost.com/, and the outcomes have been excellent. In this guide, let’s check the pros and cons of both options at a glance.
A look at customer care executives
Traditional customer care executives attend to callers and offer necessary support. The process is rather manual, but humans can empathize and offer assistance when there are more complex queries. However, there are a few aspects on the flip side. Firstly, hiring human receptionists is expensive. There are inherent costs of salaries, recruitment, and benefits. For smaller businesses, there are also additional concerns about scaling. You cannot expect to suddenly expand the team when there is an expected rise in call volume. Also, humans work for fixed hours and can only respond to one caller at a time.
Reviewing AI receptionists
An AI receptionist is a computer program that’s largely propelled by advanced natural language processing, machine learning, and AI. Unlike humans, AI is available 24/7, which means no call will ever go to voicemail. There are also limited scalability concerns, as AI receptionists can answer millions of calls immediately. Calls are often answered within seconds, which ensures customers never have to wait. AI models can be trained easily by updating scripts, and all responses remain in your control. AI receptionists, however, have limitations too. Certain complex issues may still require human intervention, and some callers may expect custom assistance.
Blending the best of both
The ideal way to manage calls for your business is to have a dedicated team and an AI receptionist. AI can work as the first responder, and if someone needs more support, AI can directly transfer the call to the human agent. That way, you don’t have to scale your existing team and continue to offer superior customer support. AI calls are automatically recorded, which means your customer care team can also check responses and do their job better.
Selecting the right AI receptionist
If you have found a reason to switch to AI for customer care, the next step is to choose the right service. With numerous options, finding the right AI receptionist can take some background work. Start with the features, including how the service provider allows you to take control of your AI model. You should have the flexibility to modify scripts and should be able to scale at your own pace. Another aspect that is mandatory is uptime. You would want the AI receptionist to be available at all times, or else, the actual purpose of ensuring availability is compromised. We also recommend checking how you are billed for the service. Some companies have no-bond monthly packages, and such calls usually have a fixed amount for a certain call duration. You will be billed separately when call volume and duration increase.
Start with your AI receptionist today
When it comes to getting started with AI, the onboarding process is fairly simple. Your AI receptionist can start working as long as you have detailed brand information and ready scripts with questions and answers. Would you need your front desk receptionists? Yes, but their work volume will be lower, which also means they will be more productive. AI can simplify how calls are managed, and you can continue to serve customers better by bringing in your human experts.
Find your AI receptionist today and launch a new area of customer service. Happy customers only mean more business, better reviews, and improved brand value.
