Endless Possibility: 5 Exciting Possibilities for AI in Customer Success
By Lauren Costella-Reber
The launch of ChatGPT and other advancements in AI have created quite the stir in various business communities. The possibilities of being able to do more with less and create value for customers is quite the exciting prospect. With the launch of ChatGPT in November of 2022, the buzz around AI has only grown and now a conflagration of ideas and conversation has ignited. At this point, if AI isn’t part of your business strategy, you’re behind.
One of the most exciting prospects for AI use is within Customer Success. There truly are endless possibilities of how we can think about the deployment of AI to enhance and create incredible customer experiences across the customer journey.
Some critics claim AI is out for our jobs. I don’t believe this in the slightest. AI will, however, force us to be more creative, think more critically, and move beyond the basics. If AI can do the basics, it’s up to humans to be the human side: creative, challenge, think differently, and this is an exciting prospect. No longer will we need to do the mundane; rather, we can focus our energy on the connection with our customers and driving that incredible experience.
Where do we see the opportunities in CS? There are opportunities everywhere, but I thought I would share my perspective on some exciting possibilities for AI use specifically in Customer Success (note: I’m purposely leaving out customer support. While it’s common for Support to fall in the department of Customer Success, I’m focusing today’s blog on the Customer Success-specific activities, in other words, those that proactively drive value for clients. There are a plethora of ways AI can drive support activities too, and perhaps worth another post).
Onboarding: this is one of the most common areas of application for AI. One of the most exciting applications comes with providing every customer with an onboarding tutor or assistant. This prospect is exciting because it’s not something we can offer, in most cases, in business today, especially if we want to scale and achieve good gross margins. Imagine, though, being able to provide to every customer and every user an onboarding assistant to which they can ask questions and learn the product in a tailored way. Many CS leaders today are already employing methods to create user-level learning, but there are limitations. It’s not easy or simple to develop onboarding plans that cater to the needs of each individual user, but AI presents us with possibilities to do that as AI can scan all information about a customer and resources we have about the product, and use that information to train the customer in a more personalized way.
Customer Education: similarly to onboarding, customer education presents huge opportunities for AI to create great customer experiences. Customer education generally provides customers resources (like videos, articles, walkthroughs, etc.) so they can continuously learn and grow their usage and adoption of the product. As any CS leader will tell you, though, these resources aren’t always used by customers to get to more advanced usage. Many times, customers reach out to support to get the answers to basic questions and don’t always explore and use these resources to get to advanced usage or “sticky” usage. Imagine, though, a world where these educational resources can be turned into a tutor or assistant or a virtual CSM. I listened to a podcast with Khan Academy CEO Sal Khan. He discussed incorporating AI into a virtual tutor called Khanmigo. Khanmigo can help students learn context or talk through deeper scenarios and questions. He shares an example of a student being able to talk to characters of books, like Jay Gatsby of the Great Gatsby. By engaging with the character, the student can learn difficult concepts that otherwise could have been missed. Imagine that! Teachers, like CSMs, want to create personalized customer experiences for students, but cannot because of the economies of scale…generally 30:1. With advancements in AI, teachers can provide personalized, contextual learning at scale. And I see this translating directly to what we are trying to drive as CS Leaders and CSMs.
Customer Engagement: The above examples lead to another exciting area of AI possibilities: customer engagement. If the above two scenarios are adopted, let’s consider how customer engagement can be further enhanced. The point of engaging customers early and proactively is to help them understand the product and enhancements and how that can support their business. Often, this is tough to drive, especially in one-to-many programs. Yes, product releases and webinars are common, and even user-level walkthroughs, but imagine if an individual user can engage with an AI resource to get personalized application of new features and functionality instead of something more generic. The customer can receive 1:1 help with how the new enhancements directly apply based on what the person does in the business. When users can make connections to “how does this apply to me” or “why should I care,” we can drive better stickiness and usage of the product and help drive better outcomes for customers.
Proactive Support: If AI can use all kinds of data to provide better answers to questions, think about the implications of proactive support! The whole premise of CS is to work ahead and prevent issues from occurring. AI could support our human resources in providing JUST this type of customer engagement. Many platforms already exist to try to give CSMs a single place to go for all information about a customer, but still, this is limited. Imagine AI supporting CSMs in capturing further context about a customer, summarizing call information, taking notes and helping the CSM to keep on top of it. More importantly, imagine AI informing the CSM or reaching out to the customer as a “CSM assistant” of sorts to schedule time with the client, so the CSM and client can prevent problems before they start! How exciting!
Understanding Customer Goals: Finally, a thrilling application of AI comes with understanding specific goals and objectives of each customer, so we can tailor products and services to meet our customer needs. We can capture some of this in onboarding but to scale this for thousands of customers and keep it going as customers evolve is another challenge entirely. Customers grow; they have turnover; and their objectives change. Understanding what changes are happening at scale presents a big challenge within CS. AI can help us with this. AI can help us capture more user-based and unique information about the customer, and with this information we can use this data to help ensure we take appropriate actions to help drive outcomes and results. Imagine, if AI can capture user turnover and the new hire’s new role, and work with them to use the product based on their unique role in the business? To do this at scale is impossible, but with the advent of AI, no customer or user would be left behind to try to “figure it out” on their own.
AI is coming and it’s here to stay. It has to be part of our strategy, planning and long term thinking. There are some very exciting implications that will help drive ongoing and maximum value for our customers. This post hardly captures all the ways we can and should be thinking about AI, which leads me to ask, where do you see AI in Customer Success?
The Success League is a global Customer Success consulting firm that also offers coaching as well as a robust learning program with Certification for both CSMs and CS Leaders. Visit our website at TheSuccessLeague.io to view our full offerings or reach out to us with any specific inquiries.
Lauren Costella-Reber - Lauren is a change agent, communicator, leader and passionate champion for Customer Success. When she’s not working as the Chief Customer Officer at Dental Intelligence, you can find her serving as an advisor for The Success League, a board member for the Customer Success Network, and blogging on the CS Playlist. Lauren has her MA and BA from Stanford University. She was a former USA National swim team member and enjoys staying active in the Bay Area.
