AI Powered Ticket Automation – Everything You Need To Know

Updated on January 23, 2024

Customer support teams today are facing a higher risk of burnout than ever!!

This is because of the rising number of customer queries and the greater need to be on top of these queries faster! Hey, if you don’t take care of your customer, your competition will!!

In fact, according to survey by Zendesk, 50% of the customers will switch to a competitor after one bad experience.

So how do you strike the perfect balance between keeping customers happy by providing the fastest response, while at the same time keeping costs low?

The answer: AI- powered ticket automation.

In this blog post, we take a deep dive into how Artificial Intelligence will make resolving tickets a breeze. We will also talk about benefits of using AI in automating customer support. By the end, you will know why you must invest in an AI-powered ticketing automation solution.

Let’s go right in.

What is ticketing automation and how AI is solving the game?

Resolving customer support issues is a challenge, and has been from quite some time now. 

The older method was a combination of email and phone support, which usually involved the role of multiple support agents.

These support agents underwent extensive training on the product, and they were given the task of resolving customer support tickets in the least amount of time.

This form of ticketing is ripe for automation, and this is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) steps in.

A software solution that uses the power of Artificial Intelligence to automate solving customer support tickets – this is AI powered ticket automation. Here, the software classifies, prioritizes and routes tickets to the right agents or teams.

In addition to this, AI powered ticket automation also provides self service options to the customers. It uses machine learning algorithms to analyze the context of tickets, along with their content.  With this knowledge, it is able to identify patterns and trends in the tickets. This enables the system to make informed decisions as to how to handle each ticket.

Businesses of all sizes can use AI in automating their customer support ticket system. Let us now look at some of the benefits of AI powered ticket automation systems.

Benefits of AI powered ticketing automation systems:

1. Scalability: 

One of the key challenges that organizations face is scaling their customer support function. This traditionally involves hiring multiple support agents or making the existing agents work overtime. This traditional approach involves a lot of financial commitment on the organization’s part. 

Using AI powered ticket automation systems such as chatbots, organizations can handle an increase in ticket volumes, without necessarily incurring additional costs.

2. Improved accuracy

AI systems are excellent at understanding natural language, reducing the chances of misclassification of customer requests. This greatly improves customer experience, leading to increased customer satisfaction and better CSAT scores.

3. Improved efficiency

Automation of repetitive tasks is something that AI systems excel in, and this has a direct impact on efficiency. Based on the urgency and content, these ticket automation systems can classify and prioritize tickets. This will ensure that the most important issues receive immediate attention.

4. Cost savings

Automation of tasks leads to improvement in efficiency, this much we have seen. An obvious side effect of this phenomenon is that organizations can save a lot of money by introducing ticket automation. Lesser agents with fewer shifts leads to direct savings in manpower costs.

5. 24/7 availability

One of the key benefits of automation is that AI powered tools such as chatbots are available around the clock. This means you no longer need to employ agents in rotating shifts, and customers get instant response to their queries, no matter their location.

We now know that AI powered ticket automation is going to solve a lot of your ticketing queries, but some questions still remain.

For instance, what lies under the hood? How exactly does AI powered ticket automation work?

While we are not going to look at the tech aspect of this deeply, we are going to tell you a bit on how AI powered ticket automation actually works.

How does AI powered ticketing automation work?

Artificial intelligence is a broad term, and some of the key technologies that make ticket automation work include:

1. Natural language Processing: 

NLP as it is commonly known deals with interactions between computers and human languages. How does the computer understand the content and context of customer tickets? It is through NLP.

2. Machine learning

Computers today have the ability to learn, without being explicitly programmed. It may sound scary and something out of science fiction, but that is exactly what machine learning is. ML as it is commonly known finds its application in ticket automation systems in classifying, routing and prioritizing tickets on the basis of historical data.

3. Knowledge base

A knowledge base is a repository of information, like, for instance, the documentation section on Kommunicate website. In AI powered ticket automation systems, knowledge base helps in providing self service options to the customers.You can also use knowledge base to automate common tasks such as sending status updates.

So AI powered ticket automation uses NLP to understand and interpret incoming ticket requests or inquiries. Machine learning then classifies the tickets and prioritizes them based on content and context. It also uses predictive analytics to forecast ticket volumes and trends, paving the way for proactive problem solving.

The most common queries are taken care of by chatbots and virtual agents, whereas routing of advanced queries happens to human agents with relevant expertise. Over the course of time, the AI learns and improves its responses, adapting to various customer needs that change.

This is a high level description of the technology that powers ticketing automation. Now, let us look at how ticket automation works in the real world.

Examples of AI powered ticketing automation

Education

One of the key areas where chatbots find their application is websites of educational institutes. Students, both new and current, have a lot of queries that the administration department of an institution needs to answer. These queries can come from various geographies, and it does not always make sense to hire admin staff who will work around the clock.

This is where a ticket automation solution, such as a chatbot, finds its application. A chatbot is available around the clock, does not get tired answering repetitive queries, and is cost effective. One such institution that made use of chatbots to handle a lot of their students’ queries was Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI). 

BTVI’s students were reaching out to the institute with questions around admissions procedures, possible reopening dates of departments past COVID, and other repetitive queries. Using Kommunicate’s chatbot, BTVI was able to address most of these queries.

 Insurance

The customer support departments in the insurance sector are a harried lot. They have to deal with customers who will come to them with a wide range of queries. The customer support agents have to be patient, prompt, and give the information in the least amount of time. This sector had a heavy emphasis on email to address their tickets, but this conventional way of doing things was again ripe for automation.

With ticketing automation backed by AI, the insurance sector’s customer support teams can breathe a sigh of relief. This is because automation tools such as chatbots are not only quick in their response, they are also highly accurate. Take the case of Conte.IT, one of Italy’s biggest insurance players.

Conte.IT’s customers were reaching out to the company to ask about renewal or cancellation of insurance policies. Conte.IT wanted its customers to be more autonomous. While the company did have a bevy of customer support agents, it felt that the time was ripe to introduce a chatbot to streamline operations. Read the story of how Conte.IT boosted customer satisfaction with Kommunicate. 

Healthcare

The customer support agents working in the  healthcare sector can vouch for the fact that their jobs can get really stressful at times. This is because patients come to them with all sorts of queries, some of them trivial and some of them life threatening. The customer support agents have to deal with these queries tactfully, and make sure that they pay more attention to the serious cases.

Customers generally raise tickets around the various facilities available at a healthcare organization, including doctor’s appointment timings and insurance queries. The closure of these tickets must happen rapidly, and there are only so many administrative staff (who act as customer support agents) that a hospital can hire. Enter automation.

Ticketing automation tools such as chatbots can vastly improve the quality of resolution that patients get from healthcare organizations. Take the case of FCB health, for instance. FCB Health gave marketing solutions to healthcare organizations in the US, and the agents at FCB were facing a lot of repetitive queries. When they teamed up with Kommunicate, FCB Health was able to automate more than 86% of customer conversations.’

Also Read: The Complete Guide to Automating Customer Service

Not just these, ticket automation solutions with AI under the hood find its takers in a host of other industries, including BFSI, Information Technology and Manufacturing. We are just scratching the surface of what can be done with this amazing technology.

There are, however,  a few concerns when you implement AI in ticket automation solutions. Let us look at them briefly.

Challenges in implementing AI powered ticket automation systems

1. Complexity

Ticket automation systems, especially with AI powering them, can be a bit complex to implement. If you work for a mid to large sized organization, then you may need a dedicated IT team to implement and monitor the ticket automation system.

Having said that, you can build a fully customizable chatbot in less than 10 minutes, and have it address some of your common tickets. For a more robust ticketing system, we recommend you get in touch with an IT expert.

2. Data quality

To function efficiently, AI powered ticket automation systems need high quality data. If this data is compromised or is of inferior quality, it will affect the functioning of the entire system. Hence, data quality is of utmost importance when building a ticket automation system.

3. Change management

Once you decide to implement a ticket automation system powered by AI, there will be significant changes in the way the customer support function operates. Hence, it is important that you communicate this change to all the stakeholders carefully. This is so that the transition is smooth and the system is adopted successfully.

Other than these, sometimes there are also challenges in the form of increased costs and integration with existing systems. These challenges can easily be overcome if you find the right technology partner.

In summary

• AI powered ticket automation uses a software solution to automate the resolution of customer support tickets.

• Benefits of AI powered ticket automation solutions include scalability, improved accuracy and efficiency, reduced costs and 24/7 availability.

• The technology behind these ticket automation systems is the harmonious functioning of NLP, machine learning and knowledge base.

• Some of the industries that use this technology are education, healthcare, insurance, BFSI, IT and manufacturing.

• Challenges faced while implementing ticketing automation are complexity, data quality and change management.

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At Kommunicate, we are envisioning a world-beating customer support solution to empower the new era of customer support. We would love to have you on board to have a first-hand experience of Kommunicate. You can signup here and start delighting your customers right away.