Every business spends time contemplating how they can improve customer service. It is an essential part of selling your product. This is especially true in a world where one upset customer can spend 15 minutes on their social media account thrashing your company, meaning you’ll lose their business as well as their friends and anyone else who may end up seeing the post. And while working with a person is still necessary in many situations when someone seeks out customer service, there have been extremely positive results from changing to a machine. With machine learning and artificial intelligence startups taking charge, machines are becoming quicker and more efficient for communication with customers. Here are 4 ways a machine can improve customer service at your company.

1. Automate repetitive tasks

The first way a machine can improve your customer service experience is by automating tasks that are necessary but don’t need an actual human to do them. For example, banks have machines that count out the money for them, so they don’t have to waste time doing that, and many pharmacies are beginning to install machines that dispense the most common prescriptions they have quickly and easily to customers. These types of machines will help improve the customer experience by decreasing the amount of time an interaction takes and by allowing the actual employees to focus more on the customer’s individual needs instead of wasting time counting pills or money.

2. Customers communicate on their own time

With the right artificial intelligence in place, you can allow customers to contact your business at any time and through any means while still getting an immediate response. An artificial intelligence platform would allow a computer to receive questions from a customer, recognize what the person is asking, and then formulate a response either asking for clarification or just answering the customer question. And while there are times a person may still prefer to speak to a representative directly, having an offline system is still extremely valuable to letting customers reach out on their own time and schedule.

3. Reduce wait times

One common complaint that customer service departments deal with on a regular basis is about the wait times. Either they had to wait to long to teach a customer service agent or it took too long for that agent to get an answer. As a business, reducing wait times often just means increasing the number of support positions, but that isn’t always realistic for a specific budget and doesn’t actually reduce the time a customer must wait in many cases. Machines, however, can help drastically improve the amount of time a customer has to wait for help. For example, T-Mobile has a service where a customer can put their name on a list to get called back later instead of having to wait on the phone for the next representative. The machine can also communicate with more customers to resolve problems using AI making it easier for real agents to focus on bigger issues that need more human and complex resolutions.

4. Increase accuracy

Another way machines are helping with customer service issues is that they are creating more accuracy. Human error is one of the biggest reasons customer service agents receive calls and texts from customers with questions about their experience with your company. However, if things are done correctly in the first place, there’s less likely to be an error. For example, a machine will copy the address a customer gives and post it directly onto a shipping label to ensure an accurate shipment. However, a human copying it over might mistakenly put one of the wrong numbers or even the wrong address in some cases. By reducing human error and increasing accuracy through machines, you are taking preventative steps to ensure your customers are happy in the beginning. The best customer service is preventative.