Voice AI Agents for Customer Service: A Complete Guide

In a world where instant gratification is the norm, it may come as a surprise that 81% of service professionals say the phone is a preferred channel for complex issues. But here’s the catch: while the phone remains a top choice, traditional VR systems can be stuck in the past, leading to long wait times and sky-high costs. Enter voice AI agents, which use artificial intelligence to understand, interpret, and respond to human speech.

With the help of call center integration software, service reps and supervisors can better handle call volume, speed up call resolution, raise CSAT scores, and much more. And with service professionals saying automated customer service helps them save time and make fewer mistakes, it’s clear companies need to be technology-focused to succeed in customer service.

Here, we’ll explore why voice AI agents are so important, how they work, and much more.

• What are voice AI agents
• Why are voice AI agents important?
• What are the benefits of voice AI agents?
• How do voice AI agents work?
• Use cases for voice AI agents
• Voice AI agent best practices
• How to implement voice AI agents in your business
• Learn how Salesforce Voice AI agents can improve your customer service
• Voice AI agent FAQs
• The future of voice AI agents

Voice AI agents use artificial intelligence (AI) to understand, interpret, and respond to human speech. It can perform various tasks, such as answering questions, providing information, and completing actions, through natural, conversational interactions.

Often created with an agent builder – like Agentforce – they use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to engage in conversations, answer queries, and perform tasks, much like a customer service representative would.

Voice AI agents are important because they provide 24/7 support, reduce wait times, and offer tailored solutions – all of which help companies to meet rising customer expectations. They’re crucial for businesses aiming to stay competitive in the digital age.

As technology advances, consumers expect faster, more personalized, and more convenient service. Companies today simply can’t afford to let their customers down.

Some key benefits that voice AI agents can bring to companies include:

• Enhanced customer experience: Voice AI agents provide immediate, personalized responses, reducing customer frustration and improving customer satisfaction. They can handle multiple queries simultaneously, reducing wait times and ensuring consistent customer service quality 24/7.
• Streamlined operations: By automating routine tasks, voice AI agents free up service reps to focus on more complex issues that require critical thinking and empathy. This leads to increased efficiency and better resource allocation.
• Cost reduction: Voice AI agents can significantly reduce operational costs. These customer service agents can handle a large volume of queries without the need for additional human resources.
• Scalability: Voice AI agents – and quality call center integration software as a whole – can effortlessly manage growing volumes of customer interactions, making them perfect for businesses aiming to expand while maintaining high service standards. When customer inquiries rise, these agents can be quickly scaled up to handle the extra workload, ensuring consistent and dependable support.
• Multilingual support: Voice AI agents can communicate in multiple languages, expanding the reach of businesses to a global audience and improving service for non-native speakers.
• Data collection and analysis: Voice AI agents can collect and analyze customer data, providing valuable insights that help businesses refine their strategies and improve customer engagement.
• Accessibility: Voice AI agents can assist customers with disabilities, making services more accessible and inclusive by offering voice-based interactions that do not require physical input.

Voice AI agents work by listening to and understanding spoken language, then processing the information to provide relevant and accurate responses. They interpret customer queries, access company data (including knowledge management resources like articles and FAQs), and generate appropriate answers.

Voice AI agents are integrated into the phone channel, enabling them to handle a wide range of tasks from answering FAQs to processing transactions and providing personalized recommendations — all while using your brand’s voice. These agents can respond to customer inquiries 24/7, ensuring that your customers get answers at any time of day. When cases get complex or are identified as priority, AI can seamlessly escalate them to human service reps.

Additionally, voice AI agents allow customers to have natural conversations, complete with pauses, interruptions, or tangents, making the interaction feel more human and less robotic. They can also complete actions, such as updating a reservation or scheduling an appointment, directly through the conversation.

You can build an agent with a variety of topics and actions, and then use it for both digital channels and voice channels, ensuring a consistent and efficient customer service experience across all touchpoints. This versatility not only streamlines your operations but also provides a seamless omnichannel experience for your customers.

While voice AI agents offer myriad benefits, they also present several challenges. These include:

• Accuracy: When adopting voice AI, you might find the agent has trouble understanding and responding correctly to customer queries. Mitigate this by continuously training the AI with diverse datasets, such as customer data across systems or your entire knowledge base.
• Contextual understanding: The voice AI agent may struggle with understanding context. You can improve this by using advanced NLP models.
• Emotional intelligence: Voice AI agents can lack the emotional intelligence of human agents. This can be improved by incorporating sentiment analysis and empathetic responses.

Fortunately, with the right customer service automation software, voice AI agents can continuously learn and adapt to make sure every customer interaction is accurate. Agentforce, for example, searches across both structured and unstructured data to get the knowledge needed to respond with precision.

Voice AI agents are used across various industries, including:

• Retail: AI agents can provide product recommendations and handle returns, improving the customer experience.
• Banking/Finance: Use voice AI to help with account inquiries and transactions so your service reps can tackle more complex cases.
• Healthcare: Voice AI agents can schedule appointments and provide health information, making it easier for patients to access care and reducing the administrative burden on providers.
• Telecommunications: Voice AI is often used to troubleshoot technical issues and manage accounts, providing a more seamless customer experience.

To maximize the effectiveness of your voice AI agents, follow some of these best practices:

Personalization

Tailor responses to individual customers based on their history and preferences. Use data from past interactions to understand each customer’s unique needs and provide more relevant, personalized assistance.

Continuous Learning

Regularly update and train the AI to improve its performance. Implement feedback loops and machine learning algorithms to refine the AI’s responses and capabilities over time. Continuous learning ensures that the AI stays current with evolving customer needs and industry trends, leading to more accurate and effective service.

Seamless Integration

Ensure the voice AI agent integrates smoothly with existing systems and channels. Connect the AI to CRM to provide a cohesive and efficient user experience. Seamless integration reduces friction and enhances the overall effectiveness of your service operations, allowing agents to focus on more complex tasks while the AI handles routine queries.

Now for the big topic: how to build an AI agent. Fortunately, the solution is straightforward – it all starts with picking the right platform.

Select a platform, like Salesforce, that offers robust NLP capabilities, scalability, and integration with your existing systems.

It’s important your voice AI agents are seamlessly integrated with your customer data, your knowledge, and your customer service channels. Without integration capabilities, you need to use APIs to pull data, making it more challenging to get things up and running.

Define your goals, identify key use cases, and plan the integration of voice AI into your customer service infrastructure. Consider the customer journey and how voice AI can enhance it.

Some examples of goals you can set include:

• Reduce customer frustration
• Reduce coasts
• Deflect more calls

And when it comes to identifying use cases to start with, some common ones include:

• Knowledge lookup
• Order status lookup
• Appointment scheduling

Developing and training your voice AI agent involves several key steps to ensure it can handle a variety of queries and scenarios effectively.

Define Topics, or the Jobs to Be Done:

Start by identifying the main areas or tasks your voice AI agent will need to handle. These topics could include common customer inquiries, transaction processing, and personalized recommendations. It's best to get started quickly with pre-built templates as a foundation, which can save time and ensure a more structured approach.

Provide Specific Instructions for Each Topic:

Once you’ve defined your topics, give each one specific instructions that provide context and additional guidance on how to handle the job. For example, if a topic is "Rescheduling an Appointment," the instructions might include steps for verifying the customer's identity, checking the availability of new slots, and confirming the updated appointment details.

Assign Intelligent Actions:

Finally, assign intelligent actions to each topic. These are the tools and processes the agent uses to actually perform the job. For instance, for the topic "Updating a Reservation," the intelligent actions might include accessing the customer’s reservation details, modifying the reservation, and sending a confirmation email or text message.

Conduct thorough testing to ensure the agent performs as expected. Once the testing phase is complete, launch the agent in a controlled environment and monitor its performance closely. This allows you to gather real-world data and make any necessary adjustments before a full-scale rollout.

Additionally, look for a solution with a single agent builder framework. This means you can build your agent once and use it across different channels, including voice and digital. A unified framework ensures consistency in the agent's performance and simplifies the management and updating process, making it easier to maintain a high level of service across all customer touchpoints.

Continuously monitor the agent's performance and gather feedback. Use this data to optimize the agent's capabilities and improve its effectiveness over time.

Salesforce offers advanced call center integration software that can significantly enhance your customer service.

Some key features offered include:

• Real-time call transcription: During and at the end of the call, wrap up with conversation summaries based on customer intents and sentiment.
• Omni-channel routing: Meet customers on their preferred channels from your website, mobile app, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and more.
• Conversational summaries: Use AI-generated summaries for all work, orders, and interactions. Save time with Agentforce’s ability to predict or generate summaries of issues and resolutions right after a conversation.
• Next best action: Support customers and save service reps time by making next best actions and workflows easily accessible.

Agentforce autonomously engages customers across multiple channels 24/7 using conversational AI, providing swift and accurate resolutions by relying on trusted data. You can set up these agents in minutes with prebuilt templates, or customize them quickly using low-code options. You can also define clear security guidelines and determine when to seamlessly escalate to human employees.

How does a voice AI agent understand what I say?

Voice AI agents use natural language processing (NLP) and speech recognition technologies to convert spoken words into text, analyze the context, and interpret the meaning of the customer's query.

What’s the difference between an AI agent and a chatbot?

AI agent vs. chatbot – what’s the difference between the two? If you’ve ever chatted with an online customer support agent, you know the convenience of customer service chatbots. A traditional chatbot uses decision trees and scripted responses to interact with customers. This often means that they struggle with complex tasks.

Voice AI agents, on the other hand, can handle sophisticated tasks like scheduling appointments, resolving complex customer issues, and providing personalized product recommendations. Powered by your unique company data, these agents provide the advanced support and personalization needed to excel in today’s fast-paced business environment.

When do voice AI agents escalate to service reps?

Voice AI agents can be programmed with clear guidelines – or flags, in the case of Agentforce – to escalate to human agents when they encounter complex issues or when customer satisfaction is at risk, ensuring a seamless transition.

In an era where customer loyalty is hard-won and easily lost, voice AI agents are a game-changer, ensuring that businesses can meet and exceed customer expectations at every turn – especially since people are still picking up the phone.

And with our research finding that 83% of decision makers planning to increase their AI investment in the next year, voice AI agents are here to stay – and that the companies who adopt these solutions are the ones who’ll stay ahead of the curve.