Zhou Yun of Digital Ma Li: Customer service is the next growth entry point for e-commerce

“Ant Group's operation aims to become the 'growth partner' for enterprises.”

The growth formula for e-commerce is being rewritten.

As the traffic dividend reaches its peak and the classic model of “traffic × conversion rate” is waning, merchants are starting to look for new growth points and shift their focus to the other side of the e-commerce field: the refined operation of existing users. Among these, customer service, a contact point that is closest to the brand yet most easily overlooked, has come into the public view and quickly become a new growth variable.

Growth can be said to be the “Sword of Damocles” hanging over every brand. “Seek growth from service” is also a slogan actively put forward by many brands. In the past, few could truly achieve it. However, now this slogan has become the core issue for all brands. While brands have to pay attention to it, problems also arise: service quality, response speed, and cost control form an “impossible triangle”. During major promotions, to ensure a good experience, enterprises need to prepare several times more customer service staff than usual. But after the promotion, the idle cost of these teams will become a heavy burden on the enterprise. If they choose to outsource temporarily, it is difficult to ensure the consistency of service quality and brand tone.

Is there a new solution that can make customer service capabilities be used on demand and flexibly scaled, just like “cloud computing”, which can not only handle traffic peaks but also avoid resource waste and promote conversion effects?

During this year's 618 promotion, this idea seems to have been verified. Eighty-nine leading brands, including vivo, Luolai, and Banana Umbrella, have all started to try a new service model. Data shows that during the entire promotion period, this model handled more than 26 million manual service requests, with a peak of nearly 550,000 requests per day, and the average service satisfaction rate remained at a high level of 94%.

One of the “operators” behind this is Ant Group's Digital Ant Power. While many people still think it is just an AI customer service tool, it has already set its goal as the “growth partner” for e-commerce enterprises.

So, how does this “AI cloud customer service” model, which combines AI with “distributed human resources”, actually work? And how can it transform a traditional cost center into a new engine driving GMV growth?

01 Human-machine integration: achieving both efficiency and warmth

In what aspects is the reconstruction of the growth logic in the e-commerce industry manifested?

For example, the uncertainty of background traffic is “eroding” the certainty in business. With the fragmentation of advertising channels and the changing platform policies, merchants can only “gamble” on traffic peaks. The consultation volume during major promotions such as Double 11 may vary by a hundred times, making it difficult to accurately estimate the demand for customer service resources.

The current situation of customer service resources, where having too many leads to waste and having too few leads to collapse, poses a huge challenge to the growth and cost of enterprises. From a technical perspective, the current AI Agent is regarded as the key to “breaking the situation”.

Gartner predicts that by 2025, AI-driven customer service interactions will increase by 400%, and AI Agents will increase customer service satisfaction by 20%. The industry know-how of AI Agents far exceeds that of most human customer service representatives. In terms of conversation processing speed and ability, the cost of all-day service, and multi-language coverage, it seems that AI Agents can “replace” most human customer service representatives.

However, relying solely on AI Agents to meet customer service needs may create an “illusion” in data indicators. For example, although explicit data such as the customer service connection rate has improved significantly, the implicit service quality has not been well improved. In some common SaaS-based intelligent customer service applications on the market, the service gap is very obvious.

In some complex consultations, the average response time of AI customer service can be compressed to within 15 seconds, but the actual time to solve the problem has actually increased. Behind the apparent high efficiency lies the indescribable negative user experience. Especially when users are anxiously asking questions and repeatedly receiving mechanical responses, it is easy to directly cause a loss in brand conversion rate.

The gap between the ideal and the reality has also made more merchants realize that the key to solving the “last mile” problem in customer service is still people.

The current business logic of e-commerce is undergoing a structural transformation from “operating traffic” to “operating trust”. However, whether it is traffic or trust, ultimately it is all for growth. Good service can definitely bring about repurchase, growth, and conversion, which is basically a consensus in the industry. However, to extract the growth value from customer service, it requires that customer service not only be able to solve problems but also convey warmth to users and help them make complex decisions.

Driven by the goal of growth, the essential benefit of customer service is to prevent growth from being lost and to挖掘 new growth. In the past, relying solely on the power of technology only stayed at the two aspects of “response conversion” and preventing growth from being lost. In terms of挖掘 growth potential, the emotional connection and professional wisdom of “people” are still the key.

As a result, there is a gap in the AI customer service market that urgently needs to be filled. Seeing this “uncharted territory”, Digital Ant Power quickly built a bridge of efficiency and warmth between AI customer service and human customer service: the human-machine integrated AI cloud customer service.

Zhou Yun, the vice president of Ant Group and the chairman and CEO of Digital Ant Power, told 36氪: “Using AI technology to empower and guide customer service experts in terms of product features, consumer insights, and task processing can greatly improve the efficiency of customer service work, enhance the stickiness between consumers and enterprises, and better promote business growth.”

02 Good service can increase GMV by 10%

Why has customer service, as a bridge between brands and users, always been easily overlooked?

This is because GMV is the lifeline of e-commerce. However, compared with the mature front-end traffic system, customer service is a cost center that “seeks to avoid mistakes rather than achieve great success”. Although merchants are aware of the importance of service efficiency and quality, the text features and user behavior data involved are too complex to be directly quantified.

However, in the AI era, there is a definite answer to the strategy of using customer service for growth.

Digital Ant Power's AI cloud customer service solution has built a new integrated paradigm with AI as the intelligent center and a “talent cloud pool” to reconstruct the enterprise service process, achieving intelligent matching between enterprise needs and labor supply, thus solving the problem of balancing service efficiency and quality.

The new human-machine integrated paradigm provides an opportunity for the customer service field to transform from a cost center to a new growth entry point.

Zhou Yun told 36氪 that Digital Ant Power provides “managed” services for enterprises. Before sales, it trains cloud customer service representatives through “AI pair training”, makes personnel reserves, helps enterprises stably挖掘 more consumption trends and consumer preferences, and completes pre-sales conversion through proactive services. During sales, it uses AI tools to intercept risky words, assist in product recommendations and word optimization, and teaches cloud customer service representatives how to use platform tools step by step, directly conveys policy changes to merchants, and standardizes the service process into SOPs. After sales, it also uses means such as holiday marketing and scenario marketing to make consumers more loyal to the brand and increase repurchase.

“After cooperating for a period of time, our services can basically bring about a 10% increase in GMV for e-commerce enterprises.” Zhou Yun said frankly. “The arrival of AI has made our services more personalized. Customer service experts can better understand customers and consumers, and at the same time, AI can also help customer service experts find more service opportunities and touchpoints.”

The “Ant Employment” platform under Digital Ant Power has nearly 530,000 certified talents. In this resource pool, there are more than 280,000 e-commerce talents in reserve. In the field of cloud customer service alone, Ant Cloud Customer Service is available in 485 cities and more than 3,600 districts and counties, with an average of more than 12,000 people online every day.

Currently, Digital Ant Power has cooperated with nearly 100 leading customers and brands in the industry. The idea of flexible employment not only meets the demand of these enterprises for flexible labor during traffic peaks but also uses the AI technology platform to lower the employment threshold and deliver employment opportunities to more remote areas.

Another important point that cannot be ignored is that Digital Ant Power can break through the inertial thinking and make customer service a growth entry point for enterprises: they do not put all their eggs in the “solution basket”. Instead, they establish long-term trust with enterprise customers through service quality and effect commitments.

Recently, Digital Ant Power officially launched the “Double 11 Service Guarantee Plan”, and the first batch of 10 major customers, including vivo, Belle, Tineco, Xiaomi, Lafeng, Proya, and Semir, have joined the plan. This plan directly addresses the pain points of e-commerce and makes commitments such as “If you use it, I'll compensate”, “If you can't handle it, use it for free”, and “If there is no conversion, no fee will be charged”. It guarantees the service bottom line and connection rate under various channels and assessment dimensions. If proactive services do not result in inquiry conversions, the corresponding fees will be waived, fundamentally guaranteeing the result orientation that enterprises are most anxious about from the perspective of rights and rules.

For enterprise service providers, especially during the implementation process of new technologies, “daring to promise results” is a very crucial core competitiveness. This means that the provider deeply binds the growth goals of enterprise customers with its own business model in the long term, rather than simply selling tools and services on a single occasion.

While using AI, enterprises no longer need to pay for the uncertainty of AI service effects. Once they experience obvious growth effects, with the referral rewards and tiered incentives in Digital Ant Power's “Double 11 Service Guarantee Plan”, enterprises can also share the benefits of economies of scale. This is the “partner spirit” that distinguishes Digital Ant Power from traditional technology providers.

In the scenario of e-commerce customer service, Semir, a national lifestyle fashion brand, has unique insights. As early as around 2016, Semir introduced intelligent customer service. After years of iteration, it was found that AI has indeed achieved cost reduction and efficiency improvement for the enterprise in after-sales processing. Especially after products are included in the knowledge base, AI's recognition and recommendation capabilities have become stronger and stronger.

However, in terms of adaptability in conversations and emotional perception, it still fails to reach the level of humans. Especially in the field of non-standard products such as clothing, Semir needs to establish a clear talent profile when screening customer service representatives, such as hobbies, expression abilities, and clothing matching skills, in order to match and provide personalized services to users. Although this takes up a lot of management and training energy, the service quality has been significantly improved.

Therefore, Digital Ant Power's human-machine integrated and flexibly coordinated AI cloud customer service solution has made Semir see the possibility of AI both liberating human efficiency and retaining the warmth of service.

Shi Danfeng, the customer service director of Semir, told 36氪 that the ROI of AI cloud customer service is mainly reflected in the improvement of human efficiency. For example, in terms of the convenience of information query, assuming that a human customer service representative can handle 200 user problems a day, after using AI-assisted tools, each action of the customer service representative can save 5 seconds. Under the same conditions, the number of problems solved by the customer service representative can increase to 300.

“Providing good customer service is the foundation, and supporting the brand to increase sales is the ultimate goal.” Shi Danfeng said. Through long-term cooperation, Digital Ant Power's AI cloud customer service has not only helped Semir solve the problem of flexible configuration but also has a clear result orientation in the delivery aspect. The service satisfaction rate and conversion rate have both increased rapidly. In terms of matching human customer service representatives, AI cloud customer service can match business scenarios according to the labels in the talent pool, which is also consistent with Semir's internal organizational system.

Every August 8th, Semir traditionally holds a Double 11 kick-off meeting. In the past, Semir has invested a lot of management and training energy to cope with the peak period of major promotions. This year, it has made early preparations for the cloud customer service talent pool and will conduct flexible coordination according to business needs at that time. This can not only improve human efficiency and reduce manpower waste but also increase user satisfaction. “We have also added conversion rate assessment for this Double 11. We believe that with the assistance of AI tools, it can also be well improved. In addition, in terms of quality assurance, the AI cloud customer service team can match business scenarios according to the labels in the talent pool, which also has certain advantages in achieving data and results.” Shi Danfeng revealed.

From the changes in Semir's organizational relationship, it can be seen that the supporting value of AI for organizational coordination, demand anticipation, decision-making, and conversion has been optimized and amplified after being combined with the warmth of human customer service.

03 The “future competition” for humans lies in inclusiveness and universality

Before Digital Ant Power entered the market, there were very few service providers in the e-commerce field who truly understood enterprise services and could provide good AI solutions.

The imagination of AI is too high, leading many service providers to have unrealistic expectations for it. They simply forced the combination of technology and service. When it didn't work, they simply blamed the pain points between people and enterprises on the immaturity of technology.

However, in fact, technology cannot be the only protagonist in the matter of service.

Zhou Yun believes that customer service is not just a job that only pursues accuracy: “Good service should be professional, efficient, and warm. Professionalism is reflected in the understanding of product performance and the accuracy of solutions. Currently, most intelligent customer service still focuses on solving accuracy problems. Efficiency requires in-depth and rapid understanding of users' needs and basic situations, thinking and solving problems from the users' perspective, and showing sufficient empathy and patience. Warmth is the biggest challenge at present. While solving problems, it is necessary to soothe users' emotions and make them feel safe.”

Even from a technical perspective, Digital Ant Power has clearly realized that AI is applied by people, so the first step is to do a good job in matching people. After understanding enterprise services and growth logic, Digital Ant Power has also seen the trend of “future competition” on the “human” side.

The social value of human-machine integration does not lie in using AI to replace humans, nor in starting a high-end talent war. Instead, it lies in activating stronger employment inclusiveness and universality.

In Digital Ant Power's cloud customer service resource pool, many practitioners come from remote areas. Digital tools and skills have improved their professionalism and lowered the employment threshold, breaking geographical restrictions. Among them, there are also some people from special groups who have become cloud customer service representatives, providing a stable and respectable job with growth opportunities for anyone. This is also an embodiment of the universality of AI.

Lai Xiaojuan, a champion of the Paralympic Games, has transformed into a cloud customer service representative. From the sports field to the cloud, she polishes her customer service skills with the standard of a gold medal.

Good AI and a healthy business model should promote employment rather than cause employment anxiety.

“In the future, enterprises can hand over the entire customer service function module or the ability training module to growth partners like us, making the management structure more lightweight and agile.”

Zhou Yun believes that just as technology has ecological interfaces, the management and organization methods of enterprises can also set business goals and connect with business results with more “interface-type” service providers. According to Zhou Yun, Digital Ant Power will accurately match the most suitable service experts from the resource pool based on the enterprise's industry, product characteristics, and brand style.

During the digital transformation process of enterprises, no matter how the technological wave changes, growth is an unshakable goal, and showing care and inclusiveness for people in service is a higher-level competitiveness.

Zhou Yun proposed that the growth value of customer service is not limited to e-commerce: “The experience of Digital Ant Power in creating brand experiences in the e-commerce customer service field and thus amplifying enterprise growth can also be replicated in various industries. Because it is not only the e-commerce industry that is troubled by the decline of traffic dividends. Apart from the competitiveness of the product itself, what else can constitute the core competitiveness of an enterprise? In fact, in any industry, customer service is a very important growth touchpoint.”

36氪 learned that as a leading financial institution shifted its business focus from “product-oriented” to “customer-oriented”, it also introduced AI cloud customer service. By segmenting user profiles, predicting capital trends and business opportunities, and accurately recommending service solutions to customers, after a period of in-depth development, the six-month LUM (Loan Under Management) of high-value customer loan accounts increased by 35%, and the task conversion rate of mid-tier customers increased by 180%.

In the e-commerce industry, the “certainty” that customer service brings to growth is even more obvious. “Every time consumers connect with customer service, whether actively or passively, it is actually a precious touchpoint between the enterprise and the consumers.” Zhou Yun said.

Throughout the history of e-commerce development, whether it is the change in e-commerce forms or the differences in traffic and channels, platforms and merchants have been striving to move from the “one-size-fits-all” approach in shelves and services to “personalized” services. In the future, driven by AI, the broader prospect lies in “tailored services for each individual”. This is an ecological innovation that will completely change the connection between people and enterprises, and better unify social value and business sustainability.

Standing at the crossroads of transformation, Digital Ant Power has done the right thing in advance. Amid the collective anxiety of the “decline of traffic dividends”, Digital Ant Power has verified a logic: the growth flywheel is inevitably coupled with the value of high-quality service centered on people. This part of the cost cannot be directly “cut off”, but it can be carefully stratified, optimized, and reconstructed.

Originally regarded as a position that would be quickly replaced by AI, customer service is now increasingly in need of human touch as AI advances. It can be seen that truly good service allows people and enterprises to unleash their untapped potential with the support of technology, avoid more “blind box games” in the face of uncertainty, and get closer to certain opportunities.

Only by integrating human growth into the technological wave and new business logic can growth have endless power.

This article is from the WeChat official account “36氪”, and is published with authorization from Qiantang.