Skip to content
Blog

Why digital assistants are so valuable in customer dialogues

Digitalization
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Conversational AI
  • Digital Solutions
Stefan Michaelis

May 5, 2020

Bilder von einer telefonierenden Frau und einem Smartphone, valantic Digitale Assistenten im Kundenservice

Share this article

It fits perfectly into the infrastructure expansion in the area of fibre optics and 5G. It not only changes the customer experience, but also makes every day work easier as a practical application: The digital assistant. An expression of the advancing digitalization.

Especially in challenging times such as the current Corona pandemic (COVID-19), it would be crucial to ensure business processes even with reduced capacities. For this problem we would like to present you our solution approach: Our Valentina, which, similar to Siri, Alexa & co, supports the sales department in handling time-consuming administrative tasks.

In addition, there are further possible applications for a digital assistants: Beginning with customer support, through e-commerce to the use in sales. Because it is not only in the current situation that an automated peak load management is important in order to serve internal and external customers satisfactorily or inform them. The digital assistant can help to answer frequently asked enquiries efficiently and thus creates freedom, which in turn provides your employees more time for additional valuable topics.

For instance, call centre would serve a central contact point for the customer. Nevertheless, customer services are faced with three further challenges in solving customer’s issues: Ensuring accessibility, keeping waiting times to a minimum and imparting knowledge.

Customer service should be as easy and as long as possible to reach. However, ensuring this availability, keeping waiting times short and absorbing peak loads is complex and expensive from an organizational and personnel point of view.

For offering customers a suitable solution, customer service must ensure a certain knowledge span. Call centres usually cover a wide range of topics. However, this knowledge is usually not available in depth, so that the customer has to be referred to a contact person from 2nd or 3rd level support. As a rule, he will then have to explain himself again. In the worst case his problem remains unsolved.

These everyday challenges in customer service are a good way to show where conversational AI can be put to good use. In this case, conversational AI in the form of a chat or voice bot, which acts as a supplement to 1st level support. The digital assistant such a bot represents the customer’s first point of contact in the support process and is connected to all relevant systems.

Advantages of chat bots

Mostly it is recurring inquiries (FAQs) that take the time away from the service staff to deal with more complex questions. As the first point of contact for the customer and through the integration of all relevant systems, the bot is able to intercept repetitive requests and answer them satisfactorily, so that they do not have to be processed by the human agent. As a result, service staff have more time and energy to deal with more complex customer dialogues. At the same time, the customer is helped faster.

If the bot cannot answer a customer inquiry, it forwards the customer to a service employee. Since the bot and the service employee access the same system, the bot automatically provides the agent with all the important information that the customer has already described about his problem.

Increase self-service rate with bots

Where “Net Promoter Score” and “Call Deflection Rate” were the gold standard for evaluating good customer service some time ago, in recent years the self-service rate has become a quality criterion for individual freedom in the customer service of telecommunications providers. FAQ sections are not new and still have a right to exist. But with conversational AI, the dynamic of self-determined problem-solving approach increases. A chatbot, for example, which is connected to all systems relevant to its area of responsibility, can be used much more flexibly. Where with the classical FAQ the unfolding of the answer was the maximum of interaction, with the chatbot real joy arises in this point. In addition, it can not only answer more questions in breadth, but can also provide this information with greater depth.

More on this topic

A man in a retail store is trying on different outfits in front of a smart mirror, using AI. AI generated

Customer Experience September 18, 2026

From webshop to virtual try-on: how AI is making its way into retail stores

Digital interfaces such as smart mirrors turn AI in the store into a tangible business case. What potential does this hold for the customer experience and in-store personalization? Matthias Vollmer explains how the retail industry can combine the best of both worlds and turn physical touchpoints into an intelligent part of the omnichannel journey.

From webshop to virtual try-on: how AI is making its way into retail stores
Three people are standing at a glass table with laptops in a modern office. In the background is a whiteboard and an industrial hall visible through glass. AI generated

Customer Experience August 27, 2026

Interview: How manufacturing stays digitally visible and AI-relevant

In the manufacturing sector, purchasing decisions are increasingly being made before the sales team is even involved. Designers, planners, maintenance technicians, and buyers conduct online research—and are increasingly receiving AI-generated responses. How can marketing teams at manufacturing companies ensure digital visibility and AI relevance? Answers and recommendations from the Manufacturing Practice.

Interview: How manufacturing stays digitally visible and AI-relevant
Businesswoman working on laptop in modern open-plan office AI generated

Digitalization August 20, 2026

How many spreadsheets does it take to answer one HR question?

HR teams spend hours every day stitching data together across disconnected systems — 77% say integrating people data is one of their biggest analytics challenges. Discover what real, unified people analytics looks like, and how choosing the right HRIS turns scattered snapshots into one source of truth.

How many spreadsheets does it take to answer one HR question?

Don't miss a thing.
Subscribe to our latest blog articles.

Register