Why Customer Service Still Sucks — and How To Fix It For years, customer service has frustrated both businesses and consumers. Long wait times, disjointed communication, and inconsistent service have dissatisfied many customers, creating significant costs for companies. Despite digital transformation...

For years, customer service has frustrated both businesses and consumers. Long wait times, disjointed communication, and inconsistent service have dissatisfied many customers, creating significant costs for companies. Despite digital transformation promises, many contact centers remain inefficient, increasing expenses and eroding customer loyalty. Customer service shortcomings contribute to a $100 billion industry-wide problem.

However, artificial intelligence (AI) is offering a new approach, though not in the way many expect. Many companies with existing customer service issues implement AI chatbots, hoping for quick improvements, but they find that these chatbots often complicate service and fail to deliver. There's no single AI solution for customer satisfaction. However, by thoughtfully leveraging AI tools, companies can gain a deeper understanding of their customers, making data-driven changes that can lead to real improvement. This shift is already underway.

Why AI Is Key to Better Customer Service

Traditional customer service challenges stem primarily from businesses' inability to understand what customers really want and need. Current systems rely on limited data analysis, anecdotal feedback, and small sample sizes, leading to reactive decision-making and missed opportunities to address deeper issues.

AI changes that dynamic. By analyzing every customer interaction—whether a phone call, email, or chat—AI can identify patterns, detect inefficiencies, and generate actionable insights that help businesses improve service in real-time. Unlike traditional tools, AI-driven platforms can predict customer needs, offer personalized solutions, and even automate responses to routine inquiries, freeing human agents to handle more complex issues. This shift from reactive to proactive service is driving a new era in customer care.

AI-powered conversation intelligence is one of the most impactful AI innovations in this space. These systems process and analyze large volumes of data from customer interactions, offering a granular view of why customers are reaching out and how companies can improve the experience. It's no longer about solving isolated problems as they arise—it's about understanding and addressing root causes to prevent them from recurring.

Humm Group: A Case Study in AI-Driven Customer Service

Humm Group, a global leader in buy-now-pay-later services, has embraced AI to optimize customer service. By integrating AI-powered conversation intelligence, Humm identified nearly 1,000 unique reasons for customer inquiries. This granular data allowed the company to streamline processes, reduce manual evaluations, and improve agent performance by 21% in just five months. Humm's use of AI to gain deep, real-time insights into customer behavior has enabled it to offer a highly personalized service experience, setting the company apart from competitors in the crowded BNPL market.

The Operative Intelligence Approach: Insights from CEO Peter Iansek

While Humm Group illustrates the power of AI in customer service, Operative Intelligence (OI) is leading the way in using AI to transform contact centers by automating complex analysis at scale. Co-founded by brothers Peter and James Iansek, OI provides companies with deep insights into customers' needs and actionable steps to improve their experiences.

Peter Iansek, CEO of Operative Intelligence, explained how their AI technology is reshaping the industry.

"The problem we encountered after years of working in contact centers is that there's a massive gap between what businesses think they know about their customers and what's actually happening," Iansek said. "Existing systems weren't built to offer the level of insight required to make meaningful improvements in service. AI changes that. It allows businesses to see every customer interaction and make data-driven decisions in real-time."

OI's platform analyzes unstructured data from customer interactions and generates immediate, actionable insights. "Imagine thousands of calls about a particular issue, and traditionally, a few analysts would sift through those calls to figure out what's wrong," Iansek said. "That's time-consuming and often leads to missed insights. Our platform can analyze all those interactions in a fraction of the time, identifying common pain points, inefficiencies, and opportunities to improve the customer experience."

Iansek added that AI enables companies to be proactive instead of reactive. "AI allows you to anticipate and address customer needs before they become major issues. For example, one client's customers were frequently experiencing audio issues and call disconnections. By identifying and quantifying this trend early, OI helped them address the problem within hours, reducing repeat contacts and boosting customer satisfaction."

But Operative Intelligence's platform isn't just about solving immediate problems. It also supports long-term strategic decision-making. "It's not just about fixing today's issues," Iansek said. "It's about using AI to inform broader business strategies. Our clients use our insights to rethink product offerings, enhance customer engagement, and identify new revenue streams. When used correctly, AI is a powerful tool—it's not just about cutting costs; it's about driving growth."

OI's technology has been precious in complex financial services and healthcare industries. "We're working with several financial institutions, and it's incredible how much they've achieved by applying AI to their contact centers," Iansek said. "One client reduced call volume by over 20% by addressing root causes of issues that drove contacts. They've also seen a significant rise in customer retention and satisfaction by offering faster, more personalized solutions."

AI: A Transformative Force in Customer Service

As Peter Iansek and Operative Intelligence demonstrate, AI can fundamentally change how businesses approach customer service. By automating manual analysis, generating actionable insights, and allowing businesses to address customer issues proactively, AI is transforming contact centers from cost centers into powerful tools for business intelligence and growth.

While customer service challenges have persisted for decades, AI offers a path forward that reduces costs and enhances customer experience at every touchpoint. For companies like Humm Group, Apple FCU, and many others, the future of customer service is smarter, faster, and far more attuned to customer needs.

The era of reactive, disjointed customer service is evolving. With AI thoughtfully applied to address specific issues—rather than simply adding AI chatbots that can complicate experiences—businesses now have the tools to solve longstanding customer service challenges. As companies follow in the footsteps of pioneers like Operative Intelligence, the customer service landscape across industries is poised for a transformative shift.

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