ChatGPT for customer service: Use cases, prompts & limitations

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ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) technology developed by OpenAI that is changing how businesses operate. At its core, it is a language model that can generate human-like responses to text-based inputs. This means that you can use ChatGPT for customer service to automate interactions.

With a few clever inputs and some training, ChatGPT can make it easier to handle high volumes of inquiries. It can streamline support processes while reducing the need for manual intervention.

Read on to find out about ChatGPT’s impact on customer service, or jump directly to the prompts:

Provide empathy phrases for service agents
Create knowledge base articles
Generate call center scripts
Analyze customer sentiment data
Generate customer surveys
Create outlines for support SOPs
Summarize long support conversations
Create troubleshooting guides
Write chatbot scripts for your website
Brainstorm ideas for customer satisfaction
Manage high-volume customer interactions
Test your team’s customer service skills

Can ChatGPT be used for customer service?

The answer is a firm yes. One solution that has been gaining popularity is using ChatGPT as a tool to handle customer inquiries and support requests. We should address this matter from two different angles:

The direct integration of ChatGPT into the procedures of customer request handling.
The use of ChatGPT by customer service agents as a tool to streamline their work, while maintaining total control over customer communication.

The effectiveness of the latter ultimately depends on the quality of the chat prompts used. While many awesome ChatGPT prompts are available, businesses must carefully consider their use and limitations.

How to use ChatGPT for customer service

AI tools like ChatGPT can help customer support agents a great deal. It can provide efficient and round-the-clock assistance in some cases.

Here are some aspects for which ChatGPT can improve customer support.

Generating automated responses

Use cases: Handling common inquiries, assisting with account setup, or providing troubleshooting steps.

Value

Increased efficiency: Automating responses with ChatGPT saves time and resources.
Resource optimization: Customer support agents can focus on addressing more complex customer issues.
Technical support: ChatGPT can troubleshoot basic technical issues. Then, it can provide step-by-step instructions for problem resolution.

Providing support in multiple languages

Use cases: Translating inquiries, customer responses, or user-generated content.

Value

Seamless communication: ChatGPT allows agents who don’t speak a certain language to interact with customers.
Increased accessibility: Multilingual support removes language barriers. Customers are more confident to communicate in their own language.
Language adaptability: ChatGPT’s translation capabilities are still evolving. However, it has shown great potential in translating documents, emails, and chat messages.

Streamlining the customer feedback process

Use cases: Surveys, trend identification, support in decision-making.

Value

Customized surveys: ChatGPT can generate customer survey questions, saving you time and effort.
Recurring patterns: ChatGPT can highlight key trends in customer interactions and identify customer pain points.
Data-driven decisions: ChatGPT can analyze and summarize feedback data. It can also generate insights to help you make better data-driven decisions.

Will ChatGPT replace customer service agents?

ChatGPT has undoubtedly revolutionized certain industries. However, there are significant limitations to consider in the context of customer service.

Here are three reasons why ChatGPT cannot fully replace human customer service agents.

Handling sensitive complaints

ChatGPT may not be able to deal with sensitive topics or highly emotional situations as well as a human can.

To prove this point, we tested ChatGPT for a script on dealing with angry customers. The result? ChatGPT provided generic responses and phrases. It often struggled to capture the specific context.

When asked for ways to calm a frustrated customer, ChatGPT suggested unempathetic, scripted responses. They didn’t really solve the real problem.

😐 ChatGPT totally lacks empathy. Only humans can use empathy when handling sensitive interactions.

Knowledge limitations

ChatGPT excels at providing quick and accurate responses to many customer inquiries. However, it may lack a human agent’s extensive knowledge of a specific topic. This limitation becomes clear when handling complex or uncommon requests.

We tested a prompt to create a troubleshooting guide for network connectivity issues. We faced various challenges ensuring the guide was comprehensive yet easy to understand. ChatGPT provided a good starting point by generating initial steps and suggestions. However, refining the content for specific scenarios required human intervention.

As we interacted with ChatGPT, we noticed some responses lacked depth or accuracy. This happened especially when addressing complex technical issues.

✍ ChatGPT is great at generating initial content. However, final document versions require human editing and validation to ensure reliability.

Dependency on training data

The responses provided by ChatGPT are influenced by its training data. This can lead to inaccuracies when data is incomplete or biased.

We gave ChatGPT a script for addressing customer inquiries about a new product feature. It was indeed able to provide detailed information. However, responses occasionally included inaccuracies or outdated details.

❌ ChatGPT’s responses sometimes reference incorrect specifications when asked about compatibility issues with certain devices.

Opportunities for development

Despite being a relatively new technology, ChatGPT has already shown great promise in customer service. However, there is still much room for improvement.

Here are some areas in which developers could improve ChatGPT’s capabilities.

Understanding customer intent: While ChatGPT is excellent at understanding the language, it can struggle to identify customer intent. For example, it may not recognize if a customer is ironic.
Providing personalized responses: ChatGPT can provide quick and accurate responses to customer inquiries. However, it may struggle to provide personalized responses for a customer’s unique situation or context.
Handling complex requests: ChatGPT is incredibly useful for handling simple requests. Yet, it can struggle with more complex inquiries that require a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

Best ChatGPT scripts for customer service

As businesses continue to discover AI language models like ChatGPT for support, pre-defined scripts can surely ease customer interactions. With that in mind, we have compiled a list of the 12 best ChatGPT prompts that customer service professionals can use in their daily routines.

1. Prompt to provide empathy phrases for service agents

Using its vast language patterns, ChatGPT can help agents show empathy with example phrases. It can assist agents in providing more personalized customer service through this approach.

Prompt:

Please provide 5 example phrases that customer service agents can use to display empathy to a customer who had a negative experience.

ChatGPT’s response:

ChatGPT analyzed the request for empathetic phrases through its natural language processing. It then generated a list of such phrases to assist customer service agents in delivering exceptional support.

2. Prompt to create a knowledge base article

ChatGPT can be a helpful tool for creating knowledge base articles on specific topics. It can provide step-by-step instructions and offer helpful tips. However, it’s crucial to review and edit the output to ensure that the instructions are easy to follow for users who may not have a technical background.

To improve the prompt’s accuracy, you can also feed ChatGPT specific technical information about the knowledge base article you are trying to create.

Prompt:

Can you provide some practical tips and strategies employers can use to address employee resistance to adopting CRM software? Please write a knowledgeable article on this topic and outline some specific steps that can be taken to overcome common causes of this issue and foster a culture of collaboration and innovation in the workplace.

ChatGPT’s response:

ChatGPT offered tips and strategies to navigate employee opposition to new technology.

3. Prompt to act as a call center scriptwriter

ChatGPT can quickly generate scripts tailored to a business’s needs. While it may not entirely replace a human scriptwriter’s expertise, ChatGPT can provide starting points for creating effective call center scripts.

Prompt:

Create a call center script for an impatient customer.

ChatGPT’s response:

The script is well-structured, and the customer support agent’s responses are professional. They address the customer’s concerns while maintaining a calm and professional demeanor.

4. Prompt to analyze customer sentiment

ChatGPT can analyze customer sentiment by identifying certain keywords, phrases, and tone of voice. By analyzing customer feedback, it can determine the overall sentiment of the customer’s message. This can be either positive, negative, or neutral.

Prompt:

Analyze customer sentiment based on the following data: “Hi there, I recently purchased your product and was really disappointed with the quality. I’ve tried reaching out to customer service but haven’t received a response yet. Can someone please help me with this issue?”

ChatGPT’s response:

The response correctly identifies the customer’s use of words like “disappointed” to indicate dissatisfaction. Additionally, the response highlights the customer’s request for help in resolving the issue. This is an essential signal for customer service agents to take action and provide a solution to the customer.

💻 You can use a similar prompt to analyze customer sentiment data in bulk. Simply ask ChatGPT to memorize the data you feed to it, then provide an analysis based on it.

5. Prompt to act as a customer survey creator

The lower tiers of ChatGPT can execute various language tasks. However, they lack proficiency in generating imaginative stories. The generated outputs may contain mistakes, biases, or mediocre writing quality. This capability has significantly improved with ChatGPT 4.0 though.

Nonetheless, ChatGPT can be beneficial for more straightforward and repetitive assignments. These may include drafting social media updates, composing email subject lines, or generating customer surveys.

Prompt:

As a customer experience professional at a SaaS business, we’ve recently added some new features to our business texting platform. We’d like to send a survey to our existing subscribers to learn more about their experience with our product, identify areas where we can optimize it, and potentially leverage the feedback for future marketing campaigns.

Could you help us create a brief survey with five questions to help us achieve these objectives? Thank you.

ChatGPT’s response:

ChatGPT came up with a five-question survey. These survey questions are a combination of closed-ended and open-ended questions.

6. Prompt to create an SOP outline

While ChatGPT can generate a standard operating procedure (SOP) outline, its effectiveness may be limited. As an AI language model, it relies on the quality and relevance of the data it has been trained on. It may not have access to all the nuances of a specific organization’s processes.

The data it uses may also be biased. It may not be representative of all organizations or industries. Therefore, while ChatGPT can provide a useful starting point for an SOP outline, it may still require human input.

Prompt:

Help me create an SOP outline on how to escalate a ticket.

ChatGPT’s response:

The outline follows a clear and logical structure, starting with an introduction that explains the purpose of the SOP and when ticket escalation is necessary.

This is followed by a step-by-step guide on how to escalate a ticket. The guide outlines the key actions that need to be taken, such as determining the severity of the issue and contacting the next level of support.

The roles and responsibilities of team members involved in the escalation process are also clarified, as well as the escalation path.

👨🏻‍💻 With a complex task such as this, you will want to have longer conversations with ChatGPT. AI learns as you feed it information, so it will better understand your needs and adjust the SOP based on your specific requirements.

7. Prompt to summarize a long conversation

The first step is to record the conversation or take detailed notes. Then, input the conversation into ChatGPT and ask it to summarize the main points or key takeaways.

ChatGPT can analyze the input and generate a concise summary based on the content. The summary generated by ChatGPT may not be perfect, so it’s always a good idea to revise the summary yourself to ensure its accuracy.

Prompt:

Summarize this long conversation:

Customer: Hi there, I’m interested in your CRM software, but I have a question. Can I give my customers multiple contact options with a live chat widget?

Customer service representative: Absolutely! Our CRM software includes a fully customizable live chat widget that you can tailor to meet your specific needs. You can give your customers multiple contact options, such as phone, email, and chat, in one convenient location.

Customer: That sounds great! Can you walk me through how to set that up?

Customer service representative: Of course! First, you’ll need to access your CRM software’s live chat widget settings. From there, you can customize the widget’s appearance to match your branding and select which contact options you want to include.

Customer: Can I add custom contact options, like social media or a contact form?

Customer service representative: Yes, you can! Our live chat widget is fully customizable, so you can add any contact options you want, including social media links, a contact form, or even a link to a knowledge base.

Customer: That’s fantastic! How do I ensure my customers can easily find and use the live chat widget?

Customer service representative: You can place the live chat widget on any page of your website or even on your social media pages. You can also use our chatbot feature to automatically engage with customers and direct them to the live chat widget if they need additional assistance.

ChatGPT’s response:

In the summary, ChatGPT highlights the customer’s initial query about whether they can offer multiple contact options using the CRM software’s live chat widget. The response from the representative confirms that the widget is customizable and can be tailored to the customer’s specific needs. As you can see, ChatGPT also captures the subsequent discussion about setting up and customizing the widget. This adds custom contact options and ensures the widget is easily accessible to customers.

8. Prompt to create a troubleshooting guide

ChatGPT can create a troubleshooting guide article using its vast knowledge of networking concepts and its ability to synthesize information.

In this example, it starts by identifying the most common causes of network connectivity issues and organizing them into concise categories.

Prompt:

Write a comprehensive knowledge base article on how to troubleshoot network connectivity issues. Start with an overview of the most common causes of such issues. This could include issues with the hardware or software components of the network, as well as external factors such as ISP problems or network congestion.

Next, you’ll want to provide a step-by-step guide to help users diagnose and resolve these issues. This should include detailed instructions on how to use network troubleshooting tools such as ping, tracert, and ipconfig, as well as information on how to interpret the results of these tools.

Provide clear and concise instructions for users who may not be familiar with network terminology or concepts. Avoid jargon and technical language whenever possible and provide explanations and definitions for any terms or concepts that may be unfamiliar to users.

ChatGPT’s response:

This example is informative and well-organized. However, ChatGPT’s capabilities may not cover all potential causes. The instructions are actually quite basic. They may not be detailed enough for more complex network configurations.

9. Prompt to write chatbot scripts for a website

When using ChatGPT to create prompts for customer service, it’s important to thoroughly refine the responses to ensure that they are appropriate and helpful.

For more specific or nuanced customer queries, it may also be necessary to supplement the prompts with additional human-written responses. ChatGPT can, however, provide good chatbot scripts for greetings on its own.

Prompt:

Act as a customer experience professional tasked with creating a customer service chatbot for a website and generate a set of 10 example phrases for the chatbot’s greeting intent:

Chat GPT’s response:

ChatGPT came up with 10 different greetings.

💬 While ChatGPT is useful for generating live chat responses, there is still a lot of manual input required to achieve a good result. We have found a much better way to create an AI chatbot using our website’s content by playing around with SiteGPT.

10. Prompt to brainstorm ideas for higher satisfaction

ChatGPT can also brainstorm creative ideas to help you improve your customer service approach.

Prompt:

Act as a customer support agent and brainstorm 10 ideas for personalized customer appreciation initiatives in B2B to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction.

ChatGPT’s response:

The response contains quite a few initiatives to be used in business-to-business relationships.

11. Prompt for managing high-volume interactions

ChatGPT can create strategies and protocols for proactively managing customer feedback during increased demand periods.

Prompt:

Create a protocol for identifying and flagging critical issues or trends in customer feedback to address them proactively during high-volume periods.

ChatGPT’s response:

ChatGPT created a detailed plan to handle critical issues in customer feedback during busy times. It also emphasized the importance of people working together and overseeing the process. This is particularly relevant given the discussion about ChatGPT taking over customer service jobs.

12. Prompts to test your service skills with ChatGPT

Go ahead and test your customer service skills through some awesome prompts in ChatGPT! You can simulate a customer service scenario by chatting with ChatGPT and presenting a problem or inquiry.

Be as specific and detailed as possible in your messages, and then watch ChatGPT’s responses. See if it can understand your issue and provide appropriate solutions or information.

Here are nine examples.

Dealing with angry customers

Walking customers through a roadmap of problem-solving solutions

Asking ChatGPT to rate the overall customer support experience

Assisting customers in resetting their passwords

Responding to suggestions to improve the product or service

Unfulfilled promotional offer

Handling a policy dispute

Managing a request to cancel a subscription

Handling a complaint about long wait times

Put ChatGPT’s capabilities to the test

Using AI language models like ChatGPT can help businesses improve their customer service. However, it’s crucial to be careful and not to rely entirely on them. AI models can only do so much, and they may not understand complex requests or nuances in language. They can’t provide the emotional intelligence and empathy that human agents can.

Therefore, businesses need to assess their needs and choose the right mix of automation and human interaction. This will help to ensure that customers receive the best possible service. While AI language models can be helpful, they should not replace human customer service agents.

Iustina Gherca Iustina is a curious writer with an analytical mind and a demonstrated history in the advertising industry. She likes mixing words with data and is passionate about human behaviors. When she's not at her work desk, you`ll probably find her enjoying refreshing tea flavors, spilling stories on paper, or binge-watching true-crime documentaries.

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