The Ticket: How to lead your customer service team into the AI future

One of the biggest challenges almost every CS leader runs into at the start of their AI journey is figuring out how to get their team on board.

I’ve noticed a pretty consistent theme when chatting to other support leaders about this: while almost everyone is excited about trying AI and they understand most of the practical steps involved, they often find the biggest challenge is figuring out how to take their team along for the ride.

So in this episode of The Ticket podcast, we explore the best strategies to ensure your customer service representatives are fully bought-in as you transition to AI-first customer service.

I chat with our VP of Customer Support, Declan Ivory, and  we also hear the perspective of Ben Peak, Director of Technical Support at Robin; Elli Neeld, Product Education Content Creator at HoneyBook; and Carl Olsen, General Manager of Operations at Sharesies.

All of them agreed that getting buy-in from your CS team is an absolutely crucial first step. If your support representatives don’t fully embrace the opportunity ahead, you’ll never make any meaningful progress. So, start by involving them from the get-go.

Here are a few key insights from the episode that resonated with me.

Be clear about why you’re using AI

As a leader, it’s your job to identify what you want to achieve by adopting AI. There has to be a reason for using the technology – you can’t just do it for the sake of it.

Elli describes it like this: “I learned very early on that it’s critical to go in with a very clear and thoughtful strategy. If you can tether the need for AI to a team, a company objective, opportunity, or problem that you’ve identified, it makes getting that buy-in all the easier.”

Having a common goal – with numbers to back it up – will give everyone a sense of direction. You won’t have all the answers, and things will definitely change as you get started, but even an initial point of focus will help to get everyone on the same page.

Acknowledge your team are the experts

Improving the customer experience is a major reason for implementing AI. And who knows better about what “improvement” actually means for customers than your teammates who are in direct contact with them every day?

Being on the front lines makes your teammates the experts. Carl from Sharesies puts it this way: “They’re at the coalface with our customers. They know all the tricky questions that get asked.” They also know where the inefficiencies are in your current processes, where there are gaps in information, and where your product just isn’t delivering.

Lean on this experience as you’re figuring out your AI roadmap by actively involving your team. At Intercom, we had a bunch of teammates work together to audit our Help Center and ensure it was ready for Fin to use before we went live. This made sense as they were the people most familiar with the material, but it also provided a great opportunity for them to become influential stakeholders in a broader business initiative.

Get serious about their career growth

Fear around how AI will impact the future of CS jobs is something that gets raised a lot. Many folks can’t picture how their skills will fit in with AI agents automating away so much of what they spend their time on.

This is totally normal and something you should address upfront with your team. AI will change how they work, and yes, their days will look different. But, your role as the leader is to be positive about this and have a plan in place (however loose that might be) about what new career pathways could look like.

Ben, Director of Technical Support at Robin, explains his approach. “Fin isn’t replacing anybody. It’s enabling the team. I now think a little bit differently about the kind of people [on the team], what their interests are, and what they want to do. I want them to enjoy what they’re doing. If they’re moving towards a technical future, this is going to be great for them.”

At the end of the day, it all comes down to communication and working together towards a shared vision.

If you enjoy our discussion, check out more episodes of our podcast. You can follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or grab the RSS feed in your player of choice.