Travis Myers
Director of Customer Support for North America
____
JLG Industries
Using artificial intelligence (AI) to support business processes isn't new. JLG has been using AI through data science and various coding methods to help make more data-driven organizational decisions. It has helped us ensure we offer the right mix of products to market that address customers' needs and align with their jobs while prioritizing safety and productivity.
However, as we examine the world of generative AI, we're only starting to scratch the surface of its capabilities. For example, we’re using it today to incorporate more of this technology to support our commitment to customer service.
Supporting troubleshooting assistance
JLG prioritizes providing exceptional customer service, a commitment we’ve upheld for over 55 years. We support customers and their equipment long after the sale, building trust through quality and innovation. That’s why we’re building a solid foundation for deploying generative AI solutions in our customer support team. Today, we use basic AI functionality to revolutionize our assisted tech support service with a few advanced technologies. Let me explain how we’re doing this…
First, when contacting our call center, our virtual assistant (VA) recognizes callers by their phone numbers and automatically populates answers to critical case fields before our agents receive the call.
Next, our voice-to-text (VTT) technology, combined with advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP), summarizes these transcriptions to efficiently reuse the information to solve similar future cases and create comprehensive articles.
And then, when a technician provides a serial number and a fault code through the interactive voice response (IVR) during the conversation, the system immediately texts the caller a link to relevant knowledge articles, providing integration that streamlines the troubleshooting process.
Looking ahead, we will leverage AI further to analyze our extensive library of historical case summaries, knowledge articles and technical documentation. This analysis will help us generate potential solutions, which human experts will vet during live support sessions.
Once validated, these solutions will be offered to customers through a generative AI system, promoting self-service for known issues. This allows our JLG experts to focus on tackling escalated, unresolved issues, validating AI-provided answers and continuously creating new knowledge.
By integrating these technologies, we enhance the efficiency of our support services and empower our technicians and customers with efficient access to more accurate solutions.
Supporting translation efforts
As the world becomes a stronger global economy, another example of how we can use AI to support our customers is in conjunction with neural machine translation (NMT).
We are seeing a changeover of new people entering the industry, creating a scenario where more workers prefer to consume content in their native languages. Using AI, NMT and human post editing, we can efficiently translate into more languages, bringing a vast time benefit to the market and cost-benefit back to OEMs.
By integrating these services, we enhance the efficiency of our support and empower our customers with efficient, accurate solutions.
Supporting connected solutions
Integrating systems is critical to success. A significant effort at JLG through our connected and digital strategy is to create a connection between our physical and digital products and experiences so that one consistent data thread ties everything together. We want stronger data fidelity, increased automation and improved efficiency through that interconnectedness.
By integrating our systems, we can provide our customers with seamless business integrations and partnership opportunities — while scaling at the rate that users need us to.
Supporting new opportunities
Moving forward, customer service trends will involve a better understanding of opportunities and enhancements with generative AI as it grows and evolves.
For example, there will be a real focus in the future on usability and user experiences — for example, the ability to compartmentalize and truncate content. Our industry is still very paper-driven, so how do we get to the point where we can take all of this phenomenal documentation and content and deliver it in a bite-sized chunk of information relevant to the right individual at the right time?
Or, if someone wants to learn more about something specific with a boom lift, hundreds of pages exist in service manuals to sift through for an answer. So, how do we help our customers get easier access to this information to access exactly what they need when they need it?
At JLG, we ensure our AI strategies are integrated into and support our business strategies. Generative AI is another tool in our tool belt that will help us do the things we’re already doing more efficiently.
Supporting you
JLG leverages its industry expertise and leadership to provide you with the best possible experience throughout your equipment journey. We’re ready to assist you, virtually and personally, when you need us.
Access our help 24/7 through our Online Express self-service portal at onlineexpress.jlg.com. You can also contact our team members via live chat on Online Express during regular business hours, as well as via phone or email:
Let us know how we can help you! Reach out anytime to connect with one of our representatives: JLG.com/ContactUs.
Do you want to stay up-to-date with industry news and issues similar to this? Make sure you subscribe below to receive monthly updates from #DirectAccess with newly posted content so you never miss important information.