A few months ago, we hit a bump in the road that got us thinking deeply about how we handle our product support team at Lendsqr. Despite all the training and resources we poured into our support staff, we found that some team members were still struggling with customer queries. It was a bit like having a well-stocked kitchen but still serving guests cereal!
We also realized that manually training and retraining new employees was an area we hadn’t fully automated yet. If you’ve ever read about how many processes we’ve tinkered with and automated, you’d know we might just give Bob the Builder a run for his money. Our founder, Adedeji Olowe, was driven by a desire to solve these issues and elevate the entire role of product support.
Our high standards for recruitment and placement, especially for our product support team (since they are the face and foremost representative of the company), has meant recruitment, onboarding, and training of new hires was a never-ending challenge. Fueled by this challenge and a vision to improve things, we started exploring new approaches.
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The birth of Lendsqr GPT
We began our experimentation by creating a preliminary version of the system, known as a minimum viable product (MVP), by capitalizing on a tailored GPT model based on ChatGPT technology.
With our existing knowledge base, we began to quiz this AI system, testing it, asking it various questions, and pushing its limits. Soon, we realized we had hit an eureka moment.
The news was shared with everyone, and for days, everyone was buzzing with enthusiasm, conducting tests and witnessing firsthand the breakthroughs that were unfolding. With each test, the excitement spread further.
But, as we soon discovered, the magic of AI is deeply tied to the quality of content you feed into it. In other words, you get out what you put in. Luckily, our fully remote company had a treasure trove of well-documented information. This vast stockpile of content turned out to be the perfect fuel for training our AI system.
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3 Lendsqr processes AI has transformed
Lendsqr, like many forward-thinking companies, has embraced AI to transform several aspects of our operations. Let’s take a closer look at three key areas where AI has made a significant impact:
Product support
Imagine trying to answer hundreds of customer queries every day. It can be exhausting and repetitive for our support team. Now, picture having a super-smart assistant who never gets tired, always has the correct answers, and is available 24/7 without a break. That’s what AI has done for our product support at Lendsqr.
We took all our existing know-how (you know, the stuff we’d usually tell new hires) and fed it into our custom GPT system. It’s like creating a brain that knows everything about Lendsqr’s products.
This AI system can now provide consistent answers to support team members, which improves the quality of responses our customers get. It also connects to some simple APIs to grab even more information when needed.
Best of all, it cuts down on the training and retraining of new support team members. As a result, our customers get their problems solved faster, and our support team feels more valued and less overwhelmed.
Employee onboarding
Starting a new job can be overwhelming. There are so many processes to learn, forms to fill out, and people to meet. At Lendsqr, we’ve made this process smoother and more enjoyable with the help of AI.
When a new employee joins, our custom GPT doubles as an onboarding assistant and steps in to guide new hires through the initial stages. It provides them with all the necessary information, answers their questions, and ensures they are on the right track.
This way, our new hires get up to speed quickly and feel more confident and comfortable in their new roles. Plus, our HR team saves a lot of time they would have spent on repetitive onboarding tasks and can focus on making the new employees feel welcome and part of the team.
Interestingly, it’s not just for day one. This system can help throughout the onboarding process and even as a refresher, guiding new and old employees through training materials, explaining company policies, and even helping them get to know their team members. It’s like having a personal technical assistant in your pocket.
Recruitment management
Job applicants dislike waiting, but unfortunately, the surge in job applications recently significantly overwhelmed our HR colleagues. Taking advantage of this situation, we created a dedicated AI support system, Lendsqr Careers.
This is specifically for chatting with job candidates early in the application process. It’s like having a friendly robot receptionist who can answer basic questions about the company and positions, schedule interviews, and even remind people to finish their applications.
This AI help meant our HR team could focus more on the human side of things – like really getting to know candidates and making sure new hires feel welcome.
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Woes of our AI journey
While our journey of experimenting and building with AI has been impressive, it hasn’t all been rosy or free from woes. We’ve had our share of failed experiments and glitches, proving that not everything AI touches turns to gold.
For example, one of our early experiments involving using Bland AI to make phone calls for debt collection was unsuccessful. (It turns out people don’t love getting calls about money they owe—who knew?) The response was less than enthusiastic, and the project was quickly shelved.
This wasn’t our only hiccup. There have been times when our custom GPT hallucinates so badly that we think it’s having a nightmare. It reminded us that while AI is powerful, it’s not infallible and still needs human oversight to ensure quality and accuracy.
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Riding the AI waves, bumps and all
As we look to the future, it’s clear that the successful integration of AI will require ongoing refinement, a willingness to learn from successes and setbacks, and a keen understanding of where AI can add the most value. Our experience so far shows us that while the path may not always be smooth, the potential rewards of AI implementation are substantial.
The future of work is evolving, and companies like Lendsqr are at the forefront, showing you the possibilities that arise when human ingenuity and artificial intelligence work together. Have any more questions? Send us a message at growth@lendsqr.com.
