Customer experience is a critical component that drives nearly every business now. With 2020 ticking closer, companies are all geared up for adopting disruptive technologies to digitally transform their CX game. Here are 5 customer experience trends culled from the lot that you should include in your strategic plans:
1. Artificial Intelligence Will Rescue, Not Replace, Human Agents
Employees worry about being replaced by artificial intelligence and chatbots but the idea of machines replacing humans can only come to life in sci-fi movies, at least for now. We are far from the world where every customer interaction is completely AI-driven and human agents are obsolete. In fact, 2020 is going to be the year firms will realize that AI can augment, not replace, support reps in the industry.
Firms that identify AI as an agent-complementing technology and include it in their strategy will make major strides in the coming years. AI-based tools eliminate technology silos by integrating content spread across platforms which makes finding articles easier for your agents.
Not only this, some tools can also automate KB creation that is, otherwise, considered a burden by agents. With AI by their side, skilled agents will be able to provide real-time solutions that are relevant and hence increase the efficiency of customer interactions manifold.
2. Voice Will Be Entailed as Part of Customer Interactions
As of April 2019, Amazon had over 90,000 functions (“skills”) available for users to download on their Alexa-enabled devices, a massive increase from only 1,000 functions in June 2016 (Source). This shows that voice-based AI has come a long way & is very much here to stay.
At any given time, speaking is much easier than typing. Conversational AI has various applications, one of which is enabling customers to have interactions with self-service tools the way they do socially. Tech leaders know this & have stepped up their voice recognition and NLP (Natural Language Processing) game by providing voice-enabled chatbots for real-time & hands-free experience. Going forward, firms will adopt more tools that can identify the emotion behind, and priority of, customer queries based on speech patterns, expressions, keywords, etc. and triage cases accordingly.
3. Hyper-Personalization Will Become a Norm
Customer experience suffers a major blow when you present unrelated suggestions. Accenture study revealed that 75% of customers are more likely to purchase from an organization that either recognizes them by name or recommends options based on purchase history (Source). To achieve similar or better results, you need to tap into user data and deliver hyper-personalized content to your customers.
You can also expect tools that eliminate the chances of errors and provide results based on user search history & the customer lifecycle stage they are on. Firms will embrace AI-powered tools that suggest FAQs and search results that are automatically personalized for every customer. At the employee front, the support reps will be able to see the articles & solutions already checked by customers so that agents can start on the right foot.
4. Firms Will Be Up Front About Transparency & Data Protection Practices
We all witnessed the day when Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, sat in front of dozens of members of Congress (which then became a usual thing) on account of user data getting breached. It shook the world and it was then that customers started placing transparency & data protection at a higher rank.
There is no denying that customer trust impacts your bottom line. According to the 2019 Edelman Brand Trust Survey, 45% of consumers would never trust a brand again after it displays unethical behavior or is involved in a scandal, and 40% say they’d stop buying from that brand altogether (Source). So, next year will see a huge number of companies investing in tools that support data privacy and transparency along with being open about their work culture and ethics.
5. Self-Help Experience Will Rise to New Heights
It has long been established that self-service is the king when it comes to providing an enhanced customer experience. But when it comes to providing stellar self-help experience, firms have made too much talk & accomplished too little.
2020 is going to be the year firms will be seen providing in-the-moment guidance & help to users on their current situation. Investment in cognitive engines will see a rise owing to the way they supercharge self-service outcomes.
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There is no doubt that companies are going to adopt newer tools that will help them redefine the customer experience. And it can be said with full conviction that AI is going to be at the heart of those tools. If you too are looking for redefining your CX but not sure how, here’s an ebook carefully crafted keeping in mind the above thoughts. Download it now!
