The customer experience has changed beyond recognition in recent years. At the turn of the millennium, the only customer touchpoints a brand really had to worry about were phone calls, the occasional delivery and what happened on the shop floor. In today’s fast-paced, interconnected world of convenience, however, the number of touchpoints are almost too numerous to count. From social media and e-commerce, right through to online chats and busy call centres, consumer-facing brands in all sectors now face a common challenge: delivering a connected, customer-centric omnichannel experience.
In this article, we’ll explore how consumer behaviours and expectations have changed as we move into 2021, and how brands can use technology to meet those expectations without compromising on excellent service.
It is a consumer’s world out there. Technology has given customers an unprecedented amount of agency when choosing how to interact with a brand. Some might prefer a direct call to a customer services department, or queue for an online chat with a company representative. Others might Tweet a company in order to get their issue resolved, and can you imagine how poorly a bank would be perceived in 2021 if it didn’t have a smartphone app?
According to the latest ‘State Of Customer Experience’ report by Genesys, more than 80% of consumers prefer to be able to switch between channels as they engage with brands. This level of choice is a good thing. It means that consumers can interact with services on their own terms, while also giving brands more opportunities to engage. This has also given rise to a new consumer trend: self-service. In today’s convenience culture, it’s far easier for a customer to serve themselves in the interest of keeping things fast and efficient. Not many consumers would choose to wait in a queue or speak to a human representative unless they had an unresolvable issue. A recent survey of consumers found that 6 in 10 customers would prefer an automated self-service such as a virtual call agent or chatbot when trying to complete basic tasks.
It is not just customers that stand to gain from self-service and automation. Companies themselves are beginning to see it as a crucial way of cutting costs without compromising on service. Plus, it’s a valuable coping tool. Since the pandemic, there has been an understandable rise in demand for online or ‘remote’ services, and AI-based automation can help businesses process queries, direct calls and, in some cases, completely resolve issues without any human interaction.
In March 2020, analyst firm, ContactBabel, published the results of a survey asking UK business leaders to gauge the importance of customer experience (CX) developments in the next two years. In a rapid shift from previous reports, the number one ranked technology in terms of ‘need’ was AI-enabled self-service.
For many businesses, self-service and automation might simply take the form of a website, an app, a basic chatbot to direct queries, or a virtual call agent to sift phone calls. However, thanks to huge advancements in conversational AI, the customer experience might soon experience yet another evolution.
When we talk about ‘conversational AI’, we are referring to a handful of specific technologies such Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Advanced Dialogue Management and Machine Learning (ML). On their own these tools are powerful, but together they have the potential to be revolutionary. Conversational AI can be used effectively over both voice and text channels, interpreting what customers say or type, and responding in a way that’s virtually indistinguishable from a human agent.
First, the user will speak or type their query. If the input is spoken, ASR will make sense of it and translate the query into a machine-readable format. Then the application will decipher what the words mean using NLP, which is something the software will get better at over time due to neural networking and machine learning. The application can then use a Dialogue Management tool to orchestrate a response which will be delivered via text in the case of a chatbot, or speech synthesis in the case of a voice call or smart speaker response. As NLP and the other associated technologies continue to improve, the potential use cases become too numerous to even count.
Take a booking system, for instance. The pandemic has put enormous strain on health services worldwide. What if a voice or chatbot, using the technology outlined above, could handle the booking of all medical appointments on behalf of the NHS? A user could call and state they would like an appointment, provide their details, and briefly describe the problem before being assigned an appropriate doctor or nurse, or having their call directed to a human member of staff if necessary. A connected, omnichannel approach to conversational AI would also allow patients (or customers in other circumstances), to begin the booking procedure via an online chat function and finish it over a call if preferred. If text and voice bots both use the same NLP tools and AI-enabled processes, there’s very little reason the channels can’t be seamlessly interchangeable.
It’s important to remember that while conversational AI has some incredible potential, it is still a relatively new technology. A business should therefore think quite carefully about its implementation, partnering with a solutions vendor that is flexible and at the very forefront of any new developments in the field of NLP or ASR. Companies also need to think about how conversational AI might blend with their other channels and internal processes. Even if a brand employs bleeding-edge conversational AI technology, customers may still end up frustrated if the same positive experience isn’t echoed across other channels such as apps and websites. Then, of course, there’s the question of security.
While conversational AI has the potential to revolutionise self-service and elevate a brand, it can also leave businesses more vulnerable to fraud and cybersecurity breaches if not implemented in the right way. This, again, is why partnering with the right, experienced supplier is absolutely vital to implementing conversational AI as a means of self-service automation.
The past year has no doubt been a challenge for businesses, but if we have learned anything it is that the omnichannel approach is here to stay. As more customers adapt to change, conversational AI and the ability to self-serve is going to become an integral part of the omnichannel DNA.
