Customer experience is at a crossroads in determining what's next for building strategic CX programs that aggregate and analyze customer feedback. McKinsey reported in 2021 that 85 percent of CX leaders using survey-based metrics were not satisfied with the metrics, and an alarming 94 percent of those respondents did not find them sufficient for confident decision-making.
Now, AI tools are helping leaders reimagine the consumer experience. Earlier this year, McKinsey predicted once more that an AI-enabled future will "be the biggest disruption in the history of customer service" as organizations make efforts to improve efficiencies, meet consumer expectations, and introduce new technologies. Similarly, ZenDesk highlighted in its CX Trends 2024 report that 73 percent of CX leaders believe AI will power all CX interactions, with 91 percent predicting AI will enhance trust with improved transparency around AI decisions.
Navigating CX in an emerging AI world means reimagining how contact centers, CX leaders, and technology can work together to build a positive consumer experience. Those efforts will mean retraining, reshaping, and rethinking customer experience programs, and it will require skillful leadership to manage change throughout workforces to effectively drive the adoption of these new programs.
Historically, conversations between customers and companies largely flowed through call centers. Today, omnichannel interactions expand communication to conversations between humans and chatbots or virtual assistants; they could be via email or texting, automated interactive voice response systems, online portals, etc. While this omnichannel approach provides more options for consumers, it also exponentially increases consumer data sources, making it hard to aggregate and analyze key topics related to customer experience. And the push to continue to deploy more of this technology is only growing, with AI at the forefront.
Expanding communication channels creates opportunities to reimagine how CX programs can expand and positively drive change and insights, for both the customer and employee.
Retraining CX with AI
Effective agent training is crucial to improving CX, especially in industries like healthcare, where 50 percent of customer interactions include one or more brand detractors. Supplementing typical agent training and evaluation with AI-powered insights from real conversations can increase agent clarity and confidence in customer conversations.
This begins by reconsidering how we currently onboard and train agents. With AI, there are new opportunities to connect, listen, and guide CX strategies with the actual voices of customers to find opportunities for improvement and provide tangible resources to train and coach workforces.
With AI unlocking the ability to access and analyze customer conversations at scale, there are emerging opportunities to reshape how CX can positively impact business objectives.
Industry-specific AI enables effective solutions to reshape the industry through conversations in three distinct ways: 1) comprehend and summarize complex conversations, 2) learn and adapt to industry-specific knowledge, and 3) help predict behaviors. Having access to conversation data enables data-backed storytelling that highlights common scenarios agents face in their roles. With concrete examples, managers can provide specific coaching, which drives agent confidence in handling more complex calls. By shining a light on recurring pain points, business leaders can work with their agents to reshape how customers are served.
Efforts to rethink customer experience with AI are already taking place. In a recent earnings call, Elevance Health CEO Gail Boudreaux shared how the company is using AI to simplify its customer experience by improving the resolution rate of customer service questions.
AI uncovers the rich data buried in contact center conversations that organizations can then use to drive strategic product investments, process enhancements, and quality experiences. The key is to provide context in efforts to rethink how CX can impact organizational change.
You are likely already seeing the impact of AI innovation inside your own organizations. Efforts are being made to leverage AI to help automate, scale, and innovate how organizations engage with their consumers. There is an opportunity to reimagine, reshape, and rethink how contact centers, CX leaders, and technology can come together to drive CX strategy alongside a positive employee experience.
Amy Brown is founder and CEO ofAuthenticx.