Fall back to well-trained human call-center agents, of course! Even then, GenAI can help human CRM agents balance professionalism and empathy…
Generative AI (GenAI) has emerged as a game-changer in crafting personalized, seamless and anticipatory customer interactions in chatbots: from offering real-time assistance, to using predictive analytics to enhance customer relationship management and customer experiences (CX).
So, will the world be seeing less human interaction/engagement this year and beyond?
DigiconAsia.net had an opportunity to interview Gidi Adlersberg, Director, Voca Conversational Interaction Center, AudioCodes to gauge how GenAI will impact CX in 2024.
DigiconAsia: What are the ways CX will evolve this year?
Gidi Adlersberg (GA): While CRM integration has been around for years, it was always done in a programmatic approach, presenting tight yet very specific data connections between CRMs and contact centers.
With GenAI, CX vendors and solution providers will be able to seamlessly incorporate CRM and other customer-supporting information in a much more holistic manner, providing agents with pinpointed, focused customer information — without the prerequisite of programming and pointing at the specific data integrations and connections associated with an interaction.
The possibility of interconnecting enormous amounts of data sources together using GenAI will empower agents in making them more resourceful from the first moment of interaction, while relieving the burden of manual, rigid integration work from contact center vendors and system integrators.
From the customer viewpoint, those that seek a “live agent” instead of an intuitive chatbot typically do that only when failing to resolve their issue independently. It is, in that crucial point in time, where customers are mostly frustrated, and where (well-trained) human agents will be more important than ever in resolving complex cases requiring empathy. Therefore, even with GenAI advancements, I like to think of “live agents” as the most important, critical, and dependable fallback for any CX scenario.
At the end of the day, humans are social creatures that cherish and value the interdependency of being helped by fellow humans. Will customers appreciate good CX provided by a bot in the same way as they will with a human customer service agent? Emotional Intelligence make all the difference for a customer in need. Although these cases are not a majority, the need for providing the “human touch” will continue to be felt this year and beyond.
DigiconAsia: Among the modes of customer service, which communication channel is most effective for establishing great CX?
GA: In the past, text-based or digital interactions became popular mainly because face-to-face visits or voice-based phone calls were more convenient. When problems were not solved satisfactorily, the next line of communication — speaking with live agents — would be preferred.
If we consider the growing pivotal role of GenAI in analyzing and responding to customer interactions, we are likely to see digital channels providing much quicker, precise responses to customers, making the digital channel essentially a new modality for self-service.
This means that GenAI will deflect more customer interactions to a self-service model guided by chatbots. This applies to “transactional” needs where the core issue is to get a straightforward request or enquiry addressed in a satisfactory way.
However, in situations where an interaction can only be addressed by conversation, voice chats with real human customer service agents will always remain a preferred CX channel. Customers will continue to look for the help of fellow humans when things become complex.
Between the benefits of smooth GenAI-based transactional CX and voice-based human-to-human CX, we are likely to see email interactions beginning to decrease. By nature, email correspondences are based on a ‘message exchange’ concept that is limited by design in its ability to incorporate ‘bot magic’. Or in simple words: can you imagine yourself preferring “EmailGPT” over ChatGPT?
DigiconAsia: Customer service is something many firms see as a cost center.
GA: Such firms can put themselves in their customers’ shoes and ask: “What would matter to me as my own customer?” to truly understand the significance of providing great CX to their customers.
While cost saving is key in today’s economic landscape, providing good CX is a revenue generator in making customers more sticky, loyal and open to additional purchases. As technologies become more and more commoditized, it is really not so expensive to provide a decent CX these days.
For me, it is only a question of how committed firms are to achieving business targets, that will entail appreciating the pure value in providing great CX.
DigiconAsia: Given the region’s diversity in terms of culture and language, will a ‘one-size-fits-all’ digital CX management approach be feasible?
GA: As the Asia region continue to grow in influence, businesses will find themselves cooperating more between each other and the rest of the world, and will be acting less siloed or segregated.
This will necessitate more aspects (including CX) to be scaled from a local, regional mindset to a more universal mindset that is expected in mature markets. This is where GenAI can help — in bridging and taming language and cultural barriers using a consistent, universal (what we call a ‘one-size-fits-all’ form of effective communication.
DigiconAsia thanks Gidi Adlersberg for taking the time to share his industry insights with readers.
