At a recent gathering of global customer experience (CX) experts and thought leaders, one experiential finding was unanimously clear: artificial intelligence (AI) delivers best on its enormous potential when it’s used to augment, rather than replace human personnel.
This better-together approach is, even now, starting to revolutionize the business process outsourcing (BPO) and particularly CX industries, with companies accelerating past the old reactive, siloed support models to a proactive, orchestral paradigm, which integrates not just humans and AI, but various departments of the organization and every step of the customer journey. Let’s take a quick look at how that’s happening, and what it means:
Smarter Customer Acquisition
AI can operate 24/7, answering basic questions about products and services, as well as monitoring brand interest—both direct and indirect—across the worldwide web, and even scheduling appointments, as appropriate. At the same time, it stays up-to-date on sales, marketing, and logistics concerns, such as target market, deals and promotions, and delivery capabilities. All that leads up to more intelligent, strategic lead generation than was previously possible, so that, when human agents reach out to potential customers, they are already interested, and primed to receive the right offer at the right time.
Value-amplifying Post-sale Support
Customers appreciate little touches that show how much a brand cares for them, even after the sale has been made, such as reminders about upcoming clinic appointments, alerts that their new vehicle is probably due for an oil change, or suggested itineraries for their upcoming vacation trip. AI can easily keep track of when such touchpoints are called for, but it’s a good idea to have human agents evaluate communications before they’re sent out, to make sure that they come across as helpful, instead of nagging or intrusive – consumers respond better to “You may want to do this” rather than “You must do this now!”
Hyper-personalization
Hyper-personalization is practically the holy grail of CX, these days, with consumers putting a lot of stock in being seen, known, and understood by the brands they patronize. It’s no longer enough to, as the saying goes, build a better mousetrap – today’s businesses have to be aware of whether each customer is more concerned about the mousetrap being effective or humane, for instance. That awareness can make the difference between delighting or losing customers. The good news is that AI can continually access, update, and provide complete customer information, which human agents can then utilize, serving customers in a more thoughtful, empathetic, and individualized way than ever before.
These are just a few of the many areas where human-AI collaboration is revamping current and future CX, which include dramatically improving organizational efficiencies and empowering employees.
While there are challenges to making it work—encompassing the still-developing ethical, regulatory, and governance frameworks related to AI—the advantages are almost limitless. As CX continues to evolve, almost in tandem with AI, companies simply can’t afford to be left behind in a business landscape where customer experience is crucial.
Ready to see how a human-AI approach can elevate your customer experience? Inspiro can help you combine the best of technology with the irreplaceable value of human connection. Let’s build a better CX strategy together.
