The increasing role of digital in customer experience
The CX industry is constantly finding new ways to transform digitally and the pace of innovation shows no signs of slowing down
In today's connected world, providing a high-quality digital experience is vital to success. Customers and citizens expect to be able to transact and access support from anywhere, at any time, not just through traditional engagement channels or during typical 'office hours'.
Although the ability to speak with a customer support agent on the phone remains popular, especially in sectors where customers are likely to be experiencing complex or emotive challenges such as finance and insurance, demand for digital experiences is growing.
Research carried out by Content Guru found that for less sensitive enquiries, digital, social and self-service channels are increasingly popular. Almost half (47%) of consumers would prefer to solve their query using non-voice channels, with email (29%), website live chat (29%) and AI chat (19%) all popular amongst consumers as they search for more efficient ways to interact with organisations. Allowing customers to resolve low-value enquires such as account updates without having to speak to an agent can enable more efficient issue resolution and also make space for those trying to get through on the phone.
An increasingly digital future
Elsewhere within digital Customer Experience (CX), Internet of Things (IoT) devices are allowing organisations to offer more effective and personalised services. The number of connected devices is set to hit 29 billion IoT connections by 2027 and organisations must be prepared to tap in to the data they create. If done correctly, organisations can transform the traditional contact centre into a dynamic data hub, powered by real-world insights. By using real-time data, organisations can work proactively to solve challenges and add a personal touch to interactions as a more comprehensive picture of the customer is built up. For example, a smart meter can act as a digital customer and notify utilities providers of issues such as power cuts, whilst telematics devices within cars can communicate automatically with an insurer on behalf of a customer.
The emerging role of AI
By 2026 over 80% of organisations will use generative AI APIs, and the CX industry is an early adopter of this technology due to the large amount of manual processes that can be automated. Agents are tasked with creating notes and summaries for interactions and feeding them into systems of record. Real-time transcription and summarisation, driven by Natural Language Processing in combination with Generative AI, can take a lot of the heavy lifting in admin-heavy tasks and free up agents to spend more time supporting customers. Although agents will still be responsible for the information logged against an interaction, they will be simply checking what has been generated by the AI and making any tweaks, rather than creating the content in full.
AI-powered chatbots are also enabling customers to reach out to organisations and have their issues resolved, even outside traditional business hours. AI chatbots can take care of basic enquiries such as store opening hours or a brand's returns policy. If organisations have a Customer Data Platform as part of their CX solution, the chatbot will be able to answer questions related to individual customer queries, such as information on a specific booking or shipment tracking information.
Powering a digital storm
The CX industry is constantly finding new ways to transform digitally and the pace of innovation shows no signs of slowing down. We at Content Guru have been working alongside our customers across the last two decades to lean into digital and leverage the latest technologies such as IoT and AI. Through our market-leading cloud communications platform storm®, organisations are able to communicate with customers consistently across a number of different channels and adopt emerging technologies as they become available. As a result our customers are continually ratcheting up the CX bar in their respective sectors, delighting customers and agents every day.
Martin Taylor is the co-founder and deputy CEO of Content Guru, a leading global cloud communications and customer experience technology provider. A pioneer in cloud communications and real-time billing, Martin's responsibilities include product innovation, strategic market development and the business's fast-growing healthcare and public sector practice.