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Customer support is a vital function for any product or service. But customers’ changing expectations make it more complicated for customer support representatives to keep people satisfied and create a positive customer experience (CX). These gaps in expectation versus reality can negatively impact brands and their performance. Many customers will abandon a brand after a bad customer service experience, and they have more than enough competitors to choose from when they switch brands.
Closing the gap between expectations and service quality can help improve customer loyalty and retention. But knowing how to execute this strategy is another beast, and some brands may not be as aware of their CX shortcomings as they should be. Here’s what organizations have to understand about the current CX environment to rethink their strategy and see positive results.
Poor Service Disappoints Customers
The first major gap revolves around customer service expectations. People expect quick responses and personalized experiences when they report an issue or ask a question. They want clear, consistent communication across all channels, and they expect all channels to deliver the same level of service. And, significantly, they expect this level of service quality whether they’re talking to a human agent or a bot.
Addressing the challenges that come with these high expectations requires the right data management, communication strategy, and tech stack. Organizations need the infrastructure to properly collect customer data and feedback, allowing them to improve personalization and make necessary changes based on the issues customers report. This also helps inform organizations on what training agents need to improve their performance.
AI Expectations Versus Execution
With so much hype around artificial intelligence and the impact it can have on CX, it’s no surprise that some customers are disappointed in the type of service they receive. Companies that leverage AI promise that it will transform CX and fix common issues, but not all these companies are leveraging AI to its full potential —- leaving customers feeling unimpressed and dissatisfied.
When AI is used poorly, customers may be burned in many potential ways. For example, some users expect that AI will be “intelligent” or “empathetic,” and an AI-enabled bot that does not personalize, optimize, or meaningfully improve CX can lead to frustrating interactions. Also, it’s possible that AI can misunderstand customer questions, exhibit biased behavior, or experience glitches that impact service quality. Not every AI-enabled CX solution is created equal, and negative experiences like this can sour customers on a brand.
The Human-AI Connection
Some brands approach AI as a cost-cutting tool, preventing them from experiencing the true benefits. AI should not replace human intelligence but prop it up. Even though many customers say AI improves CX, they still expect human interaction and empathy when they have a more complicated problem. The best AI tools still benefit from human oversight, and this is where agents can take AI and use it to meaningfully impact the quality of service they can provide customers. When used correctly, AI technology can provide agents with important interaction context and helpful suggestions, gather and analyze customer feedback, and triage issues to the best agents.
Just as organizations can’t ignore AI as they strive to meet customers’ expectations, they can’t forget about the power of human interactions. There is a delicate balance that brands can achieve between AI and humans so that customers have all their needs met. AI provides capabilities that increase speed and operational efficiency, but human agents provide the connection and empathy some customers need to talk through an issue.
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NICE Enlighten to the Rescue
Closing these gaps and meeting customers’ expectations becomes more manageable with the right platform, like NICE Enlighten. Using the world’s largest dataset of omnichannel CX interactions gives this platform the information necessary to deliver consistent, effective experiences across any channel. NICE Enlighten also takes advantage of the latest generative AI technology to improve its CX solution. Keeping up with the newest innovative technology is one factor that makes NICE’s solutions consistently reliable for organizations trying to stay relevant in a quickly changing digital environment.
While delivering these advantages, NICE also uses the highest possible security guardrails in NICE Enlighten to ensure that organizations are safe and protected while still experiencing the benefits of innovative technology. Learn more about common CX gaps and the NICE Enlighten solution in the link below!
