Customer Support: What Changes Will Radically Transform User Experience and Business Models

The ‘Customer Service Excellence’ research for 2023, conducted by Deloitte Digital across various industries in countries around the world, including Croatia, shows that most companies have failed to optimally align the qualifications of their customer service agents with the needs of their clients. Moreover, only 33 percent of customer service managers believe that their agents can easily find the information needed to assist clients.

This is why the process of hiring and training agents in any customer support service is a significant opportunity for creating positive changes within the organization. The importance of this issue will be further heightened by the expected development of utilized technologies that require new types of capabilities, such as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).

Therefore, it is extremely important to understand the needs that effective data collection and utilization require, as their analysis will enable the improvement of business performance through the proper use of agent skills. If the business strategy and goal assume surpassing current ratings of customer experiences, employee experiences, and operational excellence, this approach certainly deserves attention. Tools that offer broad capabilities while being easy to use allow employees to effectively perform tasks in a flexible and organized manner. The ultimate goal should be a unique, unified source of truth that integrates different types of data into a coherent and intuitive interface.

Using Personalization

Personalization is not just a nice addition but a necessity in creating long-term relationships with clients. Companies that understand and apply this can expect greater loyalty, engagement, and revenue from their clients. However, unlike last year when 30 percent of respondents ranked personalization as the top priority, this year it is only in third place in terms of importance. The first two most frequently selected categories are resolving inquiries at first contact and total inquiry resolution time.

These categories were also rated significantly lower than personalization. Independent research has shown that personalized service has the greatest impact on customer experience (4.05), employee experience (3.89), and operational excellence (3.53). This indicates a mismatch between business offerings and customer expectations.

Customers expect a highly individualized treatment. Therefore, timely realization of an individualized approach in the right context and using the right tools is crucial. Companies must tactically and strategically plan touchpoints and interactions with clients at every stage of the process to meet their expectations. This involves providing accurate information and support in a timely and intuitive manner.

Traditional vs. Digital

Traditional communication channels with customers such as email and phone calls still have an advantage over digital channels like chats and customer portals. Although many companies have invested in developing digital solutions to provide better customer support, their usage has not significantly increased compared to last year; for example, the usage rate of customer portals has decreased. The dominance of traditional channels has several reasons, two of which stand out: some customers feel more comfortable using traditional channels they know, and some companies do not offer quality digital alternatives that would attract and satisfy customers.

A digital channel that shows promising results is SMS communication. SMS and mobile applications are becoming increasingly popular among customers who use mobile devices for their daily needs. SMS also has a high quality and satisfaction rating, both from customers and employees. This shows that sending short and clear messages via SMS is a good way to improve customer service.

One way companies can improve their service is by using self-service and automation to address simple and frequent customer inquiries. According to this research, many users contact customer service to report a problem or find information about a product or service. This highlights the importance of enabling clients easy access to accurate information, as well as tools for submitting and resolving inquiries. This means that companies must ensure an updated, accurate, and easily accessible knowledge base. Additionally, companies today can utilize advanced artificial intelligence like GenAI to provide users with a better search experience and find relevant information or solutions.

Untapped Potential of AI

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being applied across various communication channels such as chatbots, email, or social media. According to the research, 23 percent of companies have implemented artificial intelligence in chatbots, and 11 percent use it for voice analysis, speech-to-text transcription, and emotion or opinion recognition behind speech. This technology enables faster, more efficient, and personalized responses to inquiries from clients and potential customers. Analysis has confirmed that the use of artificial intelligence positively affects many business metrics. As many as 68 percent of customer service managers noted that after implementing artificial intelligence, the most significant improvement observed was a substantial reduction in the time required to resolve customer issues.

Despite this, the rate of artificial intelligence adoption remains low across all industries. Research results suggest that for most companies, the use of artificial intelligence is a relatively new concept, as only 46 percent of respondents utilize its capabilities. Only in a few industries (retail and FMCG, public sector, education and healthcare, and ER&I) do more than half of respondents use artificial intelligence.

It can also be used as a process automation tool to eliminate routine agent interventions. A good example of using artificial intelligence as a tool is the chatbot that agents can use to retrieve all relevant information in the context of a conversation with a customer. It is precisely in the use of artificial intelligence (27%) and process automation (26%) that customer service managers see an opportunity to optimize their department’s costs by increasing efficiency.

Enhancing Human Experience

To achieve excellence in customer service, it is necessary to improve the human experience, which includes both customer experience and employee experience as well as operational excellence. Companies are advised to align organizational measures, processes, and tools to meet or exceed customer expectations, ensure operational efficiency, and support employee motivation and engagement.

Artificial intelligence is on the rise and brings new challenges and opportunities for companies looking to improve their services and customer satisfaction. To take advantage of this, companies must collect and analyze data on the behavior and needs of their clients and offer them personalized recommendations that will help them make better decisions.

However, it is not enough to simply use artificial intelligence as a tool. Companies must change their way of thinking and doing business to place the client at the center of everything they do. This means they must align their operational models, processes, organizational culture, and success metrics with the needs and expectations of their clients. This way, the service will transform from a cost into a value.

Business Priorities

Personalized service continues to have the greatest impact on customer and employee experience as well as operational excellence. If customer service focuses solely on speed and productivity, it can negatively affect customer and employee experience even if high standards of efficiency are achieved. Therefore, it is important to make thoughtful decisions about which goals are priorities in business. Personalization and self-service along with artificial intelligence and automation should become key strategic tools for increasing customer orientation and creating added value in the modern business environment.

Personalization allows for the adaptation of products and services to specific customer needs and preferences, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Self-service enables users to independently perform various tasks and transactions through digital channels, reducing the need for human interventions and business costs. Artificial intelligence and automation enable faster and higher-quality decision-making, process optimization, predicting customer needs and behaviors, and creating new values and innovations. These four categories together contribute to increasing competitiveness, efficiency, and profitability of the business and create long-term relationships with clients.