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Why Your CX Strategy Will Be Built Around Self-Service And Conversational AI

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Bill Gates

We’ve talked about this topic a lot recently but it’s worth reiterating, given the current consumer trends and struggling Business Continuity Plans (BCP) brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic: 

Business at the speed of thought

In 1999, Bill Gates wrote a book titled Business @ the Speed of Thought. Gates' prediction in the novel inadvertently described the future of customer experience, highlighted by AI and automation’s impact on how businesses and customers would eventually interact - through cloud communication. The information used in a given channel would be scalable, meaning it could be used in other channels for both the business’ and consumers’ benefits. 

Personal companions will be developed. They will connect and sync all your devices in a smart way, whether they are at home or in the office, and allow them to exchange data. The device will check your email or notifications, and present the information that you need. 

In 2020, Gates’ futuristic predictions have finally arrived, and many customer service and marketing departments are using such capabilities to maintain and grow their business by better handling customer inquiries and volume, extracting more consumer data, and saving time and resources.

Technological innovation and digital transformation (such as self-service and chatbots, as Gates alluded to) in a channel-agnostic strategy are undoubtedly growing tickets to modern B2C communication and business continuity for most customer-centric businesses, especially in the contact center. While economic prosperity seems like anything but reality during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is light to be found after a pandemic, if you know where to look.

Take a look at this brief example highlighted in our latest How-to Guide with IBM Watson:

Regions infused Watson Assistant, IBM’s conversational AI solution into its workflows in 3 areas. Through automated conversational AI, it created a scalable self-service virtual agent – for customers to get their questions answered in real-time and address future points of consumer and employee frustration. Within the first year Watson managed 331,000 customer care calls – equivalent to 28 full-time equivalents (FTEs) in agent capacity. 

Regions also deployed Watson Assistant to support their agents, giving them a virtual assistant that instantly analyzes the knowledge base to provide bankers and agents with real-time guidance on how to support customer inquiries. Using agent assist, agents saw a 10% reduction in average call handle times, freeing up thousands of hours of agent capacity. 

Finally, Regions used Watson to analyze call recordings to extract key insights into call categorization and customer needs. After three years, these three use cases resulted in $5.2 million in benefits. 

Self-service and conversational AI

The crisis is forcing more and more customer-centric businesses to rapidly expedite digital adaptation and online capabilities to operationalize business continuity – whether it be virtual communication, self-service, new cloud software, innovative digital marketing campaigns and online events, etc. What will happen after the crisis ends and brands resume to normal business continuity plans? Will Zoom disappear? Will Twitter disintegrate? Will customers stop reaching out to businesses via phone or chatbots? Will the contact center crumble? Of course not.

Today, customer experience, contact center, and marketing leaders are facing the challenge of satisfying and retaining the most highly informed scope of consumers throughout history - in a wide array of saturated markets of products and services for them to choose from. In an economy where consumers have less money to spend, differentiation and instantaneous self-service becomes imperative. 

In fact, according to Deloitte, their data shows that 81% of customers regularly read reviews and check online ratings before making a purchase. More than one in three contribute to different online forums. And according to CCW Digital research, 84% of consumers are open to sharing positive experiences on social networks, an increasing consumer behavior trend during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

If your customers receive a bad experience (being transferred too many times, having to repeat information to a customer service rep, wait on hold for extended periods of time, or not have their inquiry handled through a virtual assistant if that’s how they chose to interact with a brand – which they are), the majority of consumers will switch brands after just one to two poor encounters - an emerging trend in consumer behavior, known as “serial swichers.” 

Simply put, your customer experience matters now more than ever, and the decisions, investments, and technologies you’re utilizing are not going unnoticed. 

An IBM approach

Today, quality customer experiences are centered around consumer perception, technological innovation, and frictionless self-service that complements human tasks (for both business and consumer). As self-service trends such as conversational AI, search results for predictive and personalized offerings, Amazon-like recommendations, and automated data aggregation continue to exponentially rise throughout the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, CX analysts are paying particularly close attention to the implementation and cost-effective strategy of scalable, conversational AI. 

Read More: How-to Guide: How to Scale Conversational AI

This How To Guide will reveal all the consumer behavior trends you need to know, what the right conversational AI (and other self-service) tools look like, when to use it, how to incorporate it, and most importantly, how to enjoy a healthy ROI through scalability, especially as your business begins to retain customers in the “new norm.”

This is why CCW Digital recently partnered with IBM Watson - to reveal cutting edge industry analysis and insights, featuring interviews with the world’s #1 customer experience and customer service influencer, WSJ and NYT bestselling author, Shep Hyken, Dow Jones’ Head of CX Design, Alison Lichtenstein, Forbes Contributor and Former Verizon Marketing and CX Leader, Stacy Sherman, IBM Watson Director, Brian Loveys, and CCW Digital Writer and Analyst, Matt Wujciak.

If you haven’t already, and you’re looking to improve your business' customer experience, or simply gain clarity of consumer trends and the future of customer service, download the full report here.

No one’s safe from the behavioral economic consequences brought upon by the coronavirus. But adapting to the right CX strategies and consumer behavior trends will give you the best chance at being on the favorable side of financial Darwinism. 

For media coverage, lead gen, and digital marketing inquiries, contact matt.wujciak@customermanagementpractice.com.


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