Customer Experience is the lifeblood of a business and good customer is good customer service is no longer just a nice to have but is critical to a company’s growth and even its very survival. In an increasingly digital world where the customer is spoilt for choice a good customer has become the norm.
Business heads and relevant function heads like marketing or products need to keep track of what customers are really seeking in the current environment. A recent customer poll throws up some interesting trends that businesses need to pay to heed to.
Interestingly while businesses may be investing a lot in AI CX tools like chatbots and automated systems, a large majority of customers (70%) stated that they still prefer real-time communication. 91% of customers found phone calls useful versus only 74% who found chatbots useful.
When asked which factors contributed to a good customer experience, availability to speak to a customer service representative was selected by 67% of those surveyed, whereas the availability of chatbots received only 20% and automated customer assistance systems ranked last with only 16%.
But it’s not a complete dampener for automation technology and CXO or business heads who have invested in a ton of automation technology, don’t panic just yet. Hope lives with the next generation.
When looking into the age of respondents, the findings revealed that adults between the ages of 18 and 25 under-indexed on citing the availability of customer service agents as a contributing factor to good customer service. Less than half (45%) cited this, compared to 67% of all U.S. adults and 77% of those ages 50 and older. These results indicate that Gen Z will be much more amenable to CX tech tools and may even be ready to say goodbye to the customer service agent — or at least the human version.
In terms of industries and the best customer service, Financial services came out on top with 15%, above retail and consumer goods (12%). The tech industry received a total of 7%, while public works and civil services ranked last with only 2%.
This is a good sign for the financial services industry, which has invested heavily in the space in the last few years. Last year, Harvard Business Review released a survey stating that 64% of the financial services executives polled cited improving CX as a top-five business priority for the coming year.
In another set of results, 50% of U.S. adults felt that their CX interactions have not changed compared to the start of the pandemic. Meanwhile, 27% of those polled believe that their experience is worse than before the pandemic, and only 21% feel that it is better.
These findings imply that there is a lot still to be done to provide the seamless, end-to-end customer experience that was promised. To do this, business leaders should continue to invest in tech-enabled CX tools with an eye on the next generation but should be wary of overlooking the current value of accessible, human interaction.
Source – Protcol.com
