We know customers like to buy a product/service if they have had a pleasant experience.
Every customer goes through a purchase journey while trying to buy a product. The impression that the purchase journey leaves them with is CX or customer experience. Many companies today have gone digital and are using cloud computing and other technologies in the global marketplace. Customers now have a wide variety of interaction options. It is a known fact that customers will pay more to receive fast and efficient customer service. When we look at the business side of things, we see that excellent customer service brings in more business.
CX with Us
The customer service industry was not as advanced as it was now six to seven years ago. Most applications like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were used personally or in a business setting. All customers interacted through customer helplines or ineffective emails. The idea that a customer can resolve their issues via chat was non-existent. A recent study by Nielsen’s conducted during the pandemic shows that two in five people have increased their online purchases in Singapore.
Companies were known to hide their customer support information so customers would not be able to reach them.
Companies then followed a business-oriented model. The frustrated customer had to look for all possible solutions before reaching out to the company for assistance. Companies were known to restrict access to their websites while deliberately making the site navigation complicated.
Today, we take a more customer-oriented approach because of the technological advancements which are rapidly transforming customer needs, wants, and desires. We provide a plethora of options to our customers to resolve any problem they have without switching platforms.
Amplification of Channels
CX is about lowering the barrier to help customers with the use of the internet and emerging technologies. Businesses can interact with customers due to the recent amplification of channels.
Sixty-four percent of consumers say that they want companies to respond to them in real-time. Customer experience has progressed to such a level that it ensures timely delivery of information to customers on the product, no matter what they are doing.
Freshdesk Omnichannel has multiple ways of engaging with customers; A knowledge-based self-service, the Freddy AI engine with its conversational interfaces, and other traditional support routes. Freshworks can follow the customers wherever they are in the support ecosystem. Many customers drop the purchase if they have any glitches. A Mastercard report shows us that 51% of the people in the Asia Pacific opt for contactless payments with all the available services, with 75% indicating that they will stick to contactless payments post-pandemic.
Responsive search with intelligent suggestions
With amplification and omnichannel support, we had to ensure we had an intelligent search system integrated into the knowledge we already possess. We solved the problem by predicting issues before they occurred. When a customer opens a ticket on Freshdesk and starts typing the issue they are facing, it automatically predicts a few articles with the same knowledge base that helps contextually.The linking of knowledge helped us to understand what kind of support is needed to be delivered.
1. Reactive is when customers call when they are facing a particular problem.
2. Proactive is when We contact the customer for a universal problem.
3. Prescriptive is when a support agent has faced the same problem before and walks the customer through it.
4. Predictive is when we predict the issue that is yet to occur by using machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Future of CX
The evolution of consumer experience is progressing towards automation and quick access to information.
It will be easier to resolve a problem using a technique that classifies issues as simple, complicated, and complex. Simple is following basic steps. Complicated is like building a fence, and complex is like building a whole house brick by brick.
We are at a point where automation can solve simple problems. If there is any problem that has occurred before, technology can solve it without any human intervention.
Complicated issues require a process or a workflow. Most complex problems require robotic process automation. Robotic process automation creates subtasks to be followed by automation. That helps in the resolution of a problem.
However, Complex problems require the right balance between automation and human intervention. Automation cannot match a human level of critical thinking. Most complex tickets need human intervention.
Customer service or experience is not just about calling the helpline and getting a problem resolved. It is about how quickly the company notices the problem and escalates its resolution. A vendor expects to get agents who can solve problems rather than just reading a script and following it. CX jobs in the future would look for people with problem-solving skills and empathy. We should empathize with our customers and teach our workforce to deal with their frustrations to have a faster and more efficient resolution to their problems. A recent study by Singapore’s smart nation initiative states that 66% of companies believe that most interactions between brands and customers will occur via AI within the next ten years.
Customer service will develop to a stage where customers do not have to engage with humans at all. We can achieve this only if we solve all the potential problems that are about to occur, as companies cannot make flawless products.
There are no such things as products anymore; They are just experiences.
