Retail Analysis
2021 WAS ANOTHER YEAR OF EPIC FIREFIGHTING in which customer experience (CX) innovation increased at rapid pace. Whilst the pandemic acted as a catalyst for change, it also uncovered the need to achieve greater operational efficiencies for businesses to keep up and become more aligned with customer expectations. Now, as we move further into 2022, organisations are no longer
satisfied with just surviving. The time and effort that went into plugging inefficiencies during the initial stages of the pandemic must now lead to something greater and more sustainable. After all, businesses can’t afford to stand still whilst the threat of Amazon-like giants with superior CX capabilities threaten to break into every sector. Nor can they ignore the necessity to set their employees up to work, and respond to customers effectively, from anywhere. Especially now that the introduction of the Government’s Plan B has proven that remote working has become – and will continue to be – part of everyday life. To move beyond survival mode, businesses must pivot from a phase of reactive measures to focus on actions and technology that will prove to be revolutionary in the year ahead. But that doesn’t necessarily mean turning your back on those
previous investments – according to Forrester, in 2022, customers will want over half of pandemic-era services to become the new normal. Instead, it means leveraging those solutions to reinvent and reinforce the customer and employee experience. Here, we discuss the top trends, technologies and strategies that will underpin CX transformation in the year ahead, and how organisations can leverage these to become truly revolutionary.
1. Self-service will grow smarter in both capacity and flexibility Self-service is familiar to CX professionals and customers alike. However, self-service as we currently know it is set to change as demand for efficiency and improved experience continues to grow. Whilst self-service is currently focused on ‘routine tasks’, its continued development, alongside intelligent automation, makes it ideal for assisting with enquires, and therefore improving efficiency. Many customers seek a self-service, mobile-first option and are willing to use these solutions to have their needs met more quickly. Looking ahead, self-service will have the capability for handling more effective interactions with customers, taking the burden off human workers who have faced a dramatic uptick in inbound telephone calls over the last 12 months. For example, when a customer has an order inquiry during an
online journey their chat experience should be informed by real-time data. It shouldn’t need an agent to have a Webchat and search internal systems for answers, the Web assistance should be integrated so the customer has visibility. According to recent research by Netcall and Davies, 40% of CX
leaders currently prefer service users to use human-provided contact channels. However, we could soon see this sentiment change as self-service tools become increasingly sophisticated. Creative uses of automation alongside these tools will carry extra impact in reducing the pressure on precious and expensive people without damaging the experience.
2. Automation as a tool to retain and engage In terms of aiding and improving the customer experience,
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automation and its benefits have been realised for some time now. But never has it been more important for it to be harnessed as a tool to retain and engage employees. Recent reports reveal that almost a quarter of workers actively plan to change employers in the next few months, as part of a ‘great resignation’ and this is set to have a detrimental impact on customer relationships if not rectified quickly.
“The time and effort that went into plugging inefficiencies during the initial stages of the pandemic must now lead to something greater and more sustainable.”
Reducing the routine will, therefore, quickly become table stakes in
which intelligent automation can play a critical role. By leveraging automation effectively, including tools such as robotic process automation (RPA), raw data that already exists in knowledge bases and FAQs can be rapidly translated into more accessible forms, removing the manual burden on frontline workers. Updates to multiple systems no longer needs tedious and error-prone manual inputs, freeing employees time for employees to handle more interesting and customer-focused tasks. Providing a superior experience needs alignment with business processes and low-code application platforms allow organisations to compose the processes they need, rather than not forcing them to work to pre-defined software steps.
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