Transforming customer experience

What does transforming customer experience actually require — and what are the key technology, process, and organizational levers that need to change simultaneously to move from where most organizations are today to the AI-powered, customer-centric operation their customers are already expecting?

Transforming customer experience with innovative contact center technology

There are many pieces to the customer experience puzzle. Every touchpoint between a customer and a business has a cumulative effect on the picture that emerges as the puzzle nears completion. A Facebook ad could be one of the edge pieces; an online shopping experience could be one of the middle pieces; and maybe a store visit is that coveted final piece that completes the picture. But what picture is it? A beautiful woodland meadow or a doomed ship on a raging sea? Businesses, of course, strive for a version of the former.

Customer service is a key piece of the customer experience puzzle and should be protected from falling off the table and getting chewed by the dog. A customer needing help is very impressionable, meaning contact centers need to consistently deliver experiences that build trust with customers and solidify their relationships with the brand. Contact centers have many tools in their arsenal to do this, including innovative technology they can use for transforming customer experience.

Many of these transformative technologies aren't even directly visible to consumers, yet they yield significant benefits to the quality of customer interactions.

Here are some examples of innovative technologies contact centers are using for transforming customer experience:

AI-infused service

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revving up more traditional channels by enabling additional functionality. For example, customers can interact with IVRs by speaking conversationally, rather than pressing buttons or saying only what the system says they can say. Additionally, AI-powered chatbots can serve as the friendly front-end to online chat sessions, competently collecting information about the customer and their issue so that the live agent can hit the ground running.

Cloud-based software

Cloud-based contact center software offers many ways of transforming customer experience. For example, if customer demand is high for chat services, a business with cloud-based software can typically add the chat channel pretty easily.

Effective agent tools

This goes hand-in-hand with offering omnichannel support. Agents should have a unified desktop with a consolidated inbox so that they can quickly help customers without having to toggle through multiple systems. No effort at transforming customer experience would be completely optimized without this capability.

Omnichannel platform

Of course this is on the list! And according to our benchmark research, it will be on the list for quite a while longer. This study revealed that 91% of consumers expect an omnichannel experience, but only 24% of businesses rate themselves as excellent at delivering on those expectations. Transforming customer experience with technology that allows customers to move seamlessly across channels is a sure way to win loyalty.