Member Article

Technology or live interaction?

Graham Ede, CEO, Yonder Digital Group Nowadays customer experience management is increasingly turning to technology to stay ahead of the curve. Automation tools offer great advantages to businesses, managing everything from accounting, to production right through to management of customer experience where they can take the form of a chatbot or artificial intelligence query systems or an automatic prompt for example.

Automation is a fundamental element to managing the customer experience, but evidence from across different industries shows that it can’t act alone. In order to clarify the role of live agent interaction and speed of response in customer experience, Yonder Digital Group commissioned research canvassing the opinions of UK consumers and found that although technological innovation continues to become more and more sophisticated, it still can’t replace the importance of human interaction in the customer journey.

87% of the 1000 UK consumers surveyed revealed that they tend to be more loyal and will continue to buy from companies that offer the chance to talk to a real person when needed. In addition to this, 69% of the canvassed audience went a step further saying that if they don’t have the opportunity to, or they can’t get through to, a real person when they have a query with a company they would more than likely make their purchase somewhere else. These findings make it very clear that in order to keep customers coming back and to increase their custom businesses can’t scrimp on providing human interaction. Consumers were also asked to align loyalty and increase in business outcomes with different standards of customer experience and 84% confirmed the possibility of accessing different channels (both automated and human) will encourage their loyalty to the business.

These findings spell out a clear warning to business leaders hoping to save a few bob: hoping in that automation in isolation – in the form of chatbots, artificial intelligence, etc. – will provide a satisfactory level of customer experience, is a dangerous mistake. However, what the research does show is that technology and human interaction are two essential elements that need to go hand in hand in order to inform and optimise customer experience and, consequently, increase revenue for the business in the form of repeat or increased custom.

A positive customer experience is crucial for business success, for this reason it is important for a company to consider the role of live interaction as a fundamental factor at key stages of the customer experience journey such as when there is a delay with a delivery, dealing with a query about a bulk purchase or if there is a problem. By basing their customer experience on a clear understanding of customer behaviours along the journey to purchase and of their preferences and then making the information easily available to real live agents, businesses are equipping their staff with the key knowledge to promptly and efficiently resolve any issues.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Yonder Digital Group .