How Voice Is Changing Customer Experience Practices for the Better

For those companies wanting to offer a more human interaction for customers, digital avatars offer a self-service AI-enabled technology at the back-end, with a digital person on the front-end to chat to consumers. One example is NTT Data UK and Ireland’s it.human platform, which combines GenAI and life-like digital avatars to provide a more seamless and intuitive service, much closer to that given by a human than standard chatbots. Beyond information searches and fulfilling simple tasks are the customer service calls and chats that frustrate both consumers and the human agents serving them.

How to Start Using AI to Improve Customer Experience

E.ON, an electric utility company, for example, is masterfully managing a portfolio of 30-plus voicebots and chatbots, serving customers and employees through more than 100K conversations per month. The possibility of serving customers wherever they are, 24/7, has massively reduced the workload on service centers and reduced operational costs while offering a better service. E.ON Group won CogX Best Innovation Award 2022 in the category Consumer Chatbot for their chatbot, Robin, which has enabled customers to speak with a virtual agent or a live agent, thus enhancing the customer experience.

How can generative AI improve the customer experience?

Successfully managing micro-moments helps brands provide customers with what they want, when they want it. Voice-powered technologies foster a customer interaction environment where micro-moments are more likely to occur, while simultaneously making it easier for brands to capitalize on those moments. Incorporating voice technology throughout every stage of the customer experience offers unprecedented opportunities to boost customer happiness and cultivate customer loyalty.

• Despite their versatility, many first-gen chatbots struggle to understand complex requests or questions and are limited in maintaining context throughout an interaction.
• One effect AI is having on data is that it is making it more granular, allowing behavioral profiling and contextual customer and channel experiences to scale to levels never seen before.
• Chris tells us we need to ask ourselves three questions when it comes to data collection and analysis.

Maxie tells us that machine learning can make CMS systems better, like for forming and updating taxonomies. It can allow your company to predict customer experience scores without talking to customers and to use data to train models to help tailor the customer experience at any point in the journey. A single bad experience can lead to a lost customer and a damaged brand reputation. One thing that’s often overlooked is that employee experience (EX) and CX are tied together because customer interactions are still commonly handled by people.

• There are generally many tasks that need to be repeated for customers, such as helping them deal with common issues.
• Now is the time to explore how voice-based conversational AI is flipping the script for the future of customer experience.
• This discovery process is a precursor to deeper self-service powered by generative AI.
• However, customer-facing processes rarely meet our expectations, as these systems were created inside-out.
• And our newest community, VKTR, is home for AI practitioners and forward thinking leaders focused on the business of enterprise AI.

Join leaders from Block, GSK, and SAP for an exclusive look at how autonomous agents are reshaping enterprise workflows – from real-time decision-making to end-to-end automation. “The potential use cases for this technology extend far beyond retail,” he says. “In tourism, for example, AI-powered digital avatars have the potential to enrich travel experiences by acting as personalised tour guides. Via their phones or other devices, travellers can interact with avatars that can access vast amounts of information about tourist destinations, providing recommendations and historical context. GenAI in chatbots can also help firms go beyond the average customer experience by predicting buying behaviours, or offering personalised content for birthdays or membership anniversaries.

Something’s Got To Give: The Impact Of Bad Bots

Before joining Salesforce, Thompson was a research vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, covering customer experience (CX) and CRM strategy and implementation. Maoz and Thompson shared their points of view on what businesses need to consider and implement before applying generative AI solutions to their customer service applications and processes. Our sister community, Reworked, gathers the world’s leading employee experience and digital workplace professionals. And our newest community, VKTR, is home for AI practitioners and forward thinking leaders focused on the business of enterprise AI. Leveraging AI and machine learning algorithms and technology, Medallia is mining customer preferences and data from all across the web, through social media, mobile activity, and contact center interactions.

What we know now about generative AI for software development

It saves your human agents’ time by taking basic, mundane tasks off their plates. Once you’ve answered those questions, you’re ready to begin the journey toward a blended AI-enabled customer experience platform. Here are the first three steps many businesses take to get started, beginning gradually with AI/ML basics and progressing into analytics and insights.

Early success in customer service: Start simple

However, despite the current hype levels, companies need to approach the technology from the specific use cases relevant to their business rather than just rushing into GenAI investments. There are many examples of companies already rolling out GenAI tools to better connect with users. Spotify has released an AI DJ, which combines GenAI and human music editors to create personalised music recommendations and puts them into a playlist. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola’s Create Real Magic platform, developed with OpenAI, lets digital artists create original artwork using iconic Coca-Cola assets. We are seeing several trends as AI in customer experience continues to drive innovation.