AI and customer experience (CX) are high on business leader’s agendas - and rightly so. According to 8x8’s recent Future of Work: 2030 Vision report, CX will be the key differentiator for brands by 2030, beating out product quality. So how can business leaders put their organisation on the path to success?
Firstly, they must ensure that employees have access to the latest tools and technologies – including AI. But they also need to provide great employee experiences (EX) and deliver on their expectations for seamless remote and hybrid working.
Happy, well-supported customer service agents are more likely to provide better support for customers, for example, who are then also happier, which increases the happiness of the agents engaging with them. This is a virtuous circle that ultimately reduces agent attrition and improves CX.
“We’re seeing more organisations deliberately invest in improving their employee experiences,” says Chris Angus, VP, EMEA contact centre engagement at 8x8, which provides contact centre and business communications solutions. “This should, in theory, translate into good customer service and experiences.”
Investments in technologies like AI have the potential to improve both EX and CX. Chatbots can deflect calls to self-service channels, for instance, allowing human agents to focus on more complex issues that require empathy and critical thinking. This should make their job more satisfying and engaging while also enhancing CX.
AI also supports real-time intelligent routing to get customers to the right person faster; it can verify their identity and gather vital information to pass on to the agent. Modern tools also provide instant insights to help agents solve tricky customer issues, or help them identify when a customer is becoming agitated. “These tools make their life much easier and lead to top-drawer customer service,” says Angus.
AI supports real-time intelligent routing to get customers to the right person faster
Focusing on AI
Given all this potential, it’s perhaps not surprising that 70% of the 400 IT and CX leaders surveyed for 8x8’s report consider AI to be their organisation’s focus – double the figure from the previous edition. Respondents stated they would use AI for predictive analytics (57%), personalisation through customer behaviour (55%), chatbots (54%) and knowledge base content creation (54%).
CX leaders will need to work closely with IT to successfully deploy these tools, focusing on what each department does best. “The IT team needs to be heavily involved in creating the guard rails and ensuring you remain compliant, as well as making sure you have the right Large Language Model,” says Angus. “You don’t want your CX leaders to get lost in the decision-making processes around which technologies are right for what you want to achieve.”
Instead, their role should be identifying what a great customer and employee experience looks like, mapping out the CX problems the organisation needs to solve, and then orchestrating the journey toward achieving it. Yet despite the huge potential for AI to transform CX and EX, more than half of organisations (57%) believe it will take away more jobs than it will create. However, the impact of the technology on the world of work is likely to be more complex and nuanced than this prediction suggests. Angus actually believes that AI being used properly will see an increase in jobs as companies try to constantly improve their CX.
“AI is good at crunching numbers and producing information in seconds that would take a human hours to create. But the interpretation and execution – what you do with that data – is down to human intelligence,” says Angus. Indeed, rather than a threat to jobs, AI should be seen as something that augments the work of agents and allows businesses to service more customers without increasing headcount.
The impact of the technology on the world of work is likely to be complex and nuanced
Unified platforms
Although AI is clearly a priority for CX leaders, cloud communications and cloud contact centres will also have a major impact on CX by 2030. In fact, most organisations are now using hybrid or cloud contact centre solutions and communication platforms; only 13% of business leaders reported that their organisation’s communications and contact centre technology was on-premises.
The consolidation of communication platforms like video, voice and messaging will also accelerate in the future, with 39% of survey respondents planning to move to a single platform across the organisation by 2030. One unified communications platform that unites front and back office teams, call centre agents and subject matter experts, can also unlock huge efficiency improvements.
Customer service agents can easily forward screenshots or messages to a super user who takes on the situation. “Perhaps they aren’t part of the contact centre, but are a subject matter expert who sits within the traditional unified communications engine,” says Angus. “Because everything is joined up on a single platform, questions flow through the organisation seamlessly.”
What’s more, this unified approach also improves the organisation’s analytical capabilities as data is no longer siloed in disparate systems or individual programs.
The future of work
These technological changes will take place against a backdrop of shorter workweeks and more flexible scheduling, which will undoubtedly impact CX and EX. Interestingly, only 19% of CX and IT leaders anticipate the need for a five-day workweek by 2030, providing insight into how we work is set to continue evolving.
Currently, the workplace is predominantly hybrid. In the future, two-thirds of organisations still expect hybrid to be the most common approach to work, with one-quarter expecting it to be fully remote. Many also anticipate that by 2030, in-person meetings and even email will be on the way out, replaced by video calls, virtual reality and – according to a smaller percentage of respondents – the metaverse.
In a world where greater hybrid and remote working is the norm, platforms that support seamless collaboration between remote and in-office employees – and allow individuals to move easily between environments and communication channels – will be even more essential for strong EX and CX.
“You need to have a seamless transition between working environments,” says Angus. “That fosters a really powerful employee experience which then naturally resonates with good customer experiences.”
In short, great EX and CX rests on technologies that unlock the synergy between the two. Organisations that understand this have the opportunity to ensure that their customers, and their employees, are happier than ever before by 2030.
To view the Future of Work: 2030 Vision Report visit www.8x8.com/8/2030-vision
