You’ve got all of the cool gadgets. You’ve made it so that your customers can reach you in every way imaginable. So, what else is left?
A lot of companies are so caught up in becoming the most leading-edge companies around, that they forget what matters most: the customer. It can be easy to lose sight of the ultimate goal with (quite literally) all of the shiny objects you can add to your offering; however, no matter how many channels you support, or how detailed your FAQs are, what ultimately matters is what customers think of your company. For that, there is still no replacement for enthusiasm and empathy.
While bots and virtual assistants can replicate many transactional conversations autonomously, there still remains a gap in the “human experience” element of many customer engagement technologies. Think back to the last customer service experience that really stuck with you. While certainly those experiences that are quick and make your life easier, the ones that stay with you are the ones where you feel truly valued.
For example, most days for lunch I walk around the corner to a local sandwich shop. Since I’ve been there so often, the staff there have learned my name and have started to remember my order. Sure, machine learning could perform something similar by tracking my order history, but where technology still falls short is in the interactive part on the transaction. I’m greeted with a smile every time, and the employees take a genuine interest in what I have to say (apart from the things that I’m saying that make them money). Those kind of experiences linger because they take you beyond the customer-employee rhythm and into a deeper level of empathy. Interactions like these make customers feel valued and cared for.
That’s not to say that empathetic service and technology are mutually exclusive. The key is understanding how those two work together. As we frequently proclaim, AI and technology are meant to augment human skills, not replace them. These tools can be used to speed up the process of getting to know your customers and let agents focus on ensuring the customer feels valued and welcomed. When it comes down to it though, there is no replacement for the human touch just yet.
Want to start making personalized experiences for your customers? Begin here.
