How to turn customer questions into customer rage: the hidden peril of some AI solutions
Fun Fact from the Almanac: January was named for the Roman god Janus, known as the protector of gates and doorways, thus symbolizing beginnings and endings.
Janus is depicted with two faces: one looking into the past, the other with the ability to see into the future. It is certainly a fitting symbol for this month, as we all do our best to create, anticipate, and respond to the year ahead.
When it comes to the demands on Customer Service leaders in 2023, this is no easy feat.
The pandemic, the labor shortage, and the explosion of new technology applications can all converge in a Perfect Storm where your customers get stuck in self-service rather than real service.
As I shared in a recent interview with Forbes.com columnist Henry Devries, “Customer service is one of the industries hardest hit by the Great Resignation.”
“It’s harder to find, and keep, good customer service people. Companies turn increasingly to cheaper AI help to answer customer questions. The wrong choice of bot, the wrong time to use one, or the wrong transition from bot to human, has a sneaky way of turning customer questions into customer rage.”
When companies lose loyal customers, or fail to charm new ones especially in the face of a recession, revenues decline. Those customers who do remain get more frustrated. The agents who remain are under-equipped to deal with that mounting frustration.
As I shared with Forbes, “With this many plates spinning, the customer service leader’s ability to delight customers and empower employees may come to seem like an impossible dream.”
The good news? It’s not impossible.
There’s one main decision you can make that helps all the other pieces fall into place - with the right-fit customizations for your company culture, your dream can become the reality. You can read more about that decision in the article below.
Forbes.com calls us “arguably America’s top Contact Center expert.”
Some of our clients - Fortune 500 companies and smaller startups - are achieving benefits in excess of 10X their investment.
Check out the Forbes article for our top recommendations for Customer Service and Contact Center optimization in 2023:
Wishing each and every one of you a terrific 2023 - and great advances in your Customer Service/Contact Center experience.
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I founded Blue Orbit Consulting in 2014 after running staff organizations in contact centers and building consulting practices in customer service, process improvement, complex program management, and channel operations. My approach – and my firm’s approach – is fundamentally pragmatic. We develop and deliver world-class customer interactions for our clients, whether it is troubleshooting and optimizing what they already have in place or creating strategic transformations to deliver outstanding customer interactions every time.