The customer service landscape has evolved at a phenomenal rate. In recent years, customers have begun to expect more from the companies they work with.

They want every interaction with a business to be as convenient, streamlined, and personalized as possible, and they’re unwilling to accept anything less than the best. To meet these changing expectations, companies mustn’t only upgrade, train and reskill their service teams. They must also be prepared to adapt to a new age of communication.

Because to achieve the convenience and simplicity they crave, consumers are increasingly turning away from traditional communication channels and embracing the digital age. More than ever, consumers are using self-service channels, online chats, and other tools to engage with brands. If you don’t offer high-quality digital customer service, you can’t compete in the CX space.

What is Digital Customer Service?

Digital Customer Service is essentially a strategy for supporting and advising customers through a range of “digital” channels, including mobile apps, email, chat, and messaging apps. The number of digital communication channels is quickly outpacing traditional methods of engaging with customers, and consumers are demanding more options from the brands they connect with.

With a digital customer service strategy, companies can ensure they’re providing service that fits their customers’ needs and lifestyles. For example, there are now 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide. They use their digital devices for texting and messaging, buying products and services, consume services. It’s only logical that they’d want to continue using the same tools and platforms when engaging with brands.

Consumers also appreciate the convenience, speed, and simplicity that many digital channels offer. Sending a message to a customer service representative is often easier than waiting for a representative to answer a call. Even if conversations can’t be handled faster through digital channels, these platforms give customers more freedom to engage in other tasks while they wait for assistance.

 

How to Audit Your Digital Customer Service Strategy

Building an effective digital customer service strategy starts with assessing your current CX efforts. Assessing your ecosystem, your customer’s journey, and the pain points customers currently face will ensure you’re on the right path to evolution. For example, take a look at:

 

• How customers engage: Start by asking yourself how your customers are currently engaging with you. Which channels do they use, and which do they prefer to avoid? Do they constantly use email or messaging instead of voice? What kind of communication methods do your customers constantly ask for? Do your customers want or need self-service applications to solve their own problems?
• Your communication channels: What channels are currently available to you for customer communication? Chances are you use at least a handful of methods to connect with your customers, such as email and phone. Ask yourself if you’re providing the right range of solutions based on what you know about your customers.
• The marketplace: How does your CX strategy compare to your competitors’ options? What channels do they offer that you don’t currently have? What new trends are emerging in your industry when it comes to customer service and communications? Are there opportunities for you to differentiate your service?

Areas to Prioritize for Better Digital Customer Service

After examining your current CX strategy, you’ll be in a better position to make some effective changes to your digital customer service. While there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for keeping customers happy and loyal, focusing on a few key areas can boost your chances of success.

Here’s where you should start if you want to upgrade your digital customer service.

 

1.    Expand Your Omnichannel Strategy

Most companies know that they need to offer an omnichannel customer service strategy if they want to delight their customers in the modern world. While it’s important not to overwhelm your employees with too many channels at once, offering the right set of options can be a great way to stand out from the competition.

For example, in addition to instant messaging, email, and voice calls, you could also offer video-based customer service for VIP customers. Some 24% of retailers are even considering options like augmented reality and the metaverse for customer experiences.

No matter which channels you choose, make sure they’re all properly aligned. Make sure your channels are connected on the backend so you can push information from chatbots to agents and vice versa across a range of platforms. This leads to a more consistent experience.

2.    Leverage the Power of AI

Artificial intelligence is no longer just a buzzword, but an integral part of digital customer service experience. Some 85% of CX experts believe it’s important for companies to take advantage of AI right away.

One of the best and easiest ways to implement AI into your CX strategy is through self-service. Developing self-service apps and virtual assistants that are able to respond to common customer issues, help customers troubleshoot problems, and even route calls to the right agent can provide a number of benefits. Empowering customers to resolve issues on their own leads to higher customer satisfaction and retention.

It also helps you reduce the workload your team members have to handle on a daily basis. With an AI system that solves common problems for customers, fewer calls and messages are likely to be routed to your agents, giving them more time to focus on important conversations.

 

3.    Dive into Automation

Hyper-automation is likely to be one of the most important trends in the CX landscape in the coming years. Numerous companies have already found that effective automation not only improves the customer experience but also has a positive impact on the employee experience. Some 76% of agents say automation helps them focus on more complex tasks that bring actual value to the customers.

Automation options can take many forms for customer service agents. They can use automated routing services to ensure customers are always routed to the agent best suited to handle their calls and inquiries, reducing the need for transfers.

In a customer service environment, you can use automation to eliminate repetitive tasks that employees perform daily. For example, recording calls and updating customer information. You can even use automated bots to provide agents with valuable information in real-time as they deal with customer inquiries and issues.

 

4.    Unlock Your Staff’s Full Potential

Part of building an exceptional digital customer service strategy is recognizing that in today’s world, it’s not just about providing a great customer experience. If you want to stay ahead of the competition, you need to think about the “total experience”. In other words, consider how your employees’ and managers’ experiences impact your operations.

To improve the engagement, productivity, and efficiency of your team members, adopt an all-in-one customer service platform. A flexible platform that is able to connect all of your omnichannel communication strategies will reduce the amount of time your employees spend switching between different applications. You can even connect CRM tools and other useful resources to improve the flow of data between team members. With the use of such platforms, you can empower your team through automated guidance and full-scale automation to diminish repetitive tasks and create a unified process regardless of which agent is completing the steps of the flow.

Regular training and guidance on how to effectively use new digital tools can also be of great benefit. You can even help your employees become developers themselves by teaching them how to use low-code and no-code tools to automate their own workflows.

 

5.    Keep Evolving

Excellent digital customer service doesn’t mean updating your platforms and tools once and leaving it at that. The landscape of customer experience is constantly changing. New technologies are constantly coming to the market, and customer expectations are evolving accordingly. That means it’s important for any business to stay agile.

Leverage open and flexible technologies that can scale your business and evolve over time. Take advantage of analytics and reporting tools that help you track key business performance and employee satisfaction metrics, and then use those insights to make smart decisions. Measure how your processes are performing. This is very important for processes that are only partially automated. Do not operate in the dark, you will trip.

You can even extend your insights by supplementing your analytics and reporting tools with automated surveys of your key customers. This gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what your customers want most from your team.

Prepare for the Digital Age

Digital Customer Experience is quickly becoming the new norm for companies around the world. If you can’t serve and support clients on the right digital channels, you’ll have no hope of competing with the other companies in your industry.

Fortunately, taking advantage of the benefits digital customer service can offer doesn’t have to be difficult. With Bulb Technologies and the Cempresso platform, you can easily begin building a strategy for digital transformation today. Contact us to find out more.

 

 

Figuring out how to meet and exceed customer expectations isn’t as easy as it seems.

All companies know that if they want to compete in today’s marketplace, attract new customers, and retain their existing ones, they need to provide excellent service. However, in recent years, customer expectations have changed and evolved.

Currently, 66% of customers say they expect the companies they work with to understand their needs, and 52% expect every interaction to be personalized. In addition, in a world of digital transformation and same-day shipping, consumers expect every service to be available instantly.

This puts a lot of pressure on companies to develop CX strategies that are fast, efficient, and personalized for each customer. Fortunately, while meeting customer expectations isn’t always easy, it can be done. Below are 8 strategies you can use to ensure you’re aligning your service strategy with your customer expectations.

1.    Get to Know Your Customers

The first step to meeting customer expectations is to understand what your customers want from you. In most cases, many customers value the same things as speed, convenience, and personalization. However, you’ll find that some customers value things like empathy and compassion more than others.

By gathering as much information as you can about your target audience, you can develop a customer service strategy that meets their expectations. Don’t just determine basic demographic information like where your customers live or their age. Find out which communication channels they prefer to use, what their main problems are, and what their goals are.

Using a reporting tool integrated with your contact center is a great way to continuously gather more data about your customers so you can map their service history.

2.    Evaluate Your Competitors

88% of customers say they expect companies to constantly innovate and improve their services. If you stand out from other competing brands, you have a good chance of attracting and retaining customers. But you can only do that if you know what your competitors are offering. Conducting a competitor analysis SWOT can help you do this.

Identify the key competitors in your current market and ask yourself how they address your customers’ needs. Do they offer self-service options while you do not? Can they serve their customers through a variety of different channels, from voice to video?

Knowing what your competitors are doing will also give you clues on how to stand out from the crowd. For example, if none of your competitors offer face-to-face interactions with human agents, consider this strategy.

3.    Prioritize Speed

As mentioned earlier, speed is one of the most important things a customer expects when working with a company these days. With this in mind, you should constantly be looking for ways to make your strategy even more streamlined and efficient. Around 90% of customers today say they consider an “immediate” response from customer service to be important.

While you may not be able to set up a support team that’s available 24/7 to handle inquiries, you can implement automated systems to keep your customers in the loop. For example, you can deploy a chatbot that automatically responds to customer inquiries and gathers information about their concerns before forwarding them to an agent.

You can also use smart tools to help your agents handle calls faster. For example, an all-in-one contact center management dashboard that integrates with your CRM gives your agents access to the information they need to instantly personalize the customer experience. Chat assistants and automated bots that can provide customer profile data to agents can also speed up the service process, as agents spend less time searching for information.

4.    Set Metrics for Success

Impressing and delighting your customers is something you need to work on consistently. You can’t just put policies in place and hope for the best. You need to be able to track and monitor the changing customer service landscape and the success of your teams.

Decide which key support metrics you want to focus on to improve your CX strategy. For example, you might focus on things like first resolution rate, average resolution time, and customer satisfaction scores. Once you have an idea of the metrics you want to monitor, be sure to share them with your staff. Having access to dashboards where team members can track their performance in real-time can help increase engagement and productivity.

It’s also worth keeping an eye on which employees aren’t meeting expectations. By monitoring the right metrics, you can identify where you need to provide additional training and support to your team members.

5.    Connect your Teams

Around 76% of customers say they expect consistent interactions with companies across departments. However, more than half also say they feel that marketing, sales, and service teams never share information. Breaking down corporate silos will help you provide a more connected journey for your customers. So make sure your employees can easily collaborate and share information.

Use automated systems to transfer information between teams and improve the customer experience as customers move from one communication channel to the next. It might even be a good idea to implement internal communication tools for your teams to easily collaborate with other professionals on complex issues.

By linking your Unified Communication System and Contact Centre ecosystem, your employees can easily access additional support without having to constantly refer customers to other employees.

6.    Use the Right Technology

Technology is one of the most valuable tools at your disposal when it comes to improving customer service. With the right tools, you empower your agents. More engaged, better-supported agents lead to happier customers. Think about what tools you can use to improve your employees’ workflow.

An all-in-one ecosystem for tracking messages and requests across channels can help your employees deliver a more connected experience without having to jump back and forth between different applications. Automation tools can reduce the number of repetitive tasks your employees have to complete when handling calls and data entry. That means they have more time to focus on customer service.

You could even consider integrating AI bots and virtual assistants into the agent dashboard for your team members. These tools can offer advice and best-practice guidance, or deliver real-time coaching based on customer sentiment and needs.

7.    Empower your Customers

Today’s customers do not just want companies to make sure their employees are able to serve them effectively. They also want the ability to ask questions and solve problems themselves. Self-service solutions such as chatbots, automated assistants, and FAQs are becoming increasingly popular. By using self-service solutions, you can give your customers the freedom to take control of their service experience whenever they want.

Self-service solutions not only lead to higher customer satisfaction but can also save your business time and money. Self-service solutions can help you deflect frequent and repetitive calls that would otherwise take up the attention of your experts.

Remember, the best self-service tools can help businesses not only with simple issues but also with more complex questions and concerns. The smarter your bots and systems are, the easier it will be for them to provide 24/7 support. Use machine learning, natural language processing, and conversational intelligence to create human-like experiences with automated tools.

8.    Listen to Your Customers

Perhaps the most effective way to ensure you’re meeting your customer’s expectations is to listen to their feedback. Use social and digital listening tools to keep your finger on the pulse of the conversations that revolve around your brand. Find out how your customers feel about your business, and ask yourself if you can identify any trends or patterns in their complaints.

Sending out regular customer satisfaction surveys and asking your customers for reviews and testimonials can help you make sure you know what they really want from you. You can even consider offering your customers rewards and discounts in exchange for their reviews to increase your chances of getting more feedback.

Once you’ve gathered as much information as you can from your customers, use it to make decisions about how to evolve and expand your CX strategy.

Live Up to Customer Expectations

Meeting the expectations of today’s customers can be more difficult than it used to be. Today’s customers expect more from businesses than ever before, and many brands are struggling to keep up. However, if you can ensure that you’re delivering experiences that meet your customers’ expectations, you can achieve phenomenal results.

Contact Bulb Tech today to find out how our comprehensive Cempresso platform can provide you with the resources you need to improve employee and customer experiences.

 

Automation is a hot topic in virtually any business landscape. As workplaces become more distributed, customer expectations evolve, and processes change, companies are turning to automation to reduce costs, boost efficiency, and improve business results.

Currently, the market for automation technology is growing at a phenomenal rate. According to one study, Industrial automation will reach a value of $412.8 billion by 2030. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is expanding at a CAGR of 23.4%, accelerating toward a predicted value of $43.5 billion by 2029. Even intelligent automation is on the rise, as more companies invest in AI solutions.

Among early adopters, automation has proven itself to be a valuable strategy for minimizing errors in workflows, improving business outcomes, and increasing revenue. Unfortunately, many business leaders and employees are still holding back on adoption.

Why? There are many reasons. However, one core concern is uncertainty about the impact automation will have on human jobs. In a world where virtually everything can be automated, specialists are asking whether the human worker will soon become obsolete.

The Impact of Automation on Jobs: An Introduction

Discussions about whether automation will destroy or disrupt the human workforce have been happening for some time. One of the most commonly cited reports on the subject, created by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne is often cited for suggesting around 47% of existing jobs will be replaced by automation. However, it’s often worth noting this report is frequently taken out of context.

Frey and Osborne actually said that some functions within 47% of jobs will be automated – not that almost half of the jobs we know today will disappear.

This isn’t the first time a new technology has led to concerns in the labor market. Just a few decades ago, the introduction of the internet created a similar panic. Many people assumed the internet would completely eliminate their role and make it impossible to find new work. However, the online world actually created millions of new jobs, comprising around 10% of the US GDP.

It’s fair to say that AI and automation will change the job market. After all, automation will remove the need for certain repetitive tasks, which could lead to some roles disappearing. However, most experts believe the number of jobs “eliminated” by automation will be outweighed by the new opportunities created for professionals.

Additionally, the number of jobs that will be completely eradicated by automation is likely a lot smaller than most people realize. According to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, around 60% of jobs are made up of around 30% automate-able tasks. However, only 5% of existing professions can be automated completely, according to the study.

The Real Impact of Automation on the Workforce

While there have been a number of reports discussing the potentially negative impact of automation on employment, experts have also produced a huge selection of reports showing that AI and automation are beneficial, not destructive. According to the PWC Global Artificial Intelligence study, AI is set to lead to an estimated 26% increase in global GDP by 2030.

The report suggests the increased productivity and efficiency generated by automation will contribute to around 40% of this increase. While AI and automation may eliminate some jobs, PWC believes any job losses created by automation will be offset by the new jobs created by a larger, wealthier economy. Other reports and studies have backed up this mindset.

The Future of Jobs Report created by the World Economic Forum in 2020 found that around 85 million jobs may be displaced by automation, while 97 million new jobs will be created. Research from the University of Warwick also found that only a quarter of the firms that had introduced AI and automation into their ecosystem had implemented any significant redundancy strategies.

Indeed, the number of jobs that were eliminated from businesses after implementing AI and automation was roughly the same as it had been before the new technology was introduced. Around half of the companies surveyed said investing in AI had actually led to more new jobs being created.

How Automation Will Strengthen the Workplace

Many companies are already beginning to see the benefits of adding AI and automation to their workflows. These intelligent tools can automate repetitive and dangerous tasks, from data entry to assembly line manufacturing, making teams more efficient and productive. Not only do they help to protect employees from risk, but they also empower teams to focus on more value-added tasks.

Rather than spending hours on data entry, teams in a workplace that supports automation can focus their time on making emotional connections with consumers and completing creative, strategic tasks.

Realistically, adding automation to the workplace will inherently lead to new demands from companies. In order to leverage automated solutions correctly, companies will need to hire employees capable of working with and configuring automated workflows. The right automation solutions require continuous updates and improvements, from real human beings.

However, it’s worth noting that the new job market will require more upskilling and reskilling, to ensure employees are capable of handling the new tasks they’re expected to face. The World Economic Forum predicts in the next 5 years, half of all workers will need to access some manner of extra education to prepare for the change that automation brings.

What this tells us is that companies won’t necessarily be looking to replace their workers with bots, but enhance the skills and develop the talents of their existing employees, so they can work in unison with the right intelligent solutions.

Companies that do invest in actively preparing their employees for the age of automation are more likely to see significant benefits. According to research from the Columbia Business School, investing in AI and automation helped companies to increase their revenue by 15%, while also providing them with the tools they needed to expand their product range and market reach.

The more companies grow, the more employees they’ll need to handle the tasks that simply can’t be automated, like building empathetic connections with consumers and coming up with creative solutions to problems.

 

Automation will Disrupt, not Destroy

Any new technology brings change to a business. Just as the internet opened new doors for companies, providing them with different avenues to connect with and engage their target audience, automation will unlock endless opportunities for enhancing and improving business processes. With this evolution will come a change to the way companies hire and train employees.

However, it’s unlikely that automation will actually eliminate the need for human workers. No matter how intelligent and effective automated systems become, there will always be a need for employees who can create, innovate, and communicate empathetically with clients.

Those worried about the impact automation might have on the future of jobs may benefit from remembering that the job market is always, consistently changing. After all, 60% of the jobs we know today didn’t exist a generation ago.

Automation isn’t a threat coming to wipe out the staff of everyday companies. It’s an opportunity to create more immersive, engaging, and create jobs for the professionals of tomorrow. Automation will help companies to grow faster, reach new customers, and even design new job roles for skilled individuals. The disruption in the job market caused by automation may be inevitable, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing.

 

 

For some time now, companies have been focusing more on the concept of “CX” (Customer Experience). They know that they need to provide a perfect balance of personalization, convenience, and innovation in every interaction if they want to succeed in a competitive market.

While it’s a good strategy for any company to prioritize CX, some brands have overlooked another critical experience concept in their quest to become more customer-obsessed: the employee experience.

If you want to keep your customers happy, you must first start with engaged, empowered employees. Happier team members make better agents, and better agents lead to better customer interactions. In essence, CX and EX (Employee Experience) aren’t separate initiatives – they’re two sides of the same coin.

 

What is Agent Experience?

To generate positive EX, organizations must first define what the agent experience actually is. Fortunately, this isn’t a difficult concept. The term “Agent experience” simply refers to all aspects of how your employees interact with your company.

Companies ensure a positive employee experience by prioritizing the well-being of their employees, enabling them to do their jobs effectively, and avoiding frustration as much as possible.

The factors that influence the employee experience vary from company to company.

For example, if you operate a contact center, you can ensure a positive experience by providing employees with access to quality technology, flexible work schedules, and supervisor support. In most cases, you can provide a better experience by simply listening to your employees.

 

Why is Agent Experience Important?

Happier, more satisfied, and more engaged employees ultimately lead to better results for organizations. Studies show that engaged team members are 21% more productive than their peers and also generate up to 20% more revenue than other team members. And why? Because people prefer to interact with other happy, knowledgeable people.

When we approach a customer service team and are connected to someone who is clearly exhausted, frustrated, and just itching to get their paycheck, we can tell. An employee who has had a good agent experience is more likely to be confident, well-informed, and cordial when interacting with customers.

Improving agent experience isn’t just important for CX. It directly impacts your company’s performance by determining how many employees stay with your brand. Talented employees don’t want to work at companies where they feel undervalued or burned out. In an age where people can work from anywhere, not prioritizing agent experience could mean you quickly lose your best employees to the competition.

 

The Challenge of Delivering Great Agent Experience

On the surface, creating happy agents doesn’t seem like an overly complicated concept. You simply pay attention to the needs of your employees and respond accordingly. In recent years, however, mastering the agent experience has become more difficult.

Changing work strategies such as hybrid and remote work offer new flexibility to today’s service agents, but they also bring other challenges, such as feelings of isolation and disengagement.

In addition, 70% of agents say they regularly feel overwhelmed and burned out due to the increasing demands of customer service. In today’s fast-paced service environment, only about 15% of agents are satisfied with their workload.

To make matters worse, many agents are also dissatisfied with the training and support they receive. Only 30% of agents say they feel they’re sufficiently empowered to do their jobs well. All of this shows that companies need to develop new strategies if they want to improve the agent experience and interactions with customers.

It’s not enough to simply offer employees flexible hours and good benefits. Business leaders must also pay attention to the frustrations their employees face daily.

 

How Bulb Technologies Can Help

Bulb Technologies is a leader in developing software solutions and platforms for businesses focused on digital transformation and customer experience. However, we don’t just focus on “CX”. We believe in the power of “Total Experience,” which means our platform addresses all parts of the customer experience ecosystem – including the agent experience.

We develop tools that support agents and customers at the same time, providing more assistance and guidance to both parties in the conversation. In this way, we enable companies to provide agents with a more valuable experience:

• All-in-one omnichannel tools: Switching between a variety of different apps and tools to serve today’s omnichannel customers is time-consuming and frustrating for agents. These disparate tools not only waste time but also make it difficult to retain contextual information throughout the customer journey. Our all-in-one omnichannel environments give agents access to all the information they need for personalized interactions in one convenient place, without the need for complicated interfaces or app changes.
• Implementing AI: Artificial intelligence can be an extremely powerful tool for agent experience. Our chatbots and virtual assistants act as partners to team members in your organization, helping them get more work done without having to worry about it. Virtual assistants can provide instant, useful access to information to streamline your employees’ workflow. At the same time, chatbots provide a useful way for teams to sort through potential customer service requests, so you can reduce the number of calls your employees handle each day.
• Workflow automation: Agent’s work delivers the best results when they can focus on serving and supporting customers. The last thing they want is to spend their days on boring repetitive tasks. Our workforce automation tools make it easy to eliminate the time-consuming chores that would otherwise take up your agent’s valuable time. We even have low-code and no-code solutions available which allow employees to build their own workflow from scratch. This means every employee has the power to improve their work experience.
• Simple, intuitive technology: The platforms offered by Bulb Technologies are simple, straightforward, and require minimal training to learn. They integrate with the tools your customer service representatives are already using, so they have access to all the resources they need in a single place. Users can customize their ecosystem to meet their specific needs, so every team member has all the tools they need at their fingertips.
• In-depth analytics: Informed employees are more productive and efficient. Integrated analytics and reporting tools in Bulb Technologies’ Cempresso DCS platform give your team members access to valuable insights on all metrics and KPIs relevant to their work. The comprehensive tools we offer can make it easier for employees to figure out what they need to do to continue delighting customers. At the same time, supervisors and managers can use their own analytical insights to track employee performance and engagement.

 

Build the Ultimate Agent Experience with Bulb Technologies

With our Total Experience platform, companies can create a powerful employee and customer experience in a convenient all-in-one environment. Our tools are easy to implement, deploy, and maintain, so business leaders spend less time worrying about technology and more time exploring new growth strategies.

An all-in-one environment gives any organization a unified suite to enhance their experience ecosystem with access to endless customization options and integrations. That means you’re not limited to a one-size-fits-all strategy. Find the Agent Experience solution that works best for your team and customers.

Contact Bulb Tech today to find out how we can help you improve your agent experience and engage your employees.

 

 

Customer service is undergoing a massive transformation, driven by the rising expectations and demands of the changing consumer landscape. According to Salesforce, 80% of customers believe that the experience provided by a brand is as important as its products and services. In addition, 66% of customers expect companies to automatically understand their needs and expectations.

Fortunately, companies are starting to respond to this changing landscape. We’ve seen the average “call center” evolve into a contact center designed to deliver a phenomenal customer experience across all channels.

With the aid of artificial intelligence, new technologies consolidate desktop applications, guide customer service agents through interactions, and provide insight into customer sentiment. Companies are even beginning to automate their CX strategies to help their employees and increase productivity. But even as companies struggle to keep up with the latest changes in the customer service landscape, the pace of evolution is rapid.

If you want to stay ahead of the competition, you need to know what’s coming.

What Does the Future of Customer Service Look Like?

While it’s impossible to predict exactly what the future will hold for customer service, we can use the trends uncovered in recent years to determine where CX is headed. Examining the evolving landscape and the many changes that have taken place within the service ecosystem over the past year offers us some important insights into what customers expect today.

Here are some of the trends you should prepare for as we head into 2023 and beyond.

1.    Frictionless, Omnichannel Experiences

In recent years, customers have begun to discover the benefits of communicating with companies across multiple channels and platforms. Long gone are the days when customers relied solely on phone calls to connect with brands. Today’s consumers expect you to know where they prefer to have their conversations and to be accessible on every channel.

Perhaps most importantly, as we develop omnichannel experiences for customer service of the future, every interaction should be “frictionless.” In other words: Not only do your customers want the ability to switch between channels when seeking information and support, but they also want to be able to move seamlessly from one platform to the next.

96% of consumers say they expect companies to make it as easy as possible for them to switch between channels. That means your backend environment should make it easy to move context from one channel to the next as the customer conversation evolves.

2.    Streamlined, Simple Interactions

Customer service in the new age must not only be omnichannel but also free of the usual hassles that today’s consumers are tired of. In today’s fast-paced world, customers are less willing to deal with long wait times, stressful self-service experiences, and understaffed customer service. They want you to solve these problems and provide a simple, flexible experience.

Companies need to upgrade their service strategies with tools that enable employees to get more done in less time. This means investing in solutions that automate repetitive tasks so employees can focus more on developing stronger customer relationships. It also means leveraging artificial intelligence for things like intelligent routing and virtual assistants that give employees quick access to relevant information about each customer’s needs.

Speaking of artificial intelligence, as customers look forward to an era of “predictive” and “proactive” service, it will become increasingly important to use intelligent tools that can detect and prevent problems before they occur. Eliminating potential problems before they occur can greatly improve the customer experience while freeing up the staff responsible for delivering excellent customer care.

3.    Augmented Customer Service Reps

As expectations rise and customer needs become more complex, customer service representatives are under greater pressure than ever before. In a world where most customers can find solutions to simple problems through a simple online search, many will only communicate with a customer service representative when they have a more complicated problem to solve.

Customer service representatives are facing increasingly complicated scenarios requiring further training and extended support. Fortunately, there are tools available to help these employees succeed. As mentioned earlier, automation solutions can help eliminate some of the repetitive tasks from an employee’s to-do list, allowing them to focus on the issues that really matter.

At the same time, smart solutions can provide team members with additional support when it comes to managing the increasing volume of support requests they receive each day. Smart chatbots can gather information about a customer before routing them to an agent, and even walk them through troubleshooting specific issues in advance.

4.    More Comprehensive Self-Service

According to Gartner, 70% of customers now use self-service channels at some point in their customer experience journey. However, only 9% of customers can fully complete their interaction with self-service applications alone. The main reason for this is that many old-fashioned bots and self-service tools simply don’t have the power to solve more complex customer problems.

As customers increasingly turn to self-service solutions to quickly resolve issues without human assistance, companies need to invest more time and effort into making these tools as intuitive and efficient as possible. This means they need to invest in solutions powered by AI, machine learning, and natural language processing and include automation.

The right tools should be able to intelligently respond to any customer question, using information from the company’s database and CRM solution. Modern self-service solutions should handle even complicated interactions without having to constantly refer customers to an agent, so customers can resolve issues faster and companies can make the best use of their human resources.

 

5.    Hyper-Personalization is a Must

As the future of customer service becomes increasingly digital, consumers are unwilling to trade personal, human experiences for convenience. They want every interaction tailored to their specific needs. This means companies need to do more to provide each customer with a unique interaction based on their specific needs.

Companies have already begun to focus more on hyper-personalized interactions by giving consumers more choices in how they interact with a brand. Today’s customers can request a video call if they want a representative to walk them through the steps of setting up a new system, or they can request a call back from a representative if a service representative is unavailable.

In the coming years, however, it’ll be critical to take this personalization strategy to the next level. Service workers, both human and digital, must be able to access up-to-date insights about a customer directly from embedded CRM systems and tools within their communications ecosystem. An all-in-one environment that gives employees instant access to relevant information will be critical to ensuring that the service offered is unique to each customer.

 

Transforming the Future of Customer Service

Perhaps one of the most important things that all the upcoming trends in the customer service landscape have in common is that they all point to a future where digital interactions are the norm. Companies clearly need to invest in a digital transformation strategy for their service initiatives if they want to keep pace with their customers’ demands for hyper-personalized, intelligent, and optimized service experiences.

However, simply adding new tools to your ecosystem isn’t enough to create a frictionless digital solution for customer service. Building a plan for true innovation requires a careful strategy and a platform capable of adapting to the ever-changing needs of your business.

Contact Bulb Technologies today to find out how our powerful Total Experience platform can help you empower your workforce, improve customer service, and drive self-service strategies – all at the same time, without breaking your budget.

 

The way companies serve their customers has changed drastically in recent years. As consumers become more digitally focused, old-fashioned call centers are quickly being replaced by engaging omnichannel customer experience environments. CCaaS solutions and customer experience suites offer businesses the ability to engage with their customers through virtually any channel.

The emerging digital revolution has also paved the way for high levels of automation. Companies have found new ways to reduce call volume by allowing customers to solve their own problems with FAQs, chatbots, and virtual assistants. In fact, some 68% of customers say they now prefer to use self-service solutions rather than interact with an agent.

Unfortunately, Gartner found that while more and more customers are beginning their journey into the self-service environment, only about 9% expect to be able to solve their problems entirely on their own. There are countless scenarios where a customer needs to move to a different platform and level of service to resolve a transaction or issue.

This means that companies need to focus not only on creating digital experiences but on a digital customer experience strategy that combines both automation and human contact.

Why Does Digital Customer Experience Need a Human Element?

Seamless digital customer experiences are becoming increasingly popular with consumers who want to solve their own problems quickly using smart tools and interact with businesses across multiple channels. But as popular as self-service channels may be in the CX landscape, they’re rarely enough to solve all customer problems on their own.

While incorporating intelligent bots and tools that can understand and process natural language increases your chances of solving more complex customer issues, there will always be a need for a human element in customer service. Research often shows that agent-assisted digital channels are still among the preferred options for customers.

Live agents are essentially safety nets for customers who are willing to deal with issues that may not be resolved through a self-service strategy. They have additional training and knowledge that some self-service tools cannot provide. They’re also a valuable component of an empathetic and engaging customer experience. One study found that 58% of customers who had the opportunity to interact with a human during the purchasing process were more likely to purchase from the company again.

What’s more, even in a world of automation and artificial intelligence, customers still value real, genuine human relationships. One study found that about 82% of U.S. customers say they want more human interactions with companies in the future.

 

How to Embed Human Interaction into Digital Customer Experience

Creating a seamless digital customer experience means that companies must invest not only in new channels and technologies but also in solutions that connect the worlds of self-service and human services. A hybrid approach that allows customers to get the best of both worlds leads to smoother, more satisfying, and more engaging experiences.

So how can you properly combine the human agent with self-service and the digital landscape?

1.    Implement the Right CX Channels

The first step to creating a truly seamless digital customer experience strategy for your customers is to make sure you’re implementing and leveraging all the right customer experience channels. The best way to start is by observing your competitors and your customers. Find out where customers typically interact with brands like yours. For example, maybe they prefer SMS, social messaging, or video.

Once you know what channels your customers use, you can develop a strategy that combines digital self-service solutions with more agent-based options. For example, with an all-in-one CX platform, you can create a platform where customers can engage with your brand via a chatbot, a virtual agent, or a chatbot that connects them directly to a human agent.

The focus here should be to integrate all the channels you use, agent-based or not. It should be easy to track the customer journey from start to finish.

2.    Use the Right Self-Service Solutions

The second step is to make sure you invest in the right self-service solutions for your CX strategy. It’s no longer enough to simply add a simple chatbot to your website. As consumers’ problems become more complex, they’re looking for virtual agents and automated tools with built-in natural language processing and conversation analytics capabilities.

An intelligent chatbot or self-service tool can guide customers through a wider range of problem-solving techniques by responding intuitively to each question. It can also use data to personalize customer interactions more effectively from the beginning of the buyer journey.

A bonus is that these tools also more effectively collect the valuable data agents need to route them as customers move between different levels of service.

3.    Make Transitioning to an Agent Simple

Once you’ve implemented the right self-service tools across all digital channels, make sure your customers always have the option to easily switch to an agent if they need additional help. This could mean adding a button to a chatbot that allows customers to instantly choose whether they want a call or a video chat with an agent.

The technology you choose for your customer experience strategy should be able to seamlessly determine which agent is best suited to handle a call, with AI routing capabilities. It should also be able to pass relevant information from previous interactions with the customer to the agent, so the customer doesn’t have to repeat their problem or know what solutions they’ve already tried.

Using automated workflows and triggers, organizations can facilitate the direct transfer of data to agents so they can pick up where a previous support solution left off. This makes the entire experience easier for the agent and more seamless for the customer.

4.    Use Analytics To Transform Your Strategy

Developing a customer-obsessed experience strategy means taking into account the ever-changing needs and expectations of your target audience. The only way to do this is to set up a way to monitor and analyze every customer interaction. Your CX tool should have built-in analytics capabilities that allow you to collect real-time and historical data.

The more information you collect, the more you’ll learn about the customer journey map and what you can do to improve it. Analytics can also help you develop more effective tools to support your agents throughout the service lifecycle. Virtual assistants powered by machine learning can make suggestions to agents about how to handle an issue based on past interactions. These same tools can monitor customer sentiment in real-time and tell supervisors when a call is going south.

Using real-time and historical data in your customer service strategy makes it easier to target your campaigns to the real needs and intentions of your audience. It can also show you which channels your customers use most often.

5.    Invest in Proactive Outbound Support

Once you’ve embedded analytics into your CX efforts, the next step will be much easier. The data you collect from historical conversations makes it easier to understand where customers’ problems start and what kind of help, they need most. This paves the way for developing a proactive outbound support strategy.

Research shows that 89% of customers find their favorite brand’s proactive customer service a pleasant surprise. If you want to delight your audience, identifying the source of problems and finding ways to proactively resolve them is a great way to do it.

You can even use automation and RPA tools to create automated solutions that let you actively report and fix issues while employees are working on other tasks. This gives you the opportunity to create a true end-to-end customer experience strategy.

Create The Ultimate Digital Experience

A great digital customer experience doesn’t just mean investing in the latest self-service or digital interaction tools. It also means knowing how to align your human talent with your digital strategies. With the tips above, you can ensure your customers get the best balance of straightforward self-service solutions and empathetic human support.

Learn more about how Bulb Tech’s end-to-end technology can help you create the ultimate digital experience strategy today.

 

Use our tips to get a game-changing CX Software

Let’s face it, CX is the most important factor every business should focus on today. If your customer experience isn’t perfect, it doesn’t matter how great your service is or how affordable your products may be – your customers won’t convert. Worse, they’ll choose your competitors.

Today, 73% of customers say CX is the most important criterion when deciding whether to interact with and buy from a brand. What’s more, the majority of customers are even willing to pay more for a good experience.

Fortunately, CX software solutions exist to help companies keep up with the ever-evolving expectations of their target audience. The only problem is that finding the right tool is easier said than done. If you’re planning to upgrade your CX software in 2023, here are some of the features you shouldn’t be without.

 

The 5 Must-Have Features for CX Software

When selecting a CX software platform, each company must consider a number of critical features. Which options are right for you will depend on the nature of your business and your specific goals. For example, some organizations have a higher need for security, privacy, and compliance features than most, while others place more emphasis on tools for hybrid and remote work. These are some of the features that will be critical for any business:

 

1.    Omnichannel Communications

Today’s customer journeys are complex, multi-layered, and span a number of different channels. A customer may want to start an interaction with your company through a self-service bot or app, and then move on to a conversation with an agent on the phone.

You need to make sure your CX solution allows you to communicate with your customers through the channels they use most often. But it’s also important that these channels are connected on the backend so you can track the context and details of a conversation from one environment to the next.

96% of consumers expect companies to make it as easy as possible for them to move between channels. So if you’re giving your customers the option to choose between text, video, and phone, make sure it’s all connected. Speaking of connected solutions: Try to make sure your CX platform makes it easy for your customers to move from a self-service environment to a conversation with an agent. The right tools should automatically pass contextual information to your agents when they pick up the phone or answer a chat message.

2.    Self-Service Solutions

Customers are becoming more and more self-sufficient. Increasingly, they prefer to search for an answer to a problem themselves rather than contacting an agent. In fact, 68% of customers say they prefer to use self-service channels for simple questions.

Finding a CX solution that allows you to support your customers throughout their self-service experience is critical to meeting the needs of today’s digital customers. However, it’s important to think beyond the simple FAQ-style bot. As customers’ problems become more complex, they’re relying on bots to help them address a wider range of issues.

Implementing AI tools with true conversational intelligence, natural language processing, and automated algorithms will help you deliver a next-generation self-service experience and outshine the competition. This can also reduce the volume of calls your agents are struggling with! The smarter your self-services are, the more they take the pressure off your staff. They can also gather important information about customer behavior and trends.

3.    Workflow Automation

Automation is quickly becoming a must-have in the CX landscape, especially as labor shortages and the Great Resignation make it increasingly difficult to find talented professionals for any team. Additionally, automation doesn’t replace your staff, it helps eliminate repetitive tasks that would take up too much of your staff’s time so they can focus on the things that really matter.

A CX solution with built-in workflow automation capabilities allows you to design fantastic workflows for any need, whether you’re submitting customer data to a CRM or organizing your team’s schedule. Automation can help you route your customers to the right person every time based on smart insights and triggers while empowering your employees to get more done.

You can even take your automation strategy to the next level by using a low-code platform that lets you create your own automation. This ensures that your employees can actively improve their workflows with simple, practical tools that don’t require developer skills.

 

4.    Flexible Integrations and Configuration

A CX platform is typically one component of an advanced customer experience and service strategy for any organization. If you want to ensure your team members can work seamlessly on a single pane of glass, you need to make sure your CX platform integrates with the tools they already use, such as collaboration apps, help desks, and CRM software.

A flexible platform that can adapt to your team’s technology needs gives you more room to add new functionality with connected apps as needed. While you’re looking for integration opportunities, you should also consider how easy your CX system is to configure and manage. You shouldn’t have to hire a developer every time you want to make a change.

Look for a convenient, easy-to-use environment that your administrators can access from anywhere with an Internet connection. You might even be able to connect your CX tools directly to your AI analytics, recording, and contact center software.

 

5.    Powerful Reports and Analytics

Finally, keep in mind that we live in a world where customer expectations are constantly changing and evolving. The only way to stay ahead of the curve and your competitors is to gather as much information as you can about your target audience, your people, and any other metrics that are relevant to you.

A good CX platform should give you valuable insights into each step of the customer journey, where there are friction points, and what you can do to improve satisfaction. At the same time, it should help you keep your finger on the pulse of your employees’ experiences, no matter where your team is located. If you’re able to monitor and address employee frustrations, you can ensure that your team members are able to perform at their best.

If possible, look for analytics and reporting tools that integrate with AI to give you insights into trends that you mightn’t be able to see on your own. These solutions can even send real-time information to agents in the form of dashboards to help them improve their performance at that moment. Customizable reports that let you drill down into key metrics are also useful.

 

Choose the Right CX Platform

Ultimately, finding the right CX platform for your team is likely to be a personal process for any organization. You need to think carefully about your CX goals, your digital transformation strategy, and how you plan to serve your customers in the future.

However, if you focus on finding the five features above for your CX solution, you can greatly improve your chances of future-proofing your customer experience strategy. The Cempresso DCS platform includes all of the features on this list – plus a few more – as a comprehensive platform for the end-to-end total experience.

Learn today how you can transform your CX strategy with Bulb Technologies.

 

 

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