In the late 90’s, the CX buzzword was CTI, or Computer Telephony Integration. The “screen pop” enabled call center agents to save time and provide a more personal experience because they had the information they needed about the customer right in front of them. Few companies back then even had a role called “customer experience,” but this was an improvement for sure.
By now, most companies have senior leaders with CX titles, and they’ve spent millions of dollars on technology to improve CX. So why are we still talking about it? We know as consumers that we often don’t get a great experience. What’s up?
For starters, consumers have changed. Our expectations have never been higher nor our patience lower. Amazon, Zappos, and a handful of other brands with the budgets and vision to offer exceptional service have spoiled us. Siri and Alexa profoundly changed how we feel about interacting with technology, and companies jumped on that. CX leaders constantly choose between strategies to deflect or engage, reduce costs or invest more.
But there are really only a couple of things that make us mad as consumers. First, when companies make it hard to get the answer we need, i.e. customer effort. Second, when we feel ignored, i.e. customer neglect.
Customer effort goes up when it’s hard to reach somebody, and customer neglect occurs when we can’t reach anybody. Combine these two and we get really mad. This is especially true in digital channels which are active around the clock, and we expect help NOW.
(I am still filled with self righteous satisfaction that I canceled my cable company due to poor CX. “I showed them”, I reassure myself, as I pretend it’s fine that I now watch many shows on my 10 inch iPad!)
Many companies have opted for chatbots when they can’t staff humans. Ironically, these interactions can lead to more effort and neglect. Chatbots are getting better, no question, but they can still only handle 10–25% of customer requests. We’ve all had the experience with a chatbot when we type in “human” repeatedly and nobody is there to help. It’s the digital equivalent of yelling “representative, representative” on the phone. Different technology, same old neglect.
If you’re going to have a chatbot, it’s wise to have humans behind it when needed. But staffing around a chatbot is challenging and costly. To provide the kind of quality and responsiveness consumers demand and most companies aspire to, they’d have to be overstaffed around the clock.
So what’s the answer?
It’s time to rethink the old contact center model and leverage new solutions. First, rethink the number of full time resources you really need, while leveraging scalable resources for right-sized staffing around the clock. The quality of these solutions has improved greatly, and their variable cost models give CX leaders more flexibility and better coverage.
Second, it’s time to rethink how you train customer service agents. Every company rightfully feels that their brand and tone is unique, their products and services complex, and they continue to put agents through extensive training up front. This training ramp time is the biggest blocker to scalability, and a lack of scalability leads to customer neglect. Instead of doing the majority of training in advance, leverage technology that allows for real time, in-context guidance for agents. This reduces the ramp time to proficiency and eliminates human errors. Agents are trained by getting exactly what they need in the moment, rather than everything in advance.
Without solving for customer effort and neglect, no matter how much you invest in a better CX, you’re likely going to fall short. We know what we want as consumers: Be there when we need you, be knowledgeable, make it easy, and even better – make it personal. The technology exists to do all of these things. A bot can do this some of the time, but high value interactions like pre-sales chats need humans in the mix. Humans provide the empathy that drives brand connection and loyalty. You can’t automate empathy!
Stop trying to replace the humans and instead rethink how you find and enable your best resources. The underlying contact center staffing model hasn’t changed in 30 years. Recruit, hire, onboard, train, ramp, coach, supervise, deal with attrition… and all the while your customers are waiting. Best-in-class CX increases conversions, repeat purchases and lifetime value. These are investments with tangible ROI in revenue increases.
