It's Official: Customers Want Humans!

Only 4% of consumers want businesses to make greater use of AI in customer service and more than half of us (55%) say being able to speak to a person rather than a chatbot is important - up from 51% last year!

Customer expectations are increasing too. Nearly half of UK customers (48%) experienced poor customer service in the past year, with 19% believing standards have deteriorated over the past 12 months. Customers also appear to be losing patience. On average, it now takes just 2.1 poor experiences before someone leaves a negative online review, compared with 2.3 last year.

Asked what they want, the replies were human contact, faster responses to questions and empathy from customer service agents - That means 'Authentic Interactions'!

So, what can YOU do about this. Clearly it's NOT about abandoning 'Artificial Intelligence', it's making sure it supports, helps and enhances the way your people deliver those personal, human 'Authentic Interactions' - that's AI²!

When I speak at conferences on this stuff, I focus on ensuring people are engaged, empowered and enabled to deliver those 'Authentic Interactions' by ....

#1: MAKING IT EASY!: Being 'easy to buy from' and 'do business with' in every aspect of the customer journey. It means ensuring they have the skills, product and service knowledge to do this.

#2: SHOWING ME YOU KNOW ME!: Giving them the tools and techniques to 'personalise' the customer experience to make customers feel valued.

#3: DELIGHTING ME!: Encouraging them to proactively manage customer expectations and find ways to exceed them.

#4: SPOTTING AND DEALING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT!: Ensuring they actively look for, and take away customer problems and issues BEFORE they complain!

#5: DOING IT CONSISTENTLY! In EVERY aspect of the customer journey (even the accounts department - hey this is revolutionary stuff!)

But, don't just take my word for the importance of this stuff. Kate Delaney of Trustpilot said: “AI and automation can help businesses to create new customer experiences, run more efficiently, and scale up their operations. But our research found that when technology gets in the way of human connection, trust is lost fast. Human support is still king in customer service. Businesses can build trust by building their customer service on real human connection, empathy and reliability.”

I couldn't have put it better myself!

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