Reflecting on the efforts and strategies of 2017

What will be the key customer experience trends this year

Firstly, allow us to wish you a prosperous 2018. Who knew when Caesar got us all on the same page by instituting the 1st of January as the first day of the year, civilizations across the world would look forward to the date when we can ‘reset’ our hopes and expectations until the next year.

Who doesn’t want to start the New Year off on a good foot – To tighten our belts, kick bad habits and get into shape?

Businesses must look beyond just changing bad behaviours and practices of the past. In the over-saturated market of similar products and services, customer service is becoming increasingly important in the customers’ eyes. Good customer service should capture the fundamentals of a great experience: seamlessness, usefulness, and sentiment. And that is much easier said than done. Just like a fad diet or detox might deliver short term results, serious long-lasting results require a lifestyle change.

As with any New Year, it’s good to reflect on the efforts and strategies implemented to generate business.

Self-service is by no means a new concept, but according to Forrester it was the top trend in 2017 and its not going to go away soon. Self-service is no longer a “nice to have”. It’s a necessity to providing a positive customer experience. Dimension Data reports growth in every digital channel and a 12% decrease in phone volume with customers of all ages moving away from using the phone to using self-service — web and mobile self-service, communities, virtual agents, automated chat dialogs, or chatbots — as a first point of contact with a company.

Shockingly, the Northridge Group’s State of Customer Service Experience 2017 report reveals that businesses are still struggling to deliver the fundamentals of great customer experience, with 57% of consumers saying that they frequently have trouble finding answers on a company’s website.

It’s fair to say that many businesses will start a New Year with great ambitions for their customer experience strategy, however ambitions will quickly fall short without dedicated investment and strategy. Like getting fit and healthy, were one must invest in both the diet and training, any technology investment requires strategy first.

With so many industry buzzwords like AI, bots, physital and omni-channel set to create more headlines in 2018, here are a few short guides to help you break through the noise.

The bot that saved Christmas

Santa’s little helpers

‘Christmas creep’, a familiar term in the USA since the 1980s, or the ‘Golden Quarter’ as it’s known in the UK and Ireland was turned up to eleven this year. The merchandising phenomenon in which retailers introduce Christmas-themed goods and/or decorations before the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, turned the fourth floor of Selfridges in Oxford Street into a winter wonderland, 147 days before Christmas. Quartz calculations, based on current trends show that insensitive commercialism will overcome seasonal sense, and around 2120 the Christmas shopping season will be normal in July. Joy to the world!

Amazon eating everyone’s lunch?

But not all retailers are smiling, with the numbers looking bleak for high street vendors this holiday season. According to the British Retail Consortium, online sales have been booming in Britain for years, with ecommerce accounting for nearly a quarter of all purchases in December. Many might think this predicts the end of the high street. Which begs the question: Are online retailers really going to eat everyone’s Christmas dinner, or can businesses respond by having a clear omni-channel strategy? Amazon clearly feels that high street brick-and-mortar is not nearing extinction with its arrival in this segment less than a year ago. As this giant refines their bricks-and-clicks strategy, competitors will have to adapt as the relentless pressure to remain profitable increases.

Granted not every business has the marketing budget of Amazon, but technology (although don’t believe everything you read), when integrated with knowledge, could be THE powerful engine that drives sales, marketing and customer experience.

Santa’s little helpers – bots, a tool for omni-channel

Bots, AI, Virtual Agents – whatever you want to call them – the world is finally catching up to automation, although it must be said that not all bots are created equal. Already revolutionising industries such as customer service and human resources, the hybrid approach of bots and humans are upping productivity and improving user experiences.

With most of us expecting instant answers and although 57% of consumers are interested in chatbots for their instantaneity ~ HubSpot, 2017 – it’s difficult to understand why only a few businesses have jumped at the opportunity to increase sales, qualify leads, or market other services using bots.

As with each new channel in the omni-channel stratosphere, hype creates unnecessary FUD. Bot technology is not meant to eliminate jobs or the human element, but rather enhance, refine and deliver a more targeted approach such as pre-qualified sales leads for a sales person to follow up. Lisa, the bot employed by a global player within property development successfully differentiates between customers and developers looking to buy a property through a serious of questions, collecting specific details and adding them to a CRM system.

Experience, not a sales pitch.

The opportunities / jobs for bots are endless. Find Me A Gift reports that us Brits spend £700 M on unwanted gifts. Wouldn’t it make sense to have a bot assisting customers to find the perfect gift, saving both a business and customer the effort of having to return, refund or exchange an unwanted gift? A bot could answer questions such as, “What’s a good gift for my mother of 65?” and then suggest gifts within certain price ranges.

It’s no surprise that companies that excel at customer experience grow revenues 4-8% above the market. Consumers want effortless experiences. Bots could be the answer, helping to eliminate some of the friction points of online ordering or enquiring through meaningful natural conversation.

Bot technology is not going away, however, understandably, with so many software providers proclaiming to be bot experts with jingle bells and all the whistles, it’s hard to know where to start. So, Synthetix (one of the pioneers of bot technology over 16 years ago) teamed up with Wiley’s trusted ‘For Dummies’ brand to provide you with a free stocking filler. Virtual Agents for Dummies. cuts through the noise about bots in a concise and palatable manner.

Who knows, like the boy who saved Christmas, a bot might just help restore your Christmas customer experience to its rightful place.

Providing high levels of customer service

Especially during the festive period

December is here. It’s the time of the year when there’s no such thing as ‘too much glitter’ and the sound of ‘I wish it could be Christmas everyday’ ringing in the background, no matter where you go. The dawn of Winter offers an advent calendar of daily weather surprises, much like the unpredictable spikes in visitor levels to your website or contact centre from customers needing help and support.

More than ever, customers compare, research, and switch when high levels of service are not met, when interacting with a business. With the peak festive period already in full swing, businesses looking to boost their revenue targets, must deliver ‘tinsel tantalising’ customer experiences to ensure their customers don’t go elsewhere.

According to netimperative, us Brits, spent more than £6.45bn on black Friday in 2016 with many shoppers swayed by discounted prices and deals perceived to be savvy. However, retailers smiling after Black Friday and Cyber Monday might not be in the following weeks. According to findmeagift, 2016 saw us spending £700 million on unwanted gifts. Though many of us might forge a polite smile and ‘thank you’, most unwanted gifts will promptly be exchanged or returned after Christmas. This makes the week following Christmas a stressful time for businesses with consumers likely to contact customer service, not to mention the impact exchanges and refunds have on revenue.

With many businesses employing temporary staff over the festive season, there is a high risk that customer experience levels drop because of inexperienced employees not having the skills, knowledge or training to deal with customer issues. Having an agent knowledge-base can reduce training times and be key to getting temporary staff supporting customers consistently and confidently, in minimal time.

At Synthetix we are proud to assist customers like Fortnum & Mason, seasoned professionals in delivering celebration worthy customer experiences across multiple channels, to maintain a high level of customer service especially during the festive period.

So seeing as its the season for giving and being jolly, Synthetix are offering you your very own special gift, the page turner that is Multi-Channel Online Customer Service for Dummies.

This quick but informative 30-minute read will help guide your business to:

• Understand the challenges delivering effective online service creates
• Distinguish between multi-channel and omni-channel customer service
• Get an overview of the tools available to meet those challenges
• Discover the must-haves you need for effective implementation

Are bots the new gold rush?

Don’t we all just love and want the latest technology craze, to be part of the buzz created by the latest gadget or tech? And isn’t it interesting how our personal preferences affect the decisions we make within business too, not wanting to be left behind, we sometimes invest in cool tech or software just because it’s the hype of the season?

Bot fever

The sheer number companies that have invested in bots as a new channel for customer service has the industry in a frenzy, comparing it to the likes of the goldrush. This is intriguing, as brands are not usually so quick and willing to experiment with customer engagement through a new channel.

Facebook reports that more than 33,000 chatbots have been created on its platform. Respondents in a study by Business Intelligence – when asked which emerging technologies they were using and which they intended to implement – had 80% say that they already use or plan to implement chatbots by 2020. In addition, 42% of participants stated that automation technologies will most improve customer experience within sales, marketing and customer service.

The reason for this may be because basic AI has become such an integral part of our lives. In fact, most people would find it difficult to imagine living without smart devices, informing us of how long it might take to get to work, the weather or what music we might like to hear.

So, with bot technology the ‘golden’ opportunity enabling us to do away with web and app communication interfaces, what does this really change and why should you care? Will bots make other customer contact channels redundant and how essential is it to invest in this new framework?

Fool’s gold?

Once gold is found, hundreds of thousands flock together to share in its delights. However, Fool’s Gold which invariably appears under the same conditions as gold, has often caused heartbreak with it being mistaken for the precious metal. With every other start-up claiming to be a bot expert, it’s not difficult to get caught up in the hype surrounding AI. But here’s the thing. Although natural language processing refers to one of the methodologies under AI, not all NLP technologies are classed equally. In fact, there are big differences between an intelligent FAQ search engine, chatbots and virtual agents.

Businesses wanting to include this technology in their customer experience strategy might first want to consider not ‘HOW’ to invest, but rather ‘WHY’.This whitepaper explores if a bot might be the right fit for your business or not.

Securing your place among the service elite

How to overcome the CX challenges of the next decade

Contact centres and those within the customer care industry have been discussing the advantages of integrated communication channels for decades.

Vendors within the industry use buzzwords like ‘multi-channel’ and ‘omni-channel’ in their efforts to convince brands that the right technology can revert customer experiences from meh to WOW! But the theory doesn’t always translate into reality. The journey of creating truly omni-channel customer service is not easy, but inevitable if businesses want to stay competitive.

The future lies in the ability to use technology to elevate, not eliminate, people. Before contact centres introduce new communication channels they must have a clear channel integration strategy in place to deliver enhanced and consistent customer experiences. And it’s not just customer experience that counts. Fragmented experiences will generate unnecessary repeat customer contact which create low levels of morale and motivation among agents.

Omni-channel, are we there yet?

Contact Babel reports that there are 6,200 contact centres in the UK, with 734,000 agent positions.

Dimension Data forecasts that by the end of 2017 most contact centres will support an average of nine channels. But, at the same time, today, just 36% of businesses can track a customer journey that spans across multiples channels.

Although the concept of a 360-degree customer view was introduced over a decade ago, just 20% of contact centres say their agents can see all previous contacts in a single system. But with new light shining on chatbots and AI, we are entering a new revolution, an era set on changing how we market, sell, and communicate with customers.

Rise of the robots – will robots take over our jobs?

What does Bill Gates, the South Korean government and the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Gorbyn have in common? The answer, they feel that companies that replace workers with automation, should be taxed!

From Frankenstein to Blade Runner 2049, Hollywood is hugely responsible for shaping the collective understanding of how artificial intelligence will merge with society. All the hype surrounding AI, robots, and automation this year is enough to make anyone that believe it, have nightmares of the horror movie kind. In fact, headlines are heavy with ‘experts’ predicting that robot workers will replace humans in numerous industries in the near future, with machines and artificial intelligence expected to take a third of British jobs by 2030. The frightening scenario where human thought is overwhelmed and left in the dust.

However, AI is not coming, it’s already here. Different forms of AI surround us, aiding with so many aspects in our life. From telling us how long it will take to get to work to heating our homes. And it’s hard to escape it as we carry our smartphones – super computers in our pockets – everywhere we go. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine life without it.

Industrial revolution, revelation, or reservation?

Bill Gates believes that governments should tax companies that make use of an automated workforce, to at least temporarily slow the spread of automation and to fund other types of employment.

One can’t help but feel it ironic, coming from the world’s richest man, a self-described techno-optimist who co-founded Microsoft, one of the principal players in AI technology, don’t you think?

Change requires more change. For example: The transition from horse drawn carriages to cars wasn’t smooth and it certainly didn’t happen overnight, in fact there is a lot of ambiguity on who invented the first car and when. Although cars might seem the norm today, the march of progress were neither straight nor technologically preordained. The invention of cars impacted every aspect of human society. It led to the downfall of horse drawn carriage taxis, but because there were less horses, the streets were cleaner from horse manure. It didn’t just take away jobs but created so many, as new roads had to be built, new road rules agreed, and jobs created to ensure the rules were obeyed. Fuel production, gas stations, parking, the environmental impact, the list goes on. And with driverless cars the new darling of Silicon Valley, cars today remain an unappreciated but crucial component of our modern landscape.

We live amongst a generation that has a digital footprint even before birth, who are used to living in a blurring swirl of information overload and who can change their love life with a simple swipe to the right. As humans, we’re possibly the species most adaptable to change. Why then are we threatened at the thought of the drastic advancement of AI type technologies?

Think about the job titles that didn’t exist 10 years ago. This type of labour-saving efficiency tech should open new opportunities for better service, new jobs, and more connected experiences. Why would we want to dis-incentivise innovation?

We know a lot about the world of enhancing customer experience through automation, freeing up contact centre agents to deal with more complex issues. We also understand the apprehension towards chatbots/Virtual Agents in the customer service arena. However, Virtual Agents can do so much more than just deliver answers. Virtual Agents are not only upping the personalisation stakes. The hybrid approach of blending AI with human support enables contact centre agents to focus on complex customer queries and transactions requiring an emotive connection. A Virtual Agent, when deployed correctly, with a set of specific goals, can generate leads, increase sales, and grow a business in a big way, switching on an entire additional support channel, and this is only the beginning!

Be part of the future and conquer the fear. The following resources might offer some valuable insight to understand the positive things this type of technology can do.

Delivering ‘rockstar’ customer experiences

How to satisfy and delight your customers

Time, what an interesting and both terrifying concept. Rockstar physicists like Einstein and Sean Carroll had some interesting theories about the fabric of time, however time is something we appear to have less of. Time has become a pricey commodity.

Clock watching

No-one likes waiting. Untimely responses to customer queries are one of the hallmarks of poor customer service and precious time wasted.

It’s no surprise that respondents in a recent study by CMO Council /SAP Hybris showed that speedy and accurate responses was considered the most important attribute of customer experiences.

Rewind

We can’t hand you the keys to the DeLorean that offer second chances on improving bad customer experiences. We can however, offer some advice to get ‘back to a bright future’ filled with delightful customer experiences.

Tick Tock

With time of the essence, web self-service can be a powerful channel to enhance speedy, yet accurate answers to queries. It’s shocking how many businesses are yet to invest in this channel and the vast amount of contact centres that still rely on legacy systems (from sticky notes to manuals).

Having knowledge at the heart of your business; integrating knowledge across your website and within the contact centre will empower both contact centre agents and customers to get accurate responses quickly.

An agent knowledge-base will ensure that contact centre agents have access to up-to-date information at their fingertips, whether they are assisting customers via live chat, over the phone or email. Utilising a Natural Language Processing Engine, each key press triggers a search for the most relevant answer/s to a question.

And on your website the knowledge-base will ensure frequently asked questions can be answered quickly and consistently. The analytics of the FAQ self-service tool delivers valuable insights into trends, as the knowledge of knowing what customers are searching for will allow businesses to predict what they might ask next.

Wrestling with complex interactions and static budgets? Web self-service can save time, enhance customer satisfaction, and save money. What’s not to like?

Are SIM scores predicting sink or swim for those within the water industry?

It’s not just the global weather causing a storm of reactions this week.

The BBC today reported that the number of phone complaints to UK water companies to resolve water issues, went up by more than 40,000, although the written complaint numbers fell by 11% to less than 100,000.

The complaints body, the Consumer Council for Water that conducted the research, says that the water industry needs to work harder to improve. However, the UK Institute of Customer Service reports that the utility sector had the most improved customer satisfaction scores above any other industry in the UK. The UK Customer Satisfaction Index shows that customers are more satisfied with the utilities sector than they have been in over nine years. And water organisations scored higher than energy businesses.

Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM) scores introduced by Ofwat, to provide a robust comparable measure of consumers’ experience and how satisfied they are with the overall handling of their recent contact with their supplier, are an interesting read, especially when dealing with complaints. It states that customers tended to be significantly more satisfied with the handling of billing enquiries than either clean or waste water queries and that customers who contacted their water company online were more positive than those using other channels, particularly letter or email.

Why is it then that the picture looks a little skewed? What’s really happening within the water industry? Is it merely a case of ‘good news doesn’t sell so well’ or is there something more to it?

Delivering a high quality round-the-clock customer service isn’t easy within any industry. Customers expect to contact companies when they want and through a channel of their choice. The water industry faces another challenge though. Water supply and sanitation has been a primary logistical challenge since the dawn of civilisation. However, how many of us – there are 66, 269 374 people currently living in the UK – spare a thought to the privilege of sanitation and fresh water before we open a tap or flush?

Most of the 18 water suppliers in the UK have invested in technology across new channels to help address customer queries in optimal time. Yorkshire Water pointed out that not all customer calls are complaints, and that it recently introduced a call-back service where customers can book 10-minute-long appointment slots instead of waiting on hold, or can contact the company over Facebook or Twitter.

With comments on the BBC article drowning water companies in more bad light, what considerations could be made to enhance their customer service delivery strategy?

Technology in place to support contact centre staff:

• Will customers calling out-of-hours receive a poorer quality of customer service and is there another channel by which they could answer their queries?
• Are all contact centre staff up-to-date with the latest information and how is this maintained through technology?
• When staff shifts change, does it affect the transfer of knowledge – how is this communicated?

Out of office customer enquiries:

•  Should phone lines only be open 8 hours per day – are customers able to self-serve answers to their questions quickly and easily through the website or other channels?

The most effective/popular/convenient contact channels for customers:

• The contact centre is only one contact channel available for customers – dependent on the nature of the enquiry, would it benefit the company and customers to handle enquiries across other channels like live chat, a virtual agent/chatbot or social platforms?

Customer feedback and complaints:

• Quickly and efficiently responding across contact channels to customer queries is key – is there a mechanism in place to monitor customer feedback to improve the quality of products and services and level of response in the future?
• Ofwat scores satisfaction high if a customer’s query is resolved or not considered to be a complaint.

Customers are exercising their power to switch to competitors when they are not happy with the service they receive, however unless you’re a business customer, switching your water and/or sewerage supplier is not yet possible. However, it is good to know that water companies are taking customer service seriously and are making efforts to improve.

Synthetix has collaborated with the trusted brand Wiley to share some insights into multi-channel online customer service delivery in the mission to deliver omni-channel customer experiences.

Customers vote with their wallets

Customer Experience manifesto

2017 is not quite half way and already this year has many of us concerned about what the future might hold after the UK general election. The volatile political events of 2016 appear to have dominoed into 2017, which has left many UK businesses in limbo – not wanting to make any drastic changes to processes or investing in new technologies – waiting to see the what impact the election results might have on the future of their business.

Another dominating topic in 2017 is AI. Like political ructions, new technology can create fear, uncertainty, and doubt, until we understand it better. But unlike politics, were we can choose who we support, or whether to cast or vote or not, we are parading inescapably into a new generation of digitally enabled customer experiences and there is no turning back. Waiting to invest in new customer engagement technology, could put you well behind the curve competing in a digital future.

Fake News

Some leading organisations are already masters in this new world, already using AI to great effect or actively planning for it. But most organisations still find it difficult to imagine how AI with its hype and science fiction drama can bridge the gaps between a customer’s diverse interaction points to help improve their journey and experience with services and answers they need.

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you understand that consistently satisfying customer service is increasingly important as customer expectations are adapting and growing just as rapidly as the channels and technology consumers are now empowered to engage with.

Being open to new paths of communication, such as Virtual Agent technology, can up the personalisation and customer engagement stakes. Unlike the uncertain outcome of the UK general election and its repercussions, Virtual Agents, when deployed correctly, with a set of specific goals, can generate leads, increase sales, and grow a business in a big way, and this is only the beginning. However, just because Virtual Agents are part of the hottest topic of 2017, this does not necessarily mean it will be the right fit for everyone.

Polls

Self-service has become the long-term solution to meeting customer expectations. In a global report, ‘The Self-service Economy’, 70% of consumers expect a self-service option for handling commercial questions and complaints. And millennials especially expect companies to keep improving their levels of service, expecting everything to be just a click away – their social relationships, their retail relationships, even their banking and insurance relationships.

This isn’t a manifesto to try to convince you to invest in Virtual Agent technology, but rather to highlight how it can align with wider business objectives.

Standing still is going backwards

Synthetix are pioneers of Virtual Agent technology. However, all Virtual Agents are not created equal.

A Virtual Agent should not to be confused with a chatbot. A chatbot is mainly focussed on a single purpose, like providing simple answers in a very linear, single dimensional support. Less scalable and robust than a Virtual Agent, a chatbot might not a great option over the long term, as frequently they lack reliability, analytics, and learning.

The Chief of Facebook Messenger, David Marcus says that 34,000 bots have been created in the name of customer experience, since its launch. However, he acknowledges that many early offerings of chatbots are ‘really bad’.

So, what’s the deal with Virtual Agents?

A semblance of personal service, Natural Language Processing (NLP) – a component of artificial intelligence – a Virtual Agent can drive personalised customer experiences and increase engagement. Combined with a graphical representation, this is a powerful additional contact channel (not a replacement for human interaction). Virtual Agents can raise the online customer service effort bar, offering customers who wish to self-serve answers, in an engaging, appropriate, and conversational automated interaction.

The business case for the Virtual Agent is different to that of a humble, self-service chat-bot. A personalised, goal oriented answer engine, designed specifically, to deliver customer value in both sales and service engagements.

How can a Virtual Agent align with wider business objectives?

KPIs within the customer care usually comprise of reducing complaints, increasing the speed of response, and improving first call resolution. Virtual Agents can help achieve these objectives and more.

Just think about the tasks you could have Virtual Agents do. They can exercise predictive skills, knowing the intent of a question, and therefore predict the next. They could answer multiple questions, without getting annoyed, tired, and even with a sprinkle of humour. They can recognise the basic intent of the question and emulate human intelligence, making them capable of taking on a wide variety of tasks including to ‘decide’ to escalate or to fulfil a request.

Virtual Agents, if deployed in the right manner, can reduce support costs, encourage self-service, increase customer loyalty, and serve as a branding/marketing tool.

Conclusion

There’s a lot of shouting from the rooftops about how AI is the future and a lot of businesses are getting caught up in the politics – AI is killing apps, will take over jobs, change the world.

If Synthetix were in politics, we are convinced that our customers would vote for our seat in Westminster. However, we are fanatical about not just our clients, but we are advocates for the creation of exceptional customer service. In fact, with all this hype, we decided to collaborate with a trusted publication to clarify the subject of Virtual Agents in a very palatable, concise style, without the politics and drama.

Request your free copy Virtual Agents for Dummies of Virtual Agents for Dummies.

Virtual Agents, Chatbots and New Social Media channels

To bot or not event

The Trampery Old Street, a workspace, members club and event venue, located in an iconic location on London’s Old Street played host to our Spring event focused on creating new engagement and revenue generating opportunities through Virtual Agents and new social strategies.

The half day event demonstrated to businesses how they could transform their online customer experience through a compelling omni-channel strategy which included Peter McKean giving exclusive top tips on the effective deployment of Virtual Agents. Expert, Luke Todd from Gumtree shared his insights about the inevitable disruptive impact of social contact channels and how Gumtree overcame and tackles these challenges.

Attendees enjoyed the interactive workshops which helped them to discover, discuss and predict future challenges and successes of effective online customer service delivery.

Lunchtime was spent networking over scrumptious food, in this relaxed environment with access to the speakers and other experts within the industry.

Adam Ashcroft, Marketing Director of Synthetix said “The feedback from those who came along has been fantastic. We are looking forward to our next event as it’s clear that the rapid advances in technology, and Virtual Agents , have even the most seasoned customer experience professionals enjoy the insight and re-education into opportunities to deliver great customer experiences across multiple contact channels.”