Unified service delivery

As organizations seek to improve the customer experience, they are looking at the customer journey with an eye for finding chokepoints that impede first contact resolution. Problems often occur where more than one business function is involved. Common examples are insurance claims, credit applications, and new service applications. Using robotic process automation (RBA) and other advanced technologies major vendors have incorporated back- office functionality into their customer engagement suites. Most of the early impetus came from established contact center solution vendors vendors such as Verint and NICE. The aim is to provide a fluid 360-degree service from initial point of contact to problem resolution or product/service delivery. I would expect to see more of this in the future.

Return to personal service

Our industry has had some success in replacing agents with automation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of customer service representatives has declined by 132,000 from 2019 to 2021. However, so has customer satisfaction. Customer Satisfaction for US products and services has dropped to a level not seen since 2015. Self-service is ideally suited for basic interactions, but when things get complicated – and they are- you need a well-trained, empathetic, and knowledgeable person to listen to and help solve your problem. That is the key to customer engagement. We all know a favorite check-out clerk at the grocery store, but no one has a favorite self-service lane.

Emergence of the chief customer officer

According to the Chief Customer Officer Council, there were roughly 20 individuals with the title of chief customer officer (CCO) in 2003. What has changed is the speed with which organizations are appointing CCO’s. Gartner’s 2019 Customer Experience Management Survey revealed that in 2019 about 90% of businesses surveyed had a CCO on staff. The CCO is charged with becoming the change agent that helps the organization establish and maintain a customer-centric culture and develops tools and processes for achieving stated goals. Because customer care crosses many boundaries, most notably marketing, it is not always clear where budgetary and staffing responsibilities lie. The positive for our industry is that the CCO will have the ear of senior management and the influence, if not always the responsibility, on delivering the 360 customer service that customers crave. This will facilitate the adoption of technology that addresses the complete customer journey.