A report this year from the Bank of England detailed that up to 15 million jobs in the UK may be at risk because of the increased use of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
It predicted a 'third machine age' where automation of work posed a risk to almost half those employed in the UK and stated that customer services was in the top three professions where the probability was most likely (at nearly 80%).
What makes this forecast all the more startling is that such automation would completely alter the customer experience and brand engagement forever, and not in a good way. With nine out of 10 UK online businesses still using email and contact forms as their primary engagement method, there is no doubt that the ways brands engage with their customers can significantly improve. However, to simply automate the process is not the answer.
One important point to clarify in this ongoing debate is that technology has been at the forefront of the customer engagement experience since the start, from telephone switchboards in the late 1800s to Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology in the 1970s to email in the 1990s. In fact, customer engagement services have been affected more by technology than most other areas of commerce, yet humans have always been at the core of these solutions.
With technology being so central to the customer experience for such a long and storied time, it may seem enticing for brands to automate such services to further drive their costs down in the hyper-competitive world of online retailing. When £1 in every £4 is being spent there and with some online retailers selling huge volumes of goods (such as Amazon shifting 7.4 million items on Black Friday) there is a strong incentive to be as lean as possible.
Yet, with a third of UK internet shoppers reporting issues with their online orders during the festivities last year, this is clear evidence in my mind why humans will always be a central component to customer engagement services. The entire, complex service cannot wholly be automated. Some aspects can be, but in the end, the customer will seek to engage with a human ahead of a robot. Getting such a crucial aspect of the online journey, such as the customer experience wrong, it will badly affect sales and also customer satisfaction levels, which no brand wants.
The rise of instant messaging applications, such as Whatsapp, have also had a huge impact on customers' expectations. They want answers and they want them now - the email query form simply isn't fit for purpose anymore. Despite this, as mentioned above, the vast majority of UK businesses are choosing to ignore this consumer demand for quicker, more effective options. Customer engagement providers, by contrast, are now actively trying to shift brands away from older, antiquated offerings by once again relying on technology to highlight the benefits of providing live chat options and peer-to-peer (P2P) customer support alternatives.
For example, live chat speeds up the online consumer care process considerably and is also handled by customer care professionals. The professional aspect is an important one too as agents who have received training in sales techniques become product specialists and can actually suggest other products which complement what is already in the shopper's basket, thus increasing value of online purchases.
At the cutting edge of the customer experience spectrum is one of the P2P customer care options, known as 'Community Chat'. This online chat solution enables experienced users of a particular brand, so-called 'brand advocates', to share advice about a product or service with website visitors. What set this apart from the professional side of customer care is that it offers a powerful, independent, third-party endorsement through these advocates and thus helps businesses build strong customer loyalty. What links these advanced, technological customer engagement solutions is that they put humans front and centre in dealing with customers - which is how it should be.
Automation's effect on customer experience will be limited at best, to keep the consumer at the heart of the process, a personalised, one-to-one offering is still the best way to keep shoppers happy both now and in the future.
By Julien Hervouët, CEO & Founder of iAdvize.
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