The customer service landscape is rapidly evolving, and technology is at the forefront of this transformation. According to the 2023 Gartner Hype Cycle for Customer Service and Support Technologies report, generative AI, digital customer service, and conversational user interfaces (CUIs) are the three technologies that will have the most significant impact on customer service and support strategies over the next five years.
Why those technologies? The way consumers interact with your customer service is changing.
Whether through chatbots, self-service portals, or social media, an increasing number of customers are embracing digital channels for their service and support needs and moving away from the “I want to speak to a real person” mindset.
Instead, consumers are interested in convenient, real-time resolutions delivered as quickly as possible. Conversational AI can leverage historical customer data to personalize interactions, offering tailored recommendations, support, and promotions at any time, day or night.
Gartner's predictions also highlight the importance of providing seamless omnichannel customer journeys. Customers expect to transition between different communication channels—email, chat, phone, agent—without losing context, repeating information, or experiencing a drop in service quality. Businesses that can deliver consistent and integrated support across channels will gain a significant competitive advantage over those with a more disjointed approach.
The real good news for businesses is that by investing in digital customer service technology, not only are they able to improve customer experience – they're also able to improve efficiency and free up valuable human support agents to focus on more complex issues.
That said, implementing these emerging technologies demands thoughtful planning before execution.
“We are seeing many of the Conversation AI companies who help facilitate the new, conversationally enabled voice and chat bots touting Generative AI capabilities in their products through the use of large language models to help train their intent detection capabilities,” said Kurt Dahlstrand, Director of Solution Engineering at Hammer (formerly Empirix).
“But, to successfully adopt these new, cutting-edge conversational AI capabilities, a company needs a complete redesign and replacement of their existing IVR and/or chatbot. That’s a major undertaking.”
“If they’re implemented well, you solidify your brand with your customer. If they aren't, you risk customer frustration or worse, a lost customer. A good user interface design is essential, but without thorough functional, regression, and load testing prior to go-live, you’re leaving your customers exposed to design defects that risk reputational damage to your brand, and impact your bottom line.”
To find out more about how Contact Center Testing and Assurance from Hammer are critical in ensuring the reliability and effectiveness of these AI and data-driven systems to provide a seamless and consistent service to customers and enhanced employee experience contact us today.
