“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology.”
- Steve Jobs
Every year brings with it a range of technical innovations of which prove to be immensely useful in the refinement of the customer service experience. These days, many companies choose to employ automated and data-driven technologies to improve the efficiency of various processes. Consequently, we are now seeing an increasing number of roles filled by tech where humans once worked. This shows no sign of stopping, for example 80% of businesses planning to implement chatbot technology as the face of their customer service by the year 2020.
Another key characteristic of this decade is the rising demand among customers for brand authenticity. Defined by the Journal of Consumer Psychology, brand authenticity is: “the extent to which consumers perceive a brand to be faithful toward itself, true to its consumers, motivated by caring and responsibility, and able to support consumers in being true to themselves.” In fact, 62% of consumers say they would buy a product from a brand they see as being authentically true to its values.
Yet, authenticity and automation don’t seem like natural bedfellows. In an age when consumers want brands to put forward a more human face, more and more brands are turning to “dehumanising” technologies. This begs the question: is it at all possible to bridge this gap between authenticity and automation?
The below infographic from CUBE outlines how businesses can strike a balance by using technology to build better relationships with customers. It highlights how, when applied with the human touch, artificial intelligence, big data and automation can be used to enhance the customer experience.
Discover more in the infographic below.
