Elevating customer experiences through artificial intelligence

Digital technology may have revolutionised customer engagement methods, but it has also introduced complexities, such as omnichannel communication, increased customer expectations and the need to manage vast amounts of data. 

An October 2023 report by Zoom identified several critical challenges that companies face in transforming their customer experience. These include siloed data and fragmented systems, along with a skills and training gap in new customer experience technologies and strategies. Moreover, they have to grapple with customer data privacy and security issues, as well as proving the business value of transformation initiatives.

These challenges significantly impact customer support teams that not only face difficulties responding to customers promptly across multiple channels, but also in accessing the right information to resolve issues efficiently. The lack of context and poor follow-through exacerbate customer frustration, especially when customers have to repeat themselves across multiple interactions. 

Additionally, support teams often struggle to manage workload spikes during peak business periods, such as the holiday shopping season, further straining their ability to deliver satisfactory service.

According to Ms Amy Roberge, head of global contact centre solution engineering at Zoom, adopting advanced solutions that focus on personalising the customer experience is key to overcoming these obstacles. Speaking at a roundtable event for business reality series, The Big Spark, she said: “Personalisation requires a deep understanding of the customer journey and leveraging digital technologies to improve speed and efficiency.”

OPTIMISING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WITH A SINGLE PLATFORM

Personalisation ensures that customer interactions are tailored to individual needs and preferences. By integrating advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), businesses can anticipate customer requirements, streamline communication and provide timely resolutions. Besides improving the customer experience, this enables support teams to perform more effectively, even during peak periods.

Zoom Contact Center is a unified AI-powered platform that delivers a personalised and seamless customer experience by integrating various communication tools, including chat, voice, video and email, with contact centre applications such as interactive voice response (IVR) systems and automatic call distribution. This ensures that customers are quickly connected to the resources that best meet their needs. 

A component of Zoom Contact Center is Zoom Virtual Agent, which uses generative AI and natural language processing to address simple customer queries, enabling instant and effective case resolutions.

The virtual agent’s user-friendly interface requires minimal training and is easy to maintain and update, with no coding knowledge required. Users can programme a contact centre flow in minutes using drag-and-drop modules in the platform’s IVR designer. This feature facilitates the automation of customer engagement with features like automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech capabilities. 

Zoom Contact Center ensures flexibility by providing seamless hand-offs to human agents when complex issues arise, striking a balance between automated efficiency and human empathy. 

“We need to identify the right moments for human involvement to enhance the customer engagement process,” said Mr Ricky Kapur, Zoom’s head of Asia Pacific. “Companies must have an innovation engine to address the needs of employees and customers in a hybrid world.”

By handling routine tasks, the virtual agent improves operational efficiency by empowering human agents to focus on higher-value activities, in turn boosting their performance and engagement. 

LEVERAGING DATA TO DELIVER QUALITY CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

While technology has transformed customer engagement, the essential principles of a positive customer experience – understanding their needs, providing frictionless support, and nurturing trust-based relationships – remain unchanged.

Failure to meet these expectations can have adverse consequences. A February 2023 survey commissioned by Zoom revealed that 57 per cent of respondents would not hesitate to tell their family or friends to avoid a brand after a negative experience, and 31 per cent would express their dissatisfaction on social media, negatively affecting a brand’s reputation.

According to Mr Chris Morissey, head of Zoom Contact Center, organisations that are able to secure the right tools, knowledge and alignment will be well-positioned to deliver an exceptional customer experience. “Companies need to leverage and analyse data, while ensuring that they have the right technology to make it accessible, insightful and actionable,” he said. 

With a comprehensive dashboard for real-time and historical reporting, Zoom Contact Center empowers decision-makers with crucial insights to improve agent performance and drive customer satisfaction. 

In the dynamic world of customer engagement, Zoom Contact Center evolves with the needs of companies. Over the last two years, it has added over 700 features to facilitate omnichannel customer engagement journeys.

“Moving forward, AI will be an instrumental and central aspect of everything people are doing around customer and employee experience,” said Ms Roberge.

Redefine your customer engagement with Zoom Contact Center.