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Balancing Automation and AI with Personalized Customer Engagement
Automation is a tempting device in the customer service toolbox. As technology improves and automation and AI are better able to handle customer needs, organizations may be tempted to fully automate their service models. But consumers need human interactions and personalization and a hybrid approach to the customer experience is a much better solution.
The healthcare sector offers a perfect example of the importance of balancing automation and human personalization. HealthEZ, an independent third-party administrator of self-funded medical plans, is known for providing top-notch customer service. The company realized that 75 percent of its incoming calls were purely transactional, and were easily resolved through automated self-service. But HealthEZ didn't want to abandon its personalized interactions.
The organization eventually implemented a solution combining voice-enabled call flows with customizable communications workflows and a virtual dashboard. This provided human agents with actionable views of all customer interactions across all channels. Teams were able to offer personalized service to callers requiring human assistance while also providing self-service automation for common processes at any time.
Striking the right balance between automation and personalization is critical for providing a successful experience. Customers want to engage on their own terms, through whatever channel is easiest for them, whenever they choose to have an interaction. Organizations that provide an omnichannel customer service interaction will be able to automate certain aspects of customer engagement while still supporting live agents and personalization as needed.
A successful approach to balancing automation and personalization will assess the current strengths and weaknesses of customer interactions, and also take inventory of available resources for providing automation. Organizations should also make sure they understand the nuances of automation and AI and what type of role machine learning can play in the customer experience.
Businesses may also take advantage of analytics for marketing and understanding the customer journey. This data will also indicate which channels certain types of customers would prefer to use based on demographics and other important criteria. Automation may also be combined with human understanding to create customer context and build a full picture of the customers' needs and past interactions.
Automation offers a huge number of advantages in the customer experience game. But it can only be fully leveraged when combined with personalization and human interactions driven by customers' individual needs and preferences.
Edited by Luke Bellos