The Future of Customer Service is Being Shaped by Technology

 Have you heard about Design Thinking? It’s an approach to innovation that puts the customer at the center of design for any solution. Developed by IDEO founder David Kelley, it focuses on three main elements: people, technology, and business, all evolving around the customer.

Depending on your business, customers can be a diverse lot, but there are large scale trends impacting customer service that SMEs should be aware of, and responding to. Planning your customer’s brand experience from awareness, to purchasing and advocacy, will create that customer centric approach that is at the core of Design Thinking.

“The customer drives the current and future state of any business” Kaan Turnali, SAPVoice

A few years back the U.S. Census Bureau announced that Millennials had surpassed Baby Boomers as the largest generation of consumers and workers. This tech savvy demographic is behind the watershed change in customer service, a preference to direct and self-serve support across multiple digital platforms.

 Millennials love the new wave of Smart technologies, cool apps and connected devices that put control in their hands and speak to each other. And along with these products, Millennials expect on-demand access to information that can assist in managing a service, or better utilizing a product.

 AI (artificial intelligence) is a perfect fit for this generation because data and built-in intelligence brings about faster results and more logical and intuitive automation. One of the hottest Christmas gifts this past year was Amazon’s Echo Dot, and the top downloaded app for Android and iPhone on Christmas day was the Alexa app. CEO Jeff Bezos confirmed sales in the ‘tens of millions’, for the hands-free, voice controlled device.  

 The impact of Millennials and their relationship with technology is a mega-trend to pay attention to. Millennials are also the generation most likely to share experiences, both positive and negative online. They are predisposed to act as brand ambassadors to companies they like.

 So, if you are an SME ready to up-date your customer service offering, it is imperative that you take a look at those three elements in Design Thinking: people, technology, and business and design an integrated approach.

Do you think your customer service is too complex to automate? Think again. The question you should ask is how to provide an exceptional customer service experience and leverage the best available technology?

Advantage Communication is the first BPO to enthusiastically adopt an Intelligent Virtual Agent, powered by SmartAction. We take the dull, and often frustrating call centre Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and make it productive again using 100% Natural Language Processing and AI.

This is not your father’s IVR; press 1 for this or 2 for that, with every department battling for the top spot on the IVR chain. Instead, callers are greeted with “Welcome to [your brand]! In a few words please tell us how we can help you.” Our technologically advanced AI system allows callers to easily complete many complex, but repeat-able, customer service requests that would normally be handled by a live agent.

Customer experience is a competitive battleground; a majority of companies view their call centres as strategic differentiators. The key is effortless and seamless experiences. Customers prefer to engage with brands using a channel that requires the least amount of effort to get their task completed.

Millennials in particular are ready to interact with brands in a fully digital relationship. Companies will soon manage 85% of the customer relationship without human assistance. In other words, get ready for AI!

SMEs may feel that leading technology such as AI or IVA is out of reach or cost prohibitive, but Advantage Communications offers solutions for all sizes of business operations.

 Is Your Business Ready To…

> Automate conversations you never thought possible and turn complex processes into effortless self-service experiences for customers.

> Orchestrate amazing customer experiences in every channel – voice, text, chat, social, and mobile.

> Launch your solution quickly, scale to peak demands, and receive continuous enhancements over time.

Are you looking for more information about outsourcing your customer service to a call center in Canada, serving global clients? Please reach out and start a conversation. 

About Advantage Communications Inc.

Advantage Communications Inc. (ACI) is one of Canada’s longest running privately-held outsourced service providers. Founded in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 1996, ACI now has operations across Eastern Canada and Kingston, Jamaica. The company specializes in providing 24/7 customer care and technical support for North American companies in telecommunications, technology, retail and financial services. With a vision of becoming employer of choice in the Canadian and Caribbean markets, ACI continues to create meaningful careers and achieve outstanding results in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.advantagecall.com.