77% of consumers would recommend brands based on personalized service
More than three quarters of consumers say being connected to help right away and in their preferred channel will prompt them to spread positive word of mouth and spend more from a brand, according to research published by Genesys.
The San Francisco-based provider of cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) applications surveyed more than 5,200 consumers and 1,000 CX decision-makers across 16 countries to produce its report, The State of Customer Experience.
While many brands have seen personalization as a way to boost revenues and garner loyalty, Genesys found consumers also see it as a strong element in the post-purchase phase of their journey. This included 39 per cent who cited receiving proactive communications about services they might need, and more than a quarter who said they valued being recognized without having to introduce themselves.
That said, less than half of consumers said they want agents to have access to their data to improve personalization. This could stem from uncertainty about what kind of information is being collected, and how: 53 per cent said they would like total control over the data that gets shared with companies.
The report also revealed gaps between consumer perceptions and those of CX leaders. For example, 86 per cent of consumers expect to connect with an agent within one to 10 minutes, and more than 60 per cent said they’ve waited 15 to 60-plus minutes in the past year. CX leaders believe wait times of more than 10 minutes only occur 10 per cent of the time.
Meanwhile, although 63 per cent of consumers believe AI will improve customer service, 53 per cent said they prefer to work with a human agent to resolve their issues.
“Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean a telephone call. It can mean any kind of
interaction with a human — voice call, chat, messaging or video,” the report’s authors wrote. “For CX leaders, it will be important to strike the balance between offering increasingly capable self-service options so consumers can solve issues themselves while ensuring they can reach a human agent when that’s the consumer’s preference.”
360 Magazine Insight
When Genesys talks about personalization in its report, the consumers it surveyed clearly define it as person-to-person interactions. For example, 40 per cent find it really frustrating when they can’t move seamlessly from a chatbot to an agent and 26 per cent even said it would make them scream, cry or never do business with the company again.
Contrast this with the priorities of CX leaders, who said they expect to allocate one-third of their CX-related budget to AI-powered technology in the next 12
months. If there’s one takeaway from the report, it’s that those dollars should be aimed at empowering human agents with the right information, rather than trying to automating conversations entirely.
In some ways technology is allowing human-led experiences to shine brighter than ever. Video chat via phone or webcam topped the list of channels where consumers experienced the highest satisfaction at 41 per cent, coming slightly ahead of phone calls at 40 per cent.
Though obviously aimed at promoting the use of cloud computing and AI, there’s a lot of depth in this gated 77-page report that dives into omnichannel experiences, CX leaders’ future expectations and more.
