Striking a Perfect Balance Between Automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Human Touch in the Entire Customer Journey

    Striking-a-Perfect-Balance-Between-Automation_-Artificial-Intelligence-(AI)_-and-Human-Touch-in-the-Entire-Customer-Journey
    Striking-a-Perfect-Balance-Between-Automation_-Artificial-Intelligence-(AI)_-and-Human-Touch-in-the-Entire-Customer-Journey

    Automation and artificial intelligence is inevitable in the modern age and has become the new normal. However, these tools should not become the gatekeepers that restrict the customers from interacting with the business but rather leverage them to enhance the customer journeys.

    The implications of the pandemic and its aftermaths have revolutionized businesses and human life globally. According to a report by McKinsey, nearly 88% of the executives in finance and insurance and approximately 76% of the IT professionals have witnessed a surge in the adoption of automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) since the global outbreak. However, with the customer and market demands evolving, organizations need to have effective strategies in place to improve the overall customer experience.

    As customer demands evolve, businesses need to assess their automation strategy to ensure it serves the purpose. It is crucial to evaluate the organization’s soft skills, strengths, and weaknesses to spot the opportunities that automation can help to streamline. However, enterprises need to be aware that automation isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to enhance the overall customer experience (CX).

    Hence, the human touch plays an important role that can enhance the CX at various touch points. Business leaders should consider striking a perfect balance between automation and the human touch to enhance the customer journey. Following are a few ways that business leaders can leverage to create personalized customer journeys with a harmonious synchronization between automation, Artificial Intelligence, and the human touch:

    Also Read: Automation and Artificial Intelligence could Impact Branding Negatively, says Bynder Study

    Leverage AI to challenge the Status Quo

    The expectations and rules of customer journeys are not constant, and enterprises need to set the best practices that evolve as per the customer needs. One of the most significant use cases of automation is seen in the after-sales aspect of the customer journey and has revolutionized it completely. Advanced AI tools are capable of processing transactions rapidly to ensure speed and efficiency, which influences top-line improvements through a better customer experience throughout the customer journey. It is one of the most effective ways to reduce the workload and efforts of the workforce by eliminating manual and tedious tasks with artificial intelligence and Natural Language Processing (NLP). The employees can utilize these tools to save time and effort to focus on crucial tasks like interacting with the customers to keep them engaged.

    Organizations that aim to strike a perfect balance between automation and the human touch should consider developing a proactive support approach. Business leaders should evaluate the entire customer journey and position the human element at the touchpoints where it can be the most relevant and has the biggest impact.

     

    Embrace technology but offer the customer base options

    Self-service kiosks, feedback collection and analysis, AI-based chatbots, and automated recommendations are a few most leveraged automation and AI-based solutions to enhance the speed and accuracy to improve the overall customer experience throughout their journey. Clients feel empowered through integrating automation and artificial intelligence in the customer journey, but organizations should always give an option to the customer if they wish to interact with a human instead of a bot. Offering options to the customer will enable the customer with the freedom to choose their preferred interaction mode to strike a perfect balance.

    Also Read: Shifting B2B Marketing Focus from Solution Based to Customer Centric Marketing Approach with Personas

    Determine the touch points in the customer journey where the human touch matters the most

    Touchpoints with minimum transactional interactions and less sensitive information sharing can be automated throughout the customer journey. The business leader needs to determine the touch points that need a human touch and offer customers easy access to knowledgeable, reliable, and responsive support at these touch points. Human touch is necessary at the touch points in the customer journey where the client needs more clarity, needs to make decisions, has a dispute or a complaint, or is not able to resolve the concern through automation.

    For more such updates follow us on Google News TalkCMO News.