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Chat apps driving the conversation when it comes to customer engagement

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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New research has revealed an apparent growing trend towards conversational experiences for customer communications, with chat apps such as WhatsApp Business Platform and social media channels such as Instagram driving the trend.

Infobip analysis shows that traditional channels like SMS still play an important role for time-sensitive messages, two-factor authentication, and one-time passwords. But when it comes to engagement and support, customers are shifting to more conversational experiences over chat apps.

The data shows a 73% and 51% increase in WhatsApp Business Platform and Email interactions in 2022 compared to 2021, highlighting the ongoing critical nature of these channels. Demonstrating the desire of customers to connect with brands on channels they already use, the data also reveals a thirty-fold increase in Instagram interactions last year. Meanwhile Google Business Messages and Apple Messages for Business interactions increased by 186% and 232%.

For customer engagement, WhatsApp Business Platform, Voice, and mobile app messaging saw the highest growth in 2022. Since the introduction of marketing messages over WhatsApp Business Platform, customer engagement and promotional usage increased interactions on the channel by 2.5 times. Meanwhile, Voice and mobile app messaging increased by 191% and 92%, demonstrating how customers now prefer instant, rich, and human-like experiences with a business or brand.

The data also shows how customers increasingly prefer to seek answers to their queries through chatbots on channels they use every day and that have rich capabilities. For instance, WhatsApp Business Platform interactions on Infobip’s chatbot increased by 69% in 2022 while Telegram and SMS interactions increased seven-fold and five-fold respectively.

When it comes to customer support, Infobip’s analysis shows customers now seek support on the conversational channels they use with their family and friends. Reflecting the desire for instant and rich messaging experiences, WhatsApp Business Platform interactions for customer support increased by 91%. Voice remains popular with a 51% increase.

“Our data reveals that conversational everything is rapidly becoming the norm for customer communications,” said Ivan Ostojić, Chief Business Officer, Infobip. “Whether for marketing, support, or sales, customers want a conversation with a brand on the channels they already use. For customers, the benefits are clear. They get richer, more convenient, and more personalized experiences. Businesses and brands meanwhile benefit from better customer loyalty and ultimately stronger sales.”

The move towards conversational everything is mirrored across many industries:

  • Reflecting the shift from traditional banking to conversational banking, rich messaging is picking up pace with huge increases recorded on Google Business Messages, Instagram, and Telegram
  • The retail and eCommerce sector recorded significant increases in MMS, Instagram and mobile app messaging interactions in 2022
  • The data shows skyrocketing growth among rich communications channels including Instagram, Telegram, and Messenger within the transport and logistics sector last year
  • In 2022, marketing and advertising companies have increasingly turned to rich communication on MMS, Messenger, and Google Business Messages
  • MMS and Google Business Messages are leading rich channels within the telecoms industry for customer communications

Majority of UK businesses still ill-equipped for a hybrid working future according to new survey

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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UK businesses are firmly committed to a flexible working future but the majority are still in the planning stage of their hybrid working projects, according to a new industry survey of contact centre industry professionals.

102 UK Contact Centre Directors and Managers took part in the online “How successfully has your contact centre embraced hybrid working?” market study conducted by Pitch Market Surveys in partnership with the Welsh Contact Centre Forum, homeworking specialist Sensée, and insight and action platform provider SuccessKPI.

Survey responses were collected between November 3rd and December 19th 2022 and participants came from a broad range of different industries. Around a half (49%) of people responding work in large contact centres with 100 or more seats.

Return to the office?

Almost four-fifths of respondents (78%) said that, by November/December 2022, fewer than a quarter of their organisation’s contact centre advisers had returned to the office full time post lockdown. Two-thirds (66%) believe that 50% or more of their advisers will be working from home (at least part of the time) by the end of 2023.

Various hybrid models

The most popular hybrid working business model today is ‘flexible working between the home and office where EMPLOYEES decide where they work on any given day’ (37% of respondents). Other models used include ‘flexible working between the home and office where BUSINESSES decide where they work on any given day’, ‘set days at home and set days in the office’ and ‘(either) 100% from home or 100% from the office’.

Issues and benefits associated with WFH/hybrid

Pastoral Care (68%) and Communicating Effectively (66%) are the two issues cited most often by respondents as key hybrid working issues – with the main benefits being Happier and More Productive Employees (72%), Lower Carbon Footprint (61%), Additional Business Continuity (52%) and Traditional Recruitment Barriers Removed (45%).

Performance of WFH vs office teams

The majority of respondents say that the performance of their homeworking teams is comparable to that of office-based teams against all the criteria given within the questionnaire (including attrition, absenteeism, productivity, customer experience, and quality of service). For EVERY criteria given (apart from Average Handle Time), there is a greater chance of homeworker team performance being better than that of comparable office-based teams.

While most people agree that it is easier to recruit homeworkers than office-based workers, very few say that it is easier to monitor their work quality, manage their performance, or train them.

Are Managers ready for the challenge?

Under half (48%) of respondents think that their organisations have given Managers and Supervisors sufficient training and advice to manage, train and support their work-from-home teams.

Live adviser vs digitally-delivered customer service

When asked about technology channels used, 95% of respondents cite voice, 94% email, and two-thirds (67%) webchat. 89% of respondents say that customer contacts are mainly handled today by live operators. Looking forward, just 40% of respondents believe that the majority of their customer contacts will be handled by digital channels (i.e. not by a ‘live adviser’ phone call) by 2025.

WFH and self-scheduling hours

79% of contact centre professionals agree with the statement that their organisation ‘gives employees the opportunity to work flexibly so they can enjoy a better work life balance’. But 71% say that they can’t yet give contact centre employees the freedom and flexibility to self-select their own work schedules.

WFH/hybrid technology

82% of respondents say that they have enhanced IT or Information Security in order to enable home-based working.

“Three years ago, few businesses viewed full or part time homeworking as a viable solution for the majority of their people. The Covid lockdown changed that picture completely.  Employees today are increasingly demanding a greater say in how and where they work while businesses are seeing the long term benefits of homeworking – not for everybody in every situation but, nevertheless, for a sizeable number of people. The challenge is now on to make home and hybrid working effective – which will often require businesses to adopt a new mindset to how they recruit, train, schedule, technologically-equip, look after and manage their people.” said Simon Hunter, Chief Commercial Officer, Sensée.

Customer service being ‘neglected’ too often, says research

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Nearly half (42%) of Brits don’t feel that customer service is a widespread business priority, leading to brand images being tarnished and business lost.

In the Make Every Conversation Count report from FM outsource a quarter (24%) of people felt that the general standard of customer service has declined in recent years. Respondents were most critical of the travel industry’s customer service offering, with 32% saying they have witnessed a decline, closely followed by utilities (31%).

When asked about the reason for this, 38% said that they believe companies take their customers for granted, suggesting that consumers largely place the blame for poor customer service with the business itself, not with individual agents that they have interacted with.

Even after a poor interaction with a customer service agent, 60% of consumers recognise a bigger picture: that it was a result of poor employee training. Only a third (33%) blame the decline in customer service on the poor attitude of individual customer service agents.

There is a clear link between company image and customer service quality, with 86% of people stating that a customerservice conversation had negatively affected their relationship with a brand or business.

Kirsty Robinson, Head of Marketing at FM Outsource, said: “Businesses’ reputations are on the line with every customerservice interaction. Just one poor experience can mean the loss of any repeat business and undermine the marketing efforts intended to win the customer in the first place.

“Agents, whether internal employees or outsourced, must be treated as integral members of the workforce, whose engagement and loyalty are not overlooked. Our research clearly shows that failing to do so will reflect badly on the entire business.

“Customer service acts as the face of a brand and as such must show genuine empathy towards customer issues. The ease and speed of communication and how customers are spoken to and treated by advisors, helps them to decide whether that company values their loyalty and repeat business.

“With the increase of review platforms and social media there is increased visibility of customers’ frustrations and customerservice shortcomings and your consumers are well aware of that.

“Nowadays, one bad experience can very quickly have a negative, irreversible impact on brand reputation. This is something that brands need to consider carefully. The customer experience cannot be undervalued.”

20% of inbound contact centre volume will come from machine customers

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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A fifth of inbound customer service contact volume will come from machine customers by 2026, as advances in Conversational AI, Automation, and Low Code Resources impact ways customers and reps interact.

Machine customers are nonhuman economic actors that obtain goods or services in exchange for payment. In customer service and support, they will resemble virtual assistants or smart devices that perform customer service activities on behalf of their human customers, such as reporting issues or gathering product information.“Machine customers will reset customer expectations about what constitutes a low-effort experience, creating a greater competitive gap,” said Uma Challa, Sr Director Analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice. “Organizations that embrace them will be able to differentiate their value and close the gap by meeting this new standard for effortless service.”

By 2024, Gartner anticipates 100 million requests for customer service will be raised by smart products.

Initially, machine customers will be best served in enterprise chatbot channels due to that channel’s ability to serve these requests at scale. Smart organizations will start to invest in conversational AI platforms (CAIP) to enable bot-to-bot communication.

“Organizations without a machine customer strategy in place won’t have a good way of distinguishing between human and machine customers,” continued Challa. “They may see their non-chatbot channel performance get worse without understanding why.”

Customer service reps are increasingly automating portions of their job to make their work easier, often but not always using company-provided tools to do so: Gartner anticipates 30% of reps will do so by 2026.

Examples of self-automation activities include using quick auto-response technology in emails to customers or using an unauthorized third-party call recorder to transcribe customer calls.

“While self-automation has been happening for a while in the software space, this trend will become more present internally in customer service because reps now have improved access to automation tools,” said Emily Potosky, Director, Research, in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice. “Emerging resources such as AI models (e.g., Github Co-pilot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Codex) will continue to make coding more accessible to reps, regardless of their skill level.”

With this in mind, Gartner expects there will be a greater variety of products in the marketplace centered around employee automation, specifically, low- or no-code solutions targeted at reps to help them self-automate. Vendors that offer collaboration platforms may also increase investment in coding features to allow for groups of reps to work together to self-automate.

“Customer service and support organizations that not only allow but authorize self-automation will become more competitive than those that don’t, as reps will notice and correct inefficiencies that leaders are unaware of,” said Potosky. “These organizations may also become more attractive employers, because potential job candidates are likely to appreciate the organization’s flexibility and openness to innovation.”

The rise of machine customers and self-automation opportunities represent a shift in how employees and customers use technology to interact with customer service. The growing accessibility of technology means that customers and employees are using it in unexpected, and often unauthorized, ways.

To prepare for this, customer service and support leaders should:

  • Create a framework for due diligence to review and approve self-automation opportunities.
  • Invest in a scalable chatbot platform to make it easier to enable machine customers to interact with enterprise bots.
  • Harness employees’ willingness to augment their own work processes, enabling them to create more engaging and effective ways of working.
  • Measure channel performance – bot-to-bot as well as non-chatbot channels – to understand the impact machine customers have on your overall channel portfolio.

‘Connected Rep’ strategy will improve contact centre efficiency by 30%

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Customer service functions that implement the “connected rep” will improve contact centre efficiency by 30%  by 2026.

The connected rep is a strategy that enables customer service reps (CSRs) to perform high-quality assisted service at scale. It bridges technology and talent, using context, guidance, and design to reduce rep effort and increase consistency across interactions.

“As CSRs handle more complex customer interactions, upskilling or recruiting strong talent is a challenging and costly approach to help reps respond, especially in a tight labor market,” said Kathy Ross, Sr Director Analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice.

“Instead, leaders must go beyond traditional talent levers and include rep enablement technology as a core component of talent strategy. This is the crux of the connected rep.”

By investing in a connected rep strategy, customer service and support leaders can reduce their reliance on costly talent strategies and increase the value of their assisted service interactions at scale. This is increasingly important with there being a 25% median attrition among customer service reps, according to a March 2022 Gartner benchmark of over 100 customer service and support leaders.

“Rep enablement technology can create lower rep effort, drive consistent outcomes, and promote customer experience (CX) and efficiency,” said Ross. “A dollar invested in rep technology is a dollar that stays when the rep leaves.”

Gartner says customer service and support leaders looking to reap the economic, CX and employee experience (EX) benefits gained from investing in the connected rep should:

  • Evaluate the gaps and growth areas in the current state of rep enablement technology, and build a legacy system shutdown strategy with enterprise partners
  • Secure approval of rep enablement investments by developing a business case that prioritizes helping inexperienced reps perform in highly complex environments
  • Build a roadmap to support their connected rep implementation by partnering with IT to assess the current state technology architecture and data management capabilities against the requirements to implement the leader’s vision

Demand for a blended omnichannel customer experience grows

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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While almost half of consumers (47%) preferring to visit the high street to shop for clothing in person, new research indicates consumer readiness to shop in-store now comes with a new set of expectations when it comes to ongoing engagement.

That’s according to NTT DATA, which says that over the past couple of years, consumers have been pushed to shop online more than ever, becoming accustomed to the enhanced personalisation capabilities and tightly tailored experience offered by online shopping.

The problem, though, was the lack of realness – the lack of a sensory, traditional shopping experience that accompanies in-store retailing. Now, with consumers eager to return to shopping in stores, retailers need to be ready to accommodate them by delivering enhanced customer experiences.

NTT DATA UK&I’s research, which questioned a representative sample of 2,000 consumers in the UK, set out to discover what consumers are looking for when it comes to their retail experience in 2023.

The findings show that 53% of consumers expect a clean and easy shopping experience in-store, facilitated by more immersive, personalised, and contactless services. The first port of call to improve the customerexperience starts with streamlining the payments process, as almost two-thirds of respondents (61%) claimed self-service and cashier-less checkouts would encourage them to shop in-store more often.

The findings also uncovered that consumers now want to bring the online shopping experience into the store as well, having the option to view all information on a product, while still being able to have the traditional shopping experience. 1 in 5 respondents said the introduction of QR codes on products to view additional information that they would normally see online, such as prices, reviews, and the provenance of items, would greatly improve the in-store shopping experience.

Other technologies that have grabbed consumers’ attention for the in-store shopping experience also include smart mirrors (16%), interactive display screens in-store (13%), and app integrations (13%), where customers can select items on an app which are automatically sent to the fitting room or checkout while they continue to browse the store.

For retailers, this means implementing new technology and resources that will help them gain insights into their shoppers’ habits and preferences, allowing them to determine the ways they need to restrategise and retain their customers’ loyalty. This need will be especially important for luxury brands. With traditionally larger budgets to spend on new resources and technology, they have an opportunity to enhance the shopping experience by taking advantage of all available capabilities.

Key findings:

Technology can encourage consumers in-store for purchasing clothing:

  • 47% of consumers prefer to purchase clothing in-store on the high street.
  • 53% of consumers want a clean and easy shopping experience in-store.
  • 61% say that the option to use a cashier-less or self-service checkout would encourage them to shop in-store when purchasing clothing.
  • 20% of consumers want to see QR codes in-store which share more information on the products they are buying.
  • 16% say that smart mirrors would encourage them to shop in-store when purchasing clothing.
  • 13% would be encouraged in-store by interactive display screens.
  • 13% would be encouraged in-store by app integrations which allow them to select items via the app to be sent to a fitting room or checkout while continuing to browse.

Geoff Lloyd, Director of Retail at NTT DATA UK&I, said: “Consumers want to see more from retailers, especially after the online retail experience has evolved to become more personalised. By implementing the right, advanced digital systems to automate processes and offer additional insights, retailers can monitor their customers’ behaviours more effectively, and match the customer experience to their needs appropriately.

“Access to predictive analytics will prove especially beneficial to retailers as they start building resilience, meeting customer demands and maximising sales. Additionally, reassessing their 2023 plans and ensuring that effective strategies are in place, both online and in-store, will ensure they are offering a consistent, tech-savvy experience to their shoppers.

“Data insights are, and will continue to be, essential for retailers. Not only will these insights help brands assess what their customers want from them, but it will also help to personalise the shopping experience, building loyalty and protecting future profitability.”

Half of customer service reps avoid adopting new tech

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Forty-five percent of customer service reps (CSRs) avoid adopting new technologies by relying on legacy systems and tools.

A Gartner online survey of 888 CSRs and support specialists from August 2022 revealed access to legacy systems is the main barrier to new technology adoption.

“Many leaders believe that certain groups are less likely to adopt new technologies, such as reps who are older or work from home,” said Melissa Fletcher, Sr Principal, Research in the Gartner Customer Service and Support practice. “However, the survey shows that these groups are not more likely to resist new technology, and what matters instead is reps’ access to legacy systems and tools.”

Reps who have consistent access to outdated tools use them 20% more frequently than reps who have less access to them. Half report still having access to legacy systems and tools seven to 12 months after a new technology rollout, given the difficulty that comes with removing such.

“Shutting down old systems is the single most impactful action that a leader can take to encourage rep adoption of new technologies, but it shouldn’t happen all at once,” said Fletcher.

Customer service and support leaders can take three approaches to ease into shutting down legacy systems:

  1. Grouped features: Assign features to groups based on the screens or systems they are in, and then remove rep access to these groups one phase at a time
  2. Login elimination: Remove direct login to the legacy system, and only allow legacy login for features not yet implemented
  3. Designated user groups: Assign a small group of reps who will have permission to perform actions in the legacy system, while removing access for the remaining reps

“Prior to engaging in any shutdown strategy, customer service leaders should meet with key stakeholders in IT as well as front line managers to set expectations around the transition period and the issues that are likely to arise,” said Fletcher. “Cross-functional teams can better assess causes of reduced performance such as system bugs or user error and develop short-term workarounds to maintain productivity while addressing these issues.”

148 million extra customer support calls: How the cost of living crisis is impacting customer care

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UK households will make an extra 148 million customer service enquiries this year as the cost-of-living crisis continues and consumer spending tightens.

That’s according to analysis by Firstsource Solutions, which says higher interest rates, inflation, and rising energy costs mean UK households are more likely to cancel subscriptions, downgrade packages, query bills and charges, and shop around for better deals.

Additionally, many households will struggle to maintain payments, get into arrears, and need to contact their providers for resolutions.

Forecast additional customer service enquiries to UK companies in 2023

  Enquiries per year, million Enquiries per month, million % of enquiries from the 20% poorest households
To financial services companies 64 5.2 34%
To energy providers 70 5.8 38%
To telecoms / media providers 16 1.3 25%
Total 148 12.3 35%

Poorer households are the most likely to struggle with payments. Those with incomes in the bottom 20%, under £17k per year, are likely to account for 38% of additional calls to energy providers and 34% to financial services companies.

Rajiv Malhotra, Head of Europe, Firstsource, commented: “In my experience, businesses want to be empathetic, but unprepared companies may soon find themselves with increasing numbers of vulnerable customers unable to get support, and ever longer waiting times. Putting the customer first means making it straightforward to ask questions and get responses across channels when and where it suits them. It also means having a process in place whereby customers with troubles, concerns or matters of a sensitive nature can speak to a human agent and get help when they need it.”

“We’re already seeing companies expand their contact centre capacity, but it’s difficult in the current labour market. Businesses can relieve some of the pressure on their contact centres by reviewing their digital customer journey by, for example, updating website FAQs, reviewing automated voice queues, adopting SMS and WhatsApp messaging, and channelling basic queries to chatbots. Companies can also plan ahead by considering options for more affordable packages and policies for customers who are behind on payments or facing financial difficulties.”

Customer data and analytics ‘top priority’ for achieving customer service goals

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Customer service and support leaders cited customer data and analytics as a top priority for achieving organisational goals in 2023, according top new research.

In a Gartner online survey of 283 customer service and support leaders from August-October 2022, 84% of customer service and service support leaders cited customer data and analytics as “very or extremely important” for achieving their organisational goals in 2023. Eighty percent of respondents ranked digital channel effectiveness as “very or extremely important,” along with employee performance, development and quality assurance.

The Gartner survey revealed improving operations and growing the business are the two most important business goals for 2023.

“Understanding customers’ needs and expectations for their service experience is integral for improving loyalty and creating customer value, especially when organizations are up against economic headwinds,” said Jonathan Schmidt, Sr Principal, Advisory in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice. “Executing on this vision requires investment in customer data and analytics, knowledge management, and an enduring partnership with IT.”

In light of recent economic headwinds, customer service and support leaders plan to devote more resources to improving, automating or eliminating inefficient processes (59% of respondents), migrating service volume to digital and self-service channels (51%) and contributing to the top-line by creating customer value (46%) in the near future.

“In tough economic times, customer service and support leaders are often encouraged by their CFOs to make do with what they have,” said Schmidt. “Given how difficult it is to hire and retain talent, it makes sense that they are tackling inefficiencies and prioritizing digital channels as a strategy for driving down costs without reducing headcount or sacrificing customer experience.”

With these survey findings in mind, Gartner recommends customer service and support leaders:

  • Collect actionable customer data across channels through a robust VoC program that goes beyond surveys and incorporates more advanced methods such as speech, text and digital experience analytics. Leveraging these methods for decisions on personnel, processes and technologies, is key to a successful customer service function.
  • Build digital self-service teams to oversee the digital channel strategy, manage channels like products, and work closely with data analysts to develop and measure success metrics.
  • Enable customer service agents with technology, such as connected desktops, to help them better guide customers through resolution.

Global government IT spending to grow 6.8%, fuelled by TX demand

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Worldwide government IT spending is forecast to total $588.9 billion in 2023, an increase of 6.8% from 2022, fuelled by demand for consumer-like Total Experience (TX) strategies.

“Government organizations are continuing to modernize legacy IT and invest in initiatives that improve access to digital services as constituents increasingly demand experiences that are equivalent to online customer interactions in the private sector,” said Daniel Snyder, Director Analyst at Gartner. “The total experience (TX) framework, which helps agencies manage employee and citizen interactions, is enabling transformation and will remain among the main drivers of IT spend in 2023.”

Along with improving the citizen experience and engagement, a cohesive TX strategy will help governments advance digital skills and literacy in their workforces by providing modern tools and approaches to  lessen friction in government work. Failing to build a solid TX strategy increases service friction, leading to risk of service delays and underwhelming service experiences.

In 2023, government IT spending is forecast to increase across all segments except devices, as government end-users extend the useful life of their devices that were acquired at the onset of the pandemic (see Table 1). Software will be the highest growing segment in 2023 followed by IT services and internal services.

Table 1. Worldwide Government IT Spending Forecast (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

  2021 Spending 2021 Growth (%) 2022 Spending 2022 Growth (%) 2023 Spending 2023 Growth (%)
Data Center Systems 23,110 7.0 25,042 8.4 25,156 0.5
Devices 37,520 11.6 34,794 -7.3 34,667 -0.4
Internal Services 68,469 -1.9 67,119 -2.0 68,602 2.2
IT Services 185,564 10.8 193,925 4.5 209,261 7.9
Software 148,962 16.2 162,803 9.3 183,103 12.5
Telecom Services 71,757 1.4 67,775 -5.5 68,209 0.6
Total 535,382 8.9 551,458 3.0 588,998 6.8

Source: Gartner (December 2022)

Initiatives such as migrating services to the cloud, modernizing applications, and fortifying network security are among the primary innovation priorities that governments are focused on to improve public engagement and satisfaction.

Government CIOs Will Prioritize Improved Use of Data and Digitalization Across Organizations

According to the 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey, digital transformation, leveraging and using data effectively and technology modernization are the top three priorities of government CIOs.

“Delivering on these priorities depends on establishing a shared, organization-wide digital vision and integrating that vision into enterprise-level strategies,” said Apeksha Kaushik, Principal Analyst at Gartner. “In alignment to these priorities, investments will increase in cybersecurity, application modernization, cloud platforms, integration technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and business/data analytics tools.”

At the same time, CIOs will have to tackle challenges such as varying stakeholder expectations and developing action plans accordingly. “Government CIOs will need to address concerns of digital transformation with mission objectives. They need to work closely with government executives to ensure a shared understanding of vision, roadmap and linkage to mission critical priorities,” added Kaushik.