HITS

Zendesk highlighted artificial intelligence (AI), immersive customer experience (CX) and other expected significant 2023 trends during a CX Trends 2023 webcast on Feb. 15.

Findings from more than 99,000 Zendesk Benchmark participants alongside survey data from 3,700 consumers and 4,800 business leaders shaped the company’s CX Trends report for this year, it pointed out.

The webcast took a deep dive into the trends and showed viewers how they can use the report findings to benefit their businesses. Among the areas explored were how immersive CX can increase CSAT scores, return on investment (ROI) and strengthen customer relationships.

During the webcast, Vicki Loomes, head of trends at consumer trends firm TrendWatching, asked Paulette Chafe, director of customer insights and research at Zendesk, when looking at AI-enhanced immersive CX solutions, what are some external factors to consider when planning your CX strategy?”

Chafe responded: “I’ll start by saying that even if a business is new to AI, consumers are not. There’s been so much activity and so much hype over the past year that consumers do have a good sense of what good looks like.”

Meanwhile, ChatGPT has been in the news a lot lately and the search battle between Microsoft and Google is “sort of front and center” now, Chafe pointed out.

“So it’s not really being hyped,” Chafe said. “They just have a sense for what their expectations are around it. But there are definitely a few tips that we’d like to share…. As a business leader, look around and look at some of the AI experiences that currently exist, just to get some inspiration for yourself. What does good look and feel like to you?”

She also suggested that companies “just get started” with this technology. After all, “in our research, 60 percent of respondents indicated that they kind of had an ad hoc approach and, frankly, that’s okay. It’s really about getting started. But, as you get started, don’t try to build something that’s much too complex out of the gate.”

Instead, she said: “Think of some of the simple issues, simple problems or solutions that chatbots can be applied to [and] ways that you could speed up a query or solve a resolution. And then finally, I’d suggest be open to change. It’s kind of like a buckle-up situation. You have to stay flexible. There’s so much that’s going to be changing and continuing to evolve, don’t let yourself get locked in. Make sure that you’re associated with an open, flexible type of platform or system so that you continue to add in these new capabilities so that you are more prepared for every twist and turn in the road that’s coming.”

She added: “Hopefully, that gives people a good sense of things to consider as they start to experiment more in the AI space.”

Asked what benefits she saw coming to CX organizations as AI continues to become more seamless and humanlike, Chafe said: “I think, even today, businesses reported that they’re experiencing positive financial benefits out of the gate in terms of positive ROI and performance improvements.”

She noted: “I do think, from an experience perspective, there’s some other benefits that they could deliver. One, they can even provide a higher percentage of positive self-service experiences to customers being as basic as actually improving overall customer satisfaction and anticipating their needs in a very proactive manner to kind of get in front of issues of problems for customers.”

Chafe added: “So there’s some definite benefits that pop in terms of how a business can start to apply to it, which will ultimately translate into additional financial benefits.”

Also speaking during the webcast were Caitlin Wood, VP of customer operations at ZeroFox, and Jack Roberts, director of GMS technology at Fabletics/Techstyle.