As per Premier’s insights from the Forrester report, the consumer perception of CX quality is significantly declining, especially regarding effectiveness, ease, and emotional connection.1 The CX downfall is a significant challenge for C-suite leaders, who believe investing heavily in AI across virtually every stage of the customer journey can improve CX quality. One of the underlying reasons for the CX downfall has been the underwhelming experiences offered by AI-driven solutions. This blog will look at companies’ mistakes while implementing consumer chatbots and how best to address those mistakes.
Digital Agents that can do more
No AI-powered tool has been widely adopted, like consumer chatbots. CX leaders increasingly view these chatbots as digital agents that can convey brand traits personably while resolving many of the issues that a human agent would typically do. According to 70% of CX leaders, these consumer chatbots are becoming skilled architects of highly customized personal journeys.2 However, the disconnect between the efficiencies companies feel the chatbots can deliver and how consumers view the chatbot experience is at an all-time high.
Whether due to customer word choice variations, use of slang terminology, or various other complexities, most current chatbots cannot deliver the type of precise and relevant information to increase customer satisfaction and trust in the self-service tool. Research shows that far too often, chatbots redirect customers by providing links or references to other self-service tools, which only adds to the customer’s frustration. Customers feel overwhelmed or lost as the content often doesn’t match their query. This results in unresolved issues and a diminished sense of customer fulfillment. This has resulted in US brands being unable to connect emotionally with consumers through their consumer chatbots, ultimately compromising the CX quality regarding effectiveness and ease of experience.
Are they Human or not?
Humanizing chatbots can help increase consumer trust and loyalty. However, it also raises consumers’ expectations, which in turn causes them to lash out when the humanized chatbot cannot solve the problem. According to the research conducted by Cammy Crolic, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Oxford, it’s a double-edged sword. “By raising the expectation that the chatbot will behave in a human-like manner, they sort of infer that this chatbot will understand them better and act on their behalf,” she says.3 Only 15% of consumers currently believe chatbots can solve their problems.4
Transparency and Trust
One of the major reasons for the decline in the CX can be attributed to a lack of trust and satisfaction. Often, consumers are unaware that they are conversing with a bot, leading to unrealistic expectations. Most customers see the chatbot as a data collection tool, as it starts asking too many questions that don’t pertain to the task. “They’ll start asking for things that you don’t need to ask right away…making you go through a validation process,” says Max Ball, principal analyst at Forrester. Companies must be transparent when offering interactions through chatbots, as it will help to manage expectations and rebuild trust.
User-Centered Design Principles
Chatbots lack a flexible, interactive design that hinders their ability to handle multiple queries and multitask. This becomes a source of great dissatisfaction for consumers. Andrew Way, Senior Director of Research at Corporate Insight, a market research firm, says, “Some digital assistants don’t let you navigate to other pages or apps while waiting for a response to a question. If you move away from the chatbot and then try to reopen the conversation, you often have to start all over again.” “It’s one thing on a desktop computer,” says Way, “but it’s a much bigger issue on a phone when you don’t have the ability to have multiple screens.”3 Only leveraging a more flexible and interactive design would improve ease of use and overall consumer satisfaction. Therefore, focusing on user-centered design principles is the first step in reversing the declining trend of CX.
Where is the Human Agent when you need one?
Consumers desire efficient handling of calls from chatbots to human agents, which can improve the emotional quality of interactions and support continuity. “Companies can improve the process by ensuring transcripts and summaries of chat history are provided to human agents,” says Evgeny Kagan, assistant professor of operations management and business analytics at Johns Hopkins University.3 The designed solution must include better human touchpoints to deliver improved interactions.
Complexity and Lack of Understanding Common Language
Consumer frustration with chatbots is at an all-time high as their interaction is cumbersome, with chatbots struggling to understand casual language, typos, and slang that consumers resort to while interacting with them. Madhura Deshpande, Signet’s vice president of digital products, says, “The company has incorporated natural language processing algorithms that can detect the intent and answer the follow-up question right after the first one.”3 To enhance the user experience, it is paramount that those proposing the chatbots as viable solutions improve the Natural Language Processing (NLP) and chatbots’ ability to handle everyday language and sift through errors to enhance user experience and ease of use.
Continuous Improvements and Updates
In the rapidly evolving technological landscape, one must constantly adapt and learn to maintain relevance and usefulness. Similarly, to improve the customer experience offered through AI-powered tools such as chatbots, chatbot algorithms must be regularly updated, and the ability to handle everyday language must be enhanced. Wendy Redshaw, chief digital information officer at NatWest, says that they regularly train their chatbot, Cora, on commonly used phrases so that she can help customers complete their transactions.3
Premier AI Innovation Lab: Bridging Technology and Superior CX
Premier is at the forefront of CX innovation in the ever-evolving technological landscape. AI Innovation Lab continuously works to address the challenges offered by AI-powered solutions and leverage potential opportunities to improve CX.
A core mission of Premier’s AI Innovation Lab is to ensure that its AI-powered tools can meet realistic expectations by delivering consistent and reliable performance. Our strategic partnerships with various automation platforms empower customers with self-service solutions in a multitude of languages, helping to enhance their support experience and fostering global accessibility.
Premier’s AI Innovation Lab pays utmost attention to the CX experience at every stage of the customer journey by diligently working on the user design, ensuring it is intuitive, responsive, and meets customer expectations.
Premier AI Innovation Lab continuously learns and adapts to improve language understanding, providing smoother and more intuitive interactions through its AI-powered tools.
Premier AI Innovation Lab works to devise a system that provides a seamless transition from chatbots to human agents by ensuring their agents have full access to chat histories. Human agents are specially aligned to address more complex issues that help maintain a crucial balance between automation and human touch for improved CX.
Premier’s belief in transparent communication helps set realistic expectations, foster trust, and reduce frustration.
Premier Empowering CX Transformations
Since 2003, Premier has delivered exceptional client value, consistently exceeding industry benchmarks with an 85% client CSAT and an NPS score 20% higher than average. Partner with Premier and leverage AI-powered tools optimized for your needs to achieve significant revenue growth. Premier solutions foster superior customer experiences that drive increased retention and brand advocacy and maximize customer lifetime value.
Premier combines a broader talent pool, reduced labor costs, and the power of digital transformation through PremierTech Solutions. Managed by a dedicated team that understands your unique needs, Premier helps foster long-term partnerships built on trust and shared success. Premier is committed to pioneering innovative technology solutions that tackle customer pain points, elevate satisfaction, and drive operational efficiency.
Premier differentiates itself through the PremierSync framework, which offers co-sourcing solutions tailored to your specific challenges. Ultimately, Premier acts as an extension of your team, helping you unlock the full potential of exceptional CX and achieve sustainable business growth. Don’t settle for average—experience the difference Premier can make through the AI-led transformation of your CX.
