Customer Service

Worry less during ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ by bringing AI to CX

The right mix of proactive communication and AI solutions will ensure customer communications are managed proactively and effectively. Here are three ways to activate technology to improve the customer experience this holiday season.

Photo: Adobe Stock

December 5, 2024

The consumer purchasing journey is no longer black and white. Shifts from in-store to online shopping preferences (and then back to brick-and-mortar) have created a disjointed customer experience that many retailers are still struggling to connect. Despite efforts to optimize new commerce platforms, retailers are not always successfully integrating multiple channels, putting them at risk of missing out on up to 30% of sales.

As we approach the holiday shopping season, retailers are under pressure to both protect their brand promise and improve CX strategies. Disruptions are to be expected, whether with product inventory or shipping delays, making one thing vital for retailers to focus on: communications.

At a time when transparency is key, the last thing brands should be doing is making promises they cannot keep. When customers are left in the dark, like a delivery that arrives late or not at all, their trust in that retailer takes a hard hit.

Fortunately, the right mix of proactive communication and new AI solutions will ensure customer communications are managed proactively and effectively. Here are three ways to activate technology to improve the customer experience this holiday season.

(Pre-)season's greetings

Reports from Bazaarvoice on global consumer behavior have already noted that shoppers are looking to make big purchases well ahead of the holidays, with more than a third hoping to cross everything off their lists by September, and 55% expecting to be done with gift shopping by October. Summer is the ideal time for retailers to prepare their contact center for high demand, as AI can support CX staff throughout the entirety of the holidays and into the return season.

Going into arguably the busiest (and most wonderful) time of the year, retailers can retain customer loyalty through the help of generative AI solutions, to provide customers with real-time delivery updates, status communications around purchases and returns, and ensuring all CX queries are solved instantly over the phone or online.

Long term, beyond the holiday rush, these AI solutions will enable retailers to triage and direct the more complex inquiries to skilled employees, arming them with customer data to provide trusted solutions quickly, or offer alternative options to personalize customer service and support.

Spreading cheer by improving self-service with GenAI

While shoppers may look towards generative AI for inspiration on the perfect present this holiday season, there are more realistic (and beneficial) ways to utilize GenAI on the brand side.

To prepare for an uptick of visitors to online stores, retailers can rely on solutions such as chatbots or Intelligent Virtual Agents to field customer queries that are more suitable to answer common customer questions. Chatbots exist to help customers help themselves. Brands can ensure all customer-facing operations are prepared to handle increased volume using genAI.

With 68% of CX professionals looking to invest in GenAI specifically for the contact center, GenAI will help empower customers to have a more seamless experience, regardless if it's self-service or when engaging with a company service agent.

Tis the season to reduce operational costs

Despite popular belief, contact center chatbots and IVAs are not there to steal jobs away from human agents. If anything, they're there to assist and offload more mundane queries and administrative tasks. Savvy organizations can embrace a variety of collaborative intelligence solutions to augment human customer service agents with AI to optimize CX and reduce operational costs.

If a company is able to scale its customer service capabilities ahead of peak demand, it lessens the risk of chaos erupting during the holiday rush. The return on investment speaks for itself: while initial AI implementation can be costly, once implemented, scaled, and agents are properly trained, 78% of CX leaders expect heightened generated cost savings.