Here are some of the key insights of the survey conducted which examined the consumer preferences for customer service engagements, particularly chatbot usage.
People prefer speed and quick answers when it comes to customer service: That drives them to be willing to interact with a chatbot to get a speedy response versus email or going through a phone call tree.
Human experience when it comes to more complex issues: People prefer the human experience to be able to get an accurate response for a resolution. However, an interesting trend was that for common customer service issues people didn't feel a human was required as it is cost-inefficient for the business and also takes longer.
Chat over voice : The younger generation (18-30 years old) prefers to chat over voice as they are more used to messaging through their mobile phones than doing voice calls. Voice is also considered more intrusive and doesn't allow for multi-tasking as quickly or for privacy in a public setting.
Personalization is critical : Customer demand personalized interactions from both the chatbot and the human agent. Almost more than one-third of the respondents expect contact centres to have a full, detailed history of their past interactions when they have corresponded with them more than once. That brings home the need for a sound CRM software system to work with your operational systems.
Consumers are concerned about security: Data security is equally important to these individuals: More than 50 per cent of global respondents are anxious about how contact centres are managing their data. Contact centres will need to balance the investment in the right solutions with staff training to ensure their customers' data demands are met. A robust cloud solution that provides enterprise-grade security is likely the best answer for balancing cost and security.