CX 2022 predictions: tech that brands will likely leverage for better customer experience
By Colin Crowley
The year ahead will see more and more brands leverage certain technology tools for deepening customer relationships and improving CSAT scores. Here are three key trends likely to help agents and keep customers delighted:
1. 2022 will be the ‘return to human’ as we hit the chatbot ceiling.
As the pandemic pushed business online overnight, companies quickly scaled automation and self-service technology like chatbots and FAQs to deflect and resolve customer issues. Brands have reported a 7% increase in CSAT scores as a result of successful bot implementations.
However, brands are realizing just how hard it is to reach and engage with customers across any channel—and that customer service interactions offer a golden opportunity to not only resolve customer problems but also foster a delightful exchange that deepens relationships and loyalty. Look for more and more companies to rethink customer service as a branding opportunity in 2022, which means rethinking the bot deflection for even the simplest conversations and exceeding delight with the human touch.
2. Companies will apply the oxygen mask principle by putting customer service agents first in the war to retain customers. Employees are in no place to take care of customers if they themselves are not taken care of.
With the Great Resignation making it harder to staff customer service roles, companies will spend more time investing in the agent experience. This investment will help reduce burnout and retain agents, all while enabling agents to handle more customers with less stress. Better agent experience is correlated to higher CSATs and vice versa. In fact, Freshworks research reveals that just 100 extra monthly tickets per agent can lead to a 1% drop in customer satisfaction scores.
Technology can play a key role here, as efficiency features like AI-based ticket classification, automatic routing of incoming customer contacts to the right agent, and increasingly complex agent-assist technologies, which provide real-time conversational guidance to agents, can save agents up to 1.2 hours a day.
3. WhatsApp will eat the world.
With all the hubbub over multichannel interactions with companies, it’s time to declare a few winners who are standing out. The biggest surprise for global brands will be WhatsApp. 68% of WhatsApp users report it’s the most convenient way to engage with brands. The rise of WhatsApp follows a larger global trend that shows messaging channels (Apple Business Chat, Facebook Messenger, Google Business Messaging, etc.) dominate and result in high CSAT rates due to speed, convenience, and affordability.
Colin Crowley is CX adviser at Freshworks.
