A masterpiece is defined as a work done with extraordinary skill. In many ways, customer service should approach this concept to deliver excellence. Indeed, art is by definition experiential and emotional, inseparable components of excellent customer service.
From Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa to Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, masterpieces remain in our minds for the emotion they make us feel. Like art, the best customer service is about building emotional connections with customers. It is therefore necessary to understand the customer relationship through a new paradigm to take it to the next level. To do this, it is interesting to draw inspiration from the great artists of our world who have shaped our vision of art, through some great works.
The emotional experience of customers
This artwork perfectly captures the genuine smile of a little boy, who is hard not to smile back. The same goes for the positive, authentic, and emotionally engaging experiences that are key to customer loyalty. In every interaction, brands need to think about how the experience can ignite emotions, consistently creating positive, personalized experiences.
Customers want meaningful interactions across all channels they use. Sometimes, the same company can give the impression of communicating with its customers through its separate departments, without any real cohesion. This polarization is accentuated when brands lack a unified view of the interactions they have with their customers. The reason is known: different systems and solutions are used in different teams and departments, which leads to a fragmentation of usable data. Using data effectively means being able to respond to customers as individuals and create desired emotional responses: pleasure, joy, gratitude, and happiness.
Today, 82% of businesses say customer relationships are a top priority. And yet, despite this commitment, very often they struggle to obtain relevant data, extract useful information and translate it in order to then improve the strategy implemented around the customer relationship, and this in real time.
Innovation in difficult times
The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Nicolaes Tulp, by Rembrandt
This painting is not only the epitome of masterful advertising, but also a story of innovation. Originally commissioned as a commercial by an ambitious doctor (Doctor Tulp), it showcases an innovative approach to human dissection, using the latest technology of the time. However, this work is also one of the first to depart from the traditions of group portraiture, capturing the viewer’s attention in Rembrandt’s innovative style.
In the field of customer services, technological innovation is essential for the survival of a brand. Traditional customer service tools are outdated and customers expect a digital experience. Whether this is via live chat, on social networks, via messaging, email or using video or voice tools, companies must also innovate and move towards the channels preferred by their customers.
Mark de Bruijn, Marketing Director at Sprinklr
Of course, the increased use of social media can overwhelm some brands who then have a high volume of conversations they may find it difficult to respond to in a reasonable amount of time. AI can help them identify customer issues that may or may not require agent intervention. At the same time, consolidating existing tools into a single system can provide agents with data and information hosted in one place, eliminating the need to switch systems. This saves agents time and responds faster to customer demand for fast, unified experiences.
It’s also worth mentioning that more than nine out of ten customer relationship managers say their company lacks key capabilities in their customer experience management (CXM) platform. The quick payoffs of innovation are really being left out.
Let customers sometimes fend for themselves
The Old Woman and the Boy with Candles, by Peter Paul Rubens
The Dutch artist captures here a key idea that can be transcribed on the relationship with the client; the fact that customers want to solve their problems themselves, as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Nearly most customers expect immediate answers to their questions, and almost seven out of ten customers prefer to solve their problems using FAQs or solutions they can find in self-service rather than having to go to an agent.
AI-powered automated assistance helps achieve this. Modern technology helps guide customers quickly through AI-powered online communities, forums, and conversational chatbots. This leads to faster resolutions, much happier customers, and free agents to focus on more energy-intensive issues. Using such options helps to find solutions faster for customers and also reduces agent workload, improving the experience for both customers and employees.
Taming AI to better contextualize the approach to the customer relationship
As the Old Men Sing, the Children Scream, by Jan Steen
Like Jan Steen’s highly complex depiction of a rather chaotic family meal, organizing an exceptional client relationship requires breaking down complex images to bring meaningful light to them.
This work contains many hidden messages and only an expert eye can decipher them. Similarly, it is difficult to derive real insights from customer data. AI can enable customer service to put massive amounts of data and nuances into context, and also provide the insights needed for effective customer service.
It can help you better understand what the customer is feeling, whether they are happy, frustrated or even sad. And more importantly, how brands can proactively address these issues. Only AI can sift through the multiple channels of customer relationship data generated today to help prioritize situations and when it’s appropriate to engage with customers.
Conversational AI plays an even bigger role today. However, chatbots can vary a lot too. Some may offer basic functionality, including matching conversations and replies using keywords.
However, the latter offer a somewhat shaky customer experience. Understanding the nuances of the conversation—the intention, language, jargon, dialect, or even habits around certain messages—is essential to make the experience as smooth as possible. Sophisticated AI chatbots are expert guides, always available, providing relevant service to customers and capable of providing crucial and actionable data for the business. Therefore, they will soon become inseparable from a customer relationship of a new era.
Author: Mark de Bruijnmarketing director chez Sprinklr
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(c) Ill. DepositPhotos
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