Is CX Improving? Or Declining?

Forrester Research’s most recent annual Customer Experience Index (CX Index^™) rankings revealed several disturbing trends about the customer experience (CX).

“US consumer perceptions of CX quality have dropped for an unprecedented third year in a row and are now at their lowest point since the inception of the CX Index,” wrote Pete Jacques, Principal Analyst, in his blog.

“What’s more, performance dropped in all three dimensions of CX quality: effectiveness, ease, and emotion.”

We are now in an era where artificial intelligence (AI) has reached the point where it has become widely applied, including with contact center solutions.

The question is this: is the CX improving or declining, and why? Is it the case of changes in product and service quality/value for money and/or in customer expectations? Or are there other factors in play? And what can contact centers do to enable customer-attracting/retaining CXs?

So we put this question out to several leading industry experts. And here are their responses.

Consumer expectations have never been higher. People want issues resolved instantly and easily on any of their preferred channels, voice or digital, regardless of whether the interaction is with a live agent or chatbot.

The widely publicized promises of AI have increased consumer expectations. We’ve told them that AI can revolutionize customer service, making it more proactive, personalized, and seamless. So this is what they expect. As a result, organizations are rushing to meet these rising demands. But many still use on-premise technology and fragmented tech stacks with disparate data and knowledge bases, disconnected teams, digital and AI solutions, meaning they can’t keep up.

While CX quality is increasing in the cloud, AI and automation are driving transformation that surpasses all expectations. The key to exceeding consumer expectations and building strong, loyal relationships is managing customer service operations on a single AI-powered hyper-platform.

The strength of an AI-powered hyper-platform is that it enables organizations to unify customer service workflows, agents, and knowledge in one place, breaking down data siloes and giving AI a rich training ground to generate the best results. This platform must leverage purpose-built AI for CX, which is trained on industry-specific data and built by established and trusted technology experts. When organizations do not follow this formula, and use AI trained on the open internet, it can pose significant risks to CX including AI producing inaccurate and/or inappropriate responses.

There are so many success stories of organizations implementing AI the right way and driving significant results for their businesses.

For example, Republic Services, a leading provider of waste disposal in the United States, implemented AI and saw a 30% reduction in repeat calls, a 33% reduction in negative to extremely negative customer sentiment, and a 120% increase in coaching actions in three months.

Another example is Sony Electronics. Sony achieved its highest-ever response rate after implementing AI, transforming their self-service through intelligent automation. Sony also achieved a 15.9% containment rate and from their analysis Sony gained insight that 40% of their inquiries were candidates for automation.

The common thread with these two examples is purpose-built AI for CX. Both Republic Services and Sony implemented the right kind of AI, specific to CX, to drive improved employee and customer experiences. CX quality is improving for organizations that implement the right customer service AI and automation technology.

The biggest frustration expressed by customers in just about every industry is connecting with a call center customer service agent who doesn’t have access to accurate account information or has no record of a previous customer service call.

The challenge for companies is that they collect and store vast amounts of customer information in enterprise resource planning (ERP), materials requirements planning (MRP), CRM, marketing automation, web analytics, call center platforms, and other IT systems. These are all built upon a patchwork of platforms and technologies that don’t easily share information.

Putting this information at the fingertips of customer service – the 360-degree view of the customer – is mission critical for customer service, but incredibly challenging from an enterprise IT perspective.

A good way for companies to proactively avoid such frustration would be to deploy active listening methodologies.

A brand intent on delivering a hyper-personalized experience in the cadence of a customer journey must be ready to respond to customer signals as they happen: way before it gets to the point of a frustrated call to a live agent.

Because customer journeys are dynamic and consist of both online and offline channels, active listening in this context extends far beyond verbal or written cues (i.e., call center interactions, Facebook posts, reviews, etc.) to continually listening for signals across every engagement channel.

Modern call centers that seek to provide the best CX—which includes active listening capabilities-- leverage unified customer profiles, which is the function of a customer data platform (CDP).

An enterprise CDP that performs all data hygiene and identity resolution tasks as soon as data is ingested into the system will then create an accurate, real-time unified profile that can be used to service triggered actions.

When the unified profile is instantly accessible across the enterprise, it can support triggered actions from the simple to the complex, even supporting an omnichannel customer journey.

Think for example of an abandoned shopping cart, a common event that spurs a triggered action. Using a unified customer profile in an email trigger campaign, a brand might analyze the abandoned items and determine the perfect complementary product. One based not just on the shopping cart activity, but based on the individual customer’s browsing sessions, past purchases, and lifetime value.

This increases relevance for the individual customer, demonstrating the type of personal understanding that drives loyalty, repeat business, and ultimately additional revenue.

CX is evolving, not just simply improving or declining. Over the last decade, CX has transformed from basic customer service interactions to a comprehensive, strategic focus for businesses, in part due to the rapid development of technology tools.

In today’s digital world, customers expect brands to meet them where they are and provide the exact experience they seek. As customer expectations continue to shift, businesses must constantly adapt their strategies to keep pace. This evolution has been driven by advancements in digital technology, which have empowered customers with more information and choices than ever before.

Customers now demand seamless, omnichannel experiences that are both efficient and highly personalized, and these rising expectations can complicate business decision-making processes as poor CX can lead to dissatisfied customers, negative reviews, and ultimately, lost business.

Brands can help mitigate burnout and elevate their CX through automation, which can be leveraged for low-risk, routine tasks that require minimal strategic decision-making. Automation lessens the load on agents and ensures strengthened customer connections at the same time.

Present-day customers are smart and always on the lookout for more. To thrive amongst the current and future competition, brands must avoid compromising on the quality of CX at all costs.

To enable customer-attracting and retaining CXs, contact centers should focus on the following key areas:

• Empower agents with advanced automated tools. Tools such as AI-driven chatbots, CRM systems, and comprehensive knowledge bases can significantly enhance efficiency and accuracy.
• Continuous training and development. Provide ongoing training programs to keep agents updated with the latest skills and industry trends.
• Foster a customer-centric culture. Encourage agents to go beyond the basics and truly understand and address customer needs, fostering loyalty and positive experiences.
• Leverage customer feedback. Regularly gather and analyze customer feedback to identify pain points and areas for improvement. Use this data to refine processes, update policies, and enhance overall service quality.
• Optimize processes for efficiency. Streamline workflows and eliminate bottlenecks that may hinder timely and effective customer interactions.
• Innovation/digital transformation. Embrace cutting-edge technologies and digital solutions to stay ahead of industry trends and meet the ever-evolving customer expectations. Implementing innovations such as AI, analytics, and automation drives continuous improvement and delivers exceptional experiences.

By focusing on these strategies, contact centers can create a robust framework for delivering exceptional customer experiences that attract and retain customers in an increasingly competitive market.

I think Generative AI is making the CX worse by creating a vast divide in customer expectations versus reality.

When ChatGPT debuted, it was so well adopted and so easy to use that consumers began to expect Generative AI-level interactions from the customer service channels, like bots and IVRs.

Those expectations didn’t match reality: yet! Instead, customers got the same chatbots that didn’t know them, couldn’t understand their questions, and weren’t able to solve their problems.

The good news is that Generative AI will come to automated customer-facing interactions as software companies perfect these systems and brands test and gain confidence in Generative AI’s capabilities.

I believe the brands that are experimenting with this technology now and moving to roll it out will close the gap between customer expectation and reality much faster than their peers.

I see companies prioritizing the wrong aspects of the customer journey. We train our agents to know each client’s protocols, products/services, and how they can not only resolve a customer’s problems and frustrations but make it even better. Provide free product, free shipping, store credit. Make up for whatever shortcomings there are, whether it’s the customer or the client’s fault.

With that said, you can’t go around giving free stuff to everyone: it’s on a case-by-case basis.

ECommerce has grown exponentially: products and services are saturating the markets. So you do have to factor the quality of products, price points, and customer expectations. We’re seeing a lot of bulk products from China being whitelabeled under an American brand, so the ability to change or fix a product isn’t possible.

Overall, the more lower-quality products and brands that enter the market, the less their customer service is likely to perform. In-house CX is rarely effective but outsourcing it to a random CX agency that doesn’t train their agents is also the downfall of our industry. It’s rare to find a company that trains their call center agents on each of their clients’ products and protocols.

However, the rise of AI and automated customer service solutions is also altering the landscape. While efficient in handling routine queries, AI lacks the empathy and nuanced understanding that a human touch brings.

This shift towards automation risks diluting the personalized approach that customers value. A chatbot can provide quick answers, but it can’t empathize with a frustrated customer or creatively solve complex issues beyond its programmed scope.

The challenge lies in balancing efficiency with the human touch. As technology advances, maintaining genuine customer relationships becomes even more crucial.

Customers appreciate a knowledgeable agent who understands their unique needs and can adapt solutions accordingly. This personal connection fosters trust and loyalty, qualities that are increasingly scarce in an age where automated responses dominate the customer service landscape.

This year’s Forrester Customer Experience Index (CX Index^™) is giving businesses cause for alarm: and it should.

One of the key reasons we believe this is happening is because customers are unable to connect with businesses easily and effectively by phone. This is often due to negative call experiences like robocalls, spoofed calls, and legitimate calls that are mistagged as spam or blocked.

Today, customer contact solutions can enable businesses to increase right-party contact (RPC) rates and enhance engagement while reducing robocalls, call spoofing, and fraud: so they can focus on achieving their top goals. These include:

• Branded calling, which enables businesses to add context to the mobile display, including name, logo, and reason for the calls, along with verification the calls haven’t been spoofed.
• Customer intelligence and phone behavior insights that help businesses identify when consumers are most likely to answer calls and on what numbers.
• Spoofed call protection, which lets businesses block spoofed calls before they ever reach consumers.

While there may be other actions businesses can take to improve the CX, implementing customer contact solutions may be the best first step in getting out of the CX rut, while also strengthening trust, improving brand value, and protecting revenue.

There are several macroeconomic factors contributing to this current scenario:

• High inflation rates and financial pressures are being met by sluggish supply chains that have yet to reset. Customers are paying more and waiting longer for products and services, driving increased customer frustration.
• The labor market, including for customer service, has not fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing Great Resignation. This means that brands don’t have enough people to support increasing customer needs. As a result, we’re seeing more customers frantically channel-hopping to get the answers they need.

Furthermore, festering customer service frustrations are resulting in new regulations aimed at so-called “Doom Loops.”

(The term describes when customers are unable to complete processes such as canceling a subscription without myriad confusing and time-consuming steps).

As customer interaction volumes and demands amidst a challenging labor market persist, organizations must increase contact center service capacity with fewer agents. Brands increasingly need capabilities to automate repetitive tasks, freeing agents to apply their uniquely human empathic abilities into the customer care equation.

Yet many organizations have a complex tech landscape with different vendors for different solutions – i.e., voice, digital, and social – which don’t talk to each other. A disconnected CX platform causes a disconnected experience for the customer.

To meet customer needs for agile channel switching, there must be a common source of truth with customer context. Brands need a shared data fabric to provide a holistic view of the customer regardless of channel hopping. A company’s contact center – the heart of CX – requires unified systems to become omnichannel and manage customer interactions across all channels.

Our recent study reveals that when asked to rank important aspects of good CX, respondents overwhelmingly want one thing: speed (87%). They also care about their question being resolved (74%) and are keen to engage on the channel of their choice (67%).

The research further reveals that aspects of poor CX are essentially what makes good CX but flipped on its head: it takes multiple attempts to get an answer (63%), customers can’t get an immediate resolution (43%), and they can’t contact the company on their channel of choice (39%).

A good CX must be quick, easy, and on a preferred channel. Today, businesses must continue to adapt and invest in CX technology that helps serve customers how they want to be served.

The challenge is that companies’ investments in improving CX have not kept up with the hyper-acceleration of customer expectations.

In an always-on culture, customers expect not just rapid resolution but proactive resolution, and most companies are not yet equipped to deal with that expectation.

If a customer doesn’t get an acceptable outcome, or it doesn’t come fast enough, many head to social media to attempt to viralize that brand experience. Our research has found that customers are more likely to socialize a negative experience than a positive one.

This expectations hyper-acceleration trend has been exacerbated by inflation. When increased prices aren’t associated with improved quality, the customer feels cheated, and doesn’t necessarily know or care about supply chain or labor shortages that are driving those higher prices.

For the contact center, responding to this trend means taking advantage of AI and automation to enable rapid, intelligent self-service for customers that want it, and more enabled and empowered agents for those that don’t. We estimate that 39% of the average agent’s workday is ripe for AI-driven automation: and that doesn’t mean getting rid of agents.

The use of AI means, then, freeing up agents’ time to focus on becoming customer advocates. Enabling agents with AI coaches and recommendations can reduce agent training time by an average of 30% according to our research, while using intelligent orchestration to connect the right agent with the right customer for increased effectiveness, ease, and empathy.