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In an age dominated by technology, where does human interaction fit into the customer experience? As we’ve journeyed from fax machines to automated voice messages to now AI and chatbots, technology has drastically transformed how we serve customers.
And the benefits have been far reaching. Technological advances have enhanced customer service by streamlining operations and providing fast, consistent responses. This ensures efficiency across numerous interactions.
But even in this digital age, there are critical moments when only a human touch will do. I’ve identified three key areas where human intervention remains essential. In these moments, technology can support human service providers, but it cannot replace them.
Misused AI and technology can create a customer experience disaster, but the organizations who learn to balance technology with the human touch stand to gain a huge advantage. They will be able to deliver efficient, consistent service and create superior, empathetic customer experiences that get remembered and talked about.
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Below is an Autogenerated Transcript
I’ve watched technology come into the space of customer service back when fax machines were an innovation. Okay. And then there was voice activated response if you press two. Right. And then there was this thing called the A.T.M. Machine. And then there were w-w-w-websites, and now we’re into the world of apps, and now we’re seeing A.I. generative and chat bots, etc., etc. Right.
Okay. So, I want you to like, watch carefully how I take domain expertise in the world of service within a special focus on what’s the human’s role, because I’m not designing the technology and say, well, fundamentally there’s three times when you absolutely want the human to be there supported by the technology. One of them is when genuine empathy is called for.
Okay, so if somebody’s grieving, you don’t want to make your claim to an insurance company, to a bot. Right. Even you know, to an avatar, you want another human there. So, if there’s empathy, if there’s concern, if you need a certain kind of patience, friendliness, a certain joyful celebration because you’re planning the wedding, whatever it is, if it’s pure emotional empathy, put a human there.
The second is when you want your customer to learn a new practice. So, a good example of this is migrating the existing elder generation banking customer out of the branch, past the ATM, onto the website or even into their phone. And you know what? They’re nervous. They’re worried. They don’t know how. So, you can say, “Oh, it’s so easy. Just go on the app and follow the…”. Yeah, right. You know what that person wants? A person who will sit there with them and walk them through it, which they’ll only need to do once because you built it so beautifully. But what’s that person doing? Literally saying, “That’s right.” “Good.” “Okay. You see, you can do this.” And da-da-da. That’s called a human being. Right. And the third role is when something goes wrong. Then you want a human being that’s going to be there and go, “Okay, I got you.”
