Are you meeting customer expectations? A case for digital customer service.
Digital customer service has quickly become a key part of comprehensive omnichannel support strategies. Offering both self-service and agent-assisted options, digital customer service appeals to consumers' desire for choice regarding how they interact with businesses and for speed of resolution. Plus, as "digital native" Gen Z and Millennials move up through the consumer hierarchy, their preferences are quickly making digital customer service a mandate for companies that want their business.
The term "digital customer service" encompasses a wide range of support options in varying degrees of maturity, but all relying on a digital platform to operate. This means customers access services from internet-connected devices such as tablets and smartphones. Self-service digital channels range from simple FAQs on corporate websites to sophisticated apps. Higher touch agent-assisted options include more established channels like email and chat, as well as emerging channels like private social messaging. Many businesses are also turbocharging their digital support channels by adding artificial intelligence (AI) to the mix. For example, chatbots can try to solve a customer's problem before elevating the chat session to a live agent for resolution.
Is digital customer service worth the effort?
Wholeheartedly adopting digital customer service channels comes with some obvious complexities. There are significant impacts to technology, processes, and employee skillsets, requiring contact centers to transform into digital first omnichannel support centers. Some businesses may question the payoff. Is it worth it?
Our research says "yes," and it all has to do with trending consumer preferences and the value customers place on choice.
It's probably no surprise that Gen Z and Millennials are adopting newer digital service channels at higher rates than their older counterparts. For example, these digital natives are much more likely to have used social messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger, to interact with businesses. They are also more likely to have used AI and to think AI-enabled chatbots make issue resolution quicker and easier. And here's the clincher - younger consumers that have exceptional customer experiences are likely to spend more money with that business and share positive comments on social media.
The signs are clear - consumers expect and value digital customer service. Businesses need to thoughtfully incorporate digital channels into their service models and continue to evolve as their customers do.
How to Improve Digital Customer Service
These 10 innovations will help you deliver today's digital customer service best practices. From contact center AI chatbots and virtual agents to omnichannel best practices and CRM and Salesforce integrations to customer surveys, this video features an innovation checklist for how to improve Digital CX.
How can NICE CXone support your digital customer service objectives?
NICE is the leading cloud customer interaction platform—100% focused on helping contact centers achieve their customer experience goals. Our flagship contact center solution, CXone, allows contact centers to holistically execute the different elements required to successfully deliver a digital-first omnichannel customer experience, including workforce optimization, analytics, automation, and artificial intelligence. CXone empowers agents to delight customers by providing a consolidated prioritized inbox of interactions from all digital and phone channels, meaning customers can experience seamless omnichannel service. Find out more about how CXone can support your digital customer service goals here.
Any digital channel
Your customers are trying to reach you for service on digital channels – even if you’re not there yet. How many SMS text messages go to your call center phone number with no response? Who’s trying to find you on Facebook, Twitter, or WhatsApp and not finding you? Now with CXone it is easy to provide digital-first omnichannel service in all the channels your customers expect.
Personalized digital interactions: deliver native experiences in each of 30+ messaging channels, such as rich media, emojis, and other collaboration tools.
Simple to Activate: pre-integrated channels make it easy to offer to customers and agents.
Easy to Say “Yes”: simple packaging removes barriers to offering all channels to customers and agents.
Empowered agents
CXone empowers all your agents to deliver a true digital-first omnichannel customer experience by simultaneously combining all customer interactions in one intelligent inbox across multiple digital channels and voice for agents to select ("pull"), while dynamically prioritizing the most time-sensitive or real-time interactions according to service levels ("push"). All delivered in a single application – complete with full customer context, journey history, and sentiment.
Agents in Control: ‘pulling’ work in natural flow, while dynamic prioritization maintains SLAs – and prevents ‘cherry picking’.
Customer Card: full customer context, journey and conversation history, plus sentiment.
Holistic management
With CXone, omnichannel interactions are managed holistically, from agents to supervisors and beyond. Integrated workforce optimization, analytics, automation and artificial intelligence across digital and voice interactions ensure complete management across contact center operations.
Self-Service: native AI-powered chatbot and 20+ DEVone AI bots with seamless elevation to agents.
