Know Your Customers

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Top Takeaways:

• Customer success and customer support are related, but different. Customer success is about proactively helping customers to get the most value out of a product or service, while customer support is about reactively solving customer issues.
• Almost every company today is seeking ways to build and deliver connected customer experiences using technology. Having an online business presence is not an option—it’s a necessity.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not replace human agents. Instead, it augments the capabilities and ingenuity of human experts. The result is a more efficient—and delightful—customer experience.
• AI comes in many forms (chatbots, voice systems on phones, etc.) and can be a quick, easy and convenient way for customers to get a solution to a simple problem.
• AI needs to be able to recognize when it should transfer the customer to a live agent. This can happen when the customer asks to be transferred, when the AI recognizes it doesn’t have the right knowledge to help, or when it detects customer frustration.
• When transferring to an agent, AI should deliver as much information as possible to that agent. This includes the issue the customer is calling about, who they are and their history with the company.
• Executives should regularly take customer support cases and calls so they know exactly what it’s like on the frontlines of their organization’s customer experience.
• Don’t sacrifice the emotional, human connection you have with your customers in favor of the latest tech.
• The future of customer service and experience is more of the ‘know me’ desire. Customers want an experience that is personalized to them as individuals.

Quotes:

“Customer success is proactively helping achieve what they need. Customer support is reactively helping customers whenever something is not working.”

“Integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) to augment the capabilities of the human expert. When you combine human ingenuity and AI, that’s when you get an excellent experience that can delight the customers.”

“The future of customer service and experience is more and more of what we call ‘know me’. This is the ability for the customer to be recognized and have the experience tailored for them.”

About:

Gabriele Masili is the Global VP and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Customer Experience & Success at Microsoft. He leads the Digital Customer Experience Council across Microsoft and is responsible for enhancing customer and employee connected experiences.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions … and more:

1. What is the role of AI in customer experience?
2. Will chatbots replace human agents?
3. How can I balance technology with the human connection?
4. How can AI support human customer service agents?
5. What is the difference between customer support and customer success?