Transform CX with customer-centric AI strategies

Transform CX with customer-centric AI strategies

Businesses these days have customers that are increasingly looking for quick, easy, and reliable solutions. But, many self-service channels provided by organizations fail to meet these expectations. 

A survey by Gartner found that although 70% of customers are using self-service channels at some point in their resolution journey, only 9% can fully resolve their issues via self-service options. This often led them to contact a live agent, thus defeating the purpose of the self-service experience. 

This gap between customer expectations and actual experience with self-service channels can significantly harm an organization's reputation and customer retention rates. Effective self-service models not only improve customer experiences and satisfaction, but also lead to significant cost savings and operational efficiencies by:

• Dramatically reducing the volume of calls to customer service centers 

• Increasing deflection rates and improving self-service containment

• Increasing first-contact resolution times, helping organizations resolve issues swiftly

• Providing customers with the autonomy, speed, and personalization they want for quick, effective solutions tailored to their needs

Eliminate friction points and improve customer experiences in 2024

No matter how successful a business may be, it must continue to innovate, adapt, and listen to its customers in order to improve and personalize their customer experience. According to Twilio’s 2024 State of Customer Engagement Report: 

• 81% of brands believe they deeply understand their customers—yet only 46% of global customers agree, highlighting the need to improve customer experiences

• 64% of consumers say they would quit a brand if their experience isn’t personalized 

In today’s competitive landscape, narrowing the gap between customer expectations and reality when it comes to self-service channels is crucial for businesses to thrive, and a failure to meet customer expectations can have dire consequences. That’s why numerous businesses are placing a high priority on eliminating friction points and proactively addressing customer concerns—and artificial intelligence (AI), combined with real-time customer data, could be the key to their success.

These focus areas, combined with assistance from AI as well as Twilio Voice and Twilio Flex, will help businesses bridge the gap and deliver exceptional customer experiences in 2024 and beyond. According to a recent BBC survey, business leaders worldwide see the benefits of AI, but admit their organizations aren't prepared to adopt it because they haven’t quite nailed a strategy that they’re comfortable with or understand well. Here are a few ways businesses can start using AI to improve the customer experience journey.

Apply AI tools to enable a customer-centric engagement strategy

Incorporating AI tools into customer service strategies has become essential for businesses aiming to improve customer experiences. AI can analyze large volumes of real-time customer data, which helps service agents personalize interactions without being overwhelmed by information. AI-powered self-service features, such as chatbots and virtual assistants, can handle routine inquiries, giving human agents more time to tackle complex issues. 

Moreover, AI can provide agents with summaries of previous customer interactions, enabling them to quickly understand and address the issue at hand, reducing the need for repetition and enhancing the customer’s experience. This not only improves the speed and accuracy of service, but ensures that engagement is relevant and individualized. 

Twilio provides the ability to harness real-time data—not just historical data—as well as AI, so agents can have insights into all customer interactions as they are happening. Intentional strategies and innovative solutions, such as Flex, can empower businesses to improve customer experiences and drive customer loyalty through personalized interactions and seamless service.

Automate common interactions through empowered self-service and AI

By developing an AI-accelerated interactive voice response (IVR) software strategy, businesses can also improve contact center efficiency by automating common queries and tasks, plus routing more complex conversations to the appropriate agent skillset. In fact, improving IVR-containment rates by five to 20 percent and improving authentication rates by 15 to 25 percent can reduce total call-center costs by 10 to 30 percent in just three to six months, according to McKinsey.

It can also lead to a boost in operational efficiency through improved customer understanding

Using conversational AI and natural language understanding (NLU), customers can enjoy  human-like conversations with virtual agents, reducing resolution time by understanding customer intent.

AI-powered self-service can also help improve agent bandwidth by automating common FAQs from customers that often clog contact center queues. It can also lead to continuous improvement for agents by gathering proprietary call data, using historical actions to predict customer needs, and enhancing the IVR journey iteratively.

Harnessing AI to streamline self-service for students at Universidad Uk

At Universidad Uk, disjointed data sources previously hampered their ability to provide quick and personalized student services. By implementing Agent Copilot and Unified Profiles, the university has used AI to build a cohesive customer experience strategy with dramatic results:

• Virtual agents are now able to resolve up to 70% of cases, which has led to a 30% reduction in average handle time. 

• AI-enhanced insights have resulted in a 94% average customer satisfaction score. 

AI tools have also enabled the university’s service staff to access real-time data on student performance and needs, allowing for efficient and customized interactions, all while maintaining a high customer satisfaction score (CSAT). 

Facilitating personalized, omnichannel customer service at Toyota Connected

Aiming for innovation on a global scale, Toyota Connected North America (TCNA) needed a flexible way to effectively respond to customer inquiries, as well as an intuitive tool that could integrate into Salesforce CRM and data-management tools. Previously, agents didn’t have an intuitive interface, nor was it integrated into TCNA’s system.

“Prior to Flex, Toyota Connected agents would get the call and manage it through a soft phone that was not integrated into our Salesforce CRM platform,” said Fisher. “So, the real-time use of the phone and our Salesforce application wasn’t user-friendly or intuitive for the agents. Implementing Twilio Flex into our agent platform also allowed us to better centralize our communications with customers.”

With this integration, Twilio Flex provided agility and a streamlined experience for both drivers and agents, leading to:

• A 13% reduction in after-call work

• An 18% decrease in average monthly handle time. 

Moreover, if a customer ever gets disconnected, Flex enables a reconnection to the same agent, ensuring continuity and a personal touch.

TCNA’s Drivelink team also utilizes Twilio Flex to deliver consistent and fast service, which has been instrumental in servicing over six million Toyota and Lexus drivers. The seamless customer experience they’re now able to provide offers flexibility, an improved experience for agents, and a more meaningful relationship with drivers.

Delivering better, more automated customer engagement at Marks & Spencer 

Marks & Spencer knew they needed to modernize and improve their customers’ shopping experience with a centralized cloud-based contact center. To ensure best-in-class customer experiences, the company looked to replace their legacy phone system, which was being stretched with routing over a million calls to stores and contact centers every month. The goal was to take advantage of automation and newer technologies like AI, to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and scalability of customer call routing.

In just four weeks, Marks & Spencer automated the company’s existing switchboard using Twilio Programmable Voice and Twilio Speech Recognition APIs. They can now: 

• Convert speech to text

• Use AI to automatically route calls to the correct department or route customers without needing to request a “reason for contact” 

• Present relevant self-serve options to the customer

Ultimately, the ROI for Marks & Spencer includes:

• 90% call routing accuracy

• 98% caller response and engagement

• 10 seconds saved on contact center calls

Personalized service at scale: How Twilio revolutionizes customer journeys

Twilio is at the forefront of transforming modern customer service strategies by providing an integrated suite of solutions that orchestrate seamless interactions across all channels. Businesses can improve customer experiences by designing customer journeys that start with intuitive self-service and scale to complex problem-solving with live agents. Agents gain access to real-time data and context, enabling them to offer service that is not only efficient but also customer-centric.

By empowering personalized self-service and live agent service, Twilio is optimizing AI for businesses. We're also providing the tools needed to help customers take advantage of AI efficiency by combining real-time customer data with communications channels. This helps businesses  become not just customer customer-aware, but customer-obsessed, leading to better engagement and ROI.

Vanessa Thompson is Vice President of Marketing leading a global integrated marketing team for Twilio's Communications products. Her expertise spans all facets of go-to-market including demand generation, growth, lifecycle, analytics, and product strategy. As a leader at Twilio, Vanessa helps execute Twilio's vision of being a globally trusted customer engagement platform (CEP), plus a named leader in communications platform as a service (CPaaS) and customer data platform (CDP) markets.