Where Is CX Going In 2025? Probably Not To Contact Centers…

Where Is CX Going In 2025? Probably Not To Contact Centers…

Where is the focus for customer experience (CX) going in 2025? What are company leaders really seeking when they ask a partner to help them manage and design their CX processes?

One thing that is absolutely clear for 2025 is that nobody is looking for a company that will just manage their contact center. That ship has sailed.

If you want proof of this, just look at the share price of all the major business process outsourcing (BPO) companies. Since January this year it is common to see their value has halved. The investors know something the contact center companies are not telling you.

Managers responsible for the CX in their company now want a partner that can offer a complete solution - not just a contact center.

It’s possible to use artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically handle far more customer interactions than ever before. Look at what the pay-as-you-go finance company Klarna achieved earlier this year.

When they switched on an AI-powered self-service system it immediately started handling around two-thirds of their customer interactions. The AI was handling millions of conversations with customers and they estimated the software handled the work that would have needed 700 professionals in a contact center. It was even 25% better at handling the problem first time and not needing repeat contact.

What is clear from this case study - and others that have been emerging this year - is that designing a customer experience solution is now far more complicated than the old days of directing all customer contact into a contact center and letting agents handle the calls.

AI can be there 24/7 handling a large amount of the customer engagement, however even the Klarna example shows that there is a significant number of customer problems that still need a human in the loop. A modern customer service solution will connect AI interaction with highly skilled, knowledgable agents who know the products inside out.

This is where the yoummday platform approach stands out. The yoummday agents are known as talents. The talents choose the brands they want to support, they choose to work from home, and they choose when they want to work. They are usually more experienced than customer service agents working in contact centers - often with extensive industry experience and appreciation for the brands they are supporting. They know the business.

This is an important distinction. Think about the problems that are now going to the human in the loop. They are the tough ones that need some troubleshooting. They are the unusual ‘never seen before’ problems. They are the confusing issues that Google, YouTube, and your AI chatbot can’t resolve.

So the human team that backs up the AI frontline needs to be highly skilled and insightful. They need to know the products and industry they are supporting. They should also want to be helping this customer resolve their problem because they are supporting a brand they believe in - maybe they are even a fan.

Imagine a customer today with a question about your product. They search YouTube and Google and can’t find the answer. They click on the AI chatbot and can’t get an answer because the question isn’t defined very well - it needs some more human intuition and understanding. What happens if they are passed to a human agent who is just sitting in a contact center watching the clock and waiting for the end of their shift? I’ll just put you on hold…

They might just ask to switch back, so they can give the AI another chance.

CX in 2025 will be all about CX solutions that combine AI with knowledgeable humans located on agile CX platforms. This is where we are heading in 2025. There is an enormous opportunity for those who are embracing flexibility and a modern approach.

Humans remain important for CX, but the real trick is to have the right expertise and knowledge supported by AI on the frontline - handling the simpler questions. Directing everything into a contact center no longer works - unless your customers love waiting on hold and talking to multiple agents.

And while you are planning for 2025, you probably also want to make sure your pension fund doesn’t have any of those contact center shares - just saying!

For more information about the agile yoummday approach to twenty-first century sales and customer experience please check our website here…

Creative Commons Photo by: Reagan Freeman