Marbue Brown, author, advisor, and CX leader, discusses tactics for blending AI with the personal touch in customer experience enhancement, a significant subject of discussion at the ICX Summit in Charlotte, NC on September 9-11.
Scant few technologies have impacted businesses more than AI has in the past year — and the rate of transformation is only gaining momentum.
However, how can operators synchronize the emergence of AI technology with the time-honored personal touch that serves as the foundation of customer experience for thriving brands?
This is the core focus of a panel session at this year’s Interactive Customer Experience Summit, organized by Networld Media Group in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 9-11, and co-hosted with the Bank Customer Experience Summit. Panelists will feature Marbue Brown, Founder, The Customer Obsession Advantage; Chris King, CEO at Monster Entertainment; and Daniel Parker, technical services manager, Kodak Moments.
We contacted Marbue Brown for strategies on integrating AI and the personal touch through an email dialogue. Brown is the writer of “The Customer Obsession Advantage,” a Forbes Top Ten Business Book in 2022. Brown also established The Customer Obsession Advantage, a consultancy that aids companies in augmenting customer experience design through his Customer Obsession methodology, coupled with crafting a successful track record as a CX executive, achieving positive outcomes with companies like JP Morgan Chase, Amazon.com, Microsoft Corporation, and Cisco Systems.
Interview with Marbue Brown
Q: Before we delve into CX and AI, could you share a bit about your journey into becoming an authority on this subject?
A: Since I obtained my postgraduate degree, my entire professional trajectory has been intertwined with CX in various capacities, but I believe I solidified my position as a thought leader in the field when I commenced publishing fundamental articles about CX measurement with colleagues based on our field research. That endeavor positioned me to head CX teams and projects at some of the most renowned companies globally, including JP Morgan Chase, Amazon, Microsoft, and Cisco Systems.
Simultaneously, CX represents one of the business domains best suited to benefit from advancements in AI. Therefore, in my CX executive roles, I closely collaborated with technologies and use cases at the core of the AI revolution.
Q: AI progresses swiftly! What AI developments are most significant to you this year?
A: Three noteworthy examples:
1) Expansion of operational deployments of AI-driven applications that elevate CX.
2) Nvidia’s rapid ascension to the top in market capitalization suggests that we are still in the nascent stages of the AI revolution.
3) Prominent AI missteps indicate that there are substantial obstacles to address before we can optimize AI’s potential to bolster business outcomes. These include Google’s retraction of the Gemini tool generating historically inaccurate images, OpenAI’s recall of a voice option resembling Scarlett Johansson, and Microsoft’s cancellation of its Recall feature.
Q: You advocate for “customer obsession” in business. How do you define “customer obsession?”
A:Customer Obsession embodies an intense focus on the customer that propels companies to adopt policies, take actions, and make investments in the customer’s favor even when they can’t immediately discern the direct impact on their own financial gains. This approach is grounded on the belief that what benefits the customers ultimately benefits the business. Any company embracing this philosophy has yet to falter. On the contrary, their business outcomes are extraordinary compared to their counterparts.
Q: In this context, what hurdles exist in aligning the personal touch and AI in the business landscape?
A: Initially, there must be an acknowledgment that interactions handled by live agents or personnel aren’t inherently intimate, and interactions facilitated by AI technology aren’t inherently impersonal. We have all encountered live agents who were dismissive of our concerns and lacked empathy or meaningful engagement. In such instances, the “human touch” was lacking. Conversely, if correctly designed, a fully automated customer interaction fueled by AI could leave the customer feeling understood and valued, as if the process was tailored with them in mind. This imparts a sense of personalization and humanity.
Secondly, it’s crucial to recognize that in the current era, there are situations where AI-powered solutions can efficiently operate independently, scenarios where they excel in supporting humans in a complementary role, and instances where human interaction is preferable. Striking a balance between the personal touch and AI entails discerning these scenarios and then applying AI suitably to each category (or not). The advantage of this approach is that when executed proficiently, live agents can allocate more attention to cases necessitating their intervention the most.
For example, routine inquiries like checking bank balances or tracking an order’s status can effortlessly be managed by AI alone. Conversely, disputing a charge on a credit card bill initially removed by your bank then reinstated upon the merchant’s feedback is best handled by a live agent.
Q: What are the key opportunities businesses should leverage with AI?
A:Consider the following:
- Derive CX insights from unstructured customer dialogues.
Every day, businesses engage in numerous unstructured conversations with customers that are a rich source of CX insights, but until recent AI advancements, extracting those insights was challenging. Presently, these conversations can be easily tapped to unveil new opportunities for elevating CX that were previously inaccessible. - Enhance chatbots to be a preferred avenue for addressing inquiries.
Many of us have encountered frustration with unhelpful chatbots that fail to address our queries or connect us with a resourceful contact. Conversational AI has facilitated the development of chatbots that adeptly handle routine and complex inquiries, and discern when to escalate to a live agent. One company touts that their AI-driven chatbot managed two-thirds of customer conversations over a 12-month period, equating to the workload of 700 agents. - Enhance the efficacy of customer service associates with AI-powered aids.
At least three applications stand out as notable opportunities for GenAI to uplift the effectiveness of CSAs:
- Simulating live customer conversations during training and onboarding.
- Expediting access to answers for customer inquiries by swiftly retrieving information from knowledge bases and supplying answers in near real-time to CSAs.
- Suggesting the optimal responses for CSAs to address customer queries.
Q: What are the prevalent missteps you observe in AI applications for customer service and experience design?
A:Three frequent errors include:
- Developing AI-driven chatbots or virtual assistants without thoroughly scrutinizing potential customer scenarios to ensure they don’t encounter dead ends or enter infinite loops without fulfilling their intended purpose. Essentially, constructing the technological solution without reverse-engineering from the customer perspective.
- Launching customer-facing AI applications before undergoing exhaustive testing for scenarios that might yield responses containing AI-generated inaccuracies.
- Introducing AI-powered solutions for use cases where the current technology isn’t adequately equipped to support.
Q: Given a favorable trajectory, how do you visualize the future of AI in customer experience?
A: My vision entails AI significantly enhancing CX rather than detracting from it, as some speculate. It steers toward a future where AI-powered solutions are seamlessly integrated alongside live agents to complement rather than compete with them, enhancing their effectiveness rather than displacing them. I envisage a future where fully automated AI interactions feel as personal and effective as interactions with live agents but without evoking a sense of unease. I foresee a future where AI-powered solutions are deployed in scenarios where they feel natural and kept out of contexts where they are ill-suited.
Q: As the event nears, do you have any parting reflections for our audience?
A: Many firms have already taken the leap and demonstrated that AI-powered solutions can be immensely beneficial for CX. If your business is still indecisive, there’s no doubt that you too can significantly advance CX by commencing with pivotal, critical use cases on your radar rather than fixating on the technology. Once this approach is embraced, the path forward will become markedly clearer.
