For many, the “last mile” of the end-to-end customer journey can present a challenge. Services at this stage often involve much more complex interactions than the usual app or self-service portal can handle. This could be dealing with a challenging health diagnosis, addressing late mortgage payments, applying for government benefits, or understanding the lifestyle you can afford in retirement. “When we get into these more complex service needs, there’s a real bias toward human interaction,” says Neufeld. “We want to speak to someone, we want to understand whether we’re making a good decision, or we might want alternative views and perspectives.”
But these high-cost, high-touch interactions can be less than satisfying for customers when handled through a call center if, for example, technical systems are outdated or data sources are disconnected. Those kinds of problems ultimately lead to the possibility of complaints and lost business. Good customer experience is critical for the bottom line. Customers are 3.8 times more likely to make return purchases after a successful experience than after an unsuccessful one, according to Qualtrics. Intuitive AI-driven systems— supported by robust data infrastructure that can efficiently access and share information in real time— can boost the customer experience, even in complex or sensitive situations.
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This content was researched, designed, and written entirely by human writers, editors, analysts, and illustrators. This includes the writing of surveys and collection of data for surveys. AI tools that may have been used were limited to secondary production processes that passed thorough human review.
