How to Deliver a Human-Centric Customer Experience

The creation of a perfect customer experience is a top priority for the majority of companies. Business gurus are all in unison: Companies that invest in the customer experience (CX) gain an incomparable competitive advantage over their rivals. But what makes a good customer experience?

You are probably familiar with it from your own organisation: Simply mentioning the term CX makes your colleagues’ pulse beat faster and initiates change. However, in order to make the desired competitive advantages a reality, we have to delve deeper and carefully define what a good customer experience actually is – from your customer’s perspective i.e. the human perspective.

In the course of digital transformation, organisations invest in new communication channels and yet the experience that customers really want to see is lost in the chaos of chatbots, messaging apps and social media. There is now talk of a Digital Disconnect. So let’s think back to those aspects of the customer experience that make your customers what they are: Humans!

1. Humans want to speak with humans

Your customer service is one of the most natural starting points for your customers before and after purchasing a product or service. If questions or problems arise, your service team is on hand with help and advice for your customers. Companies have invested a lot of time and energy in expanding digital touch points. And here the legitimate question arises: Do your customers actually want to communicate with your organisation via Facebook Messenger, Twitter or even automated chatbots in the first place?

Why digital communication has its limits:

According to a recent study on the state of affairs in the CX area, the answer is clear: No! At 49 percent, the largest customer segment continues to prefer personal communication via call centers or face-to-face. However, this is not because customers do not want to give up habits of which they have grown very fond. Rather, experience with digital support options has taught them that companies are reducing their efforts to the detriment of their customers. Chatbots and other digital channels minimise service costs, but at the same time increase the effort for the customers, because many problems cannot be solved via digital means alone.

How to create a human-centric customer experience:

Instead of relying on fast savings through digital service, you should invest in a human-centric customer experience. Simple requests can be answered by artificial intelligence and chatbots, but for more complex topics, real customer contact takes on a whole new dimension in an increasingly automated reality. Many now speak of an Empathy Economy, a business approach based on creativity, community spirit and empathy – all human qualities that digital tools can only imitate to a limited extent.

Despite digital communication channels, the call center remains the pivotal element of communication for many of your customers. With Ncontactcenter, NFON offers you a complete solution for dialogue from person to person. And we can do more to meet many of your business needs. Here you can discover everything about our premium communication solutions!

2. Harmonise the digital and human factors

We mentioned at the beginning that each of your customers is an individual. Their problems as well as their motivations for contacting your organisation are unique. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to delivering a perfect human-centric customer experience. And neither is there a simple answer to the question of what the optimal combination of digital and human factors looks like.

Why it’s not a question of either/or:

Let’s take the examples of generations Y and Z. These younger generations prefer to adopt a DIY approach: No question can be too complicated, no problem too big not to take the solution into their own hands, at least in the first step. Generation Y becomes generation DIY! Nevertheless, after the first unsuccessful self-service attempts the call for personal helps gets louder. Where is the next competent human employee who can help me solve my problem?

How to bring the human factor into the digital realm:

This presents you with the challenge of combining the digital contact options preferred especially by the younger generations with the human factor. Rigid chatbot dialogues may be useful for answering simple questions and as a first point of contact. So far, however, they have not been used to solve complex problems. The key to success lies in adopting a holistic customer experience approach, in which digital self-service is the first point of contact with your customer. The human factor with all its strengths and peculiarities rounds off the overall experience and intervenes at those points where technology reaches its limits.

More and more organisations are coming to the conclusion that humans are the key element of digital transformation. A new study shows that focusing on technology alone is not enough. A positive human experience is becoming a success factor of digitalization. You can find more details in this blog post.

Behind every customer is an individual. Treat your customers as such! Of course, like any organisation, you should take advantage of digital innovation to make communication with your customers more efficient. However, a human customer experience requires that your organisation does not lose contact with the people and individuals involved here. Transform technology into an enabler for a modern human-centric customer experience.

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