The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into customer relationship and experience processes marks a major development for customer relationship professionals.
New generations of conversational AI, much more than simple chatbots, open up new perspectives, but also raise questions that cannot be put aside. The tools that permeate the customer relations playing field, developed by tech giants, raise questions given their ability to create interactions that can seem almost human. It is true that they are based on three pillars solid enough to change the rules of the game: sophisticated language models offering incredibly extensive knowledge, responsiveness that makes exchanges fluid and natural and, more recently, synthetic voices capable of reproducing the subtleties of human intonations.
For customer relations professionals, these advances make it possible to offer a service that is both better personalized and more responsive. They also make it possible to respond more effectively to growing customer requirements. But where AI can fill a need for responsiveness and precision, it also risks exacerbating the artificiality of exchanges by replacing human relationships which, ideally, better take into account the complexity of nature human through in-depth listening and even more, empathy.
DON’T FALL INTO THE TRAP OF AUTOMATION AT ANY COST
Paradoxically, in a world where loneliness is becoming endemic, these new relationship interfaces, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and programmed to understand us, are proving attractive. The latest developments even add a dimension of familiarity and intimacy to virtual exchanges which cannot leave one indifferent and at the same time proves disturbing. Creating the illusion of an authentic emotional connection terribly dilutes the boundary between real interactions and simulation with the biases and deviations that can easily be envisaged. The empathy claimed by new generation chatbots remains artificial, directly dependent on the training conditions of the models without the touch of spontaneity, of fine understanding of the interlocutor which remains the prerogative of human beings.
Certainly, operators of call centers, assistance services, and customer support also respond to supervised scenarios, intended to maximize satisfaction. Does this justify that our needs for connection, in particular when they are part of the dialogue we have with a brand, are entirely artificialized, calibrated, rationalized with the risk of seeing the only part of humanity disappear? even take into account the complexity and depth of our expectations, particularly on an emotional level?
No one will dispute the benefit of strengthening the accessibility of a brand, of maximizing its responsiveness to better deal, more quickly, with our questions and problems encountered when discovering or using a product or service. But it is important to maintain a clear distinction between technological tools and genuine human relationships. It is also important to maintain a fair balance so that these virtual assistants remain complements and not substitutes.
AI… BUT NOT ONLY
The future of customer relations cannot only be digital. To improve and develop their customer capital in 2025, and in addition to relevant integration of AI, brands will need to integrate the following two other levers:
Ensuring a seamless omnichannel experience : Data solutions and the right tools to unify interactions on online platforms, social networks, call centers and physical points of sale, in order to guarantee continuity in customer relations.
Promote the automation of repetitive tasks : To free customer relations teams from repetitive tasks, so that they can focus on high value-added interactions.
Strengthening the use of new technologies and in particular the use of AI must finally be done in a transparent and ethical manner. Properly informing customers, especially when interacting with AI, will be essential. The challenge in 2025 will quite simply be to take full advantage of technological advances while preserving the human element at the heart of customer relationships in order to preserve and grow trust in brands.
These issues, and many others, are highlighted in the context of the 4th edition of the Isoskele Customer Recognition Barometer which analyzes the bond established by 162 brands with their customers, in 11 different sectors.
And to go even further, you will find the specificities of these different sectors in a series of white papers which decipher best practices and, in particular, the levers for developing customer capital.
Methodology
5,500 adults and representatives of the French population were interviewed in February 2024 as part of this 4th edition. Each person is a customer of the three brands which give rise to questions.
To find out more about the Isoskele Customer Recognition Barometer, 2024 edition
Personalized restitutions are also possible, on request.
Source: www.e-marketing.fr
