Designing Omnichannel Customer Journeys: 10 Trends to Watch for the Autonomous Customer

10 Trends To Watch Out For Autonomous Customers

Here are the ten latest trends in customer service; brands need to watch out for autonomous customers:

Increasing Use Of AI-Powered Chatbots

According to Tidio , 73% of shoppers believe that AI can improve their customer experience, whereas 80% of customers have had a positive experience with AI chatbots.

AI-powered chatbots are fueling the automation and efficiency of customer service, elevating the customer experience to provide great customer satisfaction.

64% of consumers say they expect companies to respond and interact with them in real time.

This can only be possible through rapid automated responses by AI chatbots.

Leveraging technologies like natural language processing (NLP) and conversational AI, chatbots can engage customers through more personalised and human-like conversations.

Also Read: Conversational AI in CPaaS- Revolutionizing Customer Interaction

Customers Expect Simpler Interactions With Brands

Many consumers find it exhausting to deal with companies with customer service issues. They feel the experience to be time-consuming, especially talking to the representatives from the customer service end.

Customers expect simple, more accessible, and faster interactions with businesses. They believe contacting companies by phone or other communication channels must be easier.

Utilising Omnichannel Approach

Communication channels, contact centres, and overall marketing practices are evolving towards an omnichannel approach.

Businesses allow customers to contact and engage with them through multiple channels, maintaining their brand consistency and messaging.

It offers benefits like:

• Increased operational efficiency
• Reduced response times
• Improving customer service quality
• More personalised customer journey
• More repeat purchases
• Increased brand loyalty
• Rich and centralised data
• High scalability

Convenience Is The Key

What majorly drives customers to interact or buy from a brand is convenience. How simple and easy is it for them to contact, interact with, or remember you?

Easier business makes it easier for customers to do what they want, and they are more likely to do it.

Identifying Preferred Communication Channels

Even though the Omnichannel strategy includes leveraging multiple communication channels, brands still need to focus on a few to maximise their outcomes.

This depends upon the preferred communication channel for your target audience.

For example, if your target users are predominantly on WhatsApp and Facebook, you should redirect most of your resources towards those channels instead of diverting them across a broad spectrum of communication channels such as RCS, text, voice, email, Instagram, chatbots, etc.

To expand, a business can surely add one or two more communication channels, either yet to be tapped for their full potential or unlocking a different segment of your target audience.

Also Read: The Future of CPaaS: Emerging Technologies and Trends

Customer Journey Mapping

For an omnichannel customer strategy, customer journey mapping is the key to navigating through multiple touchpoints brands engage with customers at different points of their customer journey.

Customer interactions are not linear anymore. They are cyclic, which means returning the customer for repeat purchases consistently over a long period.

It focuses on building customer relationships and brand loyalty, leveraging multiple communication channels at different points of the customer journey.

This demands an active tracking and mapping of their journey for optimising the opportunities for sales through:

• Contextualising the offer
• Personalised rich data across multiple communication channels
• Addressing their pain points

Contextualised Omnichannel Behaviors

With the omnichannel approach, this customer behaviour also emerges, where they choose a communication channel based on their current emotional state, situation, need, or level of support they think they require.

For example, a consumer with a positive mindset tends to engage more in lifestyle purchases, preferably through online shopping. For routine transactions, consumers mostly use an app or self-service channels.

However, when they are in crisis and possess a negative mindset, they pick face-to-face channels or phones, looking for immediate solutions.

A superior customer experience in an omnichannel setting will aim to leverage these contextualised customer behaviours.

Growing Popularity Of Messaging Channels

The role of messaging apps in autonomous customer service continues to grow exponentially. The reason behind the rise of messaging channels is evident as follows:

• High and increasing numbers of smartphone users
• Highly convenient and time-saving
• Cost-effective marketing and communication solutions as compared to traditional ones
• Extraordinary reach, open and engagement rates
• Younger demographics like Genz prefer messaging channels.

Increasing Investments On Customer Service

80% of brands are planning to increase their investment in customer experience.

The initiative towards increasing customer service budgets clearly demonstrates the continuing significance of customer experience (CX), if not the rise already.

The growth of the CX management market at a CAGR of 15.4% from 2023 to 2030 is another indicator of rising interest in customer service in business.

Self-Service Continues To Grow

Self-service is reshaping customer service dramatically. In fact, 67% of customers prefer self-service over talking to a company representative.

The consumers today avoid contacting customer service because:

• Long waiting time
• Feels like time-wasting
• Earlier negative experiences
• Inconvenient

On the other hand, self-service tools like knowledge bases, FAQs, AI chatbots, and virtual assistants offer much more efficient, faster, and more productive results.

This clearly indicates how future customer service is evolving towards customer-centric, automated, and faster solutions.

Conclusion

The significance of designing an omnichannel approach for autonomous customer service is evident through these emerging trends. However, to utilise this at its full potential, businesses must collaborate with a service provider offering CPaaS and other business communication solutions.

Route Mobile is a reputed and leading cloud communication platform-as-service provider with their next-gen CPaaS solutions.

The comprehensive suite of advanced features, tools, experts, and infrastructural resources can help businesses leverage these trends to grow exponentially. Contact our experts to learn more about our CPaaS platform.

FAQs

What Are Autonomous Customer Service?

Autonomous customer service refers to adapting AI, NLP, ML, and other advanced technologies, as well as automation and workflows that do not require manual or human intervention.

What Is The Role Of CPaaS In Customer Service?

CPaaS provides a unified platform for businesses to integrate their communication channels with advanced tools and features like personalisation, omnichannel workflows, and analytics to enhance customer service and engagement.

What Are The Benefits Of Omnichannel Strategy In Customer Service?

An omnichannel strategy allows businesses to handle all the queries of customers across channels through a centralised system. This not only enhances the overall customer experience but also boosts operational efficiency and provides scalability and flexibility to businesses.