Top CMSWire Contributors 2023: Spotlight on Joanna Clark-Simpson

This is part of our end-of-year series celebrating our top CMSWire Contributors of the Year for 2023. These are regular CMSWire Contributors whose articles this year greatly resonated with our community of professionals. These Contributors simply serve as great ambassadors of our brand in the world of marketing and customer experience.

The Gist

Empowering insights. Joanna Clark-Simpson highlights AI's role in enhancing customer experience, focusing on practical strategies for businesses.
AI's capabilities. Addresses AI's transformative impact in customer service, including predictive analytics and personalization.
Balancing automation. Discusses the balance between AI automation and human interaction in customer service, emphasizing personalized experiences.

Have you ever considered the transformative power of AI in shaping customer experiences? Joanna Clark-Simpson, a veteran in digital marketing and journalism is head of the marketing department at a review platform called PissedConsumer. Joanna dives deep into the AI in customer experience topic in her insightful article, "AI Customer Experience Solutions: Using Emerging Technologies." With over 16 years of experience in the marketing sphere, Joanna brings a wealth of knowledge to the table, exploring how AI and data analytics are revolutionizing customer service in today's digital era.

In her article, Joanna doesn't just outline the benefits of AI in customer experience; she provides a comprehensive guide on how businesses can strategically implement these technologies. From enhancing data interpretation and customer segmentation to creating personalized experiences, she covers a range of tactics that are reshaping the customer service landscape. Her piece aligns with the findings of the 2022 Digital-First Customer Experience Report, which highlights the critical role of customer service in brand loyalty.

As a CMSWire contributor, Joanna has a knack for making complex topics like AI integration and digital transformation accessible and engaging. Her insights are not just theoretical; they are grounded in practical advice and real-world applications. Joanna's articles are more than just good reads; they're a roadmap for businesses looking to leverage AI to boost customer satisfaction and loyalty — and more.

Q&A With Joanna Clark-Simpson

Empowering Contact Centers with AI

From your perspective, what are the most effective ways to empower contact centers with AI, and what should businesses prioritize when implementing AI in these environments?

AI integration into contact centers primarily involves optimizing omnichannel communication and refining customer data analytics. By implementing AI-powered channels, a business can provide personalized experiences across various platforms and assure seamless interaction. For example, using speech analytics, contact center agents can identify vulnerable customers who may need additional support. At the same time, AI chat analysis can enhance performance through conversation reviews, measuring the call speech or silence percentages, and evaluating customer sentiments of how and what they say. Such AI solutions simplify data collection and analysis, enabling real-time insights and predictive analytics. It helps to foresee customer preferences, meet their needs, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

Another critical aspect of empowering contact centers with AI is automating routine tasks. If a business sets AI to handle standard inquiries, human agents will have more time to focus on complex customer issues and prioritize resolution for them. In this way, companies can improve both speed times for response to simple queries and improve the quality of customer service.

Key Features of AI in Customer Service

What are the key features and capabilities businesses should look for in AI customer service tools, and how do these tools transform customer service dynamics?

Businesses that implement AI customer service solutions should think of the value it can provide to customers. It shouldn’t be done solely for the sake of automating processes and cost reduction. For instance, a proactive approach would be to use AI features for predictive analytics that help identify potential issues before customers even raise them. AI-powered tools can identify data patterns and customer issues that need to be prioritized by customer service teams.

New AI-trained sets also transform the quality, quantity and precision of data that customer service agents can use to reduce errors, speed up response times, and identify fields for improvement. Some of the key features to consider with AI tools are around-the-clock service, quality assurance systems, advanced conversational capabilities like natural language processing (NLP), AI chatbots, tools for real-time data processing, traffic redirection and reduced waiting times. There’s a range of AI solutions that customer service and call centers can benefit from, and a remarkable aspect is AI’s ability to adapt and learn from interactions with customers. However, AI implementation doesn’t come with a magic button. Tests and training on the business's datasets are necessary to ensure seamless processing and workflow.

AI in Customer Support: Pitfalls and Solutions

Could you elaborate on the common pitfalls of using AI in customer support and offer advice on how companies can avoid these issues?

Depersonalization and data privacy are common pitfalls with AI-enhanced customer service. Businesses should be aware of these potential risks so as not to endanger the customer relationship. For example, most customers prefer to speak with a human agent in real time, which means that with AI they might be missing the human touch. Another thing customers might be concerned about is how companies collect personal data and if it is safe and doesn’t become vulnerable with used AI technologies. A way to reassure customers is to use well-established security measures and encryption. With 24/7 support, companies should also understand that AI chatbots might not know how to resolve specific customer issues and when to pass them to human agents. Thus, companies risk human overtime work because support agents would still need to work around the clock.

Essential Steps for Superior Call Centers

In your view, what are the essential steps call centers should take to meet and exceed current customer expectations?

Call centers should first learn to collect data about customer journeys and experiences they have on the way. Many support teams use customer data management systems that provide valuable information based on previous interactions. AI-assisted IVR tools also enhance call processing by analyzing the tone and mood of the caller. Integrating all these data helps to better understand the needs of a customer and quickly identify and resolve issues during the call.

Then, a company should also ensure clear and comprehensive standards for customer service call centers. This could be a checklist of do’s and don’ts and detailed protocols that the agents follow when interacting with customers. Challenging situations with customers are part of call centers' routine, which requires consistent training and professional development of the team. Having extensive data about customer interactions during the call may also enhance learning and optimization of call center processes.

Let’s not forget that it’s important to monitor and measure the call center's performance. It includes tracking of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as call response rate, call length, and waiting times. Knowing these metrics, call centers can refine processes to exceed customer expectations.

Finally, showcasing effective call center service should be part of your brand strategy. It helps to enhance customer perception of your brand through customer feedback and success cases. It illustrates how efficient and useful the company’s call center is in meeting customer needs.

Learning Opportunities

Webinar

Gain insights from the Talkdesk customer CAI

Apr

Supercharge Contact Center Efficiency with Generative AI

Learn practical strategies to reduce post-call documentation time by over 8 minutes.

Conference

May

Qualtrics X4 Salt Lake City 2024

Webinar

May

Unleash AI for Crisis Management: Transform Threats into Triumphs

Learn how Sprinklr Insights provides real-time insights on current events, trends, and brand crises to empower your team.

Webinar

May

Driving Customer-Centricity in the Financial Services Industry

Discover how financial organizations are leveraging generative AI technologies.

Conference

May

An Irish Roundtable in the Valley: The Economic Impact of AI on the World of Work Stanford 2024

Exploring the Impact of AI On the World of Work with Irish diaspora leaders and tech business champions from the North of Ireland

Conference

May

Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo Conference London 2024

Webinar

Apr

Supercharge Contact Center Efficiency with Generative AI

Learn practical strategies to reduce post-call documentation time by over 8 minutes.

Conference

May

Qualtrics X4 Salt Lake City 2024

Webinar

May

Unleash AI for Crisis Management: Transform Threats into Triumphs

Learn how Sprinklr Insights provides real-time insights on current events, trends, and brand crises to empower your team.

Balancing AI and the Human Touch in Customer Service

How can businesses find the right balance between AI automation and human interaction to provide an optimal customer service experience?

AI automation can help businesses optimize customer service processes so that customers have better experiences. Yet, it’s critical to remember that customer needs come first and human interaction plays a significant role in overall customer happiness. Therefore, when using AI tools, a brand should ensure they are not missing the human element. If a customer is unhappy, or there’s a more complicated request, you should have a human agent ready to assist them.

AI's Role in Personalizing Customer Experience

How does AI contribute to personalizing customer experiences, and what are the benefits and challenges of this personalization?

AI helps analyze customer experiences and collect data to segment and understand consumer behavior in detail. It allows further segmentation by specific groups that the company then targets with relevant information tailored to particular customer interests. This approach helps improve business offerings and drive customer engagement. However, the challenging part is to ensure the accuracy and privacy of data collected by AI. Overreliance on automated tools can be risky and lead to a lack of personalization in customer service. The key is to seamlessly integrate AI into customer support while maintaining the human touch.

Tell us something about Joanna Clark-Simpson outside of your professional life.

I’m a busy bee who treasures every moment of spare time. As an early riser, I find great joy in a session of morning yoga, which is a very important part of my daily routine. I love books and often lose track of time when reading fiction or fantasy. I have a preference for the tranquility of tea over the boldness of coffee and cherish the quiet companionship of my adorable cat.