Introduction
The Forrester Customer Experience Index for 2024 revealed a startling trend — customer experience (CX) quality in the U.S. has plummeted to its lowest level on record, marking the third consecutive year of decline.
Meanwhile, according to another recent study, 45% of customers will ignore issues with a product or service simply because they didn’t want to deal with customer support.
These statistics are concerning, especially in an age when rapid advances in technology promise to help companies deliver better-than-ever CX. With automation and AI tools at their fingertips, why are so many companies missing the mark?
Let's explore the factors influencing the current state of customer experience, why CX is declining, and strategies for enhancing customer interactions — both with and without AI.
What’s Shaping the Current State of CX?
As technology trends and customer expectations continue to evolve, companies are investing heavily in strategies to keep pace. Here are a few big-picture trends that are shaping the landscape of CX:
Increased CX Spending
Interestingly, despite the declining quality, businesses invest more in CX now than ever before.
Much of this budget gets allocated toward automation and data insights. For example, AI tools can integrate into customer service to streamline interactions, improve service quality, and handle repetitive questions.
Companies may see this as a win, but that doesn’t mean end users do.
Without a coherent strategy, simply allocating more money to CX initiatives does not automatically resolve underlying issues — and adopting AI does not always result in satisfied customers.
Growing AI Fatigue
While companies eagerly incorporate AI into their systems, some take it too far, completely removing the human touch from customer support.
A March 2024 survey of nearly 600 customers found that 81% would prefer to wait a minute or more to speak to a live person rather than immediately interact with an AI assistant.
This statistic underscores a growing discontent with generative AI in customer service.
Many customers feel trapped in automated systems, unable to resolve their issues effectively, which in turn drives frustration and diminishes brand loyalty.
Putting a Premium on Human Interaction
Some companies have started offering direct access to human customer support as a benefit of their premium subscription services.
This indicates that many customers are not only willing to pay more for human-first services, but also that they value the human touch in their support experiences.
Why Are Customer Support Experiences Getting Worse?
If companies are spending more on CX and technology is better than ever, why aren’t customer support interactions improving?
There’s clearly a disconnect between what companies want out of AI and what customers want out of service experiences.
Here are a few of the most common challenges that get in the way of CX success:
It’s Harder Than Ever to Reach a Human
Many companies have made it notoriously difficult to get in touch with a real person. Self-service tools can be useful, but sometimes customers need human assistance — and it’s very frustrating if they can’t get it. While some customers are willing to pay a premium for human support, others resent the practice of putting support agents behind a paywall.
Disjointed Customer Service Experiences
The rise of omnichannel customer service has not necessarily improved CX. Different platforms offer varying levels of support, and few issues get resolved on a single platform. Often, customers are forced to hop from one channel to another, repeating their issues to chatbots, automated phone menus, and multiple agents before reaching the right person, if at all.
Cost-Cutting and Low-Quality Service
Despite the clear link between high-quality customer service and business success, companies continue to cut costs by replacing staff with low-cost AI and outsourcing to the cheapest vendors. This race-to-the-bottom labor arbitrage results in subpar service, which negates any initial savings by damaging customer loyalty, increasing churn, and harming brand reputation.
Inadequate Tools for Customer Service Agents
Customer service agents often lack the most up-to-date tools and data needed to effectively assist customers. Siloed information prevents valuable insights from reaching those who could use them to improve CX, perpetuating a cycle of inefficiency and dissatisfaction.
Over-Reliance on AI
Many companies fall for the AI hype without considering how it fits into their overall business goals. Integrating AI without a proper long-term strategy can lead to frustrating customer experiences (like rogue AI providing incorrect information) and decrease the emotional connection required to build brand loyalty.
Measuring How Your Customers Perceive Your CX
When it comes to measuring CX success, your KPIs should reflect your customers’ unique perspective, which can differ significantly from your internal view.
When assessing your customer support and choosing KPIs to track, consider your customers’ preferences — factors like their comfort level with technology, preference for human or AI interactions, and whether you provide luxury or common goods or services will all impact their expectations. These preferences should guide how you measure CX success, ensuring alignment with what matters most to your customers.
For example, your organization might want to improve Average Handle Time (AHT), but that metric alone doesn’t offer a complete picture of how your customers feel about their experience, just how quickly your team handles calls. If your customers expect premium, white-glove service, a low AHT could actually mean they feel rushed off the phone.
Different KPIs Tell Different Stories
Not all industry reports show doom and gloom in CX. In fact, two of the most frequently talked about reports are contradictory.
The difference comes down to what the report measures. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), for instance, focuses more on objective evaluations of CX interactions, while Forrester’s report emphasizes emotional resonance, which is crucial for driving customer loyalty and satisfaction.
This illustrates the importance of evaluating CX through a holistic set of KPIs to gain a more balanced and accurate reflection of CX performance — zoom in too far, and you might not see the whole picture.
To help you select and track the KPIs that matter most for your business, we recommend sorting them into four buckets:
- Strategic metrics that align with your long-term, big-picture business goals
- Nice-to-have metrics that aren’t immediately critical, but can identify trends and opportunities for experimentation and innovation
- Social media and social listening metrics to help you gauge customer sentiment
- “North Star” metrics like Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES), and Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Always take a balanced look at your metrics — don’t let one overtake all the others, as you may end up with skewed priorities that don’t actually help your business move forward.
Learn more about using KPIs to measure what matters.
Implementing Customer Service AI with Intention
Striking the right balance between AI and human interaction is crucial for CX success. By integrating AI thoughtfully, businesses can enhance CX while preserving the personal touch that fosters trust and brand loyalty.
Augment, Don’t Replace, Your Team
AI can assist your CX team by optimizing call routing, providing consistent responses to frequently asked questions, and ensuring agents have the most up-to-date information about your products or services. However, it shouldn't handle every aspect of your CX — your human agents should still be the backbone of your CX operation.
Keep Humans in the Loop
The best customer experiences come from synergy between humans and AI. With customer service playing a critical role in loyalty and customer lifetime value, it's essential to listen to your customers' needs and desires, and keeping humans in the loop (HITL) can enhance AI and help customers reach people at crucial touchpoints.
Make It Easy to Reach a Person
Customers want to know if they’re talking to a human or AI, so it’s crucial to be upfront. If your frontline customer service is an AI assistant or bot, provide an easy option to speak with a human instead. This will allow users to choose the form of support they’re most comfortable with and ensure that they won’t get trapped in an infinite chatbot loop.
Use Chatbots Wisely
AI chatbots can be effective for simple, frequently asked questions. However, when your customers have complex questions or emotions are running high, direct them to human agents instead. This approach usually involves training chatbots to recognize when a customer request exceeds their capabilities based on specific keywords.
Utilize AI to Drive Personalization
Personalization (such as proactively sending emails, discounts, or surveys based on customer behavior) can go a long way in terms of meeting your customers' expectations. AI tools can help with this personalization by quickly analyzing vast amounts of customer data, allowing you to tailor support and communications more effectively.
Provide Training Around How to Use AI
Agents should understand how AI and automation can enhance their work, but they should also know how to leverage creativity, empathy, and nuanced judgment — areas where AI falls short. Training your team to use AI in a way that supports rather than hinders the human touch in customer service will lead to more meaningful and effective interactions.
Additional Strategies to Improve CX
Using AI thoughtfully plays a crucial role in delivering exceptional customer service. However, it represents just one facet of an effective CX strategy. Here are some additional tips to consider for a well-rounded approach to improving customer experience:
Provide Your Team with the Right Tools
Equipping your CX team with the latest tools — AI and otherwise — is crucial, but keeping up with the newest technology can feel overwhelming and expensive. If that's the case, consider outsourcing opportunities to bolster your in-house team. With the right outsourcing partner, this approach will allow you to access advanced tools and expertise without stretching your resources thin.
Ensure Agents Understand Your Brand
Your CX agents should embody your brand voice and image. A cohesive experience from storefront (online or in person) to customer support builds trust and confidence in your brand. When the CX feels disjointed or off-putting compared to other brand experiences, it erodes customer trust.
Staff Adequately for Peak Season
Customers are willing to wait for human interactions, but not indefinitely — and peak season is no time to let them down. Monitor your industry's seasonality to prepare for peak periods, ensuring you have enough staff to handle increased ticket volumes. Especially during heavy-traffic periods, set clear expectations for response times, such as “we'll respond within X hours” for emails or providing estimated wait times for phone calls. Offering a callback option can also improve the experience.
Emphasize Empathy
While AI excels in many areas, it often struggles with empathy and handling complex issues. This is where human empathy can significantly enhance the customer experience, so ensure your team is trained accordingly via workshops, role-playing exercises, coaching, and QA.
The Future of CX: AI and Human Touch
In the age of AI-driven customer service, what people are really tired of is bad CX — and it’s often perpetuated by hastily implemented AI taking the place of real people.
Integrating AI into customer service can streamline and enhance customer experiences, making interactions smoother, easier, and more accurate. However, this should not come at the expense of the human touch that customers value.
Companies must incorporate AI strategically, ensuring it complements rather than replaces human interaction. Partnering with experts who understand how to purposefully integrate AI into CX workflows can help you maintain the personal connection that customers appreciate while also leveraging technology to improve service efficiency.
At SupportNinja, we believe AI and humans are better together. Using a custom combination of live agents and AI, we deliver high-quality CX for your customers and drive better business results for you — it’s the best of both worlds.
