To Transform Customer Service, Start with Employee Experiences

There is an old saying that professes “you cannot pour from an empty cup.”

On a personal level, this axiom highlights the difficulty of helping others when your own capacity for wellness is low. On an organizational level, this saying draws attention to the importance of improving the employee experience, so staff are motivated and empowered to provide customers with the highest quality of care. In fact, organizations that prioritize their employee experiences are likely to see a positive correlation with their overall customer satisfaction.

Many organizations today, however, are struggling to keep up with their employees’ expectations, resulting in people leaving for more fulfilling careers and putting a strain on customer service. Employee experience is therefore a critical topic, as satisfied employees are essential for creating strong customer relationships and driving business growth.

So what exactly do today’s employees want from their employers? According to a recent Accenture survey (via Forbes), 83% of employee respondents said they prefer working in the hybrid work model. While this model provides employees with greater geographic flexibility, it also increases organizations’ reliance on technology. Indeed, even as many employers are asking or requiring employees to return to physical office locations, many workers are doing so for only a few days a week, opting to divide their time between their office and home. For this reason, organizations must ensure their technology stacks enhance, not detract from, employees’ ability to succeed at work, wherever they are located.

Unfortunately, creating seamless internal digital experiences is an area where several employers currently fall short. As a Qualtrics report highlights, employees are largely underwhelmed with their employers’ technology resources, as they now want “consumer grade experiences.” The risk of not addressing this employee demand is quite severe, as nearly half of the employee respondents in a recent Adobe survey (via NICE) said they would leave their current employer if they were “unhappy or frustrated with workplace tech.” Employees today also want their work to matter. As PwC found in a recent survey, when compared to those who said they were unlikely to leave their current job, many of those who stated they would likely look elsewhere said their job was unfulfilling.

These technical and emotional obstacles make it difficult for employees to focus on their work and provide customers with superior service. Therefore, in order to create extraordinary customer experiences, employers must first build a work environment that supports rewarding, high-value work – and digital agents and Conversational AI can make this possible.

To Improve CX, Empower Employees with AI

There are two key areas where Conversational AI can be deployed internally to improve the employee experience. The first involves utilizing a Conversational AI agent such as Amelia as an internal digital IT service desk agent. As hybrid work becomes the norm, and more technology is added to employees’ toolbelts, Amelia can help enable frictionless digital experiences by providing real-time tech support.

If an employee working at home gets locked out of their computer, is unable to access their email or needs to reset their password for an internal tool, they can simply speak to Amelia over voice or chat for immediate assistance. In addition to creating a stress-free digital experience for employees, deploying Amelia for IT service desk support ensures staff members spend less time troubleshooting technical issues and more time connecting with customers.

Conversational AI agents can also be deployed to offload time-consuming, easily automated job tasks from employees. This is a vital use case because when staff members feel weighed down by repetitive work, it negatively impacts their ability to deliver positive customer service. As this article from KPMG states, “customers subconsciously assess the emotional state of employees and it impacts their view of the experience.”

By hiring Conversational AI agents to answer repetitive calls in a contact center, initiate follow-up emails with potential sales leads, or provide support as real-time whisper agents, human employees will have more time to focus on tasks that make them feel excited, satisfied and fulfilled, translating into more positive customer experiences.

To increase customer satisfaction, organizations must adopt a holistic approach that begins with their internal customers. It's time for organizations to fill their employees' cups with the tools and technology, including Conversational AI, that will help them thrive at work and deliver extraordinary customer care.