With more than two billion people regularly buying items online across the world, giving customers access to the service and answers they need via your website or social media is key to giving them a great shopping experience. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots are software tools that can be used to answer customers’ basic questions or gather more information from them about their queries.

Between the physical realities of COVID-19 and rapidly evolving consumer expectations, the Financial Services market has been forced to rethink the customer experience. Many firms are rushing to get to 100-percent digital and personalise each interaction—the numbers make it easy to see why: With the transition to digital comes the need to deepen trust, especially as we continue to reduce human-to-human contact.

More than half of people have higher expectations for customer service now compared to a year ago, according to Microsoft’s State of Global Customer Service Report. But providing consistent, quality customer service is a challenge. You can’t simply automate or template your way to success.

The manufacturing industry has seen increasing challenges over the last few years, including facing increasing global competition, disruptions in international supply chains, changing customer preferences, remote work and workforce reskilling, as well as fundamental shifts in product and service offerings. Learn how Zendesk for Manufacturing helps support teams deliver exceptional service through any channel.

Companies that excel at customer experience have been shown to drive revenues 4-8% higher than their competitors. This increase can be attributed to a variety of benefits that arise from improving CX. First, a great customer experience leads to higher loyalty rates. Second, 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience, according to research from PWC. Additionally, people who enjoy their customer care typically tell others about it.

As almost every industry enters the third year of grappling with the pandemic’s effects, companies are constantly in search of methods to support growth and demand. But often, growing rapidly comes at a cost. As does standing still. Companies that are spread thin, understaffed or under-resourced are at risk of not remaining competitive or providing customer experiences that are lacklustre.

Admittedly, it’s been a minute since I’ve dusted off my crystal ball – closer to the length of a global pandemic. I made some predictions about the future of CX back in 2018, and certainly a lot has changed since then. During the past few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about this quote from futurist Roy Amara: “We tend to overestimate the effect of technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”