Automated Customer Communication: A Look Ahead at 2022

Digital communication technologies have tremendously evolved from human interaction to automated communication during the past decade, causing a shift in consumer behaviors and communication preferences.

In the eyes of the digital consumer, phone calls are a thing of the past, and digital communication is the future. Phone customer support is expected to be only about 12% of service interactions by 2022, while digital service is expected to increase by 40%.

Taking this data into consideration, more businesses understand why they need to improve ways of communication with their customers. Businesses need automated customer communication.

What is Automated Customer Communication?

Automated Customer Communication uses artificial intelligence to remove most human boundaries from traditional communication channels, enhancing customer experience and driving business growth.

AI automates various customer service processes at scale while reducing the resources and costs needed to provide high-quality customer service.

How Automated Customer Communication Drives Business Growth

Businesses of all sizes can use AI-powered solutions to enhance their customer communication capabilities, provide uniformity, reduce costs, increase customer loyalty, achieve greater customer retention levels and operational efficiency, all will lead to business growth.

Service companies often use chatbots to automate their customer service in multiple channels. In fact, between 2018 and 2020, the adoption of chatbots increased by 67%.

What are chatbots?

Chatbots are AI-powered conversational assistants created to communicate with customers without human intervention. Powered by machine learning capabilities, chatbots learn to understand human behavior, communicate more naturally and constantly improve the customer experience. Companies using chatbots can optimize their entire customer service process by automatically solving common customer inquires.

: Chatbot © Nicoelnino Dreamstime.com

Automated Customer Communication: Facts You Should Know For 2022 and beyond

By 2022:

Chatbots are expected to handle 75-90% of queries.
Chatbots will be able to reach a 90% success rate in customer interactions.
Chatbots will save up to $0.70 per interaction.
Chatbots could help cut down business costs by more than $8 billion per year.
85% of all customer service interactions will take place without the involvement of human agents.
By 2023, Over 70% of chatbot conversations will be with retail chatbots.
Nearly half of businesses (45.9%) will place the customer experience at top priority for the next five years.

Automated Customer Communication: A Look Ahead

Automating your organization can determine your business success years ahead. As 2021 is coming to an end, focus on these 5 important factors in 2022: customer experience, omnichannel communication, conversational chatbots, self-service tools, and artificial intelligence.

Customer Experience

Customer experience will play a major role in 2022. A HubSpot research shows that 93% of customers love purchasing from companies providing excellent customer service. Furthermore, 86% of customers are ready to pay 13%-18% more for a better customer experience. According to Superoffice research, 45.9% of businesses will place CX at top priority for the next five years, followed by products (33.6%), and pricing (20.5%). Investing in great CX will increase customer loyalty and satisfaction while reducing churn and cutting down costs needed for customer retention. Take that into consideration.

Omnichannel Communication

Consumers often use multiple communication channels, therefore expect customer service to be the same. In fact, a study reveals that 90% of consumers want omnichannel services. In 2022, businesses will have to level up their omnichannel communication experience to keep track of their customers and competitors. Brands can do so by using omnichannel solutions, such as Commbox, a smart customer communication platform that enables businesses to automate their customer communication across all digital channels using AI and service chatbots.

According to Gartner, businesses must provide frictionless omnichannel experiences. Service companies need to go beyond just purchases and enable a truly seamless experience for selling, fulfilling, and delivering.

To do this, Gartner states that marketing leaders must focus on the following areas:

Feature Fulfillment Options: Highlight customers’ fulfillment options clearly within the purchase journey to increase overall sales. For example, allow customers to choose between in-store pickup and drive-up curbside pickup for goods, with clear instructions linked from product detail pages.
Incentivize Omnichannel Sales: Test thresholds for incentivizing omnichannel sales, such as offering a gift card to encourage customers to buy online and pick up in-store or curbside. This also has the added benefit of alleviating shipping pressures when completing a purchase.
Ensure Consistent Messaging: Work with customer service leaders to ensure that messaging is consistent for customers when switching among channels, including social networks, chatbots, and contact centers.
Integrate Digital Inventory: Partner with supply chain leaders to push for better integration of inventory across digital touchpoints to show available inventory per store location. This informs buying decisions from any channel.
Prioritize Partnerships: Select partnerships that extend frictionless omnichannel shopping, including online marketplaces, especially where first-party options are limited.

Conversational Chatbots

Customers love using chatbots. In fact, 69% of consumers prefer chatbots for receiving instant responses, and they’re most likely to use chatbots for service-related inquiries. By 2022, chatbots will be able to reach a 90% success rate in customer interactions.

Conversational chatbots will also majorly impact next year, as more customers will look for a personalized CX. Conversational bots can understand and learn human context and emotions, then respond in a friendly and personal way to any customer.

According to Juniper research, Chatbots could help cut down business costs by more than $8 billion per year by 2022. The research, which focused on the financial and healthcare industries, predicts that between three-quarters and 90 percent of queries will be dealt with by chatbots within the next five years, resulting in cost savings of up to $0.70 per interaction.

Advanced Self-Service Tools

Consumers highly appreciate self-service channels and tools such as online portals, chats, tutorials, knowledge base and FAQs. 91% of customers would rather use self-service options to find solutions if they are available. A similar rate (90%) of customers expect brands and organizations to offer an online portal for self-service.

Covid-19 also impacted self-service, with a 65% increase in use by customers.

Self-service support channels are estimated to grow by 79% during 2021 and will have a major impact on business success in 2022, so make sure you have the best omnichannel self-service solutions.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools streamline workflows in customer service centers by automating repetitive tasks like answering simple questions (FAQ), rerouting calls, sending forms, conducting customer satisfaction surveys and more. AI also processes large amounts of data and produces business insights to improve CX and drive business growth.

More than 50% of companies already invested in the adoption of virtual customer assisting technologies and face a 70% decrease in calls or email inquiries.

Service companies are expected to expand their adoption of AI solutions. By 2022, 85% of all customer service interactions will take place without the involvement of human agents.

In Conclusion

Automated customer communication will play a significant role in 2022, as more companies will need smart AI-powered customer communication solutions. Considering the fact that 90% of customers want an omnichannel experience, businesses must implement an omnichannel AI-powered platform to drive business growth and cut down operational expenses.

Use omnichannel solutions to scale up your customer service, generate more sales, achieve higher customer satisfaction, and lower churn rates over time, while you provide a seamless omnichannel customer experience 24/7.