After an agent closes a case, she may enter case notes, but these notes can get lost in the ether and other agents may end up problem-solving similar issues from scratch, not knowing their colleague had already solved it. With nearly half of customers citing poor service experiences as the main reason they switched brands last year, the pressure is on for companies to find a better way forward.

Recently, there has been a lot of buzz around ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model developed by OpenAI. GPT and other generative AI models like Anthropic and Bard are built on pre-trained, large language models that help users create unique text, images, and other content from text-based prompts. Combined with Salesforce’s long standing expertise in AI, generative AI models will change the game for customer service, helping companies operate more efficiently, develop more empathetic responses to customer requests, and resolve cases faster.

Here is a glimpse into some of the ways generative AI could transform service.

What generative AI for service could look like

We’ve already seen the impact of AI in service. Nearly seven years ago, Salesforce launched Einstein for Service to give agents AI-powered capabilities. These have included recommended next-best actions and responses to customer inquiries, as well as automating case summarisation.

Generative AI is about to take service operations to the next level of efficiency and personalisation.

With generative AI infused into Einstein 1 Service, we’ll have the ability to automatically generate personalised responses for agents to quickly email or message to customers. We’ll be able to train the AI across all the case notes ever written by every agent at the company to automatically generate drafts of knowledge articles for human review, drastically cutting the time to create knowledge and making it easier to keep articles up to date. The enhanced relevance and quality of knowledge across the company will make self-service portals and chatbots more valuable, freeing human agents to spend more time deeply engaging on complex issues and building long-term customer relationships.

We will also see benefits in field service with generative AI for both frontline service teams and customers. Frontline workers will save time in the field with automated reports. AI-generated guides will help new employees and contractors to onboard quickly and brush up on their skills with ongoing learning resources. Customers will be able to troubleshoot common issues on their own with knowledge base articles.

The current wave of generative models are very powerful, but in a small number of cases, they can generate biased and even harmful outputs, as well as made-up facts (called “hallucinations”). This is why keeping a human reviewer in the loop, whether it’s a service agent or knowledge expert, will be important for the foreseeable future.

Given the extensive opportunities and challenges related to generative AI, Salesforce recently published the five guidelines for trusted generative AI development, and explained the potential for generative AI in enterprise tech and how to balance this transformative tech with the reality and risks.

Super-powered chatbots

Layering generative AI on top of Einstein capabilities will automate the creation of smarter, more personalised chatbot responses that can deeply understand, anticipate, and respond to customer issues. This will power better informed answers to nuanced customer queries, helping to increase first-time resolution rates. With generative AI tapping into customer resolution data to analyse conversation sentiment and patterns, service organisations will be able to drive continuous improvement, identify trends, and accelerate bot training and updates.

Auto-generate knowledge articles

Over time, we plan to use generative AI to draft knowledge articles not only based on case notes but also Slack conversations, messaging history, and data across Einstein 1 to accelerate agent case resolution and shift even more support cases to self-service experiences. This will alleviate pressure on call centres and agents.

Fast-track case swarming

We’re already seeing many service teams work more effectively with case swarming, where agents bring in experts from across their organisation to help solve complex cases or larger incidents. Now imagine how much more efficiently they could work if the lessons from previous case swarms could be shared and more broadly applied. We will use generative AI to identify similar past cases; identify who in the organisation has the best, most relevant skills to address the issue; and recommend resolutions and customer communications to fast-track and even automate many aspects of the case swarm.

We are entering an exciting new era of AI which will completely reshape the field of customer service. Guided by Salesforce’s long history of ethical product development, organisations will be able to embrace the power of generative AI to supercharge productivity, accelerate case resolution, and deepen customer relationships with greater personalisation and relevance.

How you can develop generative AI responsibly

Generative AI has the power to transform the way we live and work, but it’s not without risks. Here are five guidelines for building it inclusively and intentionally.

Read the blog

This post originally appeared on the US version of the Salesforce blog.

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The Salesforce State of the Connected Customer report shows 88% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its product or services.

To create those outstanding customer experiences, businesses must standardise customer service and evaluate customer feedback. 

But first, why measure customer experience?

The advantages of measuring customer experience

Measuring customer experience lets you:

• Define customer success standards and create consistent service quality
• Use benchmarking to assess and improve performance and productivity
• Uncover insights like competitive intelligence that can increase sales and enhance customer satisfaction
• Easily identify new ways of increasing business efficiency
• Use CX metrics to track return on investment (ROI) and set new goals

Measuring CX helps you learn what customers enjoy most about their experience and what needs to be improved.

How can you measure customer experience effectively?

Here are five ways to measure your CX to increase business efficiency and reach your sales goals.

Monitor customer experience metrics

Use customer-focused metrics like Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer Efforts Score (CES) and Average Resolution Time (ART). 

Look out for scores like Net Promoter Score (NPS), which let you know how likely a customer is to recommend your brand to someone they know. Similarly, Customer Effort Score (CES) can help you get a clear picture of how your customers feel about your business, based on their experience.

Too many numbers? An integrated platform, like the Salesforce Customer 360, can help you collate customer satisfaction data from different sources and create relevant custom metrics in seconds.

Collect direct responses from customers

A powerful way to measure your CX is to seek customer feedback with well-designed surveys, questionnaires, and polls. This will give you insight into their pain points and challenges.You can then use this feedback to identify inefficiencies across touchpoints and channels.  

Insights from nearly 17,000 consumers & business buyers

Discover more customer engagement trends

Read the report

Analyse customer churn

It’s a reality for any business that you will sometimes see customers leave. If you can find out why customers  have stopped using your services, it can help improve sales and service delivery processes. Customer data including average churn period, channels with maximum customer turnover, and purchase categories that see higher than average churn, can be revealing.  Using an integrated service CRM will ensure all your teams can access insights from the CX data.

Study trends in support ticket volume

Customer support is an important part of the customer experience. To increase effectiveness, you can leverage support tickets to identify recurring issues, highlight them to respective teams, and smoothen customer journeys .This helps increase business efficiency and drive customer delight. For instance, if data from Service Cloud shows long wait times are undermining customer experience, you can invest in automated responses for common questions. You can also introduce a self-service portal. These portals can offer FAQs and ‘how-to’ videos or tutorials in the customer’s preferred language.

Map social media sentiment

Tracking customer sentiment on social media is a powerful way to strengthen your CX measurement framework. You can measure sentiment by monitoring brand mentions on social networks and analysing the words used to talk about the company. Identifying positive or negative words, following relevant hashtags, or tracking keywords to monitor your online brand perception are some effective methods. By following conversations related to your brand as well as your competitors, you can stay ahead of the curve in understanding and forecasting your CX score.

Use Salesforce Service Cloud to create delightful and cost-effective customer experiences

With Service Cloud, businesses can resolve issues quickly across any channel and provide connected, personalised experiences. Service Cloud helps you access intelligent, actionable data that can enhance customer experiences, reduce contact centre costs, and boost agent productivity. 

The end result? Complete visibility into every customer interaction, standardised customer service and a reduction in overall cost.

Insights from 8,000 customer service agents & leaders

Learn about the trends dominating the service industry

Read the report

Join us at Salesforce World Tour Essentials Asia and learn how Salesforce can help accelerate growth, drive productivity & unite teams around a shared view of your customer. Register now

This post originally appeared on the India version of the Salesforce blog.  

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Kavin Manomaiudom is VP and Group Head of Tech BI at Thailand property developer, Sansiri. He believes creating a cohesive customer journey begins with digital transformation. 

“It’s about cultural, organisational, and operational change,” he shared at a Salesforce webinar. “We must combine an agile mindset with processes and tools to deliver value to customers.” 

Mr Manomaiudom outlines five ways Sansiri is creating a more cohesive customer journey.

1. Respond to changing customer behaviours

Sansiri turned to Salesforce three years ago to begin its digital transformation. Mr Manomaiudom says Salesforce technology helps the company identify changing customer behaviours. This has been vital to staying agile during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Before COVID-19 hit Thailand, our customers were visiting showrooms in person,” he says. “Now, we have a significant number of customers viewing our properties virtually. We needed to react fast by adjusting our marketing priorities.”

Mr Manomaiudom says that means using customer data “to know more, see more, and do more. Marketers must leverage customer data to analyse and understand changes in customer behaviour.”

2. Map customer journeys

New customer journeys must align with changing customer behaviours. Sansiri used Marketing Cloud and Journey Builder to map a range of new customer journeys. 

Mr Manomaiudom explains that it’s helpful to begin with the customer’s end destination. Then reverse engineer the customer journey. 

“We always begin with the end in mind,” he says. “Our customer journeys at Sansiri have evolved with COVID-19. To date, we have built a total of 25 journeys. This has decreased customer attrition. These journeys have also increased sales conversion across all customer touch points.” 

3. Personalise customer communications

Link customer communications to specific points on each customer journey. Doing so helps to personalise customer communications. Sansiri uses marketing automation to achieve this. 

“We send an automated email to remind customers about their viewing appointments,” Mr Manomaiudom says. “We also send relevant messages to convert our customers when they register online.”

This, says Mr Manomaiudom, has doubled conversions. “It helps us make sure we are achieving good return on investment (ROI) against our marketing spend.” 

4. Innovate digital payments

Payment is a critical point on every customer journey. Sansiri launched an online payment gateway during the pandemic. The company also now accepts cryptocurrency. 

Mr Manomaiudom says that digital payment innovations help to engage the younger generation. This stimulates revenue growth. 

“One of our big steps is to make cryptocurrency purchases in the real estate sector a reality,” he explains. “Especially amongst the young generations who are keen on using this technology.”

5. Stay agile and use data as your guide

Customer behaviour may continue to change over next 12 months. Mr Manomaiudom says marketers need to stay agile. They also need to track campaign ROI, and shift priorities when needed. 

“We started to shift our advertising budget to online, but surprisingly did not see as strong returns for some product segments and some zoning,” he explains. “As a result, we reallocated the budget back to offline marketing.

“Marketers must be agile to run successful campaigns, stay on budget, and hit KPIs. You must be adaptive at all times and do not stick with what might work.” 

Rather, use customer data to identify what will work. This is how marketers adapt to change and keep delivering cohesive customer journey.

Download Salesforce’s 7th edition State of Marketing report in English or Thai for more marketing trends and insights.

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Of course, how to deliver those differentiated experiences transformed as life moved online and economic uncertainty moved in. Our fourth State of the Connected Customer report, based on a global survey of over 15,000 consumers and business buyers, details how, and provides invaluable insights for business leaders navigating their paths back to growth.

The report details key elements of customer engagement in our radically changing times, including: 

Earning trust pays dividends

People want to do business with brands they can depend on. While that was true before 2020, it’s an undeniable fact in a world taken by pandemic, social justice movements, and environmental crises, among other issues. Eighty-two percent of customers agree a company’s trustworthiness matters more than it did a year ago.

Like most relationships, gaining trust doesn’t happen overnight. Businesses must earn trust through their actions over time, and it’s not getting any easier to accomplish. Sixty-one percent of customers say it’s difficult for a company to earn their trust – 7 percentage points higher than the previous year.

Evolving customer expectations present an opportunity for businesses to get closer to the audiences they serve through their actions. How are they showing up and what are they saying on issues beyond their particular industry? Ninety percent of customers say how a company acts during a crisis reveals its trustworthiness. And, this year, 56% of customers say they’ve reevaluated the societal role of companies. Customers want to see brands prove they’re interested in more than simply surviving through the pandemic and other crises. They want to see good corporate citizens making a difference in the communities they serve.

A company’s ability to build trust is inherently linked to its values. Customers expect brands to share their values and communicate honestly and openly. Brands that turn their back on doing the right thing risk taking a hit to their bottom line. Consumers will take their business elsewhere. The majority (62%) of customers say they have stopped buying from a company whose values didn’t align with theirs.

Empathetic, unified teams build differentiated engagement

Whether customers shop for themselves or on behalf of their companies, they expect interactions with brands to not only be convenient and digital first, but also infused with empathy and understanding. To no surprise, our survey results show customers want organisations to relate to their specific needs and expectations at every touch point. And they are making purchasing decisions based on personalised experiences.

There’s never been a more critical moment for companies to know their audience and relate to what they’re experiencing. Brands that get this – and actually invest in appreciating their customers’ varied perspectives – can gain a competitive advantage by delivering connected and contextualised engagement. While 66% of customers expect companies to understand their personal needs and expectations, only 34% say they usually do so. Moreover, more than half (52%) of customers expect offers to always be personalised.

So, how can companies get it right? One important way is for brands to ensure everyone under their roof has real-time information. When customers engage with a company, they shouldn’t have to worry about reaching the right person. Our research shows 76% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments. However, 54% say it generally feels like sales, service, and marketing don’t share information.

“Disconnected experiences used to inconvenience customers,” noted Tiffani Bova, Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce. “They still do, but they cause so much more damage in our current environment because they signal insensitivity.”

Prior to 2020, customers were well on their way to becoming more digitally dependent in their interactions with brands. From Amazon to Hulu, more and more customers grew accustomed to having their wishes granted at the push of a button. In a socially distanced environment, those same customers – and many new converts – have come to view digital engagement as not only a convenience, but a necessity. Brands, in turn, have had to accelerate their digital transformations.

In just one year, online customer interactions grew from 42% (2019) to 60% (2020). While the sharp increase is, in part, a reflection of our overnight transition to a socially distanced society, the upward trend shouldn’t come as a surprise. Most brands were already in the midst of transforming their digital capabilities to cater to customers. COVID-19 just gave those plans a push. Customers agree, with 88% saying they expect companies to accelerate their digital initiatives because of the pandemic. Furthermore, 68% of customers agree that COVID-19 has elevated their expectations of brands’ digital capabilities.

In 2020, people are living and working much of their lives online. In fact, the vast majority (68%) of consumers say they’re online more often than not. As a result, they’re looking for companies to provide more digital options. Fifty-four percent would like companies to introduce new products or services in response to the pandemic. 

“To me, this really drives home the point that, yes, digital transformation is essential, but we need to think about it as part of something bigger,” observed Brian Solis, Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce. “The companies that use this moment to understand not just how to digitise their existing businesses, but how technology can drive new, innovative experiences that set them apart will prove more resilient as we move into the next normal.”

More insights to explore

The findings uncovered by our research reveal a customer base that craves personalised, digital-first experiences from brands they can trust. As our world continues to adapt and shift day by day, business leaders have an opportunity to use this knowledge to revamp how they engage their customers. In addition to the broad trends covered above, this research offers insights across demographic subsets and geographic boundaries. To further dig into this data, check out our interactive Tableau dashboards.

Want to learn more?

Download the ‘State of the Connected Customer Report’ and get insights from 15,000+ global consumers and business buyers on a new era of customer engagement.

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This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the Salesforce blog.

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