What is a machine customer and how will it impact customerservice organizations? GartnerCSS expert Christopher Sladdin shared his thoughts with martechismktg here: CustServ IT
Many customer service organizations believe “machine customers” are but a distant trend, yet they’re already here and impacting our daily lives. Maybe you’ve recently asked Siri, Alexa or some other smart product to call customer service or wait on hold for you. The number of tasks assistants can perform is increasing all the time, as more industries see the potential to deliver low-effort CX in this way.
Advances in conversational AI and Internet of Things will enable these products and virtual personal assistants to become machine customers — requesting and performing service on behalf of their owners for lower customer effort. Machine customers process large quantities of data much faster and more consistently than human equivalents, executing transactions when required, especially for repeatable tasks.
But while automation and reduced human involvement can lower operating costs and offer lower-effort experiences for customers, it also risks a less personal customer relationship, especially if automation is designed more for operational benefit than for better customer experience.