Organisations have been urged to prioritise human interaction and make their customer service channels easier to access, as artificial intelligence continues to reshape the way businesses engage with customers.
The call was made by Olufunmilola ‘Funmie’ Aluko, a customer experience leader and Chief Brand and Marketing Officer and Head of Customer Experience at Union Bank of Nigeria, in a Customer Service Week commentary.
Aluko said the frontline of an organisation extends beyond contact centres to include receptionists, switchboard operators, security personnel, nurses, public-sector help desks and other employees who interact directly with customers.
She argued that the first step towards going the extra mile is ensuring that customers can reach a human being when they need one, adding that frontline staff should be equipped with the knowledge, authority and support required to resolve complaints.
Citing industry research, Aluko said customer expectations are increasingly shaped by experiences across different sectors, while concerns remain about the difficulty of reaching human agents as organisations adopt more artificial intelligence-powered customer service systems.
She said technology should be used to handle routine enquiries and free trained employees to focus on complex, sensitive or urgent customer issues, rather than becoming a barrier between customers and organisations.
Aluko also identified customer complaints, staff training and the measurement of customer effort and resolution as key areas organisations should strengthen.
She noted that resolving an individual complaint is important, but organisations should also use feedback from frontline employees to identify and address the root causes of recurring problems.
According to her, this is particularly important in Africa, where customers interact with organisations through multiple channels, including USSD, WhatsApp, social media, telephone lines and physical offices.
Aluko also highlighted the importance of human contact in combating fraud, saying customers need reliable channels through which they can verify information and distinguish genuine communication from fraudulent attempts.
She urged business leaders to assess their customer service operations from the customer's perspective by testing their own phone lines, reading complaints directly and giving frontline staff greater authority to resolve issues.
Aluko said artificial intelligence would continue to improve customer service, but argued that empathy, accountability and ownership would remain important elements of the customer experience.