Study Reveals the State of CX in 2024

We are excited to share the findings of a recent study we conducted in partnership with Genesys, the leader in contact centre solutions and omnichannel customer experience. Earlier this month, we sent a survey to over 30,000 members of our Engage Customer community to find out how they deliver personalised and emphatic experiences, balance AI with human touch, and use technology to enhance the employee experience. 

ARE ORGANISATIONS OFFERING PERSONALISED AND EMPATHIC CX IN 2024? 

The modern customer demands a personalised and empathic experience, knowing that the rapid development of AI tools now makes this possible. To find out how many organisations are successfully meeting these demands, we asked our community to what extent they provide a personalised customer experience today. 

Over half of the survey respondents are offering a personalised customer experience, with 16% saying that they customise the customer journey at every step and 44% revealing that they offer some elements of personalisation. Taking this further, 20% shared that they are beginning to work towards a personalised approach, with the remaining 20% admitting that their CX is mostly generic. 

• Customised emails, messaging, and communications (68%)
• Serving customers in their channel of choice (52%)
• Proactive outbound campaigns through multiple channels (36%)
• Tailored promotions and offers (24%)
• Intent mining and sentiment analysis (20%)
• Predictive routing to the best person to assist (20%)
• Predictive engagement on web and mobile (12%)*

Going a step further, we also asked our survey participants whether they viewed delivering empathic experiences as a priority. The results were applaudable, with 64% saying it is a high priority in their organisation, 32% claiming it is of moderate importance, and only 4% revealing that it is not a priority in 2024. 

The most commonly faced barriers stopping organisations from delivering empathy were found to be legacy technology (52%), disconnected channels and data (36%), lack of budget (32%), insufficient insight (28%), lack of leadership buy-in (24%), conflicting KPIs (20%), and low staff morale (20%). 

*The total response percentage can exceed 100% when questions use checkboxes where respondents can select more than one answer. 

BALANCING TECHNOLOGY AND THE HUMAN TOUCH

In 2024, it is impossible to talk about delivering a seamless customer experience without discussing the role of technology – particularly, AI. When asked what percentage of customer interactions are or will be handled by AI or bots this year, the majority of respondents (76%) pointed to less than 50%.

Delving deeper into what our community thinks about their adoption of technology, we found that:

• 56% agree they need to make digital efficiencies since their customer experience still relies too much on human agents.
• 56% disagree with the statement that they have pursued digital efficiency to such an extent that they have lost the human touch.
• 48% are not using digital technology to make their agents more empathetic with customers.
• 52% disagree that their efforts to digitalise have allowed them to reduce their agent workforce.
• 44% agree that their technology is often a barrier to agents providing great service.

Looking at what technologies organisations are using to transform their operations today, we found that most are employing sentiment analysis (44%), chatbots (44%), Generative AI and auto-summarisation (28%), AI-based predictive routing (24%), predictive web engagement (16%) and Agent Assist and next best solutions (12%). 

These answers change drastically when survey participants look beyond the present and reveal their plans for the future. The types of AI our respondents want to use in coming years are Generative AI and auto-summarisation (76%), chatbots (72%), Agent Assist and next best solutions (64%), sentiment analysis (60%), predictive web engagement (32%), and AI-based predictive routing (32%). 

WHAT ABOUT THE EMPLOYEES?

Shifting our focus from the customers to the employees, we asked how organisations are adapting their employee experience strategy for the evolving CX workforce. 

According to our findings, most organisations have launched health and wellness programs (68%), flexible scheduling and work arrangements (64%), as well as career pathing, learning and development (64%). These were followed by coaching and mentoring (56%), upskilling around customer data and analytics (40%), multiskilling for channel flexibility (36%), and new KPIs around employee satisfaction (28%).

Looking at the workforce through the lens of AI, we also sought to find out how our community anticipates that new technologies will affect CX employee roles in the future. A whopping 88% reported that they see AI and automation reducing administrative or repetitive work and 76% said the tech could reduce stress by supporting agents with real-time information. 

Other positive ways in which the advancements in technology can affect employees were found to be: 

• Streamlining tasks (68%)
• Creating new opportunities to open up new career paths (64%)
• Increasing accessibility and diversity in the workplace (24%)

While there are certainly numerous benefits to the adoption of AI, there are multiple obstacles that are preventing organisations from integrating emerging CX technologies into their workforce strategies. The biggest challenge organisations face in 2024 is a limited budget (88%), followed by a lack of understanding of CX tech capabilities (56%). Respondents also reported having insufficient focus and resources (44%), resistance to change among employees (16%) and difficulty in finding or retaining skilled talent (16%).

CONCLUSION

The findings of our survey are encouraging, showing that a majority of organisations are prioritising personalisation and empathy, and are exploring the potential of AI to enhance the employee experience. Nevertheless, there is undoubtedly room for improvement. With the right strategies in place, organisations can create a seamless customer experience that combines the best of technology and human interaction.