#CXforum: Can Enterprises Automate Better #CX?

Automation and the use of software robots can dramatically transform back-office enterprise operations, but there is also a strong role in support of customer-facing CX initiatives as well.

When the topic of automation comes up, it is commonly used in support of back-office operations, primarily involving gains in efficiency, capacity, and enterprise security (or trust). But there’s another role that automation can play in helping deliver in customer-facing initiatives, helping to improve both personalization, trust, and customer experience for enterprise brands.

In this, the fifth session of the #CXforum, we sat down with Teakauu (TK) Piho of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. TK is the Global Director and Global Offering Lead of CX Transformation, Analytics, and Digital Content of the HPE brand.  During the course of our discussion, TK and I discussed a number of aspects of automation, including the opportunities to automate – and improve the overall reliability and trust of – systems that directly influence, promote, or measure Customer Experience.

Following are some of the key themes of our conversation:

Automation isn’t new, but it hasn’t been transformative: Technologies that have played a role in customer experience have been around for decades – IVR, ACD, EDI, OCR, etc. – but it’s only recently that automation and autonomics have begun to have a transformative role.

Data isn’t new, but it hasn’t been leveraged: Data has become a mainstay of most business strategies, but primarily as a mechanism to understand business efficiencies. Moving forward, the value of data is increasingly in understanding the customer’s journey, and personalizing both brand engagements and customer experiences – something that will stress even the most innovative enterprises, particularly when we move into #IoT and begin to capture both “sensor” (activity) data and “engagement” (interaction) data.

Omnichannel customer service is begging for automation: The very nature of omnichannel engagement is demonstrating a clear need for intelligent automation, moving beyond the traditional approach of gaining efficiency through automation in favor of approaches that leverage automation to provide greater context and awareness across all channels in support of greater customer personalization and enhanced customer experience.

The challenge is no longer can we automate data collection, it’s now how do we automate data analysis and context-aware decisions to offer better CX to the consumer.

The biggest gains for automation today: There can be great value in leveraging software robots to automate reports automation, invoice processing, master data updates – this is were we find the biggest efficiency gains which can be leveraged to improve customer experience through reliability, trust, and more efficiently meeting customer expectations.   

The role of text analytics, NLP, and cognitive: While still emerging, there is great potential to leverage automation to improve the ability to understand and act on semantic or contextual data derived through text analytics, NLP and [emerging] cognitive systems.

Automation as an enabler of trust: Automation continues to be a leading back-office mechanism for removing human-induced risk (or errors) and can play a significant role in enabling greater levels of trust, addressing both compliance and consumer expectations.

The risks of automation: The biggest risk with implementing automation in the CX area comes from misunderstandings over what constitutes “automation” and what value or ROI can be expected. Differences between the CMO’s office and the CFO’s office (or even the CIO’s office) can often derail or severely limit the impact and value of CX-based automation implementations.