The goal of customer service and customer experience is not changed with AI, right? It's to create those amazing experiences, provide people information. It's just that AI just makes that so much easier and better for you, for your customers, for everyone's. Hello and welcome to Conversations with Zendesk. I'm your host, Nicole Saunders. We kicked off this season with a two-part series digging into the research behind Zendesk's annual report, CX Trend. This year is our biggest and most important today with 10 distinct trends to help you understand and respond to the many seismic shifts taking place in the world of customer experience. Today, we're concluding our discussion with Joey Edwards-Liber, Zendesk's senior manager of customer insights. Joey leads the research that underpins this report, encompassing data and perspectives from thousands of global CX leaders and customers. His deep knowledge of our findings and what they mean for CX leaders made for a fascinating discussion. If you haven't already listened to part one of the series, I highly recommend that you go back and do so. Before we dive in, a reminder that our biggest customer event of the year, Relate, is coming up April 16 through 18 in Las Vegas. Registration is open now, but space is limited. So if you're enjoying the kinds of conversations we're having on this podcast, you'd like to connect with other CX leaders you want to hear from Zendesk experts, please visit zendeskrelate.com to secure your spot today. It's going to be a great time. I'll be there. I hope to see you there. For more details about Relate, Zendesk AI, and the latest insights on customer experience, I encourage you to follow Zendesk on LinkedIn. We share lots of great content over there, and it's a great opportunity to connect with us. All right, onto our fantastic conversation about Zendesk's 2024 CX Trends report with Joey Edwards-Liber. Joey Edwards-Liber, welcome back to Conversations with Zendesk. We had so much to talk about in our last episode. We invited you back to continue the conversation. Thanks. Excited to be here. Yeah. Happy to unpack the trend even further. Well, it's a big report. As you said, we've got 10 trends this year instead of our usual five. So there's just a whole bunch of different things. So in our previous episode, we talked a lot about how AI is bringing us into an era of what we're calling intelligence CX, some of the aspirations, as well as anxieties that CX leaders are having around AI, and the impact that it may have on chatbots and on human agents. Today, I'd like to get more into some of the technical and the back end of some of the AI, particularly in terms of data management and how to build trust with people using AI. Because obviously, we know there's a lot of concern around how companies are using personal data. We know that customers don't mind them collecting the data if it's being used effectively. We talked a little bit last time about how customers are looking for those personalized experiences that are really fueled by big data, all of the information that companies have. But they also played a really great value on data security and transparency. In this year's report, you discovered that businesses recognize that there's a need for them to modify user experiences very quickly. But leveraging data in real time remains a pretty significant challenge for them. So how close are we to things like instant predictive experience? So I actually think we're here now. I mean, the capabilities exist today. Now, that doesn't mean that every company has deployed instant predictive experiences or even has their data structured in a way where they can. So there's a different between the technology being in a place and the technology existing. Businesses can deploy this if that's what their focus actually is. But like you said, a number of companies are still struggling with getting their data infrastructure in a place where it's organized in a way that it can be accessed throughout the customer journey. And in a way where AI can actually leverage it. Now, we do see that certain industries are further along in this. Retail and e-commerce companies are the ones who are already leaning into this because they see a direct correlation in being able to deliver instant experiences and the ability to drive revenue and providing instant experiences may sound lofty at times. But there are definitely different levels to it. For example, if a customer buys something and they are about to check out and you show them things other customers have purchased with this, technically that's instant personalization, right? On the more advanced end, take Spotify. Last year, they released the Spotify AI-powered DJ that leverages vast amounts of data, what you like listening to, how fast you're skipping through songs at the moment, what others like you are listening to to provide a listening experience that can adapt and change in the moment. And if you have Spotify and you haven't checked it out, you should, it's totally a fun kind of wild experience. To your point about leveraging data in real time, that does remain a significant challenge to a lot of companies. And this is something that has played companies for years. I remember talking about that plaguing companies in 2010, but I will say again, what's different about this now is that because providing AI-powered experiences is becoming so important both for consumers and to drive revenue for your business, companies really need to prioritize solving this within their organization. And it's not a one-time conversation. It's something that will constantly evolve, but we know AI is a data hog and will need access to as much data across your organization as it can get. I love your Spotify example. I've used that DJ before and it's pretty spot on. I will say that my dream is that it starts tracking me while I'm working out with my Apple Watch and starts to generate playlists that are like beats per minute for me to run at a certain pace or something like that. So, and you know, talk about sharing personal data, right? That's taking something from my health app and combining it with music. And yet I totally want it. I just want them to do it safely. Exactly. Speaking of data, one of the things that CX leaders told us in this report is that they realize that data privacy is really becoming their responsibility. Historically, data privacy may be sat with security or legal teams or other things sort of deeper in the business. And now it's hitting these CX leaders. How difficult of a transition do you think that this is going to be for those CX leaders and what steps can they take to really help them tackle this challenge head on? Yeah, I thought this was a great insight from the research this year. You know, we've talked to CX leaders in past years and we've always heard from them that data privacy and security is important to them. But like you said, they feel the responsibility fell more onto IT or legal shoulders. But that's changed a lot this past year. 77% of CX leaders see themselves as responsible for making sure customer data is safe. And they're really starting to see themselves as the new drivers of data privacy. And this can really be boiled down to happening because AI and personalization are taking on a greater role in the customer experience. I think it will definitely be a transition for CX leaders and be challenging at times. But I do believe that CX leaders are up to meeting this challenge. This might be something new for them, but CX leaders have gone through so much change over the past five years alone, especially with the pandemic, that they're adaptable and can master change really well. So this is just another thing for them. And this doesn't mean that CX leaders shouldn't be partnering with IT or other departments moving forward. Not at all. It actually means the opposite. They need to be partnering more with IT and legal. CX leaders need to make sure they have a major seat at the table during these conversations and during these discussions around data and privacy. CX leaders are the closest ones to the customers. They're the ones that need to advocate and push for privacy, but data privacy that allows them to leverage AI that allows them to better personalize experiences. Because remember CX leaders have that different lens. And at the end of the day, CX leaders are the ones responsible for making sure they are creating best experiences for their customer. Aside from partnering with other departments like IT and legal, there are some other steps they can take to tackle this change effectively. Many will need to upgrade or acquire new skills around data management and privacy regulations. And a lot of times this also means seeking guidance from external experts to bolster their knowledge base because the regulations change so quickly and we're going to see them change even more quickly this year because of all the AI regulation conversations that are happening. So they need to be able to understand and speak to them, but should be partnering with experts that really keep a pulse on those changes too. It's such a great point about regulations. They are changing really rapidly. I think we're all glad to see those kinds of things coming about those discussions being had, but it sounds like no shortage of change for CX leaders. Thank goodness they've got, as you pointed out, experience from last several years and tend to be really cross-functional by nature. That being said, data security does remain a serious problem for a lot of companies. That seems like we read about data breaches every week. I hadn't experienced recently where my dentist had a ransomware attack or something their computers were down for the next in a period of time. And you know, I was like, gosh, these things, they happen, right? It's always that trying to stay one step ahead of the hackers. It sounds like CX leaders understand their responsibility here. What are the key things that need to be taken into account or what do they need to do to help protect customer data? Yeah. And to your point, they definitely understand the responsibility here. And I would say that it's not just CX leaders responsibility to protect customer data, right? It's everyone within their organization to protect customer data. I think more so now than ever. And this isn't a new concept. Like protecting customer data has always been paramount. But what's new is the sophistication and sheer amount of digital fraud happening in the market. I mean, if you look at how many deepbakes we've seen in the past six months alone, and I suspect that this year will even be bigger for deepbakes, given everything happening in the geopolitical and political
political realm. We heard that 73% of CX leaders say the increasing sophistication of fraud techniques is a significant challenge for their customer service org. But let's take a quick step back, you're Nicole. The reason why this trend made it into a report this year is because while all of the sophistication digital fraud is happening, consumers still expect a seamless secured journey. The reason I point this out is yes, while CX leaders need to ensure their safeguarding customer data and offering a secured journey, it cannot come at the expense of ease. Consumers do not want security tacked onto their experience. They don't want to be taken out of the moment of what they're doing or the interaction that they're having to go verify themselves somewhere else or remember a password or remember a secret word that they set up seven years ago. 54% of consumers believe it's currently too difficult to verify their identity when interacting with the company. So the challenge becomes slightly different and that's how do CX leaders seamlessly incorporate security throughout the customer journey. And I think this will vary a bit for each industry, but you are seeing certain industries lean into this more than others. For example, we're seeing a lot of financial services companies leveraging biometrics to verify their customers and biometrics may sound like a scary advanced thing, but it can simply mean things like using your customer's voice to verify who they say they are. I'm sure you've heard the same, but over the past year or so, I've heard my bank say, "Hey, do I have your permission to record your voice during this interaction to use it to verify yourself?" And I mean, that's a really easy way to verify your customers. Another great example is if you go into Whole Foods, many of them now have Amazon One where customers can use their palm to verify who they are just by literally holding up their palm over a little machine. So a lot of things are happening in this space and it's just something I think CX leaders really need to be thinking about because if it's too hard to verify your identity, consumers will often abandon a purchase and maybe your entire brand altogether. There's nothing worse than being in the middle of trying to do something and getting a bunch of capishes thrown at you or sometimes when I'm trying to like work on my budget and I need to be logged into my bank and I need to be logged into my Amazon account and one of them requires two factor and the other one wants to have me do a bunch of puzzles and it can feel like a lot of hurdles and yet those things are really important. Another thing that I thought that was really interesting that report or called out was the importance of transparency on how a company is using and securing customer data. Can you share a little bit with me about the learnings around that? I think consumers are always really interesting. They always say, "I want companies to be super transparent about everything that they're doing with their customer data." And they definitely do, but it's a nuanced relationship. They want to trust that their data is safe with the company and if they need to, you can figure out how that customer data is being leveraged, not just within your organization, but also specifically by AI. Like what exactly about my personal data is AI using in my interactions and to train their models. So you need to provide an outlet for customers to be able to understand those things if needed, but you don't want to over bombard them with this information. Customers do not want you to do a monthly newsletter of how we're securing your data or reminding them during every interaction that you're securing their data. It needs to be accessible, but it can't be overwhelming to them. And I think transparency right now is becoming keeper AI because if AI makes a recommendation or a decision, consumers want to be able to say, "Why did you make that recommendation for me?" And I think that why will be key? So if you have a more advanced chatbot that leverages generative AI or something, if a consumer says, "Hey, why did you recommend those pairs of shoes to me?" It needs to provide a reason that consumers believe and a reason that's just true. And I imagine one that they're comfortable with and would expect. Exactly. Right. It's one thing if an AI says, "Oh, well, we looked at your last three purchases and saw that other people that made those purchases also made this one." It's another thing if it's like, "Oh, we scraped your Instagram account and saw this thing in a picture and recommended it to you, totally different level of expectation there." Exactly. But yeah, I can see the value of it, and at the same time, it's kind of like the old, "Nobody reads the terms of service issue. No one's going to read a six-page document that talks about data security, but people might hover a mouse or click on a little idea bubble that says, "Want to learn more about how we figured this out?" You know, click here. That kind of a thing. That's perfect. And I think it's such a great way to think about it because you know, with a lot of GDPR regulations and whatnot, you saw like, you have to accept cookies on all this website. And now there's so many plugins that automatically just accept cookies for you, because everyone just presses not everyone, but most people just press accept cookies anyway. So, again, it's about doing it in a way that actually is meaningful to the customers, not just checking a box because it's what's required from a regulation standpoint. So, this has me thinking a little bit about some of those retail experiences. And one of the other things that the report covered was immersive experiences. So, live streaming other ways to shop in that sort of thing, and how can CX leaders set their teams up to provide those kinds of immersive experiences? Yeah, immersive experiences is a very big space. And I want to call out that when we hear the term immersive experiences or immersive technologies, our mind might quickly go to things like mixed reality or augmented reality. And those are definitely on the immersive technology spectrum, but they're not the only things on it. There are a ton of other immersive technologies that exist today that are not as far out as mixed reality that can really be used to improve the online experience for customers. For instance, like you said, there's live streaming, which brings a human touch to online shopping. It allows brands to engage with customers in real time, answer their questions, showcase a product in the dynamic interactive environment, and it's a fantastic way for businesses to build trust and community around their brand. And live streaming is huge in Asia and has been huge in Asia for a while, and we're really starting to see it more and more in the US and other regions, particularly on platforms like TikTok. There's also conversational commerce, which allows for customers to not only ask agents or representatives anything within a chat conversation, but also to complete actual transactions or other types of things that may have typically happened on other web pages directly in a chat. So a customer can ask you about a product, ask you for a recommendation, become more comfortable in their purchase. The agent can show them products, tell them more about their products, and then actually help them check out and purchase all directly within that chat interaction. Conversational commerce is becoming huge in Latin America, and we're starting to see it become more and more popular in other regions, particularly the US as well. There are a few things that CX leaders can do to set up their departments for success in leveraging these more immersive technologies. The first is just to identify which immersive technologies make sense for your organization. Not every company needs live streaming, but if you sell something online, conversational commerce probably makes sense, right? And back to the whole data privacy conversation we just had, businesses will need to update or modify their data privacy policies to protect customer data in these more immersive interactions. And companies will likely need to retrain or re-skill some of their customer service teams to handle more immersive interactions. Interacting via live streaming is very different than interacting over the phone and requires a completely different skill set. But again, I think these technologies are so important and really do unlock so much opportunity for businesses and can't be ignored today. So I'm smiling a little bit because one of the things that makes me think of when you were talking about the different skill set that agents have to have, I studied theater for a while in college. I ended up getting a degree in cultural studies, but I remember when I was a junior major, people were always, you know, the joke at the time, I was like, that's a great degree to go serve fries with, right? It was that no one was going to get a job. But oh, those kinds of skills being able to present yourself effectively in speaking or on video or something may become a more valued skill set. And going back to some comments that we had in the first episode, it's really interesting how AI and immersive experiences are creating both a more automated customer service model and the need for greater human connection and skill sets. In that area. Yeah. So with all of the talk about immersive experiences and so on, there's one customer support talent we haven't talked about yet that remains critically important. And that is voice, right? The good old telephone in a digital first era, how will voice channels evolve and what is that going to mean both for agents and for customers? Even though digital first is the norm and consumers have become more comfortable and dare I say even embracing it at some time, voice still remains a critical channel, especially in the B2C space. There will always be those times where you just need to talk to someone. This could be because of it's a complex issue that's just too hard to handle online. It could be an emotionally charged issue, maybe an important package was lost or it's just an issue that you've had for a while and you just need to escalate it to someone. But what all this means for voicing the future is that voice is being more reserved for these more escalated or emotionally charged issues. But because digital first is the norm, this does mean companies need to do a few things. First, in this may sound super obvious, but it's important when to call out your digital channels and your self-service channels really need to be up to snuff. If you want consumers to reach out glass via voice, they need to have confidence that your digital channels, that your AI tools,
that your self-service channels are enough to answer most of their questions. Second, voice will need to become more seamlessly integrated with digital channels. And what I mean by that is that customers will need to be able to easily transition from digital to voice interactions without there being any loss of context or having to start the process over. For instance, a customer might start a service inquiry through chat and then switch to a phone call if needed. All of that information from the chat should be readily available to the agent on that call. And this also means being able to access someone on the phone easily. No more going through the spiral of pain where you're just transferred from one AI system to another AI system and never actually speak to a human being. I've had that happen before. You know, maybe I've used some words. I'm not happy about it. But it's a very frustrating process. And because voice will be reserved for these more escalated, emotionally charged issues, that means agents on the phone will need to be able to handle a wider range of issue and not just handle them, but have the autonomy to fix those issues and actually help a customer. You don't have to wait for a supervisor or wait for another department. If a customer has gotten you on the phone, that person they're speaking with should be able to help them then and there. So this will require agents to have a bit more training on being able to handle a wider breadth of issues and again, giving them the flexibility to make decisions and solve problems on their own. It sounds like that's a great spot for the AI tools to really help them too, right? If you are trying to support a broader range of issues, if you're trying to have greater context around a customer, having a bot that's helping you out from the agent side seems massively important and really, really helpful. I think in fact, we heard that 42% of CX leaders believe that Gen of AI interactions will heavily influence phone and CX overall over the next two years. So definitely, AI cannot be forgotten about and voice. It's a theme that we have touched on a lot throughout this podcast. Are the ways that AI is going to rapidly change the role of CX leaders and the role of agents. This conversation makes me feel really hopeful for people that it's going to make their jobs really much more interesting, much more meaningful. It's going to take a lot of the monotonous things out of it and to that and they really appreciated your point about the importance of having really good self-service. And it sounds like while we're thinking about AI, while we're thinking about all these things that can enrich the experience, there's also a little bit of going back to basics, making sure you've got a knowledge base that's well populated, making sure you've got a community that is highly engaged, making sure those websites are optimized so people can use them really easily, but then also backing those up with great tools that can follow that conversation, provide that context. So as you move through maybe a self-service experience into a chatbot or into a phone conversation, there's a lot of continuity between all of those pieces. Does that sound right? Am I interpreting things correctly? Oh, definitely. I think some of those basics that may have been overlooked the past few years are what's most important. And as I've said, AI is a massive data hog. It needs so much to do a lot of things as well. So all those help centers and knowledge centers that you have, it's really important that you continue to build those out that you're updating them. And that does sound daunting at times, but don't forget that AI can actually help you do those things too. So, you know, with generative AI, you may only need to provide a few points, and it creates that help article for you like in a matter of seconds. So think about how these kind of tools are cyclical in a way, right? It needs more data. It can help you create more data, needs more data, help you learn data, and so it kind of helps itself in a way. And while customers may not necessarily be going to your knowledge-based, find answers as directly as they used to, that information may be provided directly in the chatbot interaction. So the value of the knowledge-based is still critically, critically important. Well, I love getting to touch on this point because self-service is a space near and dear to my heart and my background in customer service. And I think that there tends to be so much focus on the new technologies that are coming out. And it's important to remember that you have to have all of the legs in order for the table to stand solidly, right? You have to have all of those basics in place, and then you can add AI on top of all of it and really empower everything and move it through that. So this has been a fascinating conversation. But one final question, given all of the research that you've gotten to read and the context that you have, what are you most inspired by or excited about in AI? What are you hoping to see in the coming years? What inspired me is just at the end of the day, what helps people and helps customers, right? We've had these digital channels for a long time now, but they've never kind of been up to par with old school human communication, talking to someone, like calling someone, doing something. But AI can really accelerate and improve all of those digital channels, really putting it up to that same level of, you know, an experience you had 30 years ago talking to a person. AI is really helping experiences become what they've always were supposed to be, and that's just providing helpful information seamlessly to individuals. So that's what I'm most excited about is just that these tools can make for better experiences overall. And the goal of customer service and customer experience is not changed with AI, right? It's just that AI just makes that so much easier and better for you, for your customers, for everyone. So that's what excites me. I love that. Well, thank you so much again for joining us today, Jerry. It's been a wonderful conversation. It's been my pleasure and hope to be back. What an insightful conversation. I know that I learned some things from this report that I'll be integrating into my strategy this year. And there's more. If you're interested in the trends that we discussed today, which I can't imagine why you wouldn't be, and you want to dive deeper, visit cextrends.zendest.com to download and read the report. We're signed up for one of the many virtual events that we're hosting in February. We've got some amazing panelists, guest experts, and Zendest customers who are going to come really talk about what the report means for them and how it's informing their strategy. I highly recommend you check one of those out. If you enjoyed today's episode, please be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on the exciting conversations to come. We've got a great season planned for you. Lots of amazing guests and experts. And I want to make sure that you don't miss a single episode. 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