Something interesting is happening in the world of customer service. Faced with demand for ever-accelerating response times, teams are tapping AI-powered experience orchestration, giving rise to a generation of super agents. But fragmented systems are holding many back.
Three-quarters (75%) of Australian consumers believe it takes too long to get a service response, according to research by PwC, while 58% expect near instant online messaging replies in under five minutes, and 82% expect phone support in under 10 minutes.
Genesys research reinforces these findings. Half of consumers surveyed across APAC ranked fast response as the most valuable aspect in a customer service interaction. By contrast, just 32% of customer experience (CX) leaders in the region believe their organisations are extremely effective at accomplishing this, and only 23% in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).
While rapid response times are at a premium, demand for service continuity and personalisation across channels are also growing. For instance, 64% of ANZ consumers value knowledge of account history knowledge and activity when interacting with a preferred brand – two factors that can deliver a more personalised experience.
Fragmented connections
But for many CX teams, achieving the seamless personalisation across channels that consumers demand can be difficult to achieve. In many cases this is because different channels and systems continue to operate in isolation, creating a fragmented operating environment.
Fragmented technology leads to fragmented experiences, and more technology often only makes this worse, not better. Simple requests may be increasingly handled effectively through automation and self-service. But when a customer journey involves multiple steps, systems or handoffs, maintaining context and continuity becomes significantly harder.
The result is a disjointed experience where customers are forced to repeat themselves, re-authenticate, or re-explain their issue at every stage. This isn’t a good look in a market where 58% of consumers most value not having to repeat themselves in customer service interactions, according to Genesys.
Orchestrating the experience
Against that backdrop, it should come as little surprise that experience orchestration is gaining traction among CX organisations. At its core, experience orchestration introduces a unifying layer that connects interactions across channels, technologies and data sources in real time.
Instead of treating each touchpoint as a standalone event, experience orchestration manages the entire journey as a single, continuous experience. Importantly, this isn’t about consolidating everything into one platform. After all, most organisations operate in complex environments.
Those environments may be filled with best-of-breed solutions, but they usually aren’t built to collaborate seamlessly with each other. Experience orchestration platforms solve that challenge by acting as an intelligent, real-time coordination layer across the entire enterprise.
Enter the super agent
As artificial intelligence (AI) technology is increasingly built into experience orchestration platforms, the capability for them to proactively resolve issues before they impact customers, unify disconnected systems and adapt in real time is only growing.
With AI in the mix, experience orchestration is starting to give rise to a kind of customer service ‘super agent’. What sets these super agents apart is their ability to handle complexity, be more confident in their decisions and more capable of delivering meaningful customer outcomes.
They can do these things because they are supported by AI and orchestration capabilities that surface the right information at the right time. They have access to a complete view of the customer, including interaction history, intent and context across channels.
With AI-powered tools able to assist in real time, suggesting next steps, automate administrative tasks like summaries and even providing guidance during live interactions, these super agents are supported to perform at their best – which leads to better outcomes.
Getting the foundations right
For ‘super agents’ to emerge and thrive in CX teams, there are some fundamentals that need to be sorted out first. By and large, success depends on strong data foundations, a robust knowledge base and a clear CX strategy.
Strategy should come first. Having a clear view of the strategic platforms that underpin the customer experience is key. Without this clarity, there is a risk that further complexity is introduced as new infrastructure and systems are implemented to solve complexity itself.
Next comes data infrastructure. It’s important to make sure that it is robust, structured well and suited to AI-powered experience orchestration technology. And finally, simply understanding and articulating the current state of the business, the key pain points and what future success looks like is key to firming up the foundations for success.
Powering the CX shift
The rise of the ‘super agent’ signals a new era in how organisations approach customer interactions – one in which experience orchestration isn’t just viewed as a one-off project, but rather an ongoing capability tied to measurable customer outcomes.
As expectations continue to rise, and as AI capabilities further evolve, the ability to connect systems, data and interactions into a seamless whole will become a defining capability. Experience orchestration provides the foundation for that shift.
For organisations willing to invest in the right foundations, the opportunity is clear. Organisations can move beyond fragmented interactions and towards truly connected experiences that elevate customer outcomes and also empower their people to deliver at a higher level.