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Digital Customer Engagement Report: Creating a more personalized customer experience through automation
A recent customer engagement report found gaps between how brands view their CX execution and what their customers are actually saying about it
February 16, 2023 • 3 minutes
When it comes to how brands view the customer experience, and how customers actually experience it, reality doesn’t match perception.
That was among the major themes to come out of LivePerson’s 2023 State of Customer Engagement report. To better understand consumer attitudes toward customer engagement, digital experiences, AI chatbots, and Conversational AI, LivePerson commissioned a PureSpectrum online survey of 2,517 consumers, as well as more than 1,000 executives at B2C brands with more than 500 employees. Respondents were based across the US, UK, and Australia.
They were asked a series of questions on the topics of digital customer engagement like messaging, bots, automation, and how they prefer to engage with brands. Below is a brief summary of some of the report’s telling findings:
- 57% of customers say long wait times matter more to them now than they did a year ago, while 77% of brands think long wait times matter less than they did last year.
- 58% don’t want brands to use cookies to track online consumer activity for better personalization (they prefer conversations), while 81% of brands say it’s highly important that they do.
- Even though 85% of brands say AI is “extremely” or “very” important to their customer engagement strategies, only 43% of customers believe it’s easy to talk to chatbots.
Speedy customer interactions: What they actually want
Brands may make assumptions about their customer experience, but the survey found stark differences between how brands are thinking about customer engagement and what the customer expectations actually are.
- 62% of customers say they’re actually more critical of how brands engage them now than they were a year ago.
- If a brand made them wait more than 30 minutes for a response to an inquiry, 40% said they’d switch to a competitor.
Personalization can improve customer relationships and spending
Consumers, especially Gen Z, say more personalized experiences would drive them to spend more. They also believe the best way for brands to create that personalization is by asking questions and taking information from conversations across all your digital channels, yet they don’t want to feel like they’re being tracked.
- Only 34% of brands think consumers prefer being asked for information directly.
- 69% of consumers are comfortable with that approach, especially when the other option is being tracked through cookies.
Automation can breed loyal customers
Consumers, especially Gen Z, are more likely to purchase if they can message rather than call. Three-quarters of our respondents noted this desire to prioritize digital engagement, and it jumped to 83% for 18-24-year-olds.
Also, with positive sentiment toward chatbots higher than ever, all age groups say automation and AI can increase their loyalty across the customer journey:
- 68% say digital engagement with automations to resolve issues faster increases brand loyalty (79% for those 18-24 years of age)
Through the report’s findings, it’s easy to see that customers are ready for and willing to engage with brands through an automated digital customer engagement strategy. And brands looking to reap those benefits should focus on building better AI and bots to give their customers what they want.