Consumers see live human customer service as key to loyalty

Dive Brief:

More than 4 in 5 consumers say they are more likely to stay loyal to companies that prioritize human customer service over automated or self-service options alone, according to a survey of more than 1,000 consumers released Monday by digital services company Ricoh.
Nearly all consumers — 94% — agree companies that actively invest in building authentic human connection with employees and customers alike will have a long-term competitive advantage.
Consistent products and services are the top driver of trust at 59% of consumers, followed by help from real people at 56%, and transparent and honest communication at 47%.

Dive Insight:

While AI and self-service can improve customer service, the technology will not create trust by itself.

Instead, the best application of AI is to use it to transform contact centers into a place where the technology and humans work together in a highly orchestrated environment, according to Ian Kahn, partner and commercial and service excellence platform leader at PwC.

“We believe strongly that AI, in and of itself, does not build loyalty,” Khan told CX Dive. “You create loyalty with a combination of bringing empathy, building trust and establishing real human connections with your customers.”

Consumer opinions on AI vary depending on generation; roughly half of Gen Z and Gen X consumers predict that brands which rely mostly on human support will be the most trusted in the next decade. Only about one-third of Gen Z and Gen X say the same about companies that blend AI and human support.

Millennials are more evenly split in their beliefs, with 42% of the generation predicting that brands which rely on humans will be the most trusted and 40% predicting a blend of AI and human support will earn the most trust.

The rollout of AI can be an opportunity to enhance human-led customer service, according to Kahn. People in the contact center are at the frontline of customer engagement, and letting AI handle simple requests while training human agents for more complex work can improve live customer service.

“It’s an incredible opportunity for us to deploy AI strategically with an upskilled workforce to deliver a better experience,” Kahn said.

Business leaders tend to be more bullish on AI than consumers, and they believe agentic AI will handle more than two-thirds of all customer service interactions with technology vendors by 2028, according to a May Cisco survey.

However, they still recognize the need for the human element. Another 9 in 10 respondents said they believe that AI needs to be combined with human empathy and connections to optimize the customer experience.