service.
In fact, you could say that anything that uses the internet to enable any service functionality could broadly fall into the category of digital customer service. And any of these could be a smart goal unto itself. Necessary, but insufficient.
The opportunity to pursue this win-win-win-win starts with understanding the clear distinction between two things that appear – at first – to be almost exactly the same: “digital customer service” and “Digital Customer Service.”
The most obvious difference is: In the Digital Customer Service (DCS) model, every part of a service interaction happens on the customer's own screen. Both the “virtual” or automated elements, as well as the live “assisted” elements all take place right where they started – on a customer's desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile device. If there's a need to verbally communicate with an agent, it becomes an entirely different customer experience when it occurs “right there on my screen” instead of during a totally separate phone call.
But the most important difference is: DCS enables companies to both “meet their customers where they are” and also to transition them between virtual assistance and live assistance in a way that is completely seamless because it doesn't require a separate phone call.
No additional steps are required, the customer doesn't have to do anything extra – it is a truly effortless experience.
Customers Live on Their Screens; Shouldn't You?
Even as the psychology of customer behavior within digital self-service interactions continues to evolve, what is now an irreversible trend is that customers expect and demand service interactions to take place on their screen.
This is the essence of DCS. What was once a disconnected experience with various disjointed elements within the span of one “journey” can now become completely integrated, and presented on a customer's own device through a variety of OnScreen Enhancements:
OnScreen Communication. Now that most of us are comfortable using chat, video chat, messaging, and social media platforms in our personal lives, customers increasingly expect to have these same options available with the companies they choose to do business with. Whether they access the business's website or mobile app (or even when they're forced to call a phone number), using “my screen” to communicate is becoming an expectation in the digital world.
OnScreen Collaboration. This set of enhancements gives an agent full transparency into what's happening on the customer's screen – in real time. It is the digital equivalent of “standing side by side” with a customer while they are on the company's website or mobile app. This includes features like CoBrowsing, screen sharing, and file sharing.
OnScreen Automation. Chatbots and pop-up messages provide personalized responses and suggested actions on the customer's (or even the agent's) screen. These are triggered by data about them, from their past interactions or from their browsing behavior in that moment. Another example of automation is visual authentication, which removes that burden from agents in a way that is both more efficient and more secure.
TWO VERY DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES
To fully appreciate the difference between “a customer service interaction that includes some digital touchpoints” and a true DCS experience, it helps to envision a side-by-side comparison.
EXAMPLE
In each of these two scenarios, a customer has experienced a problem or issue that requires them to contact a company. Both interactions start the same way – with the customer visiting the company's website or mobile app. But what happens from there couldn't be more different – for the customer, as well as the agent.
| Situation: Customer Service Today | Situation: DCS OnScreen Experience |
| Actions:Customer starts online and navigates on their own for a time.Eventually engages in a chat session:Long delays in responses.Chat agent suggests a “live” interaction and provides a phone number to dial.Customer has to start new interaction on phone:Go through IVR menu.Get reauthenticated.New agent asks, “How may I help you?” with no visibility into what customer has been doing.Customer is forced to begin process all over again. | Actions:Customer starts online, where they are greeted by a concierge bot.Customer engages in a chat session.Chat agent quickly suggests a voice interaction, but without having to dial a phone number, simply by clicking a button on the screen.OnScreen Voice agent is seamlessly brought onto customer's screen, and picks up the discussion in context (no need for additional authentication)Agent-facing bot provides information about customer's history and recent browsing behavior, and pre-completes forms and information.Customer engages in CoBrowsing with agent, who teaches customer how to complete the process on their own screen.Customer now knows how to complete the same process on their own next time. |
| Result:A frustrating, disconnected, high-effort interaction.Customer had to switch from screen to phone and start over.Even if they did get the resolution they were looking for, there was nothing about the experience that made the customer feel “special” or make them more likely to want to be more loyal to that company.At some level, it feels to the customer like “that company doesn't have their act together.” | Result:A low-effort, loyalty-building, customer-centric experience.The entire interaction took place where the customer chose to start it – on their screen.The customer not only fully resolved the issue but feels more digitally self-reliant.The customer is enabled to reaffirm the wisdom of their choice to do business with this company and is that much more likely to remain loyal for years to come. |
Can you see how different these two scenarios are? In both cases, the customer got their issue resolved, but the experience is night-and-day different.
To be successful with customers who are now fully immersed in their digital-first lifestyle, companies can no longer “be OK” with service journeys that feel disconnected, disjointed, or out of touch with the way people live in today's world.
Story: “Phone” and “Voice” Aren't the Same Thing
It's the same thing. But it's completely different.
Imagine two conversations between the same two people – in this case, a customer and an agent. In both conversations, they are working together to get something done or solve some problem.
It’s the same two people discussing the same exact issue. But customers were describing these two kinds of conversations as totally different experiences. How could that be?
This is the thought that clicked in my head as I started listening to feedback from customers of the earliest companies to transform their service operations to DCS. These were the people who were among the first to experience OnScreen Enhancements seamlessly woven into their digital journeys.
I was thinking about all the data I've seen in the trade press over the
