Over the years, “self-service” options have gained traction across Asia Pacific (APAC). Consumers are increasingly becoming more comfortable with the automated support options companies offer to help them with their queries and accessing services. It’s convenient and almost always reliable.
However, some consumers consciously still depend on live agent support, where phone and online live chat interactions were the top two preferred touchpoints across all support scenarios in some APAC countries. This is where hybrid preferences come in, which presents opportunities for businesses to optimise digital channels while ensuring the accessibility of human agent engagement.
These are the three key points business decision-makers need to consider when designing their next hybrid customer experience map.
The human touch is still pivotal in hybrid experiences
We have seen how businesses transform their operations digitally and create new virtual experiences for their customers remarkably during the height of the pandemic. Now with most places almost operating back to normal, businesses that have adopted virtual practices are slowly shifting towards a hybrid model, which leads to a whole new set of expectations from customers.
Based on our commissioned study, titled Redefining Human and Automated Engagement – How APAC Consumers Have Impacted the CX Agenda, we found that some consumers from China, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Vietnam still rely on live human support out of old habits.
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Moreover, our study suggests that there is a strong correlation between customer experience scores and the value of human-agent interactions in addressing highly emotional or complex cases. When human interaction is involved, customers are allowed to express their concerns and needs not only on a transactional level but on a personal level as well. The level of personalised human interaction boosts overall customer experience scores.
Four APAC consumer personas that redefine the hybrid customer experience
While businesses try to increase overall customer satisfaction through strategic human touchpoints, ensuring these points’ relevance to their consumers is just as important. One way to do that is to distinguish between the unique needs of their customers to enable a positive experience.
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In the same study, four distinct personas have emerged in the digitalisation age:
- Affluent hybrid shoppers: Consumers who are between the ages of 25 and 39 with high income. This group makes up 50% of consumers, the majority from China, who are comfortable with cross-channel interactions across various touchpoints.
- Reserved high-touch seekers: Making up 25% of consumers, this group are those who prefer human-assisted touchpoints. More pronounced in Japan, they typically come from the medium-income group and are above 45 years old.
- Low-touch digital natives: This group are those who are 24 years old and below with low-medium income, who grew up with the internet and have high confidence in digital interactions. This group is more distinct in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with consumers professing that accessibility to human agents was not very important to them.
- Neutrals: Making up 12% of consumers, this group prefers to keep all communications within a single touchpoint, be it human-assisted or digital. They are usually those who are between the ages of 30 and 44 across all income levels.
Take, for example, Beam&Go, a payment and digital marketplace with customers mainly based in Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE who mostly fit the affluent hybrid shoppers’ persona. Its customers are comfortable with cross-channel interactions across various touchpoints, which Beam&Go recognised when setting up its omnichannel customer communication strategy.
While the company uses multiple channels such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to provide customer service to their clients, they still value the importance of having human touchpoints. As part of their customer communication, Beam&Go also put a premium on providing a hybrid experience by deploying live agents to guide their customers and provide better assistance.
Developing a deeper understanding of consumer personas provides tremendous value and insights to businesses by equipping them with the right tools to engage audiences and guide strategies about automation-human interplay.
Persisting challenges in delivering a hybrid experience
While it is ideal to design a hybrid experience that caters to the needs of these different personas, businesses must first address the gaps that exist within their company. It is crucial to ensure that their internal capabilities are flexible and agile enough to meet changing demands of consumers in a heartbeat.
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To date, human-led service capacity has been stretched due to resource constraints, leaving organisations ill-equipped to address demands for human agents as part of the makings of a hybrid customer experience. The study revealed that 38% of consumers felt that it was not easy to connect with a human agent, and the percentage rose to 60% among those whose recent customer service interactions failed to meet expectations.
This is a struggle that businesses still face today in finding that synergy between digital and human ecosystems. Businesses need to recognise that delivering a hybrid customer experience demands additional investment in processes and tools. Such investments are key to achieving seamless communication and synergising the capabilities of both machine and man for an excellent customer experience.
Thriving in a hybrid world
A robust hybrid customer experience brings tangible and intangible business value. Recognising that today’s virtual experience indelibly complements the human experience is the right step for businesses. When they understand that the human touch drives customer experience, businesses will have a better chance of designing a customer experience that validates their needs.
To achieve this, businesses can no longer take the cookie-cutter approach as consumers demand differentiated experiences with a human touch. When mapping their customer journeys, companies must look for opportunities where automation and human assistance are best positioned.
By leveraging new technologies that can utilise the strengths of both humans and machines, businesses can compel instant, always-on collaboration and seamless omnichannel interactions for improved customer satisfaction and strong customer loyalty.
Vivien Ang is the regional manager for APAC at Infobip
