Yet many businesses are still struggling to meet these expectations. After two decades of rapid communication evolution, from SMS to omnichannel and conversational AI, customer expectations have surged far beyond what traditional automation can deliver.

Consumers now expect interactions that are instant, personal, and deeply contextual, yet most legacy systems are still stuck in a slower, simpler era.

Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the breakthrough that closes this gap, enabling technology to reason, decide, and act with autonomy while preserving brand intent, regulatory compliance, and human‑level empathy at scale.

At Infobip, we see this shift first‑hand as South African brands start using AI‑driven orchestration to connect channels, data and decision‑making in real time.

In simple terms, agentic AI does not just automate tasks; it understands context, determines the best next step, and then acts on it. These agents operate on a central orchestration layer, essentially an AI ‘control centre’, that connects channels, data, and business rules, giving them a full view of the customer before deciding what to do next.

Instead of each bot or system acting alone, the orchestration layer routes tasks to the right AI agent or human, coordinates their actions, and ensures every step aligns with brand, compliance, and business goals.

Traditional chatbots and rule‑based automation can only follow predefined flows; for instance, “if X happens, do Y”.

Agentic AI moves beyond that limitation by making informed decisions rather than merely executing instructions.

Delivering a better customer experience

In daily life, most people will not even think of this as “AI” but simply feel that the Customer Experience (CX) is getting better. For example, banks will flag suspicious activity faster and more helpfully, mobile providers will warn about outages before complaints arise, and online stores will stop sending irrelevant offers and start anticipating real needs.

The result is less frustration, fewer repeated steps and customer communication that finally feels timely, relevant, and human.

Concerns that this kind of AI will take over human jobs are largely unfounded. In reality, agentic AI is not about replacing people but about automating repetitive, low‑value tasks so humans can focus on conversations that require empathy, judgement, and real problem‑solving.

In the realm of CX, AI manages routine tasks and workflows, allowing people to focus on escalations and building trust.

Organisations are already investing equally in both AI and human roles. In South Africa, an effective CX model combines AI for speed and scale with human empathy and accountability. AI should enhance, not replace, human capability.

Beyond generic messaging

The real opportunity that agentic AI presents is moving beyond generic, poorly timed communication. Many organisations still send messages without considering customer context, leading to noise rather than value. Agentic AI changes this by assessing context first, who the customer is, what has just happened, and what outcome you’re aiming for, and then deciding whether a message should be sent at all.

For example, instead of blasting the same data‑bundle promotion to every prepaid customer, an AI agent can hold back offers for those who have just recharged and instead prioritise a helpful usage alert or roaming reminder when it matters most.

This is where forward-thinking, AI-driven CX strategies play a defining role. Rather than layering AI onto fragmented systems, these businesses introduce a unified orchestration layer that brings together AI agents, customer data, communication channels, and real-time intent into a single, intelligent decision-making environment.

For example, in a banking scenario, a customer making an unusual transaction could trigger multiple coordinated actions through the orchestration layer.

One AI agent detects the anomaly, another verifies the customer’s identity via their preferred channel, while a third prepares a contextual alert or temporarily pauses the transaction.

Instead of disjointed alerts or delays, the customer experiences one real-time interaction that resolves the issue quickly and securely.

Behind the scenes, an orchestration platform, like the AI‑native layers emerging from providers such as Infobip, sequences these agents, shares context between them and keeps the entire interaction feeling like one seamless conversation for the customer.

This ability to coordinate specialised agents in real time is what differentiates agentic AI from traditional automation.

Agentic AI enables businesses to move away from disconnected campaigns and reactive workflows toward autonomous, goal‑driven ‘next best action’ decisions that adapt continuously to customer behaviour and intent.

The latest AI platforms enable businesses to deploy autonomous AI agents capable of managing entire customer interactions end-to-end, across every channel, without requiring human intervention at each step.

Importantly, they do not run on a single AI model, but on a network of specialised agents, each with a defined role, orchestrated to work together seamlessly.

While the customer experiences a single conversation, multiple agents operate behind the scenes, sharing context and progressing the interaction in real time.

In the next 18 to 24 months, South Africans are likely to experience more proactive and conversational customer service across the brands they interact with most.

Expect smarter fraud alerts, clearer notifications, better delivery updates, and stronger self-service options. Organisations will move from blanket campaigns to intelligent next best action engagement using AI-first CX platforms that integrate data, channels, and AI agents.

For customers, the shift will be simple: service will feel less like navigating a system and more like dealing with a brand that already understands the situation. As AI matures, the organisations that stand out will be those focused on real outcomes and trust, not hype.

In a mobile‑first market like South Africa, these improvements will become visible quickly. For South African business leaders, the real differentiator will be how quickly they can connect fragmented data, channels, and AI projects into one coherent, orchestrated customer experience strategy.

According to The Inner Circle Guide to Agentic AI by ContactBabel, fewer than half of contact centres see headcount reduction as a primary objective.

That suggests a deliberate shift in narrative: the focus isn’t overtly on removing people, but on removing friction.

Why Agentic AI Is Different – And Why It Matters

Agentic AI isn’t just another virtual assistant. It doesn’t wait for instructions. It interprets, reasons, takes action, and learns from outcomes. And most importantly, it operates with autonomy to complete end-to-end tasks – not just offer next-best suggestions.

This is a step beyond human augmentation. It’s about replicating the behaviour of highly capable agents in a scalable, intelligent way (you’ll be able to hear more about this at our upcoming AI Community Days in London and Manchester). While the industry often defaults to language about “agent assistance”, Agentic AI systems are increasingly capable of completing tasks without human oversight, a key differentiator from traditional bot or assistive models.

In the report, ContactBabel highlights the challenge that human agents face when switching between several systems to serve a single customer.

This creates complexity, delays, and inconsistency. For an AI agent, those same tasks can be streamlined and orchestrated instantly. There’s no fatigue, no deviation, and no lag in processing.

The Real Drivers of Agentic AI Adoption

The top reasons cited by organisations for deploying Agentic AI were:

• Greater accuracy in responses
• Improved understanding of customer needs
• Faster resolution times
• More effective self-service journeys

These aren’t abstract benefits. They directly correlate to measurable CX and operational improvements: higher customer satisfaction, better first contact resolution, reduced handling time, and improved digital containment rates.

And while only 19% of organisations stated that reducing headcount was of “major importance”, we should not ignore the implicit efficiency gains that flow from automation at scale.

Redefining Metrics for the AI-Enabled Contact Centre

This raises a critical point. If your only success metric for AI is headcount reduction, you’re thinking too small. But equally, if your business case ignores the indirect impact on human workload and resourcing, it’s incomplete.

The future metrics will be broader and more balanced:

• Task completion rates (human and agentic)
• Agent effort vs. AI resolution
• End-to-end containment
• Cost-to-serve per interaction
• Time to value of AI investments
• Your Agentic Agent FTE requirements

These are the measures that matter. Because they reflect real transformation, not just tactical optimisation.

What It Means for Leaders in CX

For contact centre and CX leaders, Agentic AI is not about a binary choice between human or machine. It’s about designing an operating model where AI can handle what it’s best at, and people are deployed where they add the most value: empathy, judgement, and complex exception handling.

At Sabio, we see Agentic AI as an opportunity to move beyond the legacy debate of ‘AI vs people’. The conversation now must shift to:

• Where should automation be fully owned by Agentic AI?
• What work should be left to humans?
• How do we transition intelligently from today’s hybrid models?

This is not just about improving performance. It’s about reimagining service design for an AI-first era.

Final Thought: Agentic AI Is the Catalyst, Not the Threat

Agentic AI won’t replace the contact centre. But it will redefine how it works – who it employs, what skills are needed, and what customers come to expect. That’s not something to fear. It’s something to lead.

The organisations who embrace Agentic AI today are not just modernising their tech stack. They’re preparing for a future where customer service is faster, smarter, and fundamentally different.

With the insurance landscape ever evolving, it is becoming increasingly crucial for insurance companies to embrace innovative technological advancements that introduce convenience, enhance customer engagement, and redefine marketing strategies to stay competitive.

Africa’s population remains largely underserved by traditional insurance models, underscoring the urgent need for accessible, customer-centric solutions.

This highlights an opportunity for insurers to serve this market with innovative tools and solutions that can meet the changing demands of African customers.

Delivering a strong insurance product is no longer sufficient; insurance companies must also focus on delivering a robust omnichannel customer experience.

Modern customers expect instant, real-time, and personalised support experiences. They want to buy insurance easily, file a claim, access basic information, and have questions answered anytime and anywhere over their preferred communication channel.

However, it is not only about technology, the key is to also create connected customer experiences that are humanised. This should be at the heart of the digital transformation efforts of insurance companies, and this is where knowing who your customers are, their channel preferences and always being there for them becomes essential.

With the rise of digitalisation, insurance companies are exploring new ways to increase customer engagement, streamline processes, reduce costs, introduce convenience, and boost satisfaction, and one effective strategy is through conversational customer experience.

A conversational experience

To exceed customer expectations, insurance companies must implement new technology, practices and processes.

A conversational customer experience ticks all the boxes and focuses on building long-term customer relationships that ultimately result in greater customer loyalty, improved brand image, and more revenue.

For example, conversational experiences use tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI), chatbots and virtual assistants for conversations initiated via QR codes from advertising on social media pages or click to conversation promotional campaigns. This provides customers with instant and personalised two-way communication over WhatsApp.

By integrating conversational experiences, insurance companies can scale communication efforts and unify internal operations, allowing marketers, agents and chatbots to work together to deliver one customer experience.

AI, particularly Generative AI (GenAI), has democratised innovation, enabling businesses of all sizes to harness its power. GenAI-powered interactions hold tremendous promise for insurers to deliver an enhanced, differentiated customer experience, particularly with its advanced natural language capabilities to support customer service and enhance engagement and satisfaction.

While Africa’s aggregate insurance penetration is still very low, with a penetration rate of 2.78% in 2019 compared to the global average of 7.23%, the industry has leapfrogged traditional services to some extent.

This was the result of harnessing digital technology and driving innovation to find unique solutions that suit the continent’s demographics.

Overcoming digitalisation challenges

Despite this, insurance companies in Africa face several challenges related to digitising processes and meeting customer expectations. For example, complex products and policies can make it difficult for agents to effectively communicate and explain the details of policies, leading to customer confusion and dissatisfaction.

Similarly, many insurers lack a comprehensive, 360-degree view of their customers or the tools to engage them effectively at key moments in their journey, thus limiting potential for maximising customer lifetime value. Some struggle to implement the right technology to meet rising customer expectations for quick, accessible and personalised communication.

These insurance companies can enhance their customer service and provide fast, accessible, and personalised support by leveraging AI technology. Introducing AI will open up the potential to make this more accessible and efficient.

By embracing technology and adopting digitalisation and omnichannel communications strategies, insurance companies on the continent can boost customer engagement, streamline processes, reduce costs, introduce convenience, and increase satisfaction.

Finding the right omnichannel communications partner with a full stack of digital channels and conversational solutions is essential to effectively digitise customer communication.

As retailers strive to create memorable and engaging experiences for their customers, understanding the core elements that contribute to effective personalisation has become increasingly crucial.

This is especially critical as retailers now enter into peak shopping season globally, with the likes of Black Friday and the festive season approaching.

Core elements of successful personalisation

Personalisation within CX begins with a deep understanding of the customer. It’s essential for retailers to identify who the customer is, their preferences, and their behaviours.

This foundational knowledge allows them to tailor their services and offerings to meet individual needs effectively.

However, personalisation is not just about knowing the customer; it’s also about ensuring consistency across all channels.

This omnichannel approach means that whether a customer interacts with a website, a social media page, or a mobile app, the experience remains seamless and uniform.

The digital and physical CX should mirror each other, reinforcing the brand persona and values at every touchpoint.

Another critical aspect is customer support. Personalisation extends beyond product sales or brand engagement; it encompasses how customers are supported throughout their journey. Effective customer support ensures that the personalisation process is complete, providing a holistic and satisfying experience for the customer.

To determine the effectiveness of a personalised CX strategy, retailers need to track a variety of metrics. Engagement metrics are a primary indicator of success.

By measuring how customers interact with the brand, companies can gain insights into loyalty and the effectiveness of their personalisation efforts. For example, an increase in customer interactions through mobile apps or social media platforms can indicate heightened engagement.

Revenue growth is another crucial metric. A well-implemented personalised CX strategy often leads to higher sales and faster customer acquisition rates.

In addition to revenue, tracking customer churn and lifetime value provides insights into customer loyalty and the long-term benefits of personalisation.

Lower churn rates and higher lifetime value indicate a successful strategy that fosters lasting relationships with customers.

Best practices for an effective CX strategy

A successful CX strategy that delivers on these metrics is underpinned by robust data management and governance.

As customer data grows, it is important for retailers to ensure its protection and proper handling, giving customers confidence that their information is secure.

Consistency across all touchpoints is essential. Personalisation efforts must ensure that every interaction a customer has with the brand is uniform, reinforcing a coherent and positive image.

Customer segmentation is also critical; understanding that customer preferences and behaviours evolve over time allows retailers to continuously adapt their personalisation strategies.

Additionally, testing and measuring the impact of personalisation strategies are essential for continuous improvement.

By analysing data and customer feedback, retailers can refine their approaches to ensure they meet customer expectations effectively.

Avoiding Pitfalls in Personalisation

Despite its benefits, personalisation can fail if not correctly understood or implemented. A common pitfall is the lack of a clear understanding of the definitions and goals of CX and personalisation.

Retailers should start with a clear identification of who their customers are, how they will serve them, and through which channels.

Inconsistency across different channels can also undermine personalisation efforts, making it crucial to ensure identical experiences across all platforms.

Another significant challenge is the effective use of data. Retailers must leverage data insights to inform their strategies and act on customer feedback promptly.

Without the right tools and processes, it becomes challenging to develop an effective personalised CX strategy.

A winning CX strategy is one that deeply understands the customer, ensures consistency across all channels, and uses data effectively to drive continuous improvement.

By focusing on these core elements and avoiding common pitfalls during the looming peak shopping season, retailers can create a personalised and humanised CX that not only meets but exceeds customer expectations, fostering loyalty and driving business growth.

As the market evolves, staying attuned to customer needs and preferences will be the key to sustained success in CX personalisation.

The event by Infobip, a global cloud communication company for businesses and a leader in omnichannel customer engagement, focused on the transformative intersection of digital adoption and Customer Experience (CX) and what it means for business.

Themed “Unlocking Profitability of Digital Adoption in CX”, the business breakfast unpacked how new technologies, specifically in terms of new communication channels, are shaping the CX in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) industry.

“Delegates received a sneak peek into global trends and how technology is shaping African businesses in terms of digital adoption and CX enhancement. Attendees also received valuable insights into what the BFSI sector will look like in the next five to 10 years highlighting its current trajectory driven by the growing fintech ecosystem,” says Hrvoje Zorko, EMEA Product Sales Expert at Infobip.

“The adoption of over-the-top (OTT) channels, also known as streaming channels, together with automation, can impact the overall experience that users have with brands. It can also impact the profitability of the brands by helping to keep the costs of servicing customers lower than the rate at which their businesses and revenue streams are growing.”

Integrating digital channels

Zorko notes that delegates heard about the importance of integrating digital channels seamlessly into the CX journey of BFSI institutions and how these insights contribute to improving customer satisfaction and driving repeat purchases.

“Digital channels are new tools that present new ways to collect behavioural data about customers, especially in terms of customer preferences. Organisations can leverage this data to obtain a 360-degree view of their customers, where they are and how they utilise these channels to create targeted campaigns and personalised experiences,” he says.

“When customers feel that they are important to a business, they are more likely to spend more and remain loyal to your brand.”

Zorko adds that embracing digital transformation and integrating it with the CX can help BFSI businesses stay ahead of their competitors resulting in profitable growth as it is easier to optimise the most cost-effective way to communicate with customers.

“The automation of lead generation and the growth and automation of support services allows organisations to service their customers more efficiently, with fewer resources that can support a much bigger customer base. This is connected to the cost of ownership of this technology and the cost of growth, which ultimately results in the profitable growth of a business,” he says.

Omnichannel approach

Furthermore, Infobip’s CX experts also shared with attendees how a seamless omnichannel approach enhances the overall CX by not only allowing customers to communicate with a business over their preferred channels but also streamlining all interactions across multiple touchpoints in a unified way to deliver a consistent brand experience.

However, BFSI businesses in Ghana could face some challenges when implementing digital transformation initiatives in their customer experience strategies, with Infobip’s team providing some advice on how to overcome these.

“So, in a market like Ghana, there are still users who prefer face-to-face interaction or telephonic communication over digital engagement. Hence, simply adopting technology outside of the big cities can be challenging,” says Zorko.

“On the other hand, many well-established businesses – even some that are long-standing household names – are not always very agile and do not adapt to change easily, so they tend to lag behind fintech startups in terms of technology adoption.”

Through events like this, Zorko says Infobip is trying to shift this mindset towards new trends, highlighting where the company can help to bridge the gap between the status quo in the local market and global developments and the new possibilities they present.

The economic environment makes attracting new customers more difficult, forcing businesses to focus on customer retention and growing wallet share.

When consumers are under pressure, businesses are under even more pressure to retain and delight their customers.

A recent global survey commissioned by 8×8 and Hanover Research, Customer Experience: 2030 Vision, found that 46% – that’s almost half – of contact centre, customer experience (CX) and IT leaders believe that CX will be the top differentiator for brands by 2030.

In other words, according to more than 500 respondents, within six years CX will trump everything else in the battle to retain customers.

Drivers for a great customer experience

CX is the golden thread that runs through every aspect of a business, creating “wow” moments for customers. Author of The 10 Principles Behind Great Customer Experience, Matt Watkinson says CX is: “The sum total of all interactions a customer has with a company, across all channels, over time.” 

The 10 principles of CX are: Make it easy; be relevant; be responsive; be consistent; be proactive; be human; be transparent; be empowering; be forgiving; and be memorable.

Here’s the problem, according to recent research done by Bain & Company: 80% of businesses believed they were customer-centric, whereas a survey of their customers told a different story, finding that only 8% really deliver an extraordinary experience.

If a business wants to delight its customers, it needs to extract insights directly from its customers.

You cannot know what your customers want and need if you don’t ask them, and so investing in this process – without creating unnecessary friction – will drive business change aimed at improving your CX, which will drive the bottom line.

Listening to your customers and reacting to their needs builds trust – with both customers and employees.

South African CX expert and consultant, Michelle Badenhorst, who has co-authored two bestseller books on CX, advises that even though customer feedback is important, it by itself is not enough to drive a growing CX strategy.

There are three layers of insights businesses should consider:

• Customer understanding (Voice of the Customer)
• Employee feedback (Voice of the Employee)
• Process insights (Voice of the Process) 

According to her, businesses create authentic customer experiences, fueled by motivated and happy employees, enabled by technology.

Technology isn’t the customer experience; it is a stack of tools that the business leverages to deliver the experience. CX is agnostic of technology as much as it is enabled by it.

Moving from buzzword to business change

CX is certainly a trendy term, and even though businesses know they must deliver a strong CX, it can become confusing. Businesses often don’t know where to start, whether they should redesign their entire CX journey or whether they should be adding elements in a modular fashion.

It’s here that working with industry specialist partners makes the world of difference. There are many tools out there but businesses don’t need to deploy them all at once.

Remember the principles of CX? There is no sense in deploying a communication channel if your customers don’t want or need it.

By designing your systems carefully and properly, with the right platforms, CX improves alongside an equally important journey: Employee experience (EX).

Enabling employees by providing real-time context and a single view of the customer, for example, builds a strong EX, which ensures your employees are equipped to deliver the service level required.

Building blocks to deliver a good CX

A basic building block is to have a good customer relationship management (CRM) platform that offers interoperability into other systems, for example an omnichannel solution.

This is important as it provides users with a single view of each customer and context of previous discussions, across multiple channels.

This enables greeting the customer in the way they prefer and knowing exactly where the last communication ended… so as to be human, relevant, proactive and responsive, and if the issue is resolved timeously, memorable. It’s all about the CX principles.

In the landscape of customer service, contact centres serve as the face of an organisation, playing a pivotal role in handling inquiries, resolving issues and ensuring client satisfaction. Modern day Cloud-based omnichannel solutions offer a single view of customer interactions across multiple channels, including voice, chat, email, SMS, fax, and social media.

This allows for the management of several channels of communication in a unified and integrated environment.

Technology isn’t the customer experience, but it enables employees to deliver a great CX to customers.

There’s no doubt that an omnichannel solution is the first step on the digital journey towards a memorable CX experience, and the best results occur when a business deploys new channels and processes in concert with customer’s requirements – in other words, listening to them and then building a better experience.

Lastly, once there are multiple channels and real-time capabilities, it is prudent for businesses to remember their brand voice and to use their channels correctly to amplify and support their brand voice, and not dilute it or alienate their customers.

There are rough seas ahead, but a vessel equipped to delight customers will sail on with purpose.

During discussions with several of our contact centre customers, the topic of AI and its impact on call centres and CX strategies is often raised. Various articles have been published relating to AI, machine learning (ML) and bots replacing humans in contact centres, focusing on the advantages that AI brings when compared to having people servicing customers and more. 

Although AI will have an increasing role to play in how organisations improve customer service, it will remain unlikely for the foreseeable future that AI will have the ability to completely replace humans.

There are, however, significant gains to be had by supplementing contact centre agents’ efforts with AI rather than looking at replacing the human touch.  

Ultimately, organisations are increasingly adopting a variety of technologies as an enabler, and it is no different with AI, which in this case acts as an enabler to support organisations on their drive to better service their customers. Just like with any other technology, AI will only add value if it has been thought out properly and implemented correctly.  

Scalability, cost efficiency and insights 

A major benefit for organisations is that AI-powered solutions can handle a large volume of customer interactions simultaneously, enabling them to scale their operations without significant increases in costs. With AI handling routine tasks, fewer human agents are needed, which can result in cost savings.

In turn, businesses can allocate their human resources more strategically, deploying them where their expertise is most valuable, such as handling complex queries or providing empathetic support. 

AI technologies can also analyse vast amounts of customer data in real time, identifying patterns, trends, and customer sentiment. Integrating AI into contact centre operations can provide organisations with valuable insights into customer preferences, behaviour, and pain points. These insights can be used to improve products, services, and processes and train AI systems and human agents to deliver more personalised and effective customer interactions. 

Blending AI and humans for enhanced CX 

By combining the strengths of AI technologies and human agents, companies can deliver a more personalised and efficient CX.

AI can handle routine and repetitive tasks, such as answering common inquiries or providing basic information, freeing up human agents to focus on complex or high-value interactions.

This blend allows for faster response times, improved accuracy, and consistent service across different channels, leading to higher customer satisfaction. 

One should remember, however, that despite their advancements in natural language processing, AI systems still struggle to fully comprehend the emotional nuances and context of customer queries.

Empathy, understanding, and emotional intelligence are essential in many customer interactions, particularly when dealing with sensitive or complex issues and human agents are better equipped to handle these situations. 

Customer queries can often be unpredictable and involve unique situations or edge cases and as such, AI systems – which are designed to handle common scenarios and frequently asked questions – may also struggle to grasp the full context of the query, especially when it involves ambiguous or complex information, and provide generic or inaccurate answers, which can further frustrate customers.

Furthermore, AI systems operate based on predetermined rules and training data, and if there are changes in customer behaviour, industry trends, or regulations, they may struggle to adapt without human intervention. 

On the other hand, a blended approach ensures that human agents can use their experience and judgement to interpret and clarify customer needs, ask relevant follow-up questions, and provide accurate and personalised responses. In essence, human agents, through their training and experience, can adapt to unfamiliar situations, think critically, and provide creative solutions.

They can also quickly learn and adapt to new information, policies, or customer preferences, ensuring that customer queries are handled effectively even in dynamic environments. 

It should be noted however, that AI-powered systems can learn from interactions and adapt over time. AI can continuously improve its performance and accuracy by leveraging machine learning and natural language processing capabilities.

The data generated from AI interactions can be used to train the system, refine its responses, and enhance its understanding of customer needs. And human agents can in turn learn from AI recommendations and feedback to improve their own skills and knowledge. 

Building trust with customers 

It is crucial for organisations to understand that customer interactions are not just about providing information or solving problems; trust is a critical factor in customer relationships, and human agents can establish rapport, show empathy, and engage in friendly conversations, leading to stronger customer relationships. In addition, customers may prefer interacting with a human agent for certain queries or concerns.  

Relying solely on AI for customer interactions may lead to instances where customers feel unheard, misunderstood, or dissatisfied with the service and this can negatively impact a company’s reputation and erode trust with its customers.

Combine the strengths of both human and machine capabilities, resulting in improved customer experiences, scalability, cost efficiency, intelligent insights, continuous learning, and the ability to handle complex queries effectively.  

This blend also demonstrates that an organisation values personalised interactions with their customers and that they are committed to addressing their needs, which can enhance customer loyalty, brand reputation and overall customer satisfaction. 

Establishing and managing a business in Nigeria can be very challenging, especially when competing for customer attention and scarce resources. Delivering exceptional customer experience would be a strategic approach for businesses operating in Nigeria that want to stand out, take advantage of the opportunities, break even, and stay successful.

Businesses usually have a common goal of expansion. However, when the competitive business landscape is fierce, mere linear growth may no longer suffice. Instead, companies should strive for growth at scale to increase their revenue without a significant influx of additional resources.

One of the most crucial starting points for growth at scale is to focus on customer experience (CX). CX can be defined as the comprehensive range of a customer’s cognitive, emotional, sensory, and behavioural reactions throughout their entire journey with a company, spanning from pre-purchase to post-purchase stages. CX can either be a catalyst for success or the downfall of a company.

While it may appear as an exaggerated claim, it carries substantial weight when considering that according to one report, 81% of customers say that a positive customer experience significantly increases their likelihood of making repeat purchases.

Equally noteworthy is the fact that 61% of customers would readily switch companies following just one negative experience. These statistics emphasise the critical importance of cultivating and maintaining a superior customer experience.

Understanding the significance of CX is one thing, but delivering exceptional experiences is an entirely different matter. Bearing this in mind, how can organisations guarantee that they consistently deliver the utmost satisfaction to their customers? Although the answer may differ depending on the specific industry, there are several fundamental steps that any organisation can undertake to achieve this goal.

The power of contextual data  

One of the most impactful measures to undertake involves dismantling data silos. It’s critical to recognise that information fuels every department within an organisation. Ensuring access to contextual data empowers customer-facing teams to have impactful engagement with the customers, thereby improving the experience they can provide.

Furthermore, it enables the delivery of personalised experiences to each customer, further augmenting their perception of the organisation. In this regard, the implementation of a customer experience platform assumes significant importance.

Ideally, such a platform should offer seamless and contextual flow of data between different systems, single sign-on (SSO), and granular access control. At Zoho, we have dedicated efforts to incorporate these features into our customer experience platform— Zoho CRM Plus—that brings sales, marketing, support and other customer-facing teams together.

A single view of marketing  

The consolidation of customer data is vital for organisations, but it’s equally crucial to have a unified perspective on their marketing endeavours. It’s essential to recognise that the customer experience encompasses all interactions with an organisation, even those occurring before a purchase is made.

It’s also important to remember that marketing doesn’t just entail advertising. It also includes your branding, both online and offline, your social media presence, and your media and stakeholder relations.

So, it’s critical to deliver consistent experiences throughout all of your marketing activities. Achieving this goal requires that the whole marketing department has insight about each and every activity carried out by different teams.

This approach prevents the duplication of efforts, promotes transparency, and provides visibility to the managers who can use the insight to assess the impact of various activities.

Get the post-purchase service right  

After a customer makes a purchase, it’s essential to follow up with them in a non-intrusive manner to gauge their satisfaction with the product and the service they received. By collecting feedback, businesses can obtain valuable insights that can be used to further improve not just their engagement with a particular custome, but also their offerings.

Any company that is listening and acting on customer feedback will sooner or later outperform its competitors.   

Feedback on the customer experience serves as the foundation for further enhancing the post-purchase experience by enabling accurate recommendations of other relevant products from the inventory.

This iterative process ensures that the customer experience continues to evolve and improve, fostering long-term customer loyalty and driving repeat purchases. Even a simple survey tool can help a company gather valuable insights, which can then be used to improve overall CX efforts.

Building a foundation of excellence  

While numerous elements contribute to the creation of an exceptional customer experience, the foundational principles outlined above are undeniably crucial. With these fundamentals firmly in place, businesses can proactively cultivate an environment conducive to fostering long-lasting customer relationships and achieving sustainable growth.

Understanding trends in any given field helps businesses understand what conversations are happening in the industry broadly and likely strategic topics for their competitors.

In other words, if everyone else is talking about a new technology and how it impacts business operations, why aren’t we?

Of course, not all new developments are relevant to everyone but it helps keep a finger on the pulse of digital transformation.

It’s no different in the world of contact centres and trends that develop as the world of work and consumers are constantly evolving.

Then, being able to pre-empt trends before they are announced, places a business in a strong tactical position. A useful resource in the world of understanding contact centre trends is the Deloitte Global Contact Centre Survey.

This bi-annual report was last published in 2021, and number five of the top five trends two years ago was ‘Focus on Value’ by way of orchestrating valuable Customer Experience (CX).

Based on extensive engagement in the industry, and on the fact that traditionally we would speak predominantly with IT departments which is now shifting rapidly to include CX executives who have active decision-making powers, it would not be far-fetched to pre-empt that CX will feature far more prominently in 2023, if not be in number one spot.

But what does this mean? It means that businesses around the world that make use of contact centres understand that Customer Experience is paramount. They understand that they must start with the customer journey and then build the business process – not the other way around.

At this point, though, we need to talk about a new trend, one which we will be reading about more and more. Richard Branson said: “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

Enter: Employee Experience (EX). In the contact centre world, EX and CX work hand in hand, because you cannot have a sublime CX if the employees are not empowered with the right tools and collaborative ability to resolve a client’s journey quickly and positively.

Prioritising EX for a contact centre agent will go a long way towards converting a contact centre from a cost centre to a value centre. Agents play a crucial role in generating business value by retaining customers and cross selling when the opportunity arises.

Just because the lockdowns are a distant memory, it does not mean things are as they were prior to 2020.

Hybrid work environments are becoming increasingly common for a number of reasons, not least cost and geographical access to agents. And so, hybrid environments need to be properly designed so that an agent’s experience of working remotely is secure, that the agent has full access to required applications, and, importantly, that they are not trying to switch between multiple applications.

A recent survey from Deloitte and Chrome OS, found that 87% of IT decision makers foresee rising adoption of virtual desktop infrastructure in the next three to five years. These services enable fast and easy access to agent applications, regardless of location. Many of Telviva’s customers, for example, are deploying Telviva Omni into Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and citrix environments. Traditional contact centre providers will struggle because omni-channel technology needs to be readily available to run in these new environments.

An important cog in both Employee experience and CX is giving the agent context. In other words, who is calling, emailing or chatting. An agent needs an integrated view of the customer from within the same interface.

They must be able to see the customer’s journey, previous engagements and outcomes. This not only makes the employee’s journey better, but allows the agent to offer a great customer experience.

Presenting agents, a view of the customer’s prior engagement with bots and AI prior to the customer reaching the human (them), enables them to pick up where the technology could not resolve the issue and then step in to resolve it.

Contact centres and the back office are often physically separated and use different communications platforms- and may well be geographically separated. By allowing the agent relevant visibility into the back office, supported by internal text-based messaging between agents themselves, contact centres break the silos which ultimately benefits customers. Telviva, for example, has prioritised leveraging a true Omni experience to consign siloed workplaces to the past.

EX, as mentioned, slides into Customer Experience. Almost 9 in 10 customers say that the experience they receive is as important as the product or service they buy.

A recent survey of 6000 global Telco/ISP subscribers across 12 countries reported that 80% would abandon a provider after just three negative experiences. 

As for actually making the decision to move to a new Telco/ISP, poor customer service ranked only a percentage down (12%) than the actual reliability of the service itself (13%). This is important news when designing a CX strategy.

Key to a good CX is human connection. In other words, technology such as self-service tools and chatbots can be deployed to resolve less complex queries, but it is crucial that customers have the option to seamlessly and easily switch to a person to help them – along every step of the digital journey.

Right-channelling refers to meeting customers on their channel of choice, and then switching to the most appropriate channel based on the nature of their query, taking into account security and compliance requirements.

New channels add to the overall tapestry, and while voice is still – and likely always will remain – vital, video is expected to grow rapidly, either via upscaling a text based chat interaction or through intelligent kiosks at physical branches to enable a face-to-face video interaction with contact centre agents.

First-contact resolution is vital and is achieved through easily understandable, yet detailed, customer journey mapping. For instance, a customer should not need to repeat themselves on transfer, or repeat verification each time they are transferred.

Lastly, using AI and available data, contact centres can pre-empt a customer’s needs and offer personalisation, which is a trend that will continue to grow in importance and prominence.

In our current economic climate, it is as important as ever for businesses to focus on customer retention, especially in light of competition being a thumb-swipe away. Beyond this, delivering services from the cloud, and prioritising mobile-first tools enable businesses (who maintain continuity), – and their customers (who rely on battery operated devices) to navigate the country’s incessant power cuts.

Expect Employee experience and Customer experience to dominate contact centre discussions and strategy for a long time, and expect the leaders to invest in omni-channel solutions that give them a CX and Employee experience edge.

In recent years, the idea of the customer experience (CX) has gained prominence in the media, in academia, and across a range of industries.

Several businesses have even changed the names of their divisions to reflect the phrase. This is to be expected given that, as we’ve seen over the past few years, delivering a high-quality CX has become essential to an organization’s capacity to succeed and expand.

Good service is one of the most crucial variables that affects customer happiness and loyalty, and it’s a crucial part of a brand’s reputation, especially in the last mile of a customer’s journey, as anybody who has dealt with customers will confirm. But, with the pressure to attract new consumers in today’s fiercely competitive market, it can be difficult to ensure that existing clients are well-cared for.

The key to developing unique CXs that produce priceless memories when interacting with a company or purchasing a product is to fully comprehend client wants remarked Park Kyeong-Taek, Head of Service, LG Electronics West African Operations. “Regardless of their cultural or geographic origins, LG’s products are designed to connect and empower individuals from all walks of life.”

As a result, we have discovered through our journey that satisfying the demands of our clients requires an understanding of cultural diversity. Our ability to design products that both meet and surpass the expectations of our varied consumer base has improved as a result of this, he claimed.

Most businesses consider touchpoints—the distinct transactions through which customers engage with various aspects of the company and its offerings—when they concentrate on the customer experience. It displays structure and responsibility and is fairly simple to include into operations. Businesses try to make sure that whenever customers encounter with their product, customer service, sales personnel, or marketing materials, they will be satisfied with the experience. But, this compartmentalized attention to specific touchpoints ignores the bigger—and more significant—picture, which is the customer’s whole experience. You can only start to grasp how to meaningfully increase performance by considering the customer’s experience through his or her own eyes—along the entire trip taken.

Customer cover a wide range of activities that take place before, during, and following an interaction with a product or service.

Journeys can be long, stretching across multiple channels and touchpoints, and often lasting days or weeks. Taking a long period of time to repair a product or awaiting parts for such products, even a product that is obsolete. We’ve discovered that organizations that fail to appreciate the context of these situations and manage the cross-functional, end-to-end experiences that shape the customer’s view of the business can prompt a downpour of negative consequences, from customer defection and dramatically higher call volumes to lost sales and lower employee morale.

In contrast, LG Service offers the finest experience for the customer throughout the entire process to increase customer satisfaction, improve sales and retention, reduce end-to-end service cost, and strengthen employee satisfaction.

From LG Customer perspective, our service has been appreciated right from the start of customer’s need either walk-in or online to the last mile. The touchpoints of our customer’s journey are based on the following approach, sales, marketing, product and customer service.

Most often than not, all customers during Sales are briefed with the Insurance policy on LG products. Every customer can attest to the fact that it is the best decision while purchasing a new product, as it offers customers cover against fire and accidental damage to electronics purchased from any of their outlets. To avail this cover, the customer has to pay only 3% of the product cost as Insurance premium, which is charged at the point of purchasing the product. At the time of repair or replacement of damaged item, 20% cost will be borne by the customer while Zenith Insurance will cover the remaining 80%.

LG approach towards Marketing ensures customers are provided constantly with how-to tip & tips, video tutorials and manuals on social media on how products are being maintained and cleaned.

Any manufacturer’s product warranty has limits and generally only applies to the original purchaser. LG Product comes with 2 & 10-year warranty on product and compressor respectively. LG Electronics guarantees free repair service to its products within the warranty period through its Authorized Service Centers. The warranty covers only the defaults, manufacturing or quality problems. Any damage link to external factors such as: Bad manipulations, in case of fire, lightning, improper use, unstable voltage or any act of God is not covered under warranty.

LG is well known for its home appliances and entertainment products. From televisions and audio to air conditioners and Refrigerators to washers and dryers, many households across the country have LG products scattered throughout their homes.

Whether you have questions about a specific product, your warranty, or have another reason to contact LG Customer Service, it comes easy as steps have been taken to make your journey as relaxed as possible. There are a few different ways you can contact LG customer service and whenever you contact them directly, it is always important that you have any pertinent information readily available–this could include your personal information, receipts, warranty information, product serial numbers, phone numbers, etc. Having information available for customer service makes it easier to look into your account to answer questions.

No matter how effectively a business is handled or how excellent you think its products are, problems are inevitably going to arise. Going through the appropriate customer support channels can frequently help you resolve issues with an LG product, warranty, or other services. Or at the very least inform the business of any problems that need to be fixed. Customer care representatives of LG can be reached at a toll-free number, 080098115454, from Monday through Saturday. They can also be accessed for Whatsapp chat at 08058899908 to quickly resolve issues.

Any LG appliance repairs can be carried out swiftly and easily by skilled technicians. No matter if you select carry in or in-home service, you can rely on product repairs to be completed in 24 to 48 hours.