Customer experience (CX) teams are your company’s frontline ambassadors. They talk to your customers daily and handle all questions, issues, and complaints in real time. It’s safe to say that customer satisfaction, loyalty, and, ultimately, your bottom line hinge on their effective, efficient communication.
But what happens when communication breaks down? This year’s State of Business Communication report revealed how communication overload and poor communication are impacting knowledge workers—but not all workers experience things equally. For CX teams, communication impacts productivity, stress levels, work satisfaction, and retention more than most.
Let’s dive into the latest findings about CX communication and explore how AI might just be the solution CX teams need to thrive.
CX Teams Are Frontline Champions
CX teams face unique communication challenges compared with the rest of the organization. However, those challenges have forced them to build communication skills that few others possess. CX agents spend the majority (58%) of their week communicating with customers in real time—this is 16% more than the average knowledge worker. CX teams spend an average of 19 hours each week on written communication.
CX workers use channels like email and chat most frequently. They communicate via these channels more than any other team, spending an average of seven hours weekly on email and four hours weekly communicating via chat.
Because of the urgency that CX agents face in their role, they simply don’t have the time to trudge through unorganized or unclear communication. This has forced them to be effective managers of information. In fact, CX workers report spending 22% less time misinterpreting communications and 14% less time searching for company information to include in communications than the average worker. These agents know where to find the information they need and feel confident that they can convey their message effectively to customers.
CX teams are professional frontline communicators who rely on effective communication to succeed in their jobs. But what happens when communication doesn’t meet their high standards?
Poor Communication Takes a Toll on CX Job Satisfaction and Well-Being
When customers reach out with a question or issue, they often expect (and sometimes demand) real-time responses. This leads CX agents to feel more stressed than the average knowledge worker when communication does break down. Nearly two-thirds of CX workers (64%) say that poor communication increases their stress at work.
More than any other team surveyed, CX teams report being frustrated by a lack of organization in finding and using information to communicate effectively at work. They’re also frustrated by information overload, communication channel overload, and inefficient tools for their jobs.
All of this adds up, taking a toll not only on their stress and well-being but also impacting their overall job satisfaction. One in three CX workers say that poor communication has made them consider finding a new job. To avoid burnout and turnover, it’s time for CX teams to embrace a solution to communication overload.
The Power of Generative AI for CX
Last year, the notable explosion of generative AI (gen AI) was game-changing for the world of communication. Early adopters of gen AI in the CX world report saving an average of seven hours each week in productivity alone. This is huge for customer-facing teams in particular because it gives them time back to put into delivering the best possible customer experience.
CX agents who use AI in their daily work experience reduced workloads and lower stress. They believe that AI makes them better at their jobs, improves the quality of their work, and helps them avoid miscommunications that could cost them both time and stress.
AI has already shown tremendous potential to transform the ways we work. But these benefits are largely untapped—particularly for CX teams.
CX Teams Are Slow to Adopt AI
Compared to any other team surveyed, CX workers are less likely to embrace using gen AI at work. Only 37% of CX workers reported experimenting with gen AI in their role. This could be because 81% of CX agents are skeptical about AI’s ability to help convey empathy in their communication, which is a critical component of building relationships with customers. Their job hinges on understanding customer needs, recognizing customer emotions, and addressing both in a compassionate manner, so a perceived lack of empathy in gen AI results is a major hurdle in CX adoption.
Other blockers to fully embracing AI include security and privacy concerns (67%), fear over content quality (59%), and worries over skills gaps (59%). CX workers worry that gen AI results will be outdated, inaccurate, misleading, or irrelevant. These teams care deeply about content quality, as poor or inconsistent interactions risk brand reputation, customer churn, and their own future career growth.
Finding the Right AI Tool for CX
However, as the early adopters above reported, generative AI actually has the power to help CX teams communicate more effectively and improve the quality of their work. Leaders should look for generative AI tools that help their CX agents overcome these blockers so they can tap into AI’s benefits and embrace its power at work.
When researching tools, you’ll want to look for an AI communication assistant that can:
- Personalize results for context, tone, clarity, fluency, and more
- Be customized to your specific brand, so you can better enforce brand guidelines, terminology, and standards as CX workers communicate with customers across channels
- Work across every layer of communication, such as email, chat, text, and any others that CX teams use to interface with customers
- Upskill not only their CX team but the entire workforce
As CX teams scale to meet customer needs, they’ll need to navigate how to deliver a great and consistent customer experience (in a cost-effective manner). Generative AI offers a promising solution to help CX workers elevate content quality, create consistent brand experiences, and provide real-time coaching that helps to upskill the entire CX workforce.
It’s time for CX teams to harness the power of AI to communicate better, not more. Get even more CX highlights from the report in our latest infographic, Customer Experience Teams Have The Most to Gain from Gen AI.
Curious to learn about trends in your team’s communication trends and AI usage? Check out our blogs that dive into the worlds of marketing, HR, and IT communication.
