Leaders are looking to self-service and emerging technologies like generative AI to reduce the need for agents and generate greater returns. High-quality assisted service is increasingly expensive and difficult to provide as organisations struggle to attract and retain skilled talent.
In this interview, Emily Potosky, senior director: research in the Gartner Customer Service and Support Practice, discusses why solely focusing on self-service and technology intended to replace employees is not the solution to managing the changing realities of assisted service.
Will self-service and GenAI reduce the need for agents in the long run?
We do not expect to see a significant reduction of agents for through the next five years. In fact, a Gartner survey of 822 business executives from September through November 2023 found that 61% of the surveyed customer service and support leaders expect headcount reductions of 5% or less due to GenAI, even through 2026.
While customer service and support organisations have historically turned to self-service as a way to both reduce assisted service costs as well as respond to the shifting preferences of customers, they have not seen a significant headcount reduction from this focus on self-service.
Self-service instead helps reduce the need for additional headcount, with some leaders noting they could keep their service headcount flat as their organisations grew.
If customer service and support leaders can’t remove the need for assisted service, how can they find a way to make assisted service sustainable?
It is clear that the current state of self-service is challenging, with very few customers experiencing self-service success from beginning to end. Given that self-service capabilities are limited in their ability to fully resolve customer issues – unexpected and/or sensitive situations will inevitably arise that GenAI-powered chatbots cannot address – some level of assisted service will always be needed.
Rather than trying to replace employees with the above strategies, it is critical that organisations invest in employee enablement technology that leads to more efficient and effective performance. Providing employees with context and guidance through their technology will reduce a dependence on skills and expertise, and in doing so, lower costs and widen the available talent pool that can engage in customer-facing work.
How are organisations successfully enabling their employees with technology?
There are three main ways we’ve seen organisations use employee enablement technology to maximise the impact of their employees and reduce the need for technical skills, product knowledge and industry expertise:
- Many organisations find their new hires leave shortly after being fully onboarded – or sometimes even during onboarding. Instead of making onboarding more comprehensive, successful organisations use technology to help new hires start handling customer contacts faster, getting more out of these new hires while they still have them.
- Successful organisations also use employee enablement technology to develop their employees – helping supervisors choose the right behaviours to focus on in coaching sessions, and helping managers measure whether supervisor efforts are effective.
- Customer service and support leaders often find themselves in a position where they need to support a growing customer base, but they are not receiving additional headcount. Successful organisations are strategic in how they engage their customers, using technology to deliver customised engagements at scale.
Interview credit: Gartner