Category: Blog

The Promising Future of AI Translation in CXM | Blog

Driven by new technological innovations, Artificial Intelligence (AI) translation holds the promise to reshape the customer experience by transforming conversation channels, increasing agent efficiency, and reducing the need for language specialist talent. Read on to learn about the potential for the CXM industry as well as the obstacles that need to be overcome before AI platforms can eventually replace human agents.

While machine translation (MT) has been used for more than five decades, recent developments in AI and neural machine translation models have sparked new interest in AI translation to improve customer experience.

Today’s AI engines are being trained to translate 1000-plus human languages in real time and develop the ability to understand large volumes of text data. These innovations are revolutionizing the CXM industry by increasing agent efficiency and accuracy.

While the advances have just started and developing the ability to translate instantaneous voice conversations will take some time, AI translation’s potential is generating a lot of excitement. Let’s explore its promise further.

What is AI translation?

AI translation is a machine translation process using complex algorithms to understand the source data in its original language and translate it into a wide range of other languages.

Advanced AI/ML technology has improved machine translation accuracy, enabling it to better mimic the human brain’s ability to process spoken and written words and comprehend phrases, voice tones, complex sentence structures, and human sentiments.

Impact of AI translation technology on the traditional customer experience management (CXM) industry

With its people-heavy operating model, the traditional CXM industry has always struggled to attract and retain talent, which is especially difficult when language skills also are required.

Many service providers have invested heavily in building multilingual hubs in a broad spectrum of locations and recruiting agents from around the world or in training to improve language proficiency.

However, meeting the vast language and dialect diversification needs across the globe is nearly impossible and puts huge financial pressure on service providers to provide language capabilities in every spoken language a client may require.

This is why AI translation is a real game changer in CXM. It is already transforming conversation channels, increasing agent efficiency, reducing the demand for human language talent, and saving huge operational expenses – and additional opportunities still exist for further development.

Pros and cons of AI translations

Customer satisfaction and agent efficiency are major deciding criteria for companies in selecting a CXM service provider. Research has shown that customers feel more appreciated when they interact with an agent in their native language, positively influencing their buying decisions and increasing customer brand loyalty.

Using AI translation to respond to customers’ queries can offer numerous advantages, including the ability to offer services in many diversified languages and dialects through omnichannel conversation platforms such as chat, email, voice, and social media in the local language.

Other benefits include:

• Increased agent efficiency and speed for agents who may be slower working in a second or third language
• Reduced need for a multilingual talent pool
• Faster time to proficiency of agents
• Decreased need for sites in local countries

Currently, AI translations primarily are used for text data translation. With expanding data libraries and AI engine training, text data translation accuracy is improving rapidly. But to have broader application success, AI translation must:

• Expand beyond simple, repetitive queries
• Gain insight into human emotions and sentiments
• Reduce contextualization errors to improve accuracy
• Acquire a full understanding of local nuances, tone, formality, vernacular, slang, and colloquialism
• Eliminate human supervision

Current AI translation technology can be inefficient and require human assistance to differentiate between normal conversation and exchanges involving humor or sarcasm. The inability to detect humor or sarcasm is less important in a customer service environment, as customers primarily want to resolve their issue. But it can create problems in content moderation where improper translations and misunderstanding the context of dialogues can lead to reputational losses for brands.

Use of AI translation engines in the CXM industry

To overcome these obstacles and benefit from advanced AI translation technology, many service providers leverage human linguists and digital translator tools to optimize resources.

Digital translator tools bring speed and efficiency, while human experts add accuracy and a personal touch. Combined, these solutions boost agent efficiency and performance by using AI for simple and standardized customer inquiries while transferring inquiries in hard-to-serve, low-volume languages to experts, simultaneously solving the problem of speed and accuracy.

Many service providers have partnered with technology providers to develop AI translation tools to serve their clients globally. For example, Concentrix Lingualab and Webhelp Polyglot combine best-in-class translation engines and machine learning tools with highly skilled language experts in centralized hubs to serve as multilingual service delivery centers. Another BPO provider, Majorel, with their Lingua, too combines machine translation, AI, and crowd-based human quality control.

What does the future hold?

Many technology providers are investing in building advanced translation tools to reduce machine translation engines’ dependence on human linguists.

Translation tools’ limitations will get resolved as AI engines build their content library with diverse languages, predictive replies, industry vocabulary, common phrases, knowledge articles, and vernacular, as well as its understanding of human emotions. The automated self-learnability of AI technology makes it possible to eventually replace humans completely.

Many technology giants also are now focusing on advanced speech translation engines. Meta Universal Speech Translator and Google AI language model are building translation engines that can translate more than 1000 languages.

Technology will also need to solve multiple issues to replace robotic voice delivery with the perfect human voice with flawless command over speech delivery speed, dialect, speaking styles, tone, and slang. And before AI agents fully replace humans, they will also need to understand human sentiments to appropriately reply to customers.

As voice translation tools evolve, they can revolutionize the BPO industry by completely replacing human agents with artificial intelligence platforms. But industry leaders estimate fully operational affordable real-time speech translation tools are still five to 10 years away. These advanced tools offer great potential to change CXM service delivery and transform the customer experience.

If you have questions or would like to discuss developments in this space, reach out to [email protected].

Learn about our Customer Experience Excellence Membership for deep customer experience research and strategy assistance.

And don’t miss our upcoming webinars, LinkedIn sessions, and events for more insight into what AI will bring and customer experience possibilities.

CXM Outsourcing Providers Can Thrive and Grow in the Upcoming Recession: Here’s How

The looming recession offers opportunities for forward-looking Customer Experience Management (CXM) outsourcing providers to emerge stronger. To learn five strategies that can help providers get ready for an economic downturn and win in the long term, read on.

With spiking interest rates across major economies, yield curve inversion in the US, and workforce layoffs by several tech giants, it is largely accepted that the next global recession is imminent (if not already here). A global slowdown may force enterprises to review new or large investments, expansions, or CXM sourcing decisions, directly impacting the CXM outsourcing industry.

While coping with the challenging environment is the immediate priority for third-party CXM providers, it also presents opportunities for proactive providers to emerge from these uncertain times stronger and chart a path for long-term success.

Here are some ways a recession could affect the industry: 

• CXM outsourcing is expected to endure: Historical data suggests that the demand for Business Process Services (BPS) outsourcing remains resilient during an economic downturn as shown below:

Source: Everest Group

In a global slowdown, enterprises look for short-term cost wins and quick and tangible benefits from their investments. The variability in cost structures outsourcing offers helps enterprises free their company’s resources, lowers fixed costs, and makes enterprises more flexible and eventually more competitive. This effect can be seen in quarterly releases where many leading CXM providers have raised their most recent like-for-like revenue growth guidance percentage 

• Essential goods and service industries can act as a safe harbor: According to an Everest Group analysis of the historical correlation between an economic downturn and industry growth, the sectors of Fast-Growth Technology (FGT), travel and hospitality, manufacturing, and luxury retail typically have a higher risk of growth slowdown due to recessions. Healthcare, utilities, consumer packaged goods, and business and financial services (BFS) verticals are less risky and may offer a safety net 

• Contract renewals may get tough: Enterprises, especially those impacted by the downturn, tend to focus on extracting maximum value at lower prices. To achieve cost efficiencies, enterprises may look for a no-frills approach to CXM outsourcing and remove non-essential components from deals, including value-added services and upsell/cross-sell services – resulting in a decline in the Total Contract Value (TCV)

• An enhanced focus on digital CX can counteract the effects: During a global slowdown, focusing on superior CX and customer retention becomes imperative while also reducing or keeping operational expenditure stagnant. Third-party service providers with higher technical capabilities can sort customer queries and resolve simple queries with self-serve or other cost-effective channels, reducing voice volumes and operational overheads

Five strategies for CXM providers to navigate a potential recession

A recession can offer opportunities for well-prepared CXM providers to emerge stronger and triumphant. Service providers need to seize the moment and focus on developing strategies that will provide them with short- and long-term gains.

The following strategies can help providers mobilize for a recession:

• Adopt a digital-first value proposition: Understand that cost reduction while maintaining CX quality is vital for enterprises during an economic downturn. Digital CXM solutions drive cost savings by reducing the cost of operations and service, and support through process optimization, automation, encouraging self-service, and enabling efficient workforce management. Service providers with the capability to manage simple queries leveraging digital technologies such as automation, agent-assist solutions, and conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) can offer better pricing, helping their clients win new contracts, as well as more easily extend and renew existing ones

• Demonstrate operational flexibility: In economic uncertainty, anticipating operational volumes over the coming months is extremely difficult for enterprises. Service providers should focus on adopting flexing staffing models to quickly ramp their operations up and down based on demand, helping enterprises reduce fixed costs and mitigate operational risk

• Take a proactive customer approach: Capitalizing on every opportunity for additional revenue becomes even more important during unpredictable economic times. Enterprises should look to partner with third-party providers who actively monitor customer journeys, can identify customer pain points, and offer self-service solutions for addressing low-complexity queries, reducing inbound issues and support tickets. B2B enterprises should explore partnerships with service providers having defined roles, such as Customer Success Managers (CSMs) who are focused on identifying customer preferences and demand patterns to identify the best-fit opportunities to upsell or cross-sell to end-customers

• Avoid being pressured into bad deals: As the economic cycle enters a downturn, competition over a potentially smaller pie will intensify and can lead to declining prices. Service providers must be financially prudent and avoid pursuing significantly margin dilutive deals. Further, they need to relook at their pricing models and optimize their strategy based on their risk appetite

• Diversify into recession-proof industries: Service providers with a focus on high recession-prone sectors such as travel and hospitality, luxury retail, or debt-fueled start-ups should look to diversify their portfolio and target verticals where the demand for customer experience management is expected to pick up or at least have the lowest impact during the recession. For instance, payment collection in the utility vertical generally experiences increased demand during recessionary times. While entering new verticals is not an easy task, service providers should identify synergies between their current portfolio and targeted industries to develop their market-entry strategies accordingly

A recession in the next few months appears to be an inescapable reality. Regardless, service providers must be well prepared for continued economic uncertainty. While some providers may need to aggressively transform costs and offerings, others can diversify their portfolios and develop flexible offerings for the future. Providers who prepare now and take appropriate steps will not only navigate through difficult business conditions but also emerge stronger than the competition when conditions improve.

This is the second blog in our latest CXM blog series. To learn about CXM strategy, read the first blog, How a Robust CXM Outsourcing Strategy Can Help Enterprises Navigate the Economic Downturn.

To discuss CXM outsourcing opportunities, contact Shirley Hung, David Rickard,  Sharang Sharma, or Divya Baweja.

Customer Data Platform – The Torchbearer of the Personalization at Scale Movement | Blog

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) enable brand marketing teams to build hyper-personalized campaigns and retain high-value loyal customers. Seizing opportunities in this growing market can set brands apart. Learn how to achieve personalization at scale in the second blog in our series.  

In our previous blog, The Rising Role of Customer Data Platforms in Data-driven Personalization, we explored the factors driving CDP’s fast growth of 25 percent in 2022. Let’s now look at how to choose a CDP to gain profitable business outcomes.

The dire need for personalization at scale

True personalization is when Spotify surprises listeners with discovery playlists, when Netflix delivers differentiated experiences to each family member, and when Amazon recommends the exact gift a shopper urgently needs. Personalization at scale happens when companies can perform activities like these for millions of customers, in real-time, and at every relevant time in the customer journey.

Making every customer feel valued and loyal to the brand is the power of personalization. This only can be accomplished by knowing what customers want without being told and delivering it on the right channel and at the precise time.

With the surge in customer touchpoints leading to a massive flood of data from disparate sources and increasingly stringent privacy regulations, delivering tailor-made content for tangible and sustainable business outcomes is direly needed. Marketers today must realize that consumers have an overabundance of options, and demonstrating that they know their consumers better than others is the only way to gain a competitive advantage.

The Customer Data Platform – packaged software that ingests data from multiple sources, draws consumer insights through unique 360-degree profiling, and activates channels – plays a pivotal role in achieving true personalization at scale.

Personalization technology – the role of the customer data platform

Building marketing teams to keep up with the growing customer base is the biggest hurdle enterprises face to personalization at scale. The latest technology can enable marketers to take the long leap from merely collecting demographic data to using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to harness huge amounts of data from disconnected sources.

That’s where the Customer Data Platform comes in.

A CDP’s core function is to create unique customer profiles by collecting data from multiple sources, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, websites, and email campaigns. To achieve personalization at scale, enterprises need best-in-breed platforms that not only collect data but also orchestrate personalized experiences at scale by using smart segmentation, behavioral scores, AI, and ML models that constantly optimize experiences based on real-time interactions.

Choosing the right CDP

Since one size does not fit all, enterprises need to dedicate time and resources to select the right CDP provider that offers expertise aligned with their personalization goals and the use case they prioritize.

Our research finds more than 160 providers offer expertise in these delivery areas and include both enterprise-grade CDPs (such as Salesforce and Adobe) and pure-play CDPs (such as mParticle and Treasure Data).

According to the CDP Institute, four main service categories exist based on capabilities in data, analytics, campaigns, and delivery, as illustrated below:

Exhibit 1:  Customer data platforms categories based on capabilities

Enterprises need to consider many factors when shortlisting CDP vendors, including marketing technology capabilities, vendor maturity, business use case alignment with the vendor’s core strengths, and pricing flexibility.

Evaluating technology features is extremely critical. The CDP Institute defines “shared features” as essential elements for a platform to qualify as a CDP and “distinguished features” as enhancements to the basic platform:

Exhibit 2: Features of customer data platforms 

People and process recommendations

Selecting the right CDP only solves one piece of the entire personalization puzzle. Enterprises also need to further optimize their internal operating models and align their teams with their overall business objectives to ensure success.

Below are the key elements needed to optimize people and processes to achieve personalization at scale:

• Setting goals – Marketers need to make sure the entire team is aligned with customer end goals before implementing any personalization technology.
• Removing silos – True personalization only can be achieved if customers have consistent experiences across touchpoints. As enterprises scale and these touchpoints increase, the number of teams that own them rises. This can lead to varied unconnected customer experiences across channels, provoking scenarios where the marketing team promotes a certain offer and the customer care executive denies it to the customer. Brands need open communication across teams to ensure alignment in tone and messaging.
• Hiring the right talent – In the talent war, enterprises find it extremely difficult to hire and retain the right type of data engineering and data science talent to achieve personalization at scale. Organizations need a talent strategy for their personalization efforts.

Although achieving sustainable personalization at scale can seem daunting, brands that gain the first-mover advantage will benefit by retaining loyal customers and increasing their lifetime value, reducing time to market, and improving workflow efficiency.

Consumers today expect sophisticated experiences that can predict their unspoken demands, and marketers must acknowledge this mindset paradigm shift to remain relevant. Brands that can personalize the customer experience at scale will differentiate themselves in the cut-throat marketing landscape.

To discuss Customer Data Platforms, contact Vaani Sharma at [email protected].

Learn more in our blog, How a Robust CXM Outsourcing Strategy Can Help Enterprises Navigate the Economic Downturn.