We are at a nexus point in customer experience (CX), where technology and high inflation are two strong headwinds. These are pulling brands towards greater cost and operational efficiency, but perhaps at the expense of service quality.
2024 was a year affected by significant budgetary constraints, where companies had to decide what to prioritize in their customer support services. To reduce operating expenses, many companies either sourced low-cost CX providers or put immense pressure on existing ones, asking them to do more with less. This approach, however, is shortsighted and often leads to declining service quality. It risks losing what truly matters, the long-term loyalty of consumers.
“AI can guide the way, but it needs to be implemented strategically and provide real value.”
Brands also focused on AI investments in a bid to increase efficiency. However, many AI technologies fell short of consumer expectations—often resulting in more effort, less convenience, and unsatisfactory resolutions that still forced people to rely on live agent support. Instead of encouraging customers to self-serve, it did the opposite, and only increased people’s reliance on traditional voice services.
AI, as we discovered, was no silver bullet. Because, when the deciding factor of any business decision – whether it’s technology deployment or outsourcing partnerships—is purely to cut costs, there are no winners. Customers become frustrated with diminishing service quality, brand trust can erode, and a company’s reputation can suffer – as was evident in Forrester’s latest CX Index, where even elite brands saw noticeable declines in customer satisfaction.
This erosion of consumer trust must be addressed before it’s too late. In this case, contact centers should not be viewed as financial liabilities, but as opportunities to enhance satisfaction, capture lifetime value, and ensure enduring brand loyalty. Outsourcing partners should not be chosen simply because they provide the lowest cost services, but because they provide efficiency gains and quality experiences through a balance of the right technology and talent.
AI can guide the way, but it needs to be implemented strategically and provide real value. It should enable seamless interactions and quicker resolutions and provide a way for agents to increase their effectiveness, which is still the best way to build connections with customers.
The good news is that businesses don’t have to go to the other side of the world to do this cost-effectively. In 2024, we launched itelligence, our custom-built AI-powered platform. It combines data analytics, advanced sentiment analysis, and automatic quality scoring to enhance agent performance. It can even detect and transcribe Caribbean accents for more accurate speech-to-text analysis, which no current, off-the-shelf AI solutions can offer.
This technology has the potential to streamline operations, boost agent productivity, and deliver more personalized experiences that drive loyalty, and it has just begun to show its potential. We are also currently developing AI agents that are fully responsive, intelligent, and interactive, which we do not view as a human replacement, but as a helpful addition to overwhelmed support teams during periods of high consumer demand.
As we move into 2025, clients who made wise decisions about where to invest their dollars will soon see the long-term benefits and value in choosing the right partner with the right capabilities. Brands will need more than just low-cost CX providers; they will need ones that can provide reliability, consistency, and the technology needed to succeed in global markets that are, in some ways, more volatile and less predictable than ever.
Headline Image: itel CEO & Founding Chairman Yoni Epstein. Photo credit: itel
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