AI Won't Make You Like Your Customers

Do You Like the People?

Burger King wants its employees to be nicer to their customers and it’s using AI and bots to analyze employee language and patterns.

I can save them the trouble.

The problem is that retailers seem to hire people who don’t want to be there or don’t like the customers.

A Lesson from The West Wing

In Season 2, Episode 4 “In This White House,” Republican attorney and soon-to-be White House counsel Ainsley Hayes confronts Joshua Lyman and Sam Seaborn on the Administration’s stance on gun control. Since it’s soon after the attempted assassination attempt at the Newseum in which Josh Lyman was severely injured, both Lyman and Seaborn are understandably edgy and defensive about what she says. But she hones in on a point that they weren’t expecting: The anti-gun lobby doesn’t like the people.

Like ‘em or hate ‘em, another fast food chain Chik-fil-A has a history in customer service.

“Chik-fil-A is an interesting case study of a company that likes its customers. A company that hires workers who like their customers - or at least can appear to like them for several minutes. Who can replace the incorrect order with the correct one without throwing fries in your face. Who say “thank you” when you finish a transaction. Who are never on FaceTime when you pull up to order.”

I’m guessing the reason people work at Chik-fil-A goes beyond the paycheck, which is very, very important, and extends to benefits.

Identify the Real Problem

The same holds true for banks, credit unions, community banks. Before you go all in on AI coaching your employees, and recording data, take an inward look:

• Does your FI like its customers? Do your processes reflect that you like your customers?

• Are your digital and manual processes hostile to customers - making them jump through unnecessary hoops or chatbots to get an answer that can only be gotten from a human being? Going to a branch to perform a task that can be easily done online or by a customer service representative over the phone

Identify the problem(s) before you implement a solution

Get and analyze any and all data you have on all customer interactions - whether they are customers reporting a lost debit or credit card or the account abandonment rates in-person, online or in mobile apps, rate of account closings or customer satisfaction surveys.

Taking this step will give you plenty of problems, friction that frustrate your customers. These problems, points of friction or disconnection are opportunities for process upgrades that may or may not require AI technologies.

This step will also point to changes you need to make in hiring practices. Here are two suggestions:

• Hire people who want to do the job, the customer-facing job – whether it’s at a branch or telephone customer representatives.

• Train people who want to do the job but don’t have any experience.

An entrepreneur in my neighborhood once told me she can train anyone to make a

latte or crepe, but she couldn’t train them to like doing it, to remember customers’ names and to be courteous.

I doubt AI can either.

Takeaways

Financial Institutions

• Before you deploy AI technologies to coach customer service representatives or other human employees, identify the real problems in your customer service — both digital and human-based customer service problems and challenges.

  • How do customers move between digital processes and human processes?

  • Are there broken links in those processes?

  • What do customers complain about most?

  • What do customer service employees complain about most?

• Identify ways to address these problems and then identify whether and how AI technologies can help you solve them.

• Encourage problem solving collaboration among LOB leaders, AI teams, customer service employees and IT teams.

• Don’t assume AI can solve your people problems. It may in fact drive away the very people you want to keep.

Digital Banking Vendors

• Accommodate AI capabilities - beyond Gen AI - to improve customer service processes your digital banking solutions.

• Identify ways FIs can use AI to improve customer experiences and service delivery.

• Identify whether your solution can actually support FIs can collaborate internally and customize your solution to reduce process friction between LOBs, customer segments and delivery end points.