Consumers frequently encounter inconsistent brand experiences across various touchpoints in their e-commerce journeys. Marketing efforts often present a vision that differs from customers’ actual experiences during contact center interactions.
Research highlights a common disconnect between CX leaders’ perceptions and reality. Many believe they deliver highly personalized content and report high customer satisfaction, yet surveys often reveal that shoppers’ ratings are often much lower.
According to Michelle Schroeder, SVP of marketing at intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) software firm PolyAI, brands must take a more operational role within their contact centers to better establish direct brand impressions. By having a direct brand presence and employing cutting-edge technologies like AI, companies can deliver more personalized and cohesive customer experiences.
The perception gap in the contact center can significantly impact customer retention and sales growth. When companies overestimate their CX performance, they miss opportunities to address critical issues that drive away their customers, said Schroeder.
“Every overlooked issue is an overlooked chance to improve. Poor contact center experiences can contradict the positive brand image created through marketing efforts, leading to customer dissatisfaction. This disconnect can result in reduced customer loyalty, negative word-of-mouth, and decreased repeat purchases,” Schroeder told CRM Buyer.
Missed Perceptions Cause Contact Center Sales Calamity
PolyAI SVP of Marketing
Customers who have frustrating experiences in the contact center are less likely to engage with upsell or cross-sell opportunities, which directly impacts sales growth.
The perception gap can also lead to a misallocation of resources. Companies mistakenly invest in areas that do not address actual customer pain points, Schroeder added.
Failure to recognize and address the true state of their CX results increases the risk of losing competitive advantage in an increasingly customer-centric market. That ultimately hampers both retention rates and sales growth potential, she offered.
Applying CRM Strategies That Keep Brands Alive in Contact Centers
We asked Michelle Schroeder to share more of her marketing insights about revitalizing brand perceptions.
CRM Buyer: How prominent are contact center failures in presenting customers with consistent messaging?
Michelle Schroeder: Contact centers offer a unique opportunity to resolve brand inconsistencies. They play a pivotal role in shaping brand perception and loyalty at the frontline of customer interaction.
However, companies often overlook the link between their outward-facing brand image and customer service experience. If that experience is not prioritized when customers reach out for support, it does not matter how immersive the front-end brand interactions are — the disconnect between the two highlights a need for seamless, brand-aligned contact center communications.
How can brands use the contact center to resolve inconsistencies?
Schroeder: The key is not just to view the contact center as a reactive problem-solving unit. Instead, view it as a strategic brand asset. This involves moving from rigid, scripted interactions to more natural conversational engagements.
By applying brand attributes to customer service, contact center leaders can ensure the brand is a part of every interaction, creating a more cohesive experience. This shift encourages companies to understand customers’ preferences, address inconsistencies proactively, and foster trust with their audience.
What role can artificial intelligence play in achieving this change?
Schroeder: Conversational AI, particularly AI voice assistants, can deliver personalized customer experience at scale in the contact center. Historically, they faced challenges adopting new technologies, especially in the voice channel. Now, advanced machine learning and spoken language understanding [SLU] offer solutions to overcome these limitations and meet customers’ expectations.
How can CRM platforms best leverage this new AI technology?
Schroeder: Next-generation AI helps brands better understand customer interactions and gain valuable insights on preferences, issues, and potential improvements — all of which play into creating meaningful connections with customers.
In the contact center, conversational AI is most effective when used with a human touch — using voice assistants as the frontline of customer interactions to handle FAQs and other common queries, while human agents tackle more complex customer needs that require empathy.
However, since the voice assistants are programmed to align with the brand’s values, they are guaranteed to deliver an appropriately branded experience every time. Their responses will improve as they “learn” from their customer interactions.
Ultimately, AI helps bridge the gap between the contact center and the brand, driving a more collaborative and personalized customer experience. This evolution shifts the contact center from a cost center to a proactive brand asset, fostering stronger customer loyalty.
What CX strategy errors cause brand disconnection in contact centers?
Schroeder: Consistently communicating brand values and promises across every customer touchpoint is mission-critical to establishing and maintaining customer trust.
If brand values are promoted one way, but the contact center’s operations, policies, and employee behaviors do not reflect them, the disconnect between the two can damage the organization’s overall brand reputation.
Brand promises must align with the lived service experiences of customers, or the foundation for your brand will crumble.
Should brand perceptions be aspirational, or are they more essential?
Schroeder: To be successful, it should be an operational essential. Rather than putting it on the back burner, it should be a frontline strategy to bolster loyalty and brand perception. When companies choose not to prioritize personalization at scale, customers will feel like they are just another number, losing their connection and loyalty to the brand.
How can brands spot CX disconnect before it goes too far?
Schroeder: Actively listening to customer feedback across all channels creates insight into customer experiences and pain points. Analyzing call trends, common issues, and customer sentiment helps identify disconnects early. Implementing robust voice analytics and AI-powered tools can help surface valuable insights from real-time customer interactions.
Brands should also encourage open communication, particularly between marketing, product teams, and customer service. This cross-functional collaboration helps identify discrepancies between brand promises and actual customer outcomes.
Regular customer surveys, mystery shopping, and monitoring social media sentiment also provide early warning signs of CX disconnect. Ultimately, brands should prioritize creating a holistic view of the customer journey and consistently evaluate whether their service delivery aligns with their brand promise and customer expectations.
How can brands correct rating themselves higher than what their customers think about the CX reality?
Schroeder: Companies need to prioritize objective data collection and analysis. To address the lack of a comprehensive understanding of their customers’ CX views, brands should broadly implement customer feedback opportunities with post-interaction surveys, focus groups, and social media monitoring.
Gathering quantitative and qualitative data is crucial to obtaining a complete picture. Companies should also invest in advanced analytics tools to process this data and derive actionable insights.
How valuable is cultural transparency?
Schroeder: Encouraging this, along with accountability within the organization, can help align internal perceptions with customer reality. Regular sharing of customer feedback and metrics across all levels of the company, including leadership, helps bridge this gap. Companies should also consider bringing in third-party auditors or consultants to provide an unbiased assessment of their CX performance.
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