Feb. 20, 2017

Photo source: istock.com

By Ashish Gambhir, co-founder and president, MomentSnap

On the front line, efficiency is the name of the game. Enhancing workplace flow is an easy way to notch up the bottom line, and companies dedicate tremendous bandwidth to working out operational kinks.

Increasingly, the result of these self-audits is a move toward automation.

The buzz about bots is on the rise. No, not the all-knowing Isaac Asimov supercomputers the 1-800-number variety that never seems to detect any urgency in the phrase "I'd like to speak to a person."

The bots we encounter in our everyday lives are still rudimentary, but McKinsey estimates automated processes will eventually be able to replace 45 percent of current workplace activities. As the benefits of automation cost reduction, more efficiency with human capital become clearer and clearer, the development of self-governing systems and our reliance on them will accelerate.

Many corners of the industry have already embraced automation as a cornerstone of the future: Between Tesla's autonomous Model-S vehicle, Amazon's flirting with self-guided drone delivery and fully automated stores, and Japanese companies deploying customer service robots on sales floors, the process has been set in motion.

This raises a pressing question for industry: how much is too much?

There is no categorical imperative for when and where automation is appropriate; the most forward-thinking companies will continuously push the boundaries to see how much they can get away with.

Intrinsic to automation, though, is the capacity to severely disengage employees and customers alike. It's crucial to recognize certain circumstances in which automation should be leveraged with extreme caution. Some are intuitive others less so.

1. Employee recognition. As one of the cornerstones of employee engagement, recognizing great work is sacred. The dilemma, of course, is that in 90 percent of hourly workplaces, managers readily admit that they don't recognize employees enough as it is. That's why top-notch engagement platforms are incorporating automated recognition systems that sync with performance data to push achievements and badges to workers who are excelling, with no managerial onus good work never goes unrecognized. The flip side to such systems is that recognition can easily begin to feel canned and hollow, as if the company is just checking a box. The happy medium here is that there must always be a method of giving authentic, organic recognition that's hand-crafted rather than triggered by an algorithm: whether it's a function built into an engagement platform or it requires a manager to actively seek out the top five weekly performers and give them a hearty kudos. This way automation can play a role in recognition maintenance while not eclipsing the human element of acknowledgement.

2. Fielding customer feedback. There's a reason the clueless phone bot has become a television trope: whether a customer wants to congratulate a brand for good work or mount a complaint, the worst way to make them feel as if their thoughts are being heard is to herald them with a voice recording. Some customers particularly younger generations are open-minded when it comes to dealing with voice bots, and certainly there is a place for them in routine practices like checking account balances or processing a simple refund. For many customers, though, bots only serve as an initial source of frustration that makes life more difficult for human customer service specialists at the end of the phone chain. Bots should be programmed to pass sensitive call topics directly to a person, and further, should respond to basic commands like "I want to speak to a representative."

3. Guest interaction. The caveat to the McKinsey statistic: although 45 percent of work activity can be automated, the impact on the overall number of occupations will be negligible. This means most jobs will remain human, with varying percentages of the tasks that are currently handled by people being taken over by machines. For retail workers, McKinsey estimates around 55 percent of tasks could be automated: things like folding and hanging clothing, counting inventory, and maybe even greeting guests. Some frontiers are currently outside of robots' reach, though. Stylistic advice at a fashion outlet, for example, requires a human sense of intuition. The same goes for the majority of specialty retail stores, from cooking and furniture to music and entertainment. Unless we achieve perfect artificial intelligence, machines will lack the crucial ingredient that is passion and that's what makes retail employees shine when dealing with customers.

Topics: Customer Experience, Customer Service, Technology

Read more:

The art of balancing workplace automation - Retail Customer Experience (blog)