Indian customers vote in favor of being serviced by a chatbot for their queries: Verint

The results of a large-scale study of more than 2000 Indian consumers Verint Systems Inc., The Customer Engagement Company, highlights that the mounting customer expectations are emboldening organizations to adopt an ‘always-on’ approach to service, and work. The global study was carried out in partnership with Opinium Research LLC.

Commenting on driving CX in a digital first environment, Anil Chawla, MD Customer Engagement Services, Verint said “Organisations need to think Customer Experience (CX) first as they build their digital transformation blue-print. Capturing holistic customer journey will earn organisations long term customer loyalty. Dependence of customers on self-serve channels for simple tasks would naturally require the human channel to be strengthened for more sophisticated roles and tasks. As Indian customers show more confidence in use of chatbots, the time is ripe to smarten our chatbots from simple FAQ chatbots to AI backed conversational chatbots for key industry verticals like - BFSI, e-travel, e-commerce and digital utility services.”

Research Insights

Indian customers are more loyal to brands that use digital tools as primary channel of customer engagement.

As frontrunners, 70% of the Indian customers are more loyal to brands that use digital tools like e-mail, apps, chatbots and AI as primary channel of customer engagement.

By 2030, Indian customers will still want the human interface to be integral to customer service.

Indian customers are more inclined towards using digital channels of customer service than their global counterparts. 67% of the respondents agree that digital channels provide the best overall experience but fast forward to 2030, Indian customers will still want the human interface to be integral to customer service.

Indian customers prefer self-serve channels to fulfill simple tasks. 31% prefer making payment online while 24% customers prefer making new purchases online. However, for complicated tasks like raising an issue; Indian customers prefer to reach out to a human channel either through a store or a contact centre.

Key customer insights from the use of chatbots for customer engagement

64% of Indian customers vote in favor of being serviced by a chatbot for their queries vs. only 39% of their global counterparts.

67% of the Indian customers vs. their global counterparts feel strongly about service providers’ digital /self-service channels can offer better customer service.

Indian consumers are happy to be served by a chatbot but 66% of the respondents would want to use the human channel as and when they want.

65% of the Indian customers feel that they can strike a better deal in person or speaking to a customer representative. While digital channels are more convenient, contact centres are still the seats of cross-selling and up-selling to customers.

62% of the Indian customers are less likely to engage with brands that plan to replace humans with digital alternatives like chatbots and AI.

Globally, customers worry that their queries will get lost or misunderstood by fully automated services like chatbots.

76% of the Indian respondents agree that their queries will be lost by fully automated services like chatbots.