Tag: customer experience strategy

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Personalised Customer Support: More Than First Names

personalised customer support


In today’s digital landscape, personalised customer support has become more than just a buzzword. It’s a critical component of customer satisfaction and loyalty. While addressing customers by their first names in emails is a start, true personalisation delves deeper, aiming to understand and meet individual customer needs effectively.

The Real Meaning of Personalised Customer Support

Personalisation in customer support is about delivering relevant, timely and context-aware interactions that make customers feel valued. It’s not merely about using customer data but about using it wisely to enhance the customer experience.

Key aspects include:

  • Understanding Customer History: Recognising previous interactions to provide consistent and informed support.
  • Anticipating Needs: Using data to predict and address customer issues before they arise.
  • Tailoring Communication: Adapting the tone, channel and content of communication to suit individual preferences.

Why Personalisation Matters

The importance of personalised customer support is underscored by these compelling statistics:

  • 71% of customers expect personalised experiences, with 76% expressing frustration when they don’t receive them.
  • 80% of buyers are more likely to purchase when brands offer personalised customer experiences.
  • 63% of consumers expect customer support agents to know their unique needs and expectations.

These figures highlight that customers not only appreciate but expect personalisation. Failing to deliver can lead to dissatisfaction and loss of business.

Challenges in Scaling Personalised Customer Support

While the benefits are clear, scaling personalised customer support presents some challenges:

  • Data Management: Consolidating customer data across platforms to create a unified view.
  • Technology Integration: Implementing tools that enable personalisation without overcomplicating processes.
  • Maintaining Human Touch: Ensuring that automation doesn’t replace the empathy and understanding that human agents provide.

Strategies for Effective Personalisation at Scale

To overcome these challenges, businesses can adopt the following strategies:

  1. Invest in Unified Customer Data Platforms: Tools that aggregate data from various sources to provide a comprehensive customer profile.
  2. Leverage AI and Machine Learning: These technologies can analyse customer behaviour to offer personalised recommendations and predict future needs.
  3. Empower Customer Service Agents: Provide agents with access to customer data and the autonomy to make decisions that enhance the customer experience.
  4. Implement Feedback Loops: Regularly collect and analyse customer feedback to refine personalisation strategies.

Conclusion

Personalised customer support is no longer optional; it’s a necessity in building strong customer relationships and driving business success. By understanding customer expectations and implementing strategies to meet them, businesses can provide support that not only resolves issues but also fosters loyalty and satisfaction.

Want to Get Personalisation Right Without the Guesswork?

We help growing businesses design customer support strategies that balance personalisation, automation and human connection without overwhelming your team or your tech stack.

→ Get in touch here to explore how we can help tailor the right approach for your business.

Sources:

Posted on by — Leave a comment

AI in Customer Support: When Speed Isn’t the Smartest Move

AI in customer support

There’s no question AI in customer support is changing the landscape, and fast. But in the rush to automate, streamline and accelerate, many companies are discovering something unexpected:

Speed isn’t always the smartest move.

We’ve been sold the idea that AI equals instant efficiency. But when applied carelessly, that efficiency can come at the cost of customer trust, team morale and long-term growth.

It’s time to move beyond “faster” and start thinking “smarter.”

The Cost of Chasing Speed

In the pursuit of faster resolutions, support leaders are turning to AI to handle everything from triaging tickets to answering FAQs, pre-filling responses and more. And yes, the upside can be impressive.

But the hidden costs? Also real. Hidden costs can manifest in various guises including:

  • Customers stuck in bot loops
  • Agents cleaning up automation mistakes
  • Inaccurate personalisation
  • Handoffs that feel clunky or cold
  • Short-term speed, long-term dissatisfaction

Speed without context leads to confusion.

Speed without empathy leads to churn.

Where AI in Customer Support Actually Works

AI is incredibly powerful when used intentionally.

Here’s where AI in customer support adds genuine value:

  • Smart triage – Routing to the right team with less friction
  • Simple, high-volume query handling – “Where’s my order?” or “How do I reset my password?”
  • Agent support – Summarising threads, suggesting next steps or surfacing help articles
  • Pattern recognition – Spotting customer behaviour trends earlier

The best support teams are using AI to enhance human performance, not shortcut it.

The Smarter Approach: Strategy Before Speed

Before plugging in tools, take a step back and ask yourself:

  • Are we clear on why we’re automating this part of the journey?
  • Does it serve the customer or are we just bowing under internal pressure to “do more with less”?
  • Is our team onboard, trained and ready to partner with AI or are they working around it?

Because here’s the truth: Smarter customer support starts with leadership. Not tooling.

Want to Build a Support Experience That’s Smart, Not Just Fast?

We help growing businesses rethink how they integrate AI into their customer experience — so it works for your people, not against them.

→ Download our free guide on preventing support burnout

→ Explore our course on team development

→ Get in touch here to explore how we can help

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Smarter Customer Support: What’s Changing and Why It Matters

smarter customer support

Over the past few weeks, we’ve explored some of the most overlooked aspects of smarter customer support. Not as a cost centre or afterthought, but as a cultural, strategic and operational engine for growth.

The posts covered everything from burnout and team structure to tooling, tiering, and leadership. And there’s a pattern that’s hard to ignore:

The smartest companies are starting to treat support less like a department and more like a mindset.

They’re not just solving problems. They’re building trust, designing better experiences and creating long-term value.

So… what’s next?

The Shift Is Already Happening

Customer expectations are evolving fast and tech is evolving even faster.

Leaders are asking better questions:

  • How do we personalise support at scale without burning our people out?
  • What does good automation look like?
  • Where do we draw the line between human connection and smart self-service?

These aren’t just support questions. They’re business questions and they’re shaping what the next wave of high-performing teams will look like.

We’re Moving Into Smarter Customer Support

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be diving into a new content arc focused on:

  • The role of AI in customer experience
  • How to personalise at scale (and why it matters)
  • The balance between speed, strategy and human connection

If the last few posts were about rethinking support, this next phase is about reinventing how it fits into the bigger picture.

Want to Go Deeper on the Human Side of Support?

If the recent posts resonated with you, I’ve created a self-paced course called “How to Develop Your Team”. It’s built for businesses looking to level up how they lead, grow, and support their people.

It covers the kinds of topics we’ve been discussing: team burnout, culture signals, psychological safety and performance strategy.

You can also download my free guide on preventing support team burnout. It’s a great place to start if you’re seeing the pressure building on your frontline.

👉 Grab the free guide here

👉 Or explore the course to take things further.