Recently, I moderated a panel discussion on how customer experience (CX) platforms improve customer engagement and interactions. To my surprise, the panelists came up with examples that added more complexity to customer interactions instead of enhancing the interactions.
That’s the reason why I decided to write on this topic.
When we hear the term “customer experience platform,” we instinctively think of happier customers and smoother operations.
But in reality, many businesses find themselves asking:
Wait, did we just add another layer of complexity instead of solving anything?
This is what I also understood while moderating the panel discussion. If you think the CX platforms add more complexity to the mix, you’re not fully wrong.
Bringing in a CX platform is not a technical decision. Instead, it’s a strategy choice.
The results depend on how well it aligns with the real needs of businesses and customers.
Do CX platforms really improve engagement?
They can, but I doubt if all of them do.
A good customer experience (CX) platform will coordinate with different systems and ensure that customer interactions are smooth and consistent.
However, if it is just a helpdesk tool dressed up with dashboards and features that don’t talk to each other, it can make things complex. Your team will end up spending more time figuring out the tool than helping customers.
Let me walk you through a few examples that the panelists shared during the discussion, which added more complexity to customer interactions.
Example 1: Half-connected experience
A travel company implemented a CX suite to unify its call center, chatbot, and social media interactions.
The intent was good.
However, the chatbot and the call center were managed by different teams using separate workflows within the same platform.
So, when a customer escalated his issue from chatbot to phone, the agent had zero visibility into the conversation history. The customer had to repeat himself, and the call time went up considerably.
This resulted in a poor customer experience and a poorer CSAT score.
The platform had all the tools, but they were not connected well.
Example 2: Over-automation
An e-commerce company wanted to reduce agent load and launched a heavily automated CX stack with chatbots, self-service, and integration of every possible channel.
The one channel they missed integrating properly is the human agent. There was absolutely no fallback to human agents in critical journeys like refund processing or returns.
This became a huge issue, and tickets looped through bots, response times lagged, and customers had to post on social channels to get noticed and heard.
This became negative publicity for the brand.
Example 3: Drowned in dashboards
A large bank moved to a CX platform to benefit from real-time analytics, journey mapping, and customer sentiment tracking.
However, every department customized its dashboards differently.
So, marketing saw a different NPS data than customer service. Branches didn’t trust the sentiment insights.
No one acted on the data because they couldn’t agree on which data to trust.
In all three examples, the platform was blamed. In the first two cases, they discontinued the usage of the platform.
While CX platforms are usually implemented to drive customer engagement and interactions, the way in which they are implemented, integrated, and adopted by organizations makes a real difference.
Capabilities that drive CX transformation
Here’s what separates transformational CX platforms from the rest.
Omnichannel capabilities
Often, we come across platforms that say, “We support chat, voice, and email.”
Does this mean it is omnichannel?
Not necessarily.
What you will have to look at is whether your customers can pick up a conversation right where they left off across channels, devices, and time.
If your customers have to repeat themselves, then you are only adding to the complexity and not transforming it. A true omnichannel contact center solutions ensures seamless, context-rich interactions that follow the customer throughout their journey
Real-time intelligence
Does your platform capture customer intent, context, and sentiment in real time?
The moment you do this, you don’t have to ask your customers, “How do I help you?” Instead, you can ask them, “I see you had a delivery issue yesterday; let’s get that resolved.”
Automation that makes sense
Any automation is good as long as it works. What if I hit a roadblock with your chatbot, and I don’t have an option to reach an agent seamlessly? That is adding complexity to the interaction.
Ideally, your platform should deflect all routine queries to the chatbot and human agents for nuanced and complex issues.
Besides, you should always provide customers with the option to reach out to an agent at any point during the interaction.
Agent experience
The CX platforms are not just about the customers. It is also about your agents. If the agent experience is cluttered, slow, and disjointed, it can ruin the customer experience considerably.
Ensure that the CX platform comes with agent productivity tools, guided workflows, and simplified interfaces.
Actionable analytics
Does your analytics have built-in intelligence?
Does it just say that your resolution rates dropped by 12%?
Or does it say that your resolution rate dropped by 12% last week? What are the reasons?
How does ClearTouch stand out?
We have been working with more than 1500 customers worldwide across banking, healthcare, and collections. And our platform is designed to avoid every possible CX trap.
Here are some of our advantages:
Built for speed: Deployed in 24 to 48 hours. You don’t need a battalion of consultants or a six-month roadmap.
Per-minute pricing: No minimum guarantees, no lock-ins. You pay for what you use.
Omnichannel native: All interfaces like email, voice, SMS, chat, bots, website, mobile, and social integrated with context preserved.
Agent-first design: Intelligent routing, real-time coaching, and a unified view to empower the agents.
Intelligent analytics: Dashboards that make sense and flag issues before they turn red.
- Will this help us understand our customers better?
- Will this reduce friction across channels and touchpoints?
- Will this make life easier for our agents?
- Will this give us insights we can act on?
If the answer to these four questions is not a resounding ‘Yes,’ then you should reconsider your decision to implement a CX platform.
You have to design your CX with care for it to benefit you and your customers.