WATCH NOW: How to balance digital automation with personal connection, with Zendesk + XTRAFIT

“Behind the AI there is always a customer who is a person,” is a statement all technologists must keep front of mind when navigating the new world of automation.

The words come from Simon Wals, Project Manager CX at Xtrafit, in the second episode of Zendesk’s new Speaker Spotlight vodcast.

Sponsored by AWS, this episode delves into how businesses can balance artificial intelligence (AI) with the much-needed human interactions in customer experience.

XTRAFIT is a German fitness company, headquartered in Cologne, which operates 18 clubs in the affordable-premium segment, with its lowest subscription starting at €25 per month.

“It can be difficult to be individual,” says Wals, pointing to the increasingly competitive fitness sector thatXTRAFIT is continuing to take up market share. He says the company finds it easier to focus on “the vision rather than the mission”—because while the company’s mission is to be a low-price gym, customers often associate that with low quality, which is most certainly not the case with XTRAFIT.

“So our vision is to be transparent, open and fair, which relies on communication with the end-customer. What separates us from others is that we communicate well.”

For that reason, Wals says it is so important not to over-rely on AI for communication, especially in sectors which are driven by human touchpoints, such as physically going to a gym to workout.

“AI can be a catalyst for better customer experience… but it’s not solving all the problems.”

Interviewed by Garrett Lawlor, Regional VP of SMB Sales EMEA at Zendesk and Christian Muller, Senior Manager, SMB Sales Team DACH at Zendesk, Wals advises business leaders to think about the customer’s use of digital technologies before integrating AI, pointing to key touchpoints such as process optimisation, text generation, analysing content, first-level support and auto responses, which could all benefit from automation.

“Different touchpoints have different needs of AI.”

He says member services was an obvious area to benefit from AI integration at XTRAFIT, from customers querying their accounts to upselling memberships—all of these can be personalised digitally.

XTRAFIT uses an AI chatbot to handle standard tickets and frequently asked questions, “but it’s the second and third-level support that it’s important that agents handle the ticket”.

“In the back system of Zendesk you have the perfect ratio of personalisation and optimisation,” he says.

“Employees can use AI to improve because AI is summarising tickets to provide them information and recommend templates—so it’s a very good opportunity to personalise your ticket answering and give a better member service.”

As well as balancing AI and customer experience, in this episode Wals also discusses integration and the fine art of change management to encourage customer service agents to embrace new technologies.

To learn more and watch the full conversation, click here.