Dive Brief:
- Replacing corporate logos with photos and personal bios of customer service agents on social media can reduce complaints and boost satisfaction at no additional cost, according to research published in the journal Production and Operations Management in October.
- The study examined T-Mobile's 2017 decision to replace standardized company logos with personal agent profiles, including photos, names and brief biographies, on Twitter customer service accounts.
- Researchers found that personal profiles increased positive sentiment in customer tweets by 4.8% and reduced the likelihood of complaints by 1.1%, leading to seven to eight fewer weekly complaints. It also boosted customer satisfaction by 3.4%, resulting in approximately 23 additional "thank you" responses or likes per week on average.
Dive Insight:
Brands are rapidly adopting AI chatbots and other emerging technologies to improve customer service response times and lower costs, but they risk alienating their customers by eliminating the human touch.
Too often, brands think they “can deflect customers away from expensive human agents and towards AI-powered chatbots to help solve their problems,” Isabelle Zdatny, head of thought leadership at Qualtrics XM Institute, told CX Dive in October.
As a result, customers often become frustrated when an algorithm or chatbot doesn’t understand their problem, with half of consumers concerned that AI will impede their ability to connect to a human, according to Qualtrics XM Institute.
Replacing corporate logos with personal profiles improves customer perceptions of warmth and competence. When customers see a real person's face and bio rather than a corporate logo, they perceive agents as friendlier and better able to solve their problems.
The effects, however, varied by customer segment. Verified Twitter users and customers who were women showed stronger positive responses to personalized profiles. That’s because verified users tend to share positive experiences publicly, and women generally express emotions more openly, the researchers said.
Regardless, the strategy can be cost-effective for businesses.
“This cost-neutral strategy not only enhances the customer experience but also maintains operational efficiency,” according to the study.
However, customers interacting with personalized profiles showed less tolerance for delays.
“While personal agent profiles can enhance satisfaction, they also raise customers' expectations for timely and attentive service. When those expectations are unmet — such as during longer delays — customers may experience greater frustration,” according to the study.
Still, the findings have broader implications for customer service and support, including “other e-service operations where the agent's identity, human or AI chatbot, is not immediately apparent,” according to the study.
