25-26 March 2019, Dubai

AI : Driving CX Transformation

We had the privilege of speaking recently to Hamza who is one of our esteemed speakers in the upcoming Customer experience conference in Dubai. He will be one of the speakers conducting an expert presentation focusing on the battle of the bots - integrating AI and Chatbots to create a brisk personalised customer experience

What are the current top 5 challenges faced by service quality and customer service managers today?

 I believe the top 5 challenges faced by customer service managers include the following: 

1. Employee motivation and retention
2. Under-trained customer service professionals
3. High turnover of staff which increases costs in terms of hiring and training cycles.
4. Lack of ownership.
5. Managing and resolving customer complaints, queries, and concerns via Omni channel customer care.

What would your advise be to delegates of this event to remain competitive in this marketplace?

My advice to people is to have an open mind. We are all shaped by experiences but we need to start asking more questions. Sharing what we know is important, but listening is where all learning stems from. Imagine a future where whatever we are doing today or previously have been doing would imminently become irrelevant. And we have to come together to rethink it all over again. Be open and ready to change even what goes against everything we have learnt so far. Excellence has never occurred in the comfort zone. Let’s break out of the silos of our experiences, that’s the only way for us to truly fly. The marketplace is chock-full of opportunities. And this region is known to visualize, embrace, enact and achieve what has typically been deemed impossible.

You will be presenting at the upcoming event. Which topic in the event (other than your own) interests you most? Why?

I think the entire event has been curated with an eye for detail. Every single session is made for the audience and has been put together thoughtfully. It’s actually a tough question trying to decide which one trumps the rest.

What is the importance of maintaining human touch within the use of technology?

Recent technological advances have made aspects of customer service faster, and more efficient but by sacrificing the ‘human touch’. The difference between a luxury hotel and one that isn’t is that the former centers everything around the human experience and makes it memorable mainly through human touch. A customer can successfully communicate with an organization’s customer care department without directly interacting with another human being. While this gets the ‘job’ done, these interactions miss out on the warmth, empathy and understanding that can result from a conversation between two humans. This becomes even more apparent when the customer’s concern is complicated, urgent, or just out of the ordinary. At that point, a human representative is needed to step in and establish one-on-one communication with the customer.

How can AI and Chatbots be integrated to create a brisk personalized customer experience?

It’s not a question of ‘how’ when it comes to AI and Chatbots integration for more personalized customer experiences. They are already being integrated into social media platforms, such as Facebook’s ‘M’, as well as onto websites in the form of fully-automated live chat support.  The challenge lies in bringing a human element into the entire interaction between an end-user and the company being represented by the Chatbot. The best way to accomplish this is by adopting a hybrid approach to AI-driven customer experiences. There should be a cadre of well-trained, emotionally-intelligent customer service representatives ready to facilitate customers when required along with efficient Chatbots.

What is your best advice to improve customer loyalty by leveraging AI or cloud based platforms?

Customer loyalty has to be earned through consistently positive, high-quality customer experiences. Depending on an organization’s type of business, they can optimize existing customer service processes by adding in AI or cloud-based platforms. Organizations must resist the temptation to implement or introduce new platforms unless it results in measurable ROI. AI-based platforms work best where they can reduce repetitive labor and streamline routine tasks. A more efficiently-run organization has a greater chance of gaining customer loyalty, but this is not a straight line.

Why should customers be valued as a revenue generator for any organization?

One of the primary reasons why customers should be valued is because they are the core reason why you got into business and even more the reason one continues to operate one. Companies can also not ignore the fact that it is now easier than ever for customers to be able to switch vendors, and competition encourages that switch. There have been campaigns where if you Google the Samsung s9, the first paid ad you see is of the Huawei Mate, and you can move between Du to Etisalat to Virgin by simply sending a text message. With ever decreasing customer loyalty and an empowered customer, organizations have to value their customers now more than ever.

To view the full event details, please click here

Speaker Spotlight on: 

Hamza Nasir

General Manager, LiveAdmins DMCC, UAE

For more information, please contact