Financial software company Xero uses technology to support its customer service efforts.
How do businesses that rely increasingly on technology and data become more “human”? It’s a question that’s front of mind for Rachael Powell, Chief Customer and People Officer at financial software business Xero. “It’s a conundrum and a constant balancing act,” Powell says. “You have to ask, ‘How can we get the economies of scale that AI and machine learning give us while not losing that personal touch?’ It’s really important to us that we remain human.” Powell says the first way Xero does it is by looking for ways to engage with customers and partners directly. This might involve, for instance, providing direct customer advice from a professional bookkeeper or specific content that will help them understand an accountancy issue. “Our customer support teams are qualified accountants and bookkeepers – they’re purposeful people, degree-level accountants. We don’t outsource any of it.”
Rachael Powell, Chief Customer and People Officer at Xero
“We’ve seen our cost to serve go down over the years. We’ve also seen our transactional net promoter score go up.”Powell points to research that shows most customers prefer to use company websites to get answers to questions rather than using the phone or email. “We know that more than 50 per cent of customers think it’s important to solve product issues themselves rather than rely on customer service, because they’re learning the product,” she says. “That’s why our education and curriculum team sits under customer success.” Powell says customers who have ready access to support and information “fall in love with the brand”, and this helps them stay engaged. “It’s all around ease of use for them,” she says. Xero believes in a flexible approach to dealing with customer queries. It can’t be just solved with technology or human intervention only – these days, companies must be excellent at both. “It’s very much a judgment call that needs to be made by the qualified customer experience professionals we have in our organisation,” she says. “They have a sense of meaning and purpose in terms of the role they play, and a lot of autonomy in how they respond to customer inquiries.” Powell says Xero’s “horses for courses” approach is working – for customers and the bottom line. “We’ve seen our cost to serve go down over the years,” she says. “We’ve also seen our transactional net promoter score go up. “We run an autonomous environment where the team [members] are left to their own devices to make decisions about what is the best and most effective way they can anticipate the customer’s requirements. [We want to] meet the customer’s needs in a way that delights them and over-delivers on what we’ve promised.” Further reading: Marketing and HR in lockstep Photo: Alex Knight on Unsplash