May 20, 2025

What Customers Really Expect from Brands Featuring Kenji Hayward

31 minutes

Building Trust with AI in Customer Support

Shep interviews Kenji Hayward, Senior Director of Customer Support at Front. He talks about Front's The State of Service Expectations report and how customer expectations are evolving around AI, response times, loyalty, and what businesses can do to meet and exceed those expectations.

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:  

What are the top expectations customers have from brands?

What role does AI play in enhancing customer interactions and support?

How many bad experiences does it take before a customer stops doing business with a company?

Why is it important for companies to use their products?

Is there a difference between how businesses and customers perceive good response times?

Top Takeaways:  

Be a customer of your own business. One of the best ways to understand and improve a product is by using it yourself. When team members, including managers and leaders, act as customers, they feel what real customers experience, both the good and the bad.

The State of Service Expectations by Front found that it only takes three bad experiences before 59% of customers decide to leave and find a different company to do business with. This leaves almost half of the customers who leave after 2 or even 1 negative experience from your brand. This means every interaction counts.

The very first interaction can set the tone for their whole experience. Many companies are now using AI to handle their first contact, so it must be friendly, fast, and accurate.

Transparency is essential in building trust. Companies using AI or chatbots should always be upfront with customers. People appreciate being told whether they are chatting with a human or a digital assistant, and that when the technology isn't working, there is an easy way to reach a real person.

Many customers (39%) like it when companies remember their preferences or past purchases and use that information to offer better service. However, some customers (57%) also worry about how much personal data is shared with AI or other technology. Finding the right balance between personalization and privacy is important so customers can feel comfortable and safe with how their information is being used.

Customers want an amazing experience, even if it costs extra. The State of Service Expectations found that 60% of customers would be willing to pay more for faster response times. Our customer service and experience research echoes this, where 59% of customers say customer service is more important than price.

AI has gotten much better, faster, and cheaper in the last few years. It's easy to get caught up in the latest technology or the fanciest software. But no matter how advanced your tech is, it won't matter if you don't have the foundations of good customer service, like empathy, transparency, speed, and convenience.

Plus, Shep and Kenji discuss how much customers are willing to wait for email, chat, or phone responses before they start to lose patience with your brand. Tune in!

Quote: 

"Bad experiences can turn the customer off and make you lose their loyalty. In this day and age, where customers have many options on brands they want to work with, the role of customer support teams has become really amplified."

About:  

Kenji Hayward is the Senior Director of Customer Support at Front. He is a customer experience and AI innovator. You can follow his newsletter on customer support and technology, Top Tier Support.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  

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By Shep Hyken & C-Suite Radio

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