Using automation to solve EX, budget and workflow challenges

Louise Williams, group head of CX design at TUI discusses the trajectory of automation in 2023 and why the employee experience will be so important

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Adam Jeffs
04/14/2023

TUI masterclass employee experience automation

David Hicks, founder and CEO of TribeCX and facilitator of our CX Masterclass, speaks with CX expert Louise Williams, group head of CX design at charter airline and travel agent TUI. The two discus the prominence of automation in CX in 2023, why it is important to balance the customer experience with the employee experience, and how the financial benefits of automation should be redirected to CX.

Williams offers an overview of the function of the ‘group team’ she heads at TUI, which is focused on delivering consistent customer experiences at all touchpoints, and shares her outlook on the trajectory of CX automation in 2023.

Williams notes that there is lots of technology, such as OpenAI’s generative AI, that is great for automating brand responses to customer queries as quickly as possible by automating these parts of the experience.

According to Williams: “Customers mostly do not want to contact us but, like many businesses, we do have a lot of customers who still do contact us. The ability to automate and potentially eliminate some of those calls by answering them on the spot will really help the experience.”

She explains that while automating customer queries is helpful, it is important to ensure that financial savings are directed toward improving CX. At TUI this has been done by tasking agents with calling detractors to ease their concerns and allowing agents to spend more time dealing with complex queries.

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Williams details an initiative that was launched by TUI, dubbed ‘makers of happy’. This initiative breaks CX down into three layers:

Make it happen: The first layer is focused on making travel easy for customers. This is done by listening to them and righting any wrongs. This stage also involves listening to employees to determine what the obstacles are that prevent them from solving problems quickly.
Make it personal: The second layer focuses on enhancing the customer experience by personalizing it.
Make it memorable: The final layer involves making holidays meaningful for customers, by creating moments that make them memorable.

Finally, as Michelle Martinez head of post-order customer experience strategy at Wayfair has also observed, the employee experience (ex) is important, too. Williams notes that happy employees make for happy customers so it is important to make their job as easy as possible.

This is where the financial benefits of automation come into play, as they can be redirected to equip employees with the tools and resources they need to solve customers’ problems.

This interview is part of a mini-series with CX Network's Masterclass graduates. Click here to watch insights from our graduates who work for Wayfair and Zappos.