While technology may have had a huge impact on a wide range of jobs, for example, automation of tasks reducing human hours required, there are still many types of jobs that technology cannot replace. Customer experience, although having been enhanced by technology solutions, still requires a large element of human input to deliver a good quality of experience.

We have selected three customer experience jobs that we believe are the most future-proof you are likely to find:

Data Scientist

What do they do?

A data scientist performs a number of key tasks that contribute towards providing a top-class customer experience. Data science involves using data through statistical analysis and machine learning. Data scientists can help businesses to gain a better understanding of the product associations that customers are most likely to buy. They analyse data related to previous purchases to identify which products customers are most likely to be interested in, to maximise sales and avoid promoting products that are not relevant.

Machine learning systems are able to provide a wide range of benefits, including identifying issues before they become a bigger problem, by spotting patterns. A data scientist or data science analyst can then use this information to collaborate with the relevant teams to resolve the issues and make changes where necessary. A machine learning engineer is another type of role that specifically works with machine learning technology.

Why is this job future proof?

The availability of data and the technology that enables us to use it more effectively, means that the customer experience can be greatly improved. Feedback is captured through so many different methods including smiley terminals, personal devices, online surveys etc. A data scientist analyses all this data and makes sense of it. In the customer experience department, an experienced research manager or similar job title is often created to help achieve CX excellence using the data available.

Customer Service Agent

While it is important for companies to offer a variety of channels to assist with queries, including online chat and chatbots, sometimes a customer just needs to speak to a person and this person will be a customer service agent, customer advisor or call centre agent, as they are sometimes referred to as.

What do they do?

The role of the customer service agent varies depending on the services or products provided by the business but generally, they will handle queries from customers by answering telephone calls, responding to emails and other forms of communications. Some customer service agents work in sales teams and will be required to promote products and process actions such as taking payments.

As a customer service agent, or customer service representative, you are at the frontline of the company, interacting with customers on a daily basis. The experience that is provided by agents has a significant impact on how happy the customer is with the company, from how well they deal with their query, to whether they build a good rapport during the conversation.

Why is this job future proof?

Even though chatbots are able to answer some basic questions that customers have, they are not sophisticated enough to be able to have a conversation that is able to react to the needs of the customer or build any rapport. In fact, some chatbots frustrate customers and contribute towards a negative experience with a company.

The idea of chatbots is to take away some of the more mundane questions that can be easily answered, while a customer service agent interacts with the customer and is able to strengthen the relationship through good conversational skills.

Additionally, chatbots require the input of humans to enable them to be able to answer common questions and people must supervise the chatbot conversations to check that they are providing a good enough quality of service.

Artificial Intelligence is a powerful tool to be able to use but many customers still want to be able to talk to a human and this will probably be the case for a long time, especially with more complex queries and complaints, for example.

Customer Success Manager

A newer type of role that is also a key part of delivering excellent customer experience is a customer success manager.

What do they do?

This role is a bit like a customer relationship manager, but the main difference is that everything they do is proactive in terms of looking for the best solutions for the customer. The role plays a big part in boosting customer satisfaction and also increases the likelihood of retaining the customer’s business.

Why is this job future proof?

The objective of a customer success manager is to ensure the customer gets as much value for their money as possible and that the relationship between the customer and the company continues to grow stronger. By investing in roles such as a customer success manager or customer success specialists, a business creates positive experiences and the customer who has a positive experience will tell their friends about the experience, which acts as a form of marketing. The word-of-mouth promotion of your business generates more revenue through customer advocacy.

When a customer success manager does their job well, this generates more upselling opportunities for the business too. Word-of-mouth recommendations are going to be very valuable for a long time, so the role of a customer success manager will be important for businesses in the long-term future.

The data and technology solutions that are available to businesses can add great value but customer experience jobs such as the three listed above will be required alongside this technology to take care of the human side of customer experience and are therefore, fairly future-proof.