Paul Turley from ServiceNow writes that AI-connected CRM can end customer frustration by unifying data across channels, cutting repeat queries and boosting loyalty, efficiency and revenue for Irish firms.
Imagine making an insurance claim after a minor accident. You upload photos via the app, fill out forms on the online portal, then call to check the status, only to be asked to email the same files again, all because the claims and customer service systems don’t sync. Instead of reassurance, you get delays and irritation.
That’s the reality for countless businesses across Ireland who, despite investing heavily in AI and CRM, still have customers sitting on hold, repeating themselves across channels, and walking away frustrated.
“Half (49%) of all customers in Ireland say they would switch brands after one bad service experience”
Our latest research puts a number on it: Irish customers waste 284 million hours a year navigating broken service experiences, according to ServiceNow’s annual CX Shift report.
It’s easy to see why this challenge has arisen. Traditional CRM was built primarily for the front office. It captures customer requests but usually stops at the moment of engagement, leaving fulfilment, resolution, and back-office actions to separate systems. That’s why customers are forced to repeat themselves so often. No single system holds the full picture. It also means frontline customer service agents lack the tools and information they need to deliver.
According to the report, just a third of organisations say their agents are truly empowered. Despite spending significant amounts on technologies such as AI, businesses undermine these solutions by failing to unite the entire organisation within customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Dealing with this requires a fundamental shift in how CRM is used, towards a more ‘connected enterprise’ where different departments share information more effectively. This means moving away from siloed approaches, which leave customers dissatisfied. Toward a scenario where both proactive and reactive interactions build loyalty.
The cost of disconnection
Half (49%) of all customers in Ireland say they would switch brands after one bad service experience. The study, which surveyed 1,210 customers, executives, and service representatives, shows how costly this can be, especially given that the average Irish consumer spends 8.8 hours per year trying to fix issues. Even in sectors where speedy resolution is vital, such as banking and telecoms, problems can still take three to four days to resolve, underscoring how much businesses stand to lose if they can’t use their own data effectively.
There is also a critical execution gap at play between insight and action. Businesses are still failing to translate their AI investments into better customer relationships. AI layered onto fragmented systems and siloed workflows doesn’t fix broken experiences; it simply accelerates them. This helps explain why only half of Irish consumers (46%) say AI has improved customer experience by delivering faster responses.
Yet just 53% of Irish executives say their organisation has deployed an end-to-end CRM platform that supports the entire customer lifecycle. What’s needed is AI-driven service that’s powered by CRM data, capable of escalating customer engagements without friction.
Connected CRM as the foundation, not just a goal
Connected CRM is increasingly seen as an operational foundation for the next level of customer experience. ServiceNow’s research reports that more than three-quarters (78%) of organisations in Ireland now expect progress over the next three years to come through a ‘connected experience’ approach, compared with just 47% expecting it to come through AI adoption alone.
Today’s expectations call for a different approach. Sellers, service agents, field technicians and back-office teams need to operate on the same AI-powered platform, sharing a single customer record in real time. When a customer raises an issue through chat, it should be tracked and resolved without them ever having to start over.
When CRM is used this way, businesses see stronger customer loyalty, more productive agents and greater cost efficiency at the same time.
The agent experience is part of the customer experience
It’s also vital that human agents have the right tools and the right data at their fingertips. This too requires a fundamental rethink of how information is shared across the organisation. In most businesses, agents juggle multiple tabs, copy information between screens, and piece together a customer’s history while the caller waits. The research found that 76% of Irish service agents have to log into between three and five separate systems to resolve customer queries, and inconsistent customer data across these systems remains a top challenge.
Service agents don’t want to spend time trying to ‘paper over the cracks’ between fragmented systems. They should be able to focus on the thorniest customer issues where human assistance is vital. By opting for a more integrated system, agents are freed from system-hopping, administrative work, summarising notes and chasing information between siloed departments. Rather than spending on automation because it seems like the obvious solution, it’s vital to reimagine CRM as a connected engine which brings teams, data, and processes together, supercharging the service agents deliver.
When organisations get CRM right, the impact extends far beyond smoother service interactions. A connected, service-led strategy returns time to both customers and employees. Teams gain shared visibility of data, enabling faster decisions, smarter use of AI and more meaningful human engagement where it matters most. Customers stay with a brand because they feel known and understood at every stage. It turns fragmented touchpoints into cohesive journeys that build trust and long-term loyalty. Internally, AI delivers when the plumbing is right.
So far, too few organisations have integrated customer data across touchpoints to create a unified view. Less than a third of Irish organisations surveyed have done so (32%), and less than a quarter (22%) have broken down silos to enable seamless AI strategies connecting departments across the business.
All of this points to the need for a different approach that connects data across cloud environments, departmental tools and legacy systems, giving AI a complete picture of the customer before it acts. In this model, AI agents don’t wait for a human trigger. They execute tasks autonomously, coordinate across departments and operate continuously.
That’s the difference between AI that resolves a billing dispute at 2am without human intervention and AI that merely speeds up the same broken experience customers are already enduring.
Service as a driver of revenue
The organisations getting connected CRM right are discovering something that cost-centre framing misses entirely: when service has full visibility of the customer relationship, it becomes a revenue driver.
That’s because service agents can identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities in the moment. They can create quotes, manage renewals, and escalate commercial moments on the same platform they use to resolve service requests. Service and selling stop being separate motions. The agent who resolves a problem is also the one who deepens the relationship.
A connected, service-led CRM strategy does more than reduce the 8.8 hours consumers lose each year to resolution friction. It gives that time back as trust and turns at-risk customers into brand advocates.
Curbing repetition, for good
Where repetition is the problem, the answer is simple. By creating a ‘connected experience’, where customer information is shared across every channel, agents are empowered to deliver. One interface, with all the information, doing all the work. In this model, service becomes a driver of growth rather than a cost centre, by unlocking productivity, insight and, in turn, competitive advantage across the business.
Investing in AI to accelerate broken processes will never deliver the desired outcomes. Instead, business leaders must focus on reimagining CRM as a system that connects work across every channel, ensuring agents deliver and customers no longer waste hours every time they call.
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