Speaking on the topic: “Technology and Customer Experience: Impact on business growth and economic transformation,” at this year’s Vodafone Customer Experience Summit, Ms Obo-Nai said: “Robots are delivering important transactional activities in a more efficient way.

Machines will deliver the efficiencies we want but human interactions will deliver the feel, touch and emotions that machines are unable to deliver.”

She said: “Some customers still want a human touch and your business must be setup in a way that still allows you to deliver that human experience because again it’s what the customer wants.”

“While the future may be bleak, I see it as an opportunity that the industry needs to embrace to win, so technology is key. At Vodafone, agents who are no longer doing the transactional things are retrained to deliver the more complex pieces that the customer will request.

So the agents are not losing their jobs, on the contrary,” Ms Obo-Nai added.

Customer experience summit

The Vodafone Customer Experience Summit is one of the key activities Vodafone listed as part of its Customer Experience Week celebration.

The telecommunications giant lined up a series of activities to appreciate its customers and recognise deserving customer-facing employees throughout the week.

Vodafone’s management team led by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms Yolanda Cuba, presented gifts to loyal customers and also spent time at the Vodafone retail shops to engage and appreciate customers.