Contact Centre Technology and AI – A match made in heaven!

As the world witnesses newer technologies, there is an increase in associated problems and its benefits. Now, we are in a connected era. Talking about a few decades ago, customer queries and expectations were limited as compared to the present year. The methods of communication were limited. At the same time, technology also brings solutions to combat these challenges and help businesses deliver their promises.

The disruption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already evident in various sectors including healthcare, banking, insurance, government, etc. and organisations are keen to get more into it. Customer service is no exception. And call centres or the modern contact centres serve as the primary means to provide support to the customers.

We all have had an experience of chatting with a Facebook Chatbot in messenger. Or, the interactions with Alexa, Google Home, and Siri are not unfamiliar. All such examples show the impact of call center AI in engaging customers at their comfort level. And it’s not only for the big empires.

AI and Contact Centre

In a survey of 300+ contact center professionals, 41% of respondents stated that they expect the use of bots/AI to increase in the next 12-18 months in the contact centres. Also, enterprises using IoT/connected technologies reported a 50% increase in customer satisfaction.

It’s not feasible to imagine the new-age contact centre technology without AI. AI is far ahead from ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) and the elementary IVRs (Interactive Voice Response). In general, AI is defined as the ability of a machine to think, act and model human thoughts. AI has made its presence felt in the call centre industry by unburdening the load of human agents, providing limitless support and generating accurate insights.

Though people may fear, AI will not make humans obsolete. In fact, it will team up with human agents to deliver effective outcomes that please customers and generate profit. The top 3 ways AI integration will revolutionise the contact centre solutions–

1. Speech Recognition and Sentiment Analysis

Integrated call center AI technology can analyse customer’s voice and detect the options. Natural language processing has taken IVRs to the next level. It also supports analysing and categorizing customer voice and interaction sentiment. A customer not only speaks of his problem but also gives a sign of his coming back to you or not, the satisfaction level and the future expectations. AI-enabled platforms ensure that the modern contact centres don’t lose this data treasure.

Specialised solutions like Dubber’s Speech analytics software Zoe is able to pick up commonly used phrases. It analyses the sentiment of phone calls as per customer’s voice. It has been quite useful for the companies in identifying repetitive problems. Following the trend, the platform understands the nature of the complaint and forwards it to the development teams to improve future products and services. It also gives insights on agent’s performance and ability to bring out a positive outcome through a call.

Intelligent interactions with call-recording features and precise analysis can be categorized as positive, negative or neutral. It is helpful to avoid recurrent issues. It also gives insights to understand the customer journey. Not only that, such features also improve agent productivity.

2. Data Mining and Sophisticated Self-Service

According to the reports, the inclusion of mobile apps in customer service will grow to 62% by 2021.

Digital self-service is a hot potato. Millennials and the next Generation Z seem to have positive inclination towards self-service. They look out for these apps at least for their routine or general issues. And a business cannot keep it limited. In the ‘multi-channel’ support era, customer service in the form of AI-powered self-help is a cost-effective and smart option. It is not wrong to say that self-service is an inseparable part of a contact centre. Self-service is better than wasting agent’s time for tier-1 interactions and queries. 

An all-in-one self-service solution relies on the optimum use of the data. AI’s role in a self-service medium is navigating him/her to appropriate solutions, and studying and analysing the customer behavior. It helps to reduce customer abandonment rate. Customers can get their answers and explore your business in their way guided by AI from the back-end. With the power of natural language processing and machine learning, AI chatbots within a self-service environment can contain a whole set of knowledgebase including FAQs, tutorials, instructions, etc. for a seamless and uninterrupted experience.

Data mining holds utmost importance for two main reasons- (i) Solving the current issue at the earliest and (ii) Preventing the same doesn’t happen with any other customer again. It is crucial to make self-service apps content-rich with a well-organised hierarchy.  

3. Problem-Solving to Personalised Service

Majority of contact centers receive calls to fix issues, complaints or for help. The primary job of a customer service advisor is to address their concern and help them. Then, why we need AI here? Basically, AI will help these advisors to come up with the best solution in the least time to help the customers. Next, it will also help in automating the next steps to follow up with the customer as well as the team members.

Another feature is ‘personalised service’. AI pulls out the data from past interactions. It results in recommending timely services, cross-selling, guiding them through the process, suggesting the best picks as per their choice, price, and making it an altogether hassle-free experience. AI-enabled automated email and other communication can be tailored to greet the customers with the right information and target them with exactly what they want at the best time.

AI is an intuitive technology. Whether it is a simple transaction or a complex query, the artificial intelligence guided service can help humans serve humans in a better and personalised way.

The Final Word.

“When you serve the customer better, they always return on your investment.” – Kara Parlin

Customer service can make or break the business. And, contact centres are a vital link between a business and its customers. The cut-throat competition has made businesses expand their horizons. It is high time to leverage newer technologies and make the agents more efficient by doubling their power with AI. Remember, it’s not a replacement, it’s a supplement!

Adorn #CustServ with AI!