Conversational AI in contact centers – Technological progress is the basis of personalized assistance as it allows for data collection and analysis and building “one to one” relationships with the end customer.
However: to provide a personalized customer experience, people and technology must work together.
According to the Mckinsey report “Building the Superhuman agent”, every call center operator should be supported by a virtual agent that actively guides the conversation in all phases: before, during and after the call.
Conversational AI in contact centers: before the call
Conversational AI in contact centers – 66% of customers that request assistance consult first thing self-service tools such as virtual assistants: for this reason, integrating technologies such as conversational AI into end customers’ interaction’s channels is no longer requisite of competitive advantage, but must have condition.
Conversational AI platforms allow for a proactive approach to the customer, anticipating their requests by interfacing in a personalized way thanks to the ability to collect and analyze data.
Two out of three customers believe that online and mobile customer service must be extremely fast and intuitive in solving problems.
For this reason, companies that have integrated virtual assistants into their customer care strategy are seeing significant returns on investment, in terms of cost service reduction between 15 and 20%, churn rate reduction and increase of customer acquisition rate between 10 and 15%, as well as an overall increase in the productivity of the staff.
During the call
Even though the market is prioritizing digital communication, the voice channel remains the default when it comes to complex problems.
Finding the right balance between the human element and digital tools leads to more satisfied customers.
To improve efficiency and the quality of service as well as optimizing costs, organizations must free the time of their agents to focus on valuable activities, and that’s what virtual agents are for.
Knowing your customers is essential. More than three-quarters of customers expect customer care agents to know their information, history, and interests.
Artificial intelligence makes it possible to have functional data for decision making and based on previous interactions, purchase history, navigation data, real interests.
While virtual agents take care of repetitive requests, agents can focus on managing more complex problems and relational aspects.
Thanks to deep learning and behavioral science technologies that measure hundreds of quantitative and qualitative conversation metrics in real time (tone of voice, speed, pauses, volume, keywords, etc.) conversational AI agents are able to suggest to agents the attitude to keep, such as showing empathy for example.
The study “The state of empathy in the call center” (Cogito, 2019) reports how an operator who shows empathy and a sincere interest in resolving the situation, will be able to generate engagement and establish lasting bonds with the customer.
after the call
At the end of the call, call center agents generally spend a few minutes of downtime on back office operations.
These repetitive tasks can be automated and taken over by virtual agents, freeing up time that agents can devote to value-added activities.
Furthermore, thanks to conversational AI platforms, it is possible to have a tool for monitoring the performance of bots and agents, which helps to identify areas for improvement more easily.
Thanks to the data collected, it is possible to set up tailor-made training sessions for each agent, as well as setting personalized targets, self-learning suggestions or gamification activities to increase the level of motivation and collaboration between agents.
The professional profile of the call center operator is evolving towards a “superhuman agent”: a hybrid man and machine agent that works for the benefit of the customer experience and organizational optimization.
Furthermore, a new concept of contact center emerges from the McKinsey report where technology redefines the tasks, roles, activities of agents and makes this business function increasingly strategic.
Source:
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Business%20Functions/Operations/Our%20Insights/Technology%20and%20innovation%20Building%20the%20superhuman%20agent/Technology-and-innovation-Building-superhuman-agent.pdf
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