Call centers are the front line of companies, connecting the business with its customers and a critical component in the overall brand image and customer experience. In recent years, artificial intelligence has entered call centers, augmenting its capabilities, and increasing the productivity of agents, managers and team members that started to utilize AI into their operations. The potential of AI is undeniable. Major financial advantages such as heavy installation costs can be greatly decreased with the introduction of AI. But not only, as AI has numerous benefits that, if utilized correctly, can provide better customer experience (CX) and increased profits in the long run, and here we will explain how.
Customers receive 24/7 care
It’s fairly known that customers have become more impatient and want answers immediately. How you interact with them will define their future purchase decisions. In fact, according to a study conducted by PWC, 73% of buyers point to customer experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions and call centers are one of the most critical componentsof CX. With the introduction of AI, customer care can be offered 24/7, whether your team is in the office, on holidays or for any other reason unavailable. Turning to tools such as chatbots can provide immediate answers to customers’ questions and ensure data is collected to optimize future call center processes. Agents can focus on more complex issues while chatbots can deliver answers to routine customer requests.
Data is collected automatically
Automation is not just present in chatbots but in analyzing customers’ data as well. The possibility to automate processes while focusing on the most important metrics a call center collects will ensure reports are always sent on time. Key performance indicators can be also monitored automatically where a designated software with AI features can simply alarm the user if anomalies in KPIs occur. For example, it’s possible to create comprehensive Zendesk dashboards that visually represent all the data collected into charts and graphs that are automatically updated. Management has then the advantage of saving countless hours to create reports and avoid monitoring each metric manually. Instead, AI works as a tool that can improve the team’s performance and optimize the Zendesk ticketing system.
AI gives the right information at the right time
Quicker resolutions and responses to customers’ inquiries are giving call centers that use AI an advantage as they have a proper assistant who will collect the data, process it, and forward it to a representative if needed. This enables call center representatives to focus on more human-centric tasks while repetitive ones can be simply left for AI. As mentioned, intelligent software that utilizes AI can increase the speed that customers require more than ever when asking questions. Quicker resolutions mean increased customer satisfaction levels, which wouldn’t be possible to achieve without the help of artificial intelligence.
Personalization is tailored to specific needs
Artificial intelligence is transforming call centers also by delivering highly personalized customer experience based on the collected data. We mentioned speed and automation but here we also want to stress the potential to tailor the customer experience for maximum satisfaction and, ultimately, results. Product recommendations based on previous purchases is one example where AI delivers its full power. By using AI algorithms, giants such as Netflix and Amazon tailor their content delivery and form personalized picks for its users. The technology behind it, machine learning, is not only used by these giants but also in call centers where agents receive help from AI, based on intelligent recommendations and past customer’s data such as product preferences or past issues. In this case, agents are better prepared and know more about the customer and what they need to cut down the average handle time (AHT).
Analytics-powered AI improves conversations
Customer analytics, if led by AI, can collect, monitor, analyze and share customer data across interaction channels. Sentiment analysis can be done by utilizing natural language processing where the AI software detects the level of anger or frustration and forwards the call to an agent if necessary. Another prompt feature is real-time speech analytics that helps with quality assurance. But not only speech, as agents can receive real-time call center reports and analyticsthat can prepare them better and optimize their performance based on established metrics. Both can contribute to making better conversations in the future and ensuring optimal call center workflow.
Performance is increased across the board
Humans have tendencies to make unintentional mistakes but introducing AI-enhanced solutions minimizes the possibility to make one (or several). AI technologies can perform repetitive tasks with the same level of quality and let agents focus on what really matters: human interactions. Artificial intelligence enhances agents’ performance and makes them smarter, better, and faster in making important decisions. Moreover, managers can have a birds-eye overview of the team and decide who needs more trainings to improve the quality of the contact center and improve its overall performance.
Key takeaways
Call centers are experiencing disruption from artificial intelligence as one of the industries that seem to be threatened by becoming obsolete. The development of automated messaging and bots have already influenced and changed and augmented call centers but they can never replace our ‘human touch’ and that will keep call centers human-centric, not replace it. The level of enhancements with the help of machine learning, neural networks, speech analytics, automating reports will only improve the performance of call centers, agents, managers, and, most importantly, clients who call.
While AI is a controversial subject in many industries, the opportunities that it provides can be clearly seen as benefits that work for better call center performance and increase client satisfaction levels. This notion will probably continue to hold in the future.
About the Author: Sandra Durcevic is a content manager at datapine, a software company in Berlin, Germany. Her expertise is focused on business intelligence, data, analytics, and technology while striving to deliver the most knowledgeable and useful information to readers. You can contact the author via email or LinkedIn.
The latest trends in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and how they can benefit both customers and internal users are the crux of Future of Work Expo 2021. Taking place at the brand new Miami Beach Convention Center, June 22-25, 2021 as part of the #TechSuperShow. Future of Work will again sit beside its collocated events – ITEXPO, SD-WAN Expo, MSP Expo, IoT Evolution, The Blockchain Event, and more – to deliver a compete learning and networking opportunity for business leaders who need to know what new technologies will drive their companies into the future.
Edited by
Maurice Nagle
