The technologies many businesses use to power their contact centers are quickly becoming obsolete. That's the case even with tools that may have seemed advanced and exciting just a few years ago. Working with organizations across the world, I see a new transformation taking place.
As we move into an era of hyper-personalization, businesses will be distinguished by how well they know their customers and how creatively they use that information. So, what organizations need, above all else, is call center software that leads the way in providing the ultimate holistic understanding of each individual. The best platforms will open up a world of possibilities.
Say “Hello” to your favorite agent
Let’s start with inbound calls. First, companies took on IVR (interactive voice response) tools, which gave customers a menu of options: “press or say one,” “press or say two,” etc. Then, IVRs became more conversational, and able to handle certain basic requests -- although, to this day, they’re often stilted and awkward.
The next stage delivers each caller an entire experience tailored for them. This means more than just knowing their name and having a long list of information available about their past purchases. It means knowing the kinds of interactions they prefer, and delivering those experiences every time.
For example, a business could use software to automatically guide a customer to an agent they spoke with and rated highly previously. Let’s imagine the agent’s name is Fred. An AI tool recognizes that this caller liked working with Fred the last time. It also sees that Fred is helping another customer. But his average call length is six minutes, and he’s nearly that far into the current call. Or the AI tool listening to and transcribing Fred’s call sees that he’s wrapping it up.
An AI agent tells the new caller, “I can check whether Fred is available to handle this with you, since you liked working with him last time. Does that sound good?” Fred gets an alert asking whether he can take the call, and how long it will be until he expects to be available. The agentic AI gives the caller the option to wait for him or speak with someone else.
Or perhaps Fred isn’t available. The platform can instantly determine which agent is most likely to be the caller’s best fit. It considers the caller’s age, interests, previous experiences, likes, dislikes, speech patterns and more. It matches the caller to someone else who’s most likely to be just right.
It might also match the caller to an AI agent. As Nextiva CEO Tomas Gorny explained in Forbes, “Ultimately, you may arrive at a point of extreme personalization, in which specific voices automatically come up for each customer based on their history.”
Nailing outbound performance
This same level of specificity can revolutionize outbound calling as well. A greater understanding of each customer empowers companies to be proactive with customer experience (CX) calls. The business may want to inform people of potential problems, like a service disruption; follow up on a transaction to ensure they’re satisfied; or ask whether there's anything more the company can do.
The organization should know whether an individual is likely to want this kind of call; which agent or agentic AI the customer is most likely to want to speak to; and when they’re most likely to answer.
These kinds of features can come to life with the right AI-powered platform. It has to be one that pulls together every scrap of data from every interaction the brand has ever had with the customer across every channel. It needs to use context-aware natural language processing to understand all that information, recognize what’s most important, and give the agent key insights at a single glance. And, it needs to update in real time.
It should also be a tool backed by a creative team that partners with the company to constantly develop new features and take advantage of new opportunities. All this helps explain why I’m a huge fan of Nextiva , which has pioneered unified customer experience management . (I have a business relationship with Nextiva, but my opinions are all mine.)
Ultimately, the best call center platform is one that stays on the cutting edge. As these and other features become available, it will update and evolve. And customers will feel the difference.
About the author: Wayne Butterfield is Partner for AI, Automation, and Contact Center Transformation at ISG . An automation pioneer, he guides businesses through digital transformation, as well as cognitive and AI automation, in ways that transform customer service. An early adopter of RPA in 2010, he created one of the first enterprise-scale RPA operations. For more than 15 years, he’s been at the forefront of new technologies and pioneering solutions. He helps ensure organizations sidestep pitfalls and swiftly harness the power of modern technologies for efficiency and growth.
Edited by
Erik Linask
