10 Ways Artificial Intelligence Transforming the Contact Centers

Do you believe in Artificial Intelligence impacts on businesses? Well, if not, rethink. How? You may ask. Fine, let’s sail through the following write-up and learn how it is happening. Yes, we are about to talk on AI’s impact on contact centers of businesses. Let’s kick-off.

Well, companies measure the customers’ satisfaction by analyzing superficial data: gathered from the contact center. This data may include the factors such as how much time a representative spent on a phone call or chat with a particular customer, whether the issue was resolved on the first call, and what is the feedback of the customer at the end of that conversation.

However, analysts do not count the efforts the call required on the part of the customer. Also, they cannot figure out whether the customer is satisfied or not, in detail. On the other hand, Dr. Skyler Place says that it annoys the customers when they have to repeat their name and complaint number whenever they are switched to another rep. Also, the language barrier undermines effective communication.

Thus, Artificial Intelligence helps the rep by the real-time analyzing tone of the customer, the pulse of the language, and the temperament of the caller. So, AI measures pause, interruptions, tones, dynamicity, and the interest level of the customer as well as the agent. “A good Artificial Intelligence system performs three tasks: customer data collection, analyzing the context of the conversation, and inferencing accordingly.” Says Jafar Adibi, Head of Data Science at Talkdesk.

So, vendors are using Artificial Intelligence for the sake of Automation, Prediction, Optimization, Recommendations, and Discovery purposes. Let’s have a look at how AI is taking the contact centers to the next level.

Collecting Data from Conversations

AI-enabled chatbots and the virtual-advisors can gather discrete data for each customer enabling the vendors to put this data into the analytical engines to get insights. Furthermore, you can slice and dice the insights with the help of AI sentimental analysis. This will spot out the anger or level of contention hidden in the tone of a particular customer, too quickly.

Yet the inferences of replacing human team by the Artificial Intelligence systems in a contact center are before time. According to the Deloitte Digital’s Global Contact Center Survey (May 2019), almost 13% of contact centers are using AI-enabled virtual advisors or chatbots, 59% are on pilot testing, and 28% still have no plan to switch.

On the other hand, 9 out of 10 customers recommended that there should always be an option to switch to a human advisor. So, it is still a long way off when AI chatbots or virtual reps will replace the human teams.

Ability to Predict Customer Behavior

After the sentimental analysis of the customer-agent interaction, managers will be able to predict customer behavior in the early stages of its development. Artificial Intelligence will speed up interaction analytical tools. So, these tools will provide more precise and accurate insights rapidly. So, the manager will be able to comprehend upcoming downturns, in-advance. The manager will brief advisors and hence tackle the customers who might have been about to defect.

Moreover, AI integration will enable managers to predict the consequences of a particular strategy or model of practices. Thus, the organization will see a new horizon of Resource allocation, Sales and Marketing, and Voice of customers.

Auto-Answering to Customer Complaints

Vendors are facing another chaos of unstructured data in the form of customer quires and complaints. Undoubtedly, the management of this amorphous data requires a big chunk of resources and time. Isn’t it? Well, let’s investigate how the amalgamation of AI and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) resolve this problem:

– Scan (thorough OCR facility) all the inquiries and complaints and instill them into the system.

– AI on your system holds the capability to grasp the tone of the content. The system will then “decide” how to respond to a particular customer.

– The human team will just overview and forward the response to the customer, saving a lot of time and resources.

– On the other hand, the structured data will be saved in the system for further treatment or future use.

AI Helps to Improve Team Communications

Artificial Intelligence is helpful by improving and developing advisor communities. Also, it serves as a Virtual Aassistant interlinking the relevant rep to the respective customer concern. In this way, the Artificial Intelligence decreases the hold time and the transfer time. Consequently, it will enhance the customer experience as they are being served more efficiently.

Therefore, AI is capable enough to make daily communications intelligent, smarter, streamlined, and easier to analyze. On the other hand, the customers will also experience a timely responded service and enjoyable conversation. Moreover, collaboration tools also use AI while interconnecting all reps to each other. Also, they act as a Virtual Assistant to find relevant information and subject matter experts.

Monitoring Representative’s Performance

A real-time speech analyst is making a difference in the contact centers. This AI enabled tool helps to assess tone, context, and intents of both speakers on the call. So, the insights, drawn with the help of this tool, will elaborate the speech intents, anger level, stress in talks, and the clarity of the conversation. These insights will be used further by the Team Leaders, Advisors, and Manager to slice an appropriate strategy.

Last yet not least, the AI-enabled system will be able to listen to the conversation and guess what is missing. Then, the system will pop-up missing information on the screen before the advisor to tell to the customer.

Recognizing Customer and Call Types

The most important advantage of the AI is to recognize the incoming call and direct it to the relevant chatbot or a human advisor. Moreover, the AI system will provide necessary background information, customer’s previous history, nature of the inquiry, and the appropriate possible solution of that inquiry via a single window on the computer screen.

So, companies need to rethink the way they already operate. Almost, in the future, most of the companies will foresee the contact center as an ROI instead of merely an expense. Also, the company’s reputation will depend more on the technique with what they will resolve their customers’ concerns as customer interaction is becoming more complex with time.

Forecasting Customer Needs

With the help of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence systems will be able to predict customer inquiries. So, the AI advisors or chatbots will interact with those customers proactively. Therefore, by analyzing, understanding, and assuming AI tools will help the customer to find the right product or service. Moreover, the AI-enabled chatbots will auto-fill the form to save the customer’s time.

However, with the gradual technological advancement, it will be easier and cost-effective to imply the AI advisors for more natural conversations.

Robots Dealing with Customers

Robots are more efficient in searching for solutions for the customers’ concerns and more reliable in the sense of their overall performance. They are always available and specializes in all subject-matters. Thus, a contact center with AI-enabled tools or services will provide more accurate and convenient information, too quickly.

And the story doesn’t stop here. Yes, AI integrated robots reduce the complexity, confusion, and response time to a great extent. So, it allows the human team to ponder over matters of vital concern. However, maintaining a human-AI balance is the key to success for a contact center. Besides facilitating customers, AI robots can also assist human advisors to build rapport with customers effectively.

Staff Cost Saving

Contact center staff hiring and training is a costly and expensive process. On the other hand, a new employee takes considerable time to learn the ropes. Meanwhile, all burden is shifted to the existing agents. So, this extra burden slows down the performance of the even experienced staff.

Moreover, turnover rate in the contact center is soaring: almost 45%. That’s why a contact center has to run HR activities perpetually. This costs at time a leg and an arm to the company. However, AI-enabled chatbots can resolve the issue. Yes, it will fill the human advisor gap. Also, AI-chatbots can allow reps to focus on other essential activities.

Customer Experiences Enhanced Personalization

Another major advantage that vendors can grab by using the AI is that it provides the customer with a more personalized experience on the website. AI-enabled systems to do this based on previously collected customer data collected and the general preferences of the customer. So, AI will enable the customer to have more personalized experience from products to the website maps. Ultimately, it will enhance the customer’s satisfaction and unburden the reps’ workload.

On the other hand, over time customer will feel more connected with that particular service. In this way, not only the conversion rate will be increased, but also the repetition rate will be considerably enhanced.

Conclusion

To conclude, AI is taking over the very processes of a contact center, yet human interference is foreseeable. So, businesses should pay heed to up-to-the-minute trends. However, a trained human advisor can be a valuable asset for the realm, somehow.

Read more: The Future of Artificial Intelligence Is Job Augmentation, Not Elimination