If there is one thing our industry loves more than anything it is buzz words. Cloud, moving to the cloud, cloud technology, cloud contact center and countless variations of “cloud” are everywhere. It seems as though automation in the contact center has arrived as the latest buzzword that everyone assumes you should inherently know.
However, maybe we have fallen short in explaining the impact that adopting automation for your contact center can make. Like any new technology, sometimes the first variation falls short of expectations or fails to deliver.
Whatever the reason for the gap, there are a lot of efficiencies through automation that can cure some of the ailments facing contact centers such as the labor shortage, increased customer demand, and longer hold times to name a few.
Why Is Automation In The Contact Center Such A Hot Topic?
Investments that have been made to accelerate automation in the contact center over the past few years have increased innovation and efficiency in the technology. With Zoom, Microsoft, Salesforce, Venture Capitalists, Google, Amazon, and many others making large commitments, it has brought automation technology front and center.
Couple those investments with COVID-19 accelerating the labor shortage and what was a 3-5 year roadmap became a here-and-now challenge. Companies were forced to adopt new methods to meet the customer demand, some worked, some didn’t, but the evidence was there showing that automation could enhance the customer experience in the contact center.
Automating A Little Or A Lot, The Choice Is Yours
When customers think of automation on a call into a contact center they may picture yelling into a phone “LIVE PERSON” and then not getting a live person. Voice Self Service has come a long way. Rarely do you need a live person to activate a credit card, that simple action can be replicated in almost any industry.
Automation is not an “all or nothing” proposition. Starting with something simple like an
IVA can reduce live agent calls by 10-15 percent. Having calls or chats routed to the right department by integrating your CRM is another simple automation that can help reduce customer hold times and increase efficiency with your agents. Think if you could reduce transfers by another 10-15 percent. Now we are starting to stack efficiency.
Automating Quality Assurance In The Contact Center
For decades the normal protocol for QA was a form filled out by QA supervisors listening to live or recorded calls. Checking the boxes, and giving feedback, because automation could not replace a live person.
This has all changed in a good way. Solutions like Observe.AI, CallJourney, Uniphore, and Level AI are able to pick up tonality, and empathy, detect upgrade opportunities, check for procedure compliance and so much more in real-time. The possibilities are there to serve multiple purposes in both scoring the agent and coaching them at the same time.
Chatbots Are Booming In The Contact Center
In the past five years, we have gone from a handful of chatbot providers to several dozen. The investment is there because convenience and customer experience is there. They are teachable and expand as your company grows, as your knowledge base grows.
Some customers actually prefer working with chatbots because of the consistency in response and accuracy of the answers provided. There are multiple solutions based on industry, what you are looking to accomplish, and integration with your CRM, and knowledge base, the possibilities are endless. The customer experience is so much better than even a few years ago, having chatbots on your site is something customers expect as an option.
Leveraging Data That You May Be Missing In Your Contact Center
If one region of the country is having issues with a product, or there is a higher demand for a certain service you offer in a certain city, wouldn’t that be great to know? Those findings came through conversations that happened amongst employees during weekly meetings. The other possibility is those findings never came to light.
Being able to monitor in real-time the analytics and insight that you are able to extract from every conversation customers are having with your company is another example of automation working in the contact center. If a customer is chatting, emailing, speaking, or messaging your team, you can identify trends, patterns, and a lot more.
Taking that data and turning it into actionable information that you can now use for marketing campaigns and be proactive in your approach is available. Consider this: your agents don’t necessarily know the conversations going on within their own branch, let alone in another branch. You can compare all conversations from every branch and identify trends in hours. Think about the possibilities that come from that knowledge.
Where To Start Or Continue With Automation In Your Contact Center?
The great news is that while technology may change at a rapid pace, our customer-centric approach never waivers. All of this technology may be right for you, some may not be what you need. It all starts with a conversation with our team of professionals and assessing your current state and developing a road map together. We will never have you implement a solution because it’s the word of the year, we only implement solutions that improve the way you service your customers. Contact us today to put the InflowCX team to work for you!
