The Role of Automation in Contact Centers
Our first blog in this series covered how a major airline eliminated the voice channel in their call centers and the implications of such a strategy shift.
Whether this is an effective strategy for other large businesses to pursue will be borne out in the months and years ahead. To some extent, the premise of our first blog was that most businesses are in the process of de-emphasizing voice in an indirect manner by increasing automation and maximizing digital engagement with their customers. For many, while this shift is not as abrupt as the airline, it does involve careful execution. And yet, most companies are yet not in the position to eliminate voice as a channel, nor may they want to, and the humans behind those voice interactions. So what to do?
The answer is . . . what they’ve been doing – but even more so!
Take, for instance, the recent customer service experience of leading industry analyst Dave Michels of TalkingPointz:
“Consider my recent agentless experience with Farmers Insurance for roadside assistance. Their bot sent me a link and then guided me through the service request form as I entered the information from my smartphone. It was easier than correcting, repeating, and spelling all the information verbally. The bot then dispatched a service vehicle, and the bot let me track the service vehicle’s progress on a real-time map. I had a delightful service experience, and it’s hard to believe a human agent could have improved it.”
Here Comes Efficiency and Effectiveness (Again)
Why was this interaction so compelling and effective yet did not require a human?
The interaction was so effective that it was good for both Dave and the business – a rarity in the history of contact center operations. Historically, many contact center innovations came at the expense of efficiency or effectiveness and rarely delivered both. This interaction clearly shows that “doing both” is quite possible.
The noteworthiness of this interaction is the high level of automation, leading the customer through the qualification stage using a task bot and guiding him on the service request. He found this part of the process even more effective than dealing with a human. It’s clear that the bot had gone through significant testing and tuning. In addition, the application was part of a closed-loop process, providing status on the expected time of arrival, and a visual representation of the progress of the service vehicle.
So where should voice in your contact center fly away to?
More and more consumers are experiencing well thought out, effective, and efficient automated interactions such as these. They are the natural successors to voice support for a number of reasons.
- Many interactions are relatively simple and can be handled by a well-designed bot or virtual assistant.
- Many contact centers are facing staffing challenges, and augmenting a contact center workforce with automation protects an organization from the ebb and flow of hiring variation and attrition.
- With an ever-increasing focus on costs, automation is a straight line to a better bottom line for any business.
- Automation allows live resources to focus on what matters – the exceptions that can’t be automated and often represent in-the-moment outliers that can make or break a brand.
Fortunately, solutions like our Webex Contact Center can offer businesses a balanced approach to both digital and human interactions.
Practical Actions to Take
Contact center operations teams that are always laser-focused on efficiency should routinely inspect the top five reasons their businesses are being contacted. Advancements in AI, virtual assistants, and bots, combined with proactive messaging applications make them very likely candidates for automation abound in their businesses.
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