31 July 2018
We all know how frustrating it can be when customers are routed to agents that might not have the necessary skill set to handle the query; agents that would otherwise be able to assist with these more complex enquiries are stuck answering FAQ style questions, and average handling times are through the roof. But with the introduction of AI-powered chatbots, these needn’t be problems anymore. This blog takes 3 common Contact Centre pain-points that could be limiting success and demonstrates how to fix them with AI (artificial intelligence).
Before diving into the depths and intricacies of how AI-powered chatbots can transform the contact centre, it’s critical to first understand what an AI-powered chatbot is. Let’s analyse them as separate components first; in its most simple form a chatbot could be described as a service that you interact with via an online chat interface, AI is a technology that makes it possible for machines to learn from experience. Put them together and you have an intelligent chat feature to transform the workplace.
Pain Point #1: Customer contact channels are limited or unavailable
A massive percentage of customer enquiries are still being handled over the phone with contact centres only offering traditional interaction channels, and whilst these are still solid methods of contact the landscape is changing so it’s important to get on board.
If you want to extend your service channels but don’t think you have the people power to do It, adding an AI-powered chatbot could be the answer; they automate messaging-type channels with little or no need for human interaction. This means more ways customers can contact you at a lower cost than hiring new employees – score!
Interestingly, AI-powered chatbot’s “understand” natural language so we can chat with them in a similar way that we do with humans; they can analyse the text being typed and discover the customer’s sentiment, which can be used to respond in the best possible manner. So, if you’re worried about taking away that all-important human element, you needn’t be, you can maintain the “feeling” of human interaction whilst adding additional channels of support to your contact centre. Furthermore, chatbot’s don’t take coffee breaks, lunch or dinner so not only can you increase the number of channels but the availability too.
Pain Point #2: Keeping up with customer response time expectations
Every second matters when it comes to response time, it’s one of the major measurable indicators of contact centre success and makes a real difference to customer satisfaction. But with expectations on the rise, it’s harder than ever to keep up.
Adding chatbots to your existing contact centre infrastructure (which can be done easily in most cases), can really help to lower customer wait times with bot’s getting back to customers instantly.
In fact, a recent study by Salesforce concluded that ‘69% of customers prefer chatbots for quick communication with brands’. And it’s not just first interaction, chatbots can retrieve data rapidly from your CRM, Knowledge Base and other systems that otherwise, might take someone a lot of time to find.
Pain Point #3: Agent capacity is not aligned with elastic demand
In an environment where demand outweighs resource, leaving chatbots to handle online customer enquiries can really take the pressure off. However, it’s important that in a situation where escalation is required, chatbots are able to handle it – and if you choose a good provider, oh boy can they!
In a traditional contact centre scenario, you might have limited or no segmentation of enquires with agents simply responding to the next in queue, add a chatbot into the mix and you have a recipe for success! Chatbots will deal with the repetitive, typical customer requests (and more) freeing up your agents to deal with more complex situations. Then if a situation does require escalation not only can a chatbot transfer customers to the most appropriate agent inside of the contact centre they can also transfer outside to other areas of the business, like; Sales, Marketing or even individual employees.
Let’s wrap this up.
AI-powered chatbots can really help to expand your customer service channels, improve response times and overall, improve efficiency. If you’d like to know more about how they can help your business specifically get in touch.