Why You Should Consider Automated Contact Center Solutions & How To Get Started

Whether it’s simplifying business practices or simplifying customer experience, the goal of any business should be to simplify.

As technology advances, so must your business. With advancements in robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI), it has never been easier to provide exceptional customer care.

In this article, we will explain why automated call center solutions improve efficiency as well as revenue. We will also outline some successful automation tools to get you started.

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What Is Call Center Automation?

Let’s start with the basics. Call center automation, using contact center software, helps the customer and employee through convenience, efficiency, and organization. The contact center of the 21st century is an advanced communication center that is crucial for any forward-thinking company.

AI massively impacts contact center technology by using real-time feedback and data analysis. AI can then make reliable predictions of the future (don’t worry, RoboCop is still a way off… but it’s coming).

Intelligent algorithms handle both external and internal interactions without the interference of human agents. Both active listening and chatbots provide customer results for simple queries via self-service capabilities.

Effective automation reduces customer waiting times and encourages faster resolutions. It also generates improved key performance indicators (KPI) for employees.

The Essentials Of Automated Solutions

When utilizing automation, businesses can expect increased efficiency as well as the lowering of costs. Adding an AI-enhanced system transforms customer experience as well as your employee capabilities.

Below are four examples of the positive impact contact center automation can provide:

1. Increased Customer Satisfaction

Modern consumers value their time. As the old saying goes, time is money. Wasting this precious time can be the difference between good customer service and bad customer service.

This is where call center automation steps in. The process begins immediately rather than customers coming face-to-face with music so terrible that even Michael Bolton flinches, that’s right, the dreaded on-hold music.

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Requests, such as “I forgot my password,” can be easily assessed through an AI-powered virtual agent. This allows issues to be handled within seconds rather than minutes.

With virtual agents working alongside human agents, companies can remain open 24/7 and over 365 days of the year. This accessibility promotes customer loyalty as companies will effectively never be closed (I just wish that was the same for Pizza Hut).

2. Increased Employee Satisfaction

Nobody likes to repeat the same tasks over and over again. Such tasks can become deflating to employees and make even the most enthusiastic worker dispassionate.

AI removes these repetitive obstacles and allows employees to focus on more complex and rewarding customer service issues. This, in turn, generates a positive effect on employee engagement as they are making a difference to their customers.

Automation connects a customer’s call to the best-suited agent through intelligent routing. Rather than the customers becoming irate with having to explain their issue to each new agent, agents and customers feel less stressed with the service.

By developing the contact center as a software, businesses can improve their metrics and their performance. It’s a win-win.

First contact resolutions (FCR) and customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) will improve as well, allowing other areas of the business to thrive.

3. Making The Most Out Of Your Data

By utilizing the data available, machine learning and AI can help identify the patterns within analytics. The data that is collected can then be used to enhance customer lifecycles through efficiency and ease of use.

By utilizing data, businesses can predict customer trends as well as customer issues. This, in turn, promotes retention. If a business can predict where issues may arise, it will have a headstart in correcting them, therefore, eliminating future setbacks.

Amassing a data collection, businesses have a greater understanding of who the customer is and why they’re calling.

4. Personalized Call Routing

Effective call routing generates shorter handle times and better first contact resolution. To be able to achieve this within your business, you must have insight into who your customer is.

Personalized call routing accumulates customer information. By matching callers to your data infrastructure, AI can decipher personal details and forward them to the correct agent, making their job easier as well as more efficient.

All these actions improve customer engagement.

Effective Ways To Automate Your Contact Center

When it comes to business integration, automation should be at the top of your list. Automation is essential in simplifying your ever-increasing workload. It will help your customers’ lifecycle, and it’s necessary for engaging your call center agents with rewarding and fulfilling work.

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Developing An Automation Strategy

Selecting correct processes is the key to implementing an effective strategy. High volume, low complexity tasks are a good place to start as these will be the easiest to automate.

It’s also essential to know what problems automation can fix rather than selecting a process with the most human involvement. It comes down to what will improve your customers’ and employees’ needs and making the appropriate adjustments.

An effective example is marketing automation within SaaS products and services. By automating repetitive tasks, such as sending emails and tracking customer feedback, your marketing team can focus on work that helps your company grow rather than take up valuable time.

Conversational AI And Training

Employees are the best possible source of information, so it makes sense for them to train the AI in every type of customer interaction. These interactions maintain the quality and tone of your company, which, in turn, makes it recognizable to your existing customer base, stimulating brand awareness.

By developing these interactions, customers can find all the information they need without even having to speak to an agent. This is a streamlined service operating at its fullest potential.

Finally…

Without a doubt, automation is set to become the key function of all contact centers in the future. By providing a streamlined experience for both customers and employees, your business will achieve retention on both sides.

In this fast-paced world of self-service and online banking, customers have become accustomed to a sleeker digital experience. So as AI continues to evolve, so do your customers’ expectations. It’s up to you to evolve with them.