How Smart Contact Centers Can Transform Customer Interaction?

Automation in contact centers has long been discussed, but its under-adoption is the equivalent of leaving marketing dollars on the table. So read this article to see new perspectives

Today, everybody is talking about smart contact centers that incorporate AI and RPA technologies, but it seems the adoption rate isn't consistent if you went with the trend charts. By 2022, latecomers will lose the edge in adopting AI-driven customer engagement because by then the markets would look saturated. Palpably, there is no room for laggards if you're missing the moment to adopt now. It's often asked what's in it for businesses taking the path of automation that allows them to grow indiscriminately. The automation-driven benefits include lowering the cost and time agents spend on each customer.

But whenever companies refrain from investing in a technology that has broken into the mainstream, they're leaving money on the table that could have otherwise helped them leapfrog the competition stuck with an old-school contact strategy. So if anything, smart contact center automation should be considered now while the window is still open because it would be late to do so in 2022.

Another reason to not feel leery about automation is that the technology powering it addresses specific concerns within geography, sector, and culture to drive massive growth in a market that hasn't moved much in the last decade.

What are Smart Contact Centers Doing with Automation?

Digitalization and AI are taking contact centers forward at warp speed. Many early adopters are showing proof of success to reinforce people's faith in the future of customer interaction technology. The next-generation customer service will focus on personalized interaction, convenience, and agility which AI can take over. It solves many issues concerning the capitalization of human resources to create tangible values. Fact-based decisions should be looked upon as worthier choices than trailing assumptions. It's a feast for companies that are desperately looking at ways to curb human error and lap up quality.

Now, if you're afraid of losing the edge, it isn't late but there is no time to waste either. Invest in AI to harness advantages brought by ML and language processing. The most important one for agents is to be independent of automatable standard interactions and rote functions. Automation brings a step change to both the front-end and back-end, making contact centers lean and well-managed. Yet, there is no dearth of decision-makers feeling they aren't ready for smart contact center & customer engagement. This is primarily due to cultural, technological, and psychological barriers. So these are segments in the underbelly of primary markets where smart contact center & customer interaction is seen as a bane rather than as a boon.

So here's a picture of customer interaction vision and strategy across smart contact centers -

• Identifying customers sooner with automated voice and phone number verification.
• Swiftly uncovering the purpose of hailing support by letting AI see patterns from past engagements from the caller's region and social media. Once the concern is fully discerned, only then the ticket will be handed over to a human agent for a more personalized approach.
• Recommending solutions, as agents use AI to pre-formulate answers or expand existing questions to understand the context. The technology also allows agents to know whether a customer has understood what is being explained. Even in sales, it predicts how close leads are to conversion.
• Automating speech-to-text is something that's routinely seen in a smart contact center because it allows information to be captured from each interaction so agents need not walk the same path twice. Information flows alongside agent response in one fell swoop.

Independent research by Kearney shows that the interaction time between agents and customers will shrink by 40 percent by 2027 solely by using AI and RPA. It further elaborates that the focus will shift to more core activities producing values such as advisory service, up-sales, and proactive retention. Yet, despite all that, the adoption rate is still at the lowest. So now is the time to make the big move to stay closely behind early adopters or even directly compete with them before the window of opportunity is closed due to the widening growth gap between those who have already adopted versus those who are still undecided.

Five Strategies to Create a Smart Contact Center

Setting up a smart contact center is easy with 5 strategies. These are the transformational steps to help you ride the innovation wave before the window closes.

• Design Customer Interaction Workflow

  

  Customer requirements are in a state of flux with their needs constantly evolving. So is the technology that is available to cope with the complex demand-driven market. When you embark to make a strategic move, think about how your actions would impact customer services. Designing a transformative strategy is a decisive step where careful planning matters along with your ability to bankroll technology adoption. So start by thinking ahead of today and even tomorrow so your strategy will not only stand out but also help you pace through the evolution.

• Prioritize Technologies that Yield Result

  

  It's easy to say let's adopt technology A and then switch over to technology B to keep up with demands. However, the exercise is a massive waste of time and money. Instead, invest your time in planning what technology can scale to dynamic demands to help you make quick decisions to trim cost and other overheads. When you narrow down your choices to one ideal technology that you can hold on to for years without rethinking another, then that's the winning choice for your contact center.

• Don't Wait for the Best Tide to Sail

  

  Patience does pay in many situations, but waiting for the best moment when you should be diving headlong could cost you the opportunity. Even the prohibitive cost could make your goal fall out of reach. So instead of making it challenging to catch up with early adopters, start now if you have a viable product plan and think of how to streamline the process as you move further. This is a strategy that is bound to work rather than spending years in R&D trying to perfect your deployment. The goal should always be to focus on initial areas to start small and scale with agility.

• Upskill Employees to Embrace Automation Support

  

  Evolving as an organization is a collective approach wherein you begin by training teams to adapt and even think beyond the cultural precinct. A true digital transformation is incomplete without having agents come up to speed with trends that are being talked about today. They must be acquainted with AI and automation technologies to follow strategic directives with velocity. Therefore, the upper management must take the steps necessary to ensure camaraderie by fostering an atmosphere that excites professionals to master AI-enhanced tools than setting them off in trepidation.

• Collaborate with Like-minded Partners

  

  Markets are crowded with companies with whom you can partner to rapidly launch use cases. You can develop and test new approaches with collaboration that transforms contact center operations. This will validate your pilot strategy and fuel your efforts to adopt transformative steps in customer interaction.

Outsource Contact Center Services to Outsource2india

Outsource2india has 25 years of experience in providing a range of customer support services, as well as a full suite of call center services. Customers value our services and contact us to have a myriad of challenges addressed through our contact center experience and strategic initiatives. With rich knowledge in innovative automation technologies and implementation, we drive traction in contact center innovation. How we do it at a budget you can afford is where we stand out from the competition.

Contact us if you need AI to power smart automation of the contact center and we'll provide a custom quote for your needs.