Today’s customers expect more from the companies they do business with than ever before – they now expect speedy, efficient and friendly service, anytime, from anywhere. A contact centre empowered with the latest AI technology will help you meet these rising expectations.
Latest developments
McKinsey believes the integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into customer operations could improve productivity by up to 45 percent. GenAI is artificial intelligence capable of generating text, images, videos or other data using generative models, often in response to prompts. Large Language Models (LLMs), which we feature a lot in this blog, are a branch of GenAI focused on language.
In the past, contact centre automation often made the customer experience worse rather than better, but the new technological advances mean AI is now able to solve an array of customer issues faster and more effectively.
Taking over the boring tasks
AI does the repetitive mundane jobs nobody enjoys doing, leaving your team to focus on adding value, improving the customer experience and growing the business.
According to a recent Hubspot study, 31% of customer service teams stated that the biggest benefit of AI in their role was time savings and task automation, 30% mentioned faster response to support requests and 25% highlighted AI's role as a strategic ally in effective issue resolution.[2]
You can begin to understand how the use of AI is enabling businesses in many industry sectors to deliver faster and more satisfactory interactions for their customers.
So, let’s take a look at some examples of how AI technologies could add value to your contact centre today…
Delivering improved customer service time after time
Conversations can be recorded and transcribed immediately using speech-to-text capabilities. This text can then be summarised by AI and saved in the customer’s contact history. The next time the customer calls, all the information from previous interactions will be immediately there at the agent’s fingertips.
This means that interactions can be personalised and customer queries can be solved faster and with more satisfactory outcomes. Even if the customer ends up speaking to more than one contact centre agent, a full record of all interactions will be instantly on hand to ensure efficient resolutions on every occasion.
Better still, with all this on record, the next person to speak to that customer will acquire a good understanding of what works for them and what doesn’t.
Delivering more human responses
LLMs are giant statistical probability engines that are currently at the forefront of the evolution in predictive intelligence. ChatGPT is one of the best-known LLMs.
These technologies can now provide more ‘human’ responses than ever before, taking into account the mood and tone of the caller and answering appropriately. It’s vital to be able to respond in different ways to someone reporting a medical emergency and someone wanting to return a pair of trousers that are the wrong size.
Freeing up contact centre agents to add value for customers
Many routine customer enquiries such as store opening hours, FAQs, stock availability and booking appointments at the doctor’s practice can easily be handled by an AI bot. By looking after routine requests, AI is enabling contact centre agents to focus on delivering extra support where it’s really needed.
78% of customer service agents say that AI and automation help them spend more time on activities with a greater impact on customer satisfaction, which also brings more fulfilment to the agent.
Conquering the language barrier, AI-driven translation tools also enable agents to communicate effectively with customers in their preferred language.
Monitoring contact centre agent performance
Evaluating agent performance has always been time-consuming and highly subjective, whereas AI allows you to analyse clear data points linked to key performance indicators in agent-customer interactions. This makes it so much easier to identify knowledge and skill gaps.
AI checks if the agent is reporting correctly, being helpful and using the main sales messages in their conversations. This reporting enables managers to plan targeted training for each agent, focusing only on their individual strengths and weaknesses.
For instance, if you spot a consistent pattern where an agent fails to display empathy, you can build your next coaching session around this skill. If they are selling a feature incorrectly, that’s something you can easily correct too.
All these benefits, delivered at speed
With contact centre operations, customer satisfaction is measured in seconds whether that’s the number of rings it takes to answer a call or the speed with which queries can be resolved.
You'll be amazed how fast AI can efficiently process your company's data to effortlessly deliver precise responses to everyday inquiries. Rest assured, it does so while upholding data privacy and security in full compliance with the latest regulations.
AI features are also raising the bar for omnichannel contact centres. You can now meet customers wherever they are, whenever they need you, whether that’s with a call, an email or a WhatsApp conversation – with even lower resolution times.
Importantly, AI improves the agent experience too
Giving contact centre agents instant access to a full customer contact history empowers them with key information and enables them to solve issues faster, boosting their confidence and their job satisfaction.
Freeing agents from monotonous repetitive tasks gives them the chance to focus on more meaningful interactions. By complementing human strengths, AI leads to an overall more rewarding working day for the agents. In the end, everyone wins: solving issues more efficiently makes your team happier, and your customers – and that’s good news for your business too.
NFON Contact Center Hub has all the AI features you need
We’ve upgraded our NFON Contact Center Hub with the latest AI features to help your team answer customer requests faster and more effectively and to give your customers the best experience.
NFON can help you embrace the new opportunities presented by AI and take your business to the next level. Our team is here to help you understand the technology, get started on this journey and explore ways it can strengthen your business.
Just get in touch with us for a full understanding of what our contact center solution could do for you.
Read also: The journey of AI from Alan Turing to NFON’s Contact Centre Hub