The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Contact Centres: Strategies for Success

Artificial Intelligence isn’t a science fiction dream anymore. The presence of intelligent systems in virtually all parts of our digitally transforming lives is growing. Companies are turning to AI as a way of handling growing demands from customers for faster, more personalized service. Intelligence in the contact center can also empower the modern agent, supporting better outcomes for teams.

Salesforce Research indicates that 83% of IT leaders believe in AI and machine learning as a solution for customer engagement. At the same time, spending on AI, in general, is set to reach a value of $126 billion by 2025. So, how do you implement AI into your contact center effectively?

Implementing AI in the Contact Centre: Planning

The successful implementation of any disruptive technology into the business space starts with the right plan. AI can enable companies to collect and leverage valuable information to improve customer experiences. However, the right strategy needs to be in place to guide team success.

Through the right AI strategy, companies can capitalize on phone and text conversations between their customers and contact center staff. You can even use your AI environment to supplement and support your staff members. However, AI is not a replacement for human agents.

The best intelligence investments today rely on the company’s ability to combine human creativity with machine accuracy and efficiency. Start your strategy by asking yourself what parts of your customer service and engagement strategy are currently suffering. Work backward from the problem, and only implement AI when it makes sense.

Here are some best practice examples of how you can make the AI leap.

1. Offer Effective Self-Service

Self-service is quickly becoming a must-have for today’s customers. Many digitally savvy customers prefer to solve issues for themselves before reaching out to an agent or employee. What’s more, around 45% of companies offering self-service see a massive reduction in phone inquiries. Less stress on your staff means happier, more focused agents.

In the AI-infused contact center, chatbots can answer common questions on your company’s website or assist with issues in a smartphone app. Conversational bots can even support consumers that dial your number to address a problem. These conversational tools know how to respond to common queries and deliver responses that make sense.

At the very least, effective self-service should include an automated bot on your website that delivers quick solutions to consumer problems.

2. Automate Repetitive Tasks

As mentioned above, to implement a successful AI strategy, it’s important for companies to recognize that bots are here to augment, not replace employees. Your staff members are a valuable resource in your company. They can improve customer sentiment, deliver creative solutions to problems, and build client relationships.

However, it’s difficult for team members to focus on what they do best if they’re always working on a selection of other tasks. By automating as many common tasks as possible with AI and bots, you free up your agent’s time so they can focus on what matters.

For instance, you could automate the initial security system that customers go through when accessing their accounts, using voice biometrics rather than lengthy ID confirmation processes. You can use automated AI systems to record important information from a call, so staff members spend less time taking notes. AI systems can even automatically determine when to follow up on a customer conversation with additional calls.

3. Improve Routing and Call Management

AI doesn’t just help agents deal with repetitive tasks or support customers in solving their problems. The right systems can also make it easier to organize and manage the call center. Today’s customers hate having to repeat themselves to multiple agents just to get a solution to their problems. AI with intelligent interaction routing can rectify this problem.

An AI IVR system can pick up on specific trigger words in a customer’s initial query to determine where to send a call. This ensures that the agents with the right skills and knowledge are linked to the customers that need them most. An IVR system can also make it easier to ensure that employees don’t lose out on opportunities to build relationships with customers.

If the AI system has sentiment analysis built-in, it can detect when the quality of a conversation is dropping. This could prompt the AI system to inform a manager or supervisor that a staff member needs support. This kind of assistance could be particularly valuable for the new remote or hybrid workforce.

4. Analyzing Data for Business Decisions

One thing that AI can do on a human’s behalf is analyze some of the huge streams of data the modern contact center collects every day. Today’s companies are collecting massive amounts of valuable information from every call, video, and text conversation. However, it would be practically impossible for human agents to pull insights from this data alone.

Fortunately, AI systems can sort through data quickly, plucking out valuable trends and insights that support better decision-making. With machine learning algorithms, it’s even possible for today’s contact center systems to learn as they go, collecting more information about customer preference and demand.

The data that you effectively collect and analyze through your AI systems will help with making better, more informed decisions about your company’s future. You can track where most of your calls are coming from, which agents perform best, and more.

5. Making Positive Business Changes

One of the best things you can do with artificial intelligence is make positive changes to business processes in the contact center. As the world continues to evolve, and teams digitally transform, AI can help managers and supervisors track what really works for their company and its customers. You can see which tools your employees use the most when working remotely and what kind of extra assistance and training they need to be more efficient.

Companies can determine which of their omni-channel contact center platforms are gaining the most attention right now, making it easier to determine where they should invest extra time. It’s even possible for AI solutions to record positive customer conversations and use the insights from these discussions for training and support of new employees.

Through the right AI innovations, companies can easily build a business with more successful onboarding processes, training, and team management.

That’s Just the Beginning

As companies continue to experiment with the potential of AI for customer service, we’ll discover more about how to implement intelligence into our business strategies. AI is rapidly becoming an essential part of the customer experience environment. How will you make your contact center more intelligent?