Imagine a person carrying a bucket of water in each hand. As time goes on, the weight of the buckets will grow, and the person’s arms will tire. With this technique, the individual will only be able to travel so far before exhaustion takes over and progress is halted.
But when we introduce a carrying pole across the person’s shoulders, they can transport the same weight across a much greater distance. This is the reality of a modern-day contact centre. In their everyday roles, agents are being weighed down by the pressures coming from an ever-demanding customer base. They sit at the heart of all contact centre operations, and are critical for business success.
Technology, more specifically AI, is the carrying pole. Its sole purpose is to ease the burden on agents, and to some degree management, making their jobs easier. However, there’s a fine balance between the two. As the capabilities of AI grow, contact centres must remember that agents are the key. Technology is an enabler, not a substitute.
People-first
Contact centres exist in every corner of the work landscape. Most of us have had to engage with one, and when we do, it’s because we need help with something. Some people find themselves in extremely stressful positions, meaning the last thing they need is to spend ages on the phone navigating a complicated stream of chatbots.
Never underestimate the value of human communication. Agents’ natural abilities to empathise with their customers and use of human intuition is irreplaceable and invaluable. After all, people engage better with people. However, good service is also in high demand. Consumer expectations are constantly changing and the pressure on agents to respond to the exponentially increasing queries whilst maintaining quality customer service is high.
When contact centres experience high attrition rates, retaining talented agents should be at the top of the agenda. In high pressure environments, it’s easier to pick out the companies with an agent-first business model, than those without. It’s a common occurrence for agents to jump ship if their engagement levels drop or they feel their employer isn’t concerned about their professional and personal wellbeing. This is the exact moment when AI becomes the carrying pole.
The role of technology
Unless you’ve been living in a media blackout, you will have seen the internet blow up with news of the latest advancements being made in artificial intelligence, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT dominating most of the conversation (with rumours of a ChatGPT-powered Microsoft Bing), along with Google’s Bard launch in coming weeks.
But in truth, we’ve barely scratched the surface of AI’s capabilities, and yet the value it already brings to contact centres and their agents is critical. Being able to automatically organise, categorise, and store data in huge quantities, and grant agents access to this data in real time, helps streamline processes and enhance customer experience.
AI also allows agents to offload monotonous tasks, freeing them up to spend greater time addressing complex requests and queries that require more human engagement. The latest language analytics tools enable more accurate compliance and quality assurance, across large volumes of voice and text conversational data, in a cost and resource effective way.
Contact centres can now use predictive analysis to interpret the impact of each specific engagement with their customer, including issue resolution and loyalty levels, and assess ways for agents – and the wider business – to better address customer queries.
Through effective AI deployment, contact centres will provide that much-needed support for agents, allowing them to evenly distribute the weight of a demanding customer base.
The right model
Omnichannel – and seamless connections between channels – has quickly grown in popularity as demand for greater flexibility from customers intensifies. Individuals want to be able to engage with contact centres in the way they feel most comfortable with, whether voice, email, video or social media.
One of the biggest pain points for a customer is having to repeat the same information across different channels. With omnichannel, agents have access to all previously logged conversations with each customer – regardless of communication channel – allowing them to progress the query without having to backtrack through previously given details.
Not only does this make the agents’ job easier, but it also facilitates better experiences for the customers. An omnichannel model also allows agents to operate within the channels they feel most comfortable, vastly improving their employee experiences and giving them greater control in their roles. Engaged staff can lead to better productivity, and quality customer service is, in part, dependent on agents operating within a supportive and comfortable work environment.
The powerful force of an agent-AI equilibrium will help catapult contact centres to the next level of customer service. That next level is founded on quality engagements and in-house efficiencies.
This article appeared in our March 2023 print issue. You can read the magazine in full here.