Over the past few years, customers have increased the number of interactions they have with brands over digital channels. In most cases, contact centre agents manage both phone calls and digital interactions, which increases workload and pressure in their daily job.
Self-service options enable customers to find the answers they are looking for faster, but when a complex issue is in question, there is no better way to solve it than speaking to an agent.
Considering that contact centres are the lifeblood of customer experience, investing in contact centre solutions should be at the top of the priorities list for organisations looking to excel in CX.
Starting with contact centre automation, organisations can provide customers with more efficient self-service options while giving agents more time to handle complex customer queries. Here’s a look at how automation enhances customer experiences and empowers human agents.
Benefits of Contact Centre Automation Tools
Automation can be applied to almost all customer interaction touchpoints in the contact centre, including phone, chat, and email.
When a customer calls, automation tools can identify the reason behind the call and then recommend the next best action according to intent. If the matter is not urgent or does not require human assistance, automation tools can direct the customer towards a self-service option which is as equally efficient as the human agent for simple queries.
The most prominent benefit of contact centre automation is streamlined customer interaction handling which is translated to increased customer satisfaction. With automation, contact centres are able to process more queries, and therefore, fewer customers are left waiting.
Conversational AI has become necessary for a well-functioning contact centre due to its ability to efficiently handle customer conversations. Using natural language processing and machine learning, conversational AI is also able to self-learn based on previous interactions.
In line with this, automation solutions such as virtual agents can use customer data to provide personalised experiences. This may include the preferred language a customer uses and the history of previous interactions.
AI-powered automation solutions eliminate the risk of human error in customer interactions. When it comes to accuracy, virtual agents prove to be superior to human agents. For example, virtual agents will always get the customer’s name or account number right, exactly the way it was provided. Human agents, on the other hand, might input incorrect information due to background noise or lack of concentration.
Further, AI solutions can authenticate customers’ identities almost immediately against the previously provided biometric data.
Finally, human agents are prone to burnout and mental fatigue. This is where automation steps in to give them a helping hand and improve productivity. With conversational AI in place, human agents can dedicate their time to working on more complex issues and build meaningful connections, leading to increased satisfaction on both ends of the line – customers and employees.
Implementation
The implementation of such solutions varies depending on several elements. The implementation speed is influenced by the size of the organisation, the number of users and business units affected, types of automation solutions selected, and types of integrations and customisations.
Ultimately, the choice and implementation of automation solutions come down to an organisation’s unique needs. When looking for a vendor, companies should ask how the implementation is handled, from the first step to the last.
What makes the job much easier is that today’s CCaaS and contact centre solutions are based in the cloud. This significantly reduces on-site infrastructure costs and the time needed to implement new updates. With the cloud, everything is done in a matter of clicks. There is no need for manual updating since everything is automated.
How Can Avaya Help?
Looking to improve customer experience through one comprehensive platform? Avaya has one just like that. The Avaya Experience Platform is a complete contact centre automation platform that offers various AI-powered tools and low-code features.
The platform can automate many elements of customer experience management while helping human agents make the most out of their job by routing repetitive tasks to automation tools. The AI-enabled virtual agents provide customer support across all channels, whether it is web, email or social.
To make the implementation as smooth as possible, Avaya’s team of IT professionals will work closely with your organisation to ensure the process meets all your business’s needs.
Explore the Avaya Experience Platform feature set to learn more about platform capabilities.
