It’s safe to say that the contact centre has come a long way from the hectic hives of buzzing employees and ringing desk phones we knew only a couple of decades ago. In 2018, we’re focusing more than ever on the restructuring of the employee experience, with an omnichannel experience driven by social media, mobile communication, and even disruptive technology like IoT.
It’s no surprise that this digitally-transforming environment has paved the way for an enterprise environment that thrives on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and most importantly: big data. The long-neglected contact centre has emerged as a source of invaluable insight for companies that need to differentiate themselves through next-level CX and consumer satisfaction.
Why is AI the Perfect Addition to the Contact Centre?
If you know anything about artificial intelligence, you’ll know that it works best when it has a lot of data to work with. The contact centre is perhaps the richest store of customer data in any business – existing on the front lines of customer engagement. This means that it’s the perfect place to launch an AI strategy designed to improve customer engagement and transform interactions into actionable insights for the business.
Over the years, the contact centre has been one of the first departments to embrace automation and implement new technologies for greater efficiency. As customers demand a shorter time to resolution, organisations have quickly realised that AI not only improves productivity in the business environment but also improves the nature of the interactions they have with their customers.
Improving the Contact Centre Role
As direct points of customer contact become more valuable to the virtual economy, contact centre agents will be the people on the front lines, representing their brand, and business values. Unfortunately, the fast-moving nature of the contact centre has prompted a high-level of turnover in these businesses, with studies showing a turnover rate of up to 45%.
The instability of the employee call centre network wreaks havoc on many business operations, costing companies huge amounts of money in training and replacing employees. With a good AI strategy, it may be possible to eliminate the frustrating tasks that push staff to search for alternative jobs. If employees feel as though they’re actually helping people, they may feel more committed to their role.
In the contact centre, AI can be the staff supplement that leads to more engaging and interesting roles for today’s employees.
AI Is Critical to the Contact Centre
Today, AI is growing increasingly crucial to the contact centre environment. As the enterprise continues to discover the benefits of creating stronger experiences for customers, artificial intelligence can give today’s brands the insight and support they need to get ahead of the curve.
Contact centre managers with their eye on the future have already begun to discover some of the benefits that AI can bring, from making self-service easier to helping agents understand customer sentiment. However you use it, AI ensures that the contact centre can solve problems faster, giving agents more time to deliver that fantastic customer experience they’ve been looking for.
