AI is changing, well, almost everything
The potential of AI in customer engagement it’s impressive. And let’s be real, for the entire digital marketing world. Technology, however, can be intimidating. How… where… when do you start?
We hear it loud and clear. We also know you need to deliver results and ROI for your contact center, your teams and your business.
To make that kind of impact, start with making your customers and agents happy. Since AI is the talk of the town (especially since ChatGPT hit the scene in November 2022), you’ve probably heard that AI might just be a truly game-changing way to make life easier for everyone, especially you same.
Whether you are a contact center leader, customer service executive, IT professional or digital marketing managerit’s time to embrace AI and start experiencing its benefits for yourself.
The true power of AI for service
The benefits of AI and the automation capabilities it unlocks are 3 in 1. If our math is correct, that adds up to a game-winning win. For you and your company’s bottom line.
We’ll get into the details soon, but first let’s talk about what you get out of it. Why bother with AI when customer service is your goal?
With the right AI solutions at hand, tools that are really easy to implement, use and optimize, the potential is huge:
- Deliver exceptional (and convenient) customer self-service 24/7/365
- Improve agent performance / streamline workflows with automation
- Get easier access to 360° real-time data insights
- Reduce overall operating costs e
- You may have guessed it, much more
Today, we’re going to dive into the top 3 reasons AI is game-changing to deliver amazing experiences and maximize ROI.
Reason no. 1:
Service is the name of the game now
AI helps you provide extraordinary and seamless service that empowers your customers and improves their overall experience, increasing loyalty and satisfaction.
A key benefit of AI in the contact center is all new ways you can provide exceptional customer service.
In other words, use artificial intelligence to help your people help your customers. Improving CX and empowering agents at the same time. Make everyone involved feel valued e sense.
With AI-powered chatbots, voice assistants, and virtual agents, you can deliver fast, convenient, and personalized self-service 24/7/365.
AI enables customers to:
- Ask questions
- Solve problems
- Place orders and
- Get recommendations
All on your own time and terms. Without having to wait on hold or speak to a human agent. And the type of customer experience that feels more natural, intuitive, and more human every day.
Here’s why investing in AI for service pays dividends across the board:
- Less customer effort
- Increased customer loyalty and satisfaction
- More sales and upsell opportunities
The ease and convenience of AI-powered customer service leaves a lasting impression, bringing people back for future interactions (and purchases). And it can even help you retain the best at your company.
Reason no. 2:
AI empowers agents and improves their performance
AI boosts agent performance and productivity by automating slow, manual, repetitive tasks and driving customer interactions.
Yes, AI is extremely beneficial for your customers. But what about your agents?
AI lets you free up more time and energy for the interactions that matter most. Those complex or high emotion tasks that benefit from a human touch. Using smart solutions to automate tasks that often frustrate agents, cause workflow issues, slow resolutions and limit profits.
Don’t let the AI intimidate you. You don’t need to understand every nuance of the code under the hood. But you Do need the right supplier, with the right platformto help you power your company’s AI engine.
The question is: How can you use AI to help everyone, especially agents and managers?
One way is to let the AI take care of all the mundane stuff so you can empower your agents to do what they do best. And this offers customers a high level of service and high value.
Some examples of “mundane stuff” you can automate with AI*:
- Data entry
- Call routing
- Ticket assignment
(*What other AI applications can you think of to increase efficiency? We’d love to hear your ideas.)
AI can also help guide your agents in their customer interactions, 100% live and in the moment. Capabilities to look for here include:
- Real-time suggestions for the next best actions
- Tips to improve decision making
- Customer information for more personalized service
Live agent guidance is absolutely a difference maker. And when you layer integrated agent workflows on top of that, be careful. The ROI train is moving along the tracks.
Two important things about integrated agent workflows:
- The term refers to an innovative feature of the industry’s leading cloud contact center platforms. It is an AI-powered solution that helps you collect, configure and customize multiple systems/data streams/instruments/channels/other in one continuous stream.
- It also sounds like a line from a Beastie Boys song…
The result? Agents are able to move through interactions more efficiently, increasing the productivity and ultimately the bottom line of your business.
And the bonus? More engaged and satisfied agents, which in turn deliver an even better experience for your customers.
Reason no. 3:
Smarter. Faster. Leaner. AI = Game changer.
AI makes your operations smarter, faster, and leaner with tools that learn and improve on their own, as well as giving you access to real-time data-driven insights to help you optimize.
AI-powered analytics and reporting can help you extract valuable insights from the seemingly endless amounts of data available.
The sheer amount of information is no longer enough for contact center data. These days, you need quality insights so you can make the golden rule of business work: “Treat customers how they want to be treated.” As peoplenot chunks of data.
With artificial intelligence, yes access to data-driven information that are automatically extracted, parsed, and marked up, 100% of the time. This means you are able to identify and engage with opportunities that a manual process cannot match in terms of cost efficiency.
All in all, with the right AI tools at your disposal, your contact center can start to:
- Identify trends and anomalies
- Predict customer behavior
- Identify bottlenecks in workflows
- Recommend critical improvements
- And more
Additionally, AI can be integrated into existing business systems and workflows, making it easy to deploy and scale anytime, for any reason.
Take a look at some areas where AI can help you impact operations:
- Data-driven decision making
- Improve processes / workflows
- Reduce costs (e.g. overhead, salaries, etc.)
- Faster and more agile innovation
- And, yes, even more
AI solutions and tools can also strengthen your quality assurance capabilities, optimize workforce managementand surface valuable customer feedback.
One of the best ways to see results in workforce optimization? Choose AI that offers proven predictive analytics, natural language processing, and machine learning algorithms. This will help you be more agile and efficient to gain a competitive edge.
As you have seen, AI can 100% help you change the game for yours contact center CX and AX, plus your ROI. We don’t say this lightly when we recommend AI as a game-changing way to help you differentiate, innovate and grow your business.
The advantages, as we mentioned before, are 3 for the price of 1:
- Provide customers with extraordinary and seamless service
- Strengthening agent performance and productivity
- Make your operations smarter, faster and leaner
“Ok ok. Let’s say AI can help me. Bring it back to the beginning: What do I have to do now?”
It helps to have a 30,000-foot-wide understanding of how to apply AI to your operations. Check that box after reading this post.
So, we recommend the following AI-focused next steps:
- Evaluate your current state
- Define goals for clients/agent/company
- Look for solutions that fit your needs and budget (and vendors who really listen)
Also think about focusing more on change management, training and communication within your organization. The goal is to help yours employees (and customers) embrace AI and see the value.
Never be afraid. Artificial intelligence is not here to replace human interaction anytime soon. Instead, think of technology as a proven, powerful way to improve the experience for your agents and customers.
When is the right time to start? Yesterday was probably ideal. But there is still time. Today is a great day to start taking AI seriously in your business.
Talk to the experts. Ask questions. Discover all the ways AI will be worth your time, effort and investment.
With the right technology and strategy, you can apply AI to deliver exceptional customer experiences, empower your agents, and maximize ROI.
No more waiting. No more watching your competitors implement technology you might have had before.
Now is the time to embrace the power and potential of AI. To start reaping the rewards. And to change the game for your contact center.
