A report by Gartner states “One in 10 agent interactions will be automated by 2026”.
It’s a glad tidings for agents and customers. Before the automation in the contact center, customers faced multiple challenges, such as – long waiting times to connect with the agent, staying online for a longer during to get a simple resolution because the agent had to perform repetitive tasks, etc. These issues cause frustration and reduce customer satisfaction and trust in the brand.
Sometimes contact center agents’ tasks grind to a halt because of the repetitive and monotonous work they perform every day. It affects their productivity and time and drains their patience, leading to frustration. Such turbulence often impacts KPIs like increased AHT (Average Handle Time), jolted CSAT scores, and decreased First Call Resolution (FCR).
One solution to overcome all these challenges – is “Contact Center Automation”. It uses advanced technological systems to perform repetitive tasks without human agent intervention. It aligns with the overall performance of the contact center and improves the negatively impacted KPIs.
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As per the report by Kearney, “Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) can reduce the time customer support agents invest on the common process by up to 40% by 2027”.
How Does Contact Center Automation Work?
Contact center automation uses machine learning, software integration, and artificial intelligence to reduce the work done by human agents. It automates repetitive tasks and allows agents to focus on other complex issues.
Machine learning evaluates data and automates tasks, such as – predicting call volume, call routing, suggesting solutions to agents, and more. Automation features in contact center solutions streamline operations, increase efficiency, and offer unmatchable customer experience.
What are The Benefits of Contact Center Automation?
According to Gartner, Inc. “By 2026, conversational artificial intelligence (AI) deployments within contact centers will reduce agent labor costs by $80 billion”.
Automation allows contact centers to improve efficiency, increase productivity, reduce costs, and save time. Whether the contact center serves customers with tech support or appointment setting, automation can benefit in multiple scenarios like resolving common troubleshooting, integrating IVR, etc.
Enhances the Capabilities of Contact Center
Offering 24/7 customer support is crucial for seamless contact center operations. But, sometimes employees feel burnout while working tirelessly, or they might be handling some other tasks on priority, in such scenarios offering round-the-clock assistance is quite challenging.
Therefore, companies rely on contact center automation software that offers hassle-free customer support on behalf of employees during the odd hours. With this software companies can establish omnichannel interactions with customers anytime so that no conversation is left unanswered.
Reduces Human Errors
Human errors are normal while working, but sometimes minor mistakes can cause major challenges like escalations. That’s why, opting for automated solutions is the best way to minimize man-made errors.
For instance, supervisors don’t need to worry about agents entering the wrong data by mistake when the contact center automation tool is in place, because the AI will do data management tasks quickly and correctly.
Minimizes Operational Costs
Cost saving is one of the prime benefits of contact center automation, as it reduces manual labor requirements for addressing basic queries.
When intelligent routing and automated self-service are in place AI can resolve basic inquiries with fewer agents’ involvement, which lowers labor costs. Data-driven workforce management allows companies to generate accurate staffing needs and optimize staffing at different levels based on real-time data. Efficient staffing, less labor cost, and cross-trained employees lead to minimized operational costs.
Improves Employee Experience
One of the most common problems with contact centers is high turnover rates. However, this problem can be reduced with automation as it decreases repetitive and time-consuming tasks and makes work interesting for employees.
Employees get automated insights based on customers’ data that reduce their burden and make their jobs easier. These data provide suggestions for resolving customer issues and increasing employee satisfaction, which reduces turnover rates.
Easy Data Collection and Analytics
With advanced contact center automation software offered by NovelVox businesses can continuously collate comprehensive data from customer interactions happening on multiple channels. This data gives insights into customers’ reasons for contacting the customer support team, preferences, needs, pain points, and behavior.
With analytics gathered from automated software businesses can increase self-service offerings, make data-driven decisions, and enhance overall customer experience.
3 Best Contact Center Automation Tools
There are multiple tools to automate contact center tasks and save time. Some of the best contact center automation tools that help reduce agents’ work pressure and increase productivity are noted below.
IVR Systems to Simplify Call Routing
To interact with callers, IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems use pre-recorded voice prompts and speech recognition that capture data, provide information, and route calls according to callers’ responses.
An intuitive and optimized IVR for the contact center can enhance customers’ experience through interactive self-service, instant call transferring to the right department, quick first-call resolution, and more. Such advanced IVRs reduce agents’ involvement in repetitive and basic inquiries.
Chatbots and Virtual Assistance for Simple Inquiries
Chatbots like InfiBot simulate human conversation and respond to customers in a human tone. It uses machine learning algorithms to understand customers’ queries and reply accordingly.
Virtual assistants make AI involvement more advanced by using NLP (Natural Language Processing) to understand the context of the conversation, analyze customers’ sentiments, and provide more personalized interactions.
According to a report by Deloitte, “Global conversational AI market including virtual assistants and chatbox is expected to grow 22% between 2020 and 2025, with the market reaching nearly $14 billion by 2025”.
Unified Agent Desktop
Before interacting with customers, having a unified view of the caller is one of the most effective ways to improve agents’ productivity. With tools like Unified Agent Desktop aka Agent Accelerator, agents can have a 360-degree view of customer’s past interactions, preferences, and purchase history to start a personalized interaction with the customer.
This compiled view allows agents to provide more effective and efficient service to customers. For example, agents can intently retrieve customer’s order history and help them with the assistance they need related to their order in just a few clicks.
Conclusion
Technological advancements are opening doors for endless possibilities for automation in the contact center. It helps businesses to meet customers’ needs and deliver excellent customer service. However, considering contact center automation as a replacement for human agents would be wrong. Automation should be seen as an added support system to improve agents’ work and free them so that they can focus on other major tasks.
It has been noticed that customers look for more human-to-human interaction to resolve their queries. They want a personal touch in the interaction that only human agents can offer. That’s one of the reasons why companies rely more on contact center support tools that come with strong sentiment analysis and other generative AI features.
