And this represents the second area where AI will make an impact as Augmented Intelligence supporting the agents to do more complex work . It enables offloading repetitive tasks and giving agents access to what they need as they deal with ever more complex tasks .
THERE APPEARS TO BE A TRADE-OFF BETWEEN PROVIDING AN EXCELLENT CX AND AGENT PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY . NAMELY , “ I WOULD LIKE TO STAY ONLINE TO SERVE YOU BETTER , BUT MY SUPERVISOR WANTS ME TO GO TO THE NEXT CUSTOMER .” PLEASE DISCUSS . IS IT POSSIBLE , AND IF SO , HOW , FOR CX FOR PERFOR- MANCE / PRODUCTIVITY TO BE ON THE SAME PAGE ?
A : AI removes a lot of the pressure on agents to do it all . Before AI , agents not only had to worry about getting through phone calls but also took care of non-customer-facing tasks like post-call summaries . Agents also had to spend a lot more time combing through clunky knowledge bases to find answers to customer inquiries , lengthening the time to resolution .
AI eliminates this extra work , freeing up time to focus on building customer loyalty and looking for upsell opportunities . It writes post-interaction summaries . And it also creates robust knowledge bases where agents can instantly pull the information they need to resolve an issue .
Finally , AI frees up the agents ’ time to build deeper relationships with customers and shift the focus of an interaction away from simply solving a problem .
AI , LIKE GENERATIVE AI , HAS BEEN SEEN BY SOME IN THE INDUSTRY AS BEING OVERHYPED : OVERPROMISING AND UNDERDELIVERING FOR CONTACT CENTERS . BUT IS IT ? WHAT TYPES OF FUNCTIONS AND VALUE IS IT DELIVERING ? AND WHAT NEW APPLICATIONS AND VALUE DO YOU SEE FOR IT AND WHY ?
A : AI has transformed post-interaction summaries . What once was a cumbersome , loathsome task for agents has turned into an automated , much more efficient process .
Before , agents had to spend time after every interaction dictating a summary of how the interaction went . It was subjective and an afterthought as agents dealt with more pressing priorities .
Now agents don ’ t have to worry about it at all . AI generates an objective , detailed summary of every interaction , noting the appropriate context needed for the next agent who interacts with that customer .
As we look to the near future , ticket-based systems will be phased out and will be replaced with interaction-based systems to provide a more modern , seamless help-desk approach .
Generative AI is enabling organizations to build more robust knowledge bases and train more intelligent chatbots . This will allow organizations to move to interaction-based systems , able to answer inquiries on any channel , automating many support requests , and reducing the need for manual intervention by support staff .
Advancements in AI will also enable organizations to drive seamless asynchronous customer interactions . These will allow customers to pick conversations back up with human agents or bots right where they left it without needing to repeat information or start the interactions from scratch .
Developments such as this will eliminate the frustration that can commonly be felt by the customer who is asked to repeat things during an interaction . It also gives the customer more freedom if they need to leave an interaction at any time .
This concept , which customers have been demanding , is the future of customer service . It will be fully realized by businesses in 2024 and will lead , I predict , to a 50 % bump in CSAT scores .
"... AI FREES UP THE AGENTS ’ TIME TO BUILD DEEPER RELATIONSHIPS WITH CUSTOMERS AND SHIFT THE FOCUS OF AN INTERACTION AWAY FROM SIMPLY SOLVING A PROBLEM ."
-- BARRY COOPER
WHAT ARE YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS TO CONTACT CENTER DECISION-MAKERS ?
A : It has become increasingly difficult to manage customer service compared with even five and 10 years ago . With the rise of digital interactions , there are so many different ways a customer can reach out to an organization , and they demand that organizations be reachable at any touchpoint .
Customers want their problems solved immediately on their channel of choice . What may seem like a daunting task is a quite simple fix . There are tools available on the market today that can allow organizations to manage the complexity of interactions we are seeing today .
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