HOW TO KEEP THE HUMAN TOUCH
To build a successful contact center that leverages AI without losing human touch, Scott Steele, COO, Thrive recommends that you consider focusing on three key areas:
1. Identify and automate repetitive tasks. Begin by using AI to handle high-volume, routine interactions, helping to streamline workflows and reduce strain on staff.
2. Invest in employee upskilling. Equip your team with the training they need to focus on more complex, nuanced roles that require human insight and judgment.
3. Balance automation with human connection. Prepare your staff to manage delicate interactions and oversee AI processes, ensuring that technology enhances human output.
“ This hybrid model not only improves efficiency but preserves the trust and connection that only people can deliver,” says Scott.
IT CX
“ In the past, service representatives answered calls, gathered details, opened cases, and passed them along to the appropriate teams,” says Scott.“ Today, AI tools manage that front-end intake process, allowing our engineers to take calls directly. By streamlining those steps, we have brought expert support closer to the customer, delivering faster, more accurate assistance from the very first interaction.”
All told, these have translated into happier customers, with customer satisfaction reaching an impressive 99 % average over the last six months.
“ Not only has customer satisfaction improved, but their overall experience with our contact center has changed,“ says Scott.“ Previously focused solely on rapid client phone interactions, it has pivoted to prioritizing technical triage. Our teams are now expertly trained to quickly resolve the most common issues, reducing unnecessary transfers and expediting resolution times.
“ With this approach, our contact center has evolved into a strategic engine for both customer satisfaction and professional growth, blending advanced technology with human insight to strengthen every interaction.”
NEXT STEPS?
Thrive’ s next steps will focus on deepening the integration of AI while continuing to upskill employees in soft skills and AI oversight. It is now incorporating ServiceNow ' s new AI Control Tower and AI Agent Fabric into its contact center platform. Its roadmap includes Teams in ServiceNow integration, escalation management, task tables, and backup events consolidation.
“ We hope to expand AI’ s role in automating more nuanced tasks, while maintaining human stewardship for critical cases,” says Scott.“ The ongoing objective is a sustainable, human-centric contact center equipped with intelligent automation.”
Brendan Read is Editor of Contact Center Pipeline. He has been covering and working in customer service and sales and for contact center companies for most of his career. Brendan can be reached at brendan @ contactcenterpipeline. com.
20 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE