We all tend to think of a contact center as a people-driven area of the business — a department where customers can connect with living, breathing resources to get the support they need. So, it’s no surprise that we don’t usually envision the contact center as a target for automation. After all, doesn’t automation take people out of the equation?
Not necessarily. The fact is that the contact center is the perfect setting for digital transformation through automation — but not because it replaces people with their robotic equivalents. Automation can make the contact center’s human resources better at their jobs. It can improve both the customer experience and the employee experience by taking the delay and friction out of customer interactions. Following is a quick summary of how.
Better personalization
Automation can dramatically accelerate an agent's access to the data feeds needed to personalize an interaction. In most organizations, critical customer information resides in multiple systems — and those systems weren’t designed to work together and share information. As a result, an agent has to click through multiple interfaces to access the information they need. But automation can bridge those different systems and serve up the relevant information in a single window. Instead of wasting time hunting for the information that matters, agents can see exactly what they need, when they need it, regardless of its source.
A simpler, more consistent customer experience
No one likes waiting to reach a customer service representative. Automation can shorten response times by arming agents with information on the customer’s history and preferences. Also, it can help eliminate those scenarios where the customer has to explain the issue multiple times to different agents. It can smooth out interactions that cross channels. And it can enrich self-service, so customers can help themselves resolve basic requests sooner.
More relevant recommendations
Automation can make agents better at their jobs by providing real-time prompts specific to the conversation with a customer. Agents can receive recommendations for next steps, as well as relevant upsell and cross-sell offers that may appeal to the customer. Instead of relying on intuition or informed guesses, agents can supplement their expertise with the guidance the automation provides.
Lower attrition
Contact centers are notorious for their high turnover rates. So, whatever an organization can do to make the job less frustrating and more enjoyable, the better. Automation can eliminate a lot of the mundane and repetitive digital tasks that make the agent’s work more tedious. An improved employee experience leads to lower attrition, which leads to better service, which leads to higher customer satisfaction. It’s a winning formula.
Interested in how automation can help you turn your contact center into an engine for more effective customer engagement? You can learn more
here.
