Contact centers have long embraced automation in the form of Interactive Voice Response (IVR), much to the dismay of their customers. Some will have invested in those solutions, combining the email processing capability with inbound and outbound voice solutions such Maintel’s Callmedia, and some will have elected to combine projects for agent knowledge and web self-service along with email processing to aggregate budget to fund a project. A customer experience expert and technologist with over twenty years’ experience, Steve helps organisations to achieve exceptional customer contact through the appropriate use of technology. Contact centre automation, especially in key processes, is an effective way to achieve this. For example, they can proactively collect and pass on customer data to agents from front-end systems, so that when the customer is eventually put in touch with the human agent, the agent is all set to go. In an increasingly complex, connected world the contact centre is set to become the interaction hub of the digital enterprise – responsible for support, interaction, education and data gathering. Whilst there are thousands of business initiatives underway to offer customers web-chat, digital self-service solutions, and mobile apps – increasingly powered by bots and AI – email processing remains an under-appreciated item on the customer experience agenda. The automation of information flows has significant implications for many businesses, but it is perhaps in the contact centre that these implications are the most significant. The knock-on effects will not only see improved and increased human interaction, but will also be good for the bottom line by reducing agent churn and call handling times and increasing first call resolutions. Automation in customer service is not a new phenomenon. Robotic process automation (RPA) is a tactical, short-term fix to digitise common, reproducible agent tasks in the contact centre. From improving the efficiency of everyday process to reducing human errors, the benefits of RPA are numerous. Why Automation in Contact Centres has Benefits for Recruiters as well as Customers. It’s an easy overlay to … It’s also important to consider the agents when looking to implement a new automated system as they will be the ones using the technology on a daily basis. The potential for automation in the call centre Call centre agents need to be trained to help customers with a wide variety of enquiries. The benefits of improving efficiency metrics and being able to work round-the-clock are two-fold, helping both customers and agents through the customer journey. As the digital age continues to flourish and technology becomes an increasingly important and essential part of everyday life, it’s essential that contact centres get on the bandwagon and don’t get left behind by the smartphone wielding younger generations. Many customers are still comfortable with emails because they can be authored when not ‘connected’ and sent as soon as they’re next online, with a clear time and date stamp. Leave your high volume contact tasks and simple support questions to our integrated robotics, and free-up your contact handlers to focus on more valuable work - like complex issues, account management, client retention and CSAT improvement. Indeed, as 2020 commences, automation technology will and must be at the front and centre of improving call centre customer service, especially for younger generations and future customers who expect to have a fully omnichannel customer experience (CX), putting their digital know-how into practice. However, in the mean-time, there’s plenty of opportunity to make quick improvements that could release operational costs to fund projects which explore those new technologies. The majority of organisations continue to manage email through shared mailboxes, taking up a disproportionate amount of time, money, and resources, to ultimately deliver poor customer service any way. If you’d like to be the first to receive the latest updates and insights from our team here at Maintel, sign up to our newsletter by clicking the banner below! When it comes to the technology behind an automated CX, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the natural starting point, with GrandView Research estimating that the RPA market will be worth a staggering $3.97 billion by 2025. The contact centre of the future will be a place where skilled employees deal with complex issues, solve problems for customers, drive value for their employees and have greater job satisfaction. His focus has been on pioneering the development of self-service and compliance technologies for the contact centre space and he was recently awarded a patent for the co-invention of a revolutionary fraud prevention tool for contact centres. Businesses must recognise the need for efficiency and consistency across all the channels of communication they have with their customers. But first, we need to set a foundation … Definition of customer service automation. Steve is IPI’s Solutions director, leading the development of contact centre applications to deliver intelligent technology solutions to IPI customers. Solutions such as contact center robotic process automation (RPA) focus on customer experience while also placing emphasis on agent development, performance, and engagement. What’s more, if their processes are made simpler through automation, stress levels will go down and engagement will soar, resulting in higher productivity, lower absence, lower churn and they will have better interactions with customers, improving the entire CX. Intelligent automation defines a class of new technologies that includes robotic automation and cognitive learning, which can help organisations to deliver customer service more efficiently and effectively.Growth in this market is accelerating at a rapid pace, but with it comes the emergence of new terminology that is often confusing and at worst, misleading. Instead, the majority of organisations across all industries continue to manage the emails within one or more inboxes, with manual manipulation of shared inboxes. Hence, AI is a smart replacement to IVR for customer service augmentation. Automation could just herald a new golden age for customer service. The latest industry trends reflect that … Post call updates, for example, when an email or text confirmation needs to be sent out to the customer, can easily be done by a digital worker, leaving the agent to move onto their next call. Skill-based routing. Without automation, contact centers are doomed to limp along, suffering from inefficiency and poor customer service. After getting their basic information, they must initiate an entirely different process to find out about the customer's order history, whether they have had any previous support tickets filed, what the status of their most recent order is, etc. Places where humans and robots work together, not against each other. Automatic call distributor (ACD) technology made it possible to filter and route calls to the right agent at the right time, dramatically reducing call waiting times. The impact of Contact center automation Across all industries and all times, increasing efficiency and lowering costs has always been a driver for automation … Now is the perfect time to revisit the prospect of automating your email processing, to free up budget and resources as an integral part of your digital transformation and further improve customer experience. Change to customer information is a common contact centre request. Another benefit of email communication is the ability to describe issues in more detail or ask multiple questions, which other mediums like social media don’t allow. Contact centre agents are uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between the customer and the computer that they’re using to purchase a product, or complete an application etc. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Enghouse Interactive enables you to create a ChatBot and AI strategy for your contact centre by connecting and simplifying the automation and connectivity process … What is customer service automation? IPI partners with the industry’s leading vendors – including Avaya, Blue Prism, CX Company, Gamma, Genesys, Microsoft, Teleopti, Verint and VMWare – to provide a complete suite of contact centre solutions, available in the cloud, on-premise, or as a managed service. Contact automation delivers customer centricity and personalisation like never before. After all, they are the heart of every contact centre. The self-service branch in particular has grown leaps and bounds over the past few years, with supermarket self-checkout counters, food-ordering phone apps and online chatbots becoming solidly embedded in our everyday lives. The reality, however, is that your email communications today often contain a wealth of information to support your digital transformation across all channels, including: Also, in addition to revealing the above insights, moving from shared mailboxes to any automated email processing solutions will present other benefits, such as: Despite many early predictions, email volumes for contact centres and customer service teams don’t appear to have diminished much at all. A combination of rapidly advancing technology and increasingly high customer expectations is compelling businesses to transform the … It’s also important to remember what makes a good automated process, as there are some that lend themselves more readily to RPA than others. Messaging apps are growing to be an increasingly popular part of the customer conversation, and businesses are constantly turning to new channels to boost their service scenarios. 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