AI takes the pressure off contact center agents by improving their eyes, ears and voice
Monitoring call times, optimizing agent schedules, timely analytics, not to mention the ability to view the entire customer journey in real-time and in historical time, giving agents the on-demand resources and data to handle complex customer requests to deal with – the benefits of Artificial Intelligence The intelligence (AI) in customer service is enormous and is still only partially realized.
The value of AI is not in replacing jobs, but in performing the jobs that amplify the ears, the eyes and the ‘voice’ of the contact center – their agents, so that both, simply put, can do their jobs: the customer so much better. He explains how to navigate the AI hype to the four areas where AI will bring the most value to contact centers and employees.
A recent Deloitte study “2024 Global Contact Center Survey” shows that service innovators are overachieving and setting a new gold standard: 1.6x in achieving strategic goals, 4.6x in improving customer satisfaction and 2.5x in employee satisfaction . The report identifies service innovators as those investing in the use of AI and analytics as key drivers.
Using AI in the contact center can make a huge contribution to quality management and remove the laborious activities associated with quality management when reviewed by a human. For example, AI can track whether the phone call complied with all rules, regulations and company policies. monitor whether the tone of voice was correct and determine whether customer data, financial or not, is stored correctly and securely. It can obviously do all this much faster than humans, and contributes to better management of daily operations.
But there is even more potential to leverage AI – aggregating and analyzing key contact center data points – and then integrating these insights into a real-time dashboard to automatically notify contact center supervisors of exceptional activity. The potential continues.
CTO of ContactCenter4ALL.
So you have to get on the AI bus, but how do you find your way through the AI hype?
There are four key areas where AI is seriously improving customer engagement in the contact center:
1. AI-boosted text channels keep flexibility at the core
Regardless of the number of agents working in a contact center, AI can be a useful tool in condensing and analyzing large amounts of data. If you think AI will be used to replace humans, read on. New research shows that 70% of contact center managers believe AI will mean there will be more agents, not fewer, in the next decade – and their roles are likely to evolve. Here’s how.
The use and need for AI can vary from company to company. So it’s important that a comprehensive contact center solution keeps flexibility at the heart of business operations. Integrating AI into text channels, i.e. emails, SMS, web chat and other social channels, requires varying levels of flexibility. For example, does a customer want to use AI assist for email queries? Or do they simply prefer an automated email process?
AI is able to answer simple questions. A customer inquiry about a business’s hours would not warrant a response from a human agent; in fact, it would simply be a waste of the agent’s time and resources. Instead, AI could answer this quickly and efficiently, leaving human agents to handle more complex queries
But the human element remains. The age of personalization is not dead, and with these more complex questions, human interaction still has a strong influence on the customer journey. Here, AI uses customer data to inform next actions depending on the individual customer. It can route customer questions to the right person and provide assistance with those requests – think suggested answers, summarized data, and past conversation history.
It all contributes to a better customer and employee experience. When agents are better equipped to handle these questions, they are empowered, increase their efficiency, and build and build trust with both customers and employees.
…and it speaks every language!
AI transcription and translation services make global communication easier. Even if the agent and customer speak different languages, the AI integrated into these text channels can help them communicate in a preferred language. The benefits are clearly visible, especially for countries with multiple languages: Belgium, for example, has four languages!
Directing a customer inquiry to the right place and person may sound like standard practice, but it’s a crucial part of a great customer journey. Customers always demand a quick and easy solution. It’s where an extended recording helps. Call recording is not new, but the process can be made even better with the help of AI. AI listens to the ongoing conversation and provides summaries to the agent and suggestive answers. It’s there to help employees and ensure they have the right tools, answers and data to work efficiently.
With the help of AI, the purpose of the conversation can be quickly analyzed. Whether it’s ensuring that previous correspondence is taken into account (perhaps a customer sent an email a while ago, this is being added to their file) or that the reason for calling the appropriate department in the contact center is managed. It’s important that the right agent has the resources to handle the question at the end of the call.
It’s not what you say, it’s the way you say it.
Taking it a step further, AI also offers semantic recognition to monitor the tone of the conversation. It examines the conversation for specific words or for the customer’s general sentiment or mood, such as whether they are a little angry, very disappointed or even laughing. For example. Sentiment analysis is used by the system to proactively analyze cases and provide agents with suggestions on how to resolve issues quickly and effectively, ensuring the customer journey is a pleasant one from start to finish. It all contributes to a better and more effective training.
Not only this, sentiment analysis can also send alerts directly to a supervisor so they can intervene or be used in future training exercises to improve employee workflows. It can work on screens, social media and web chat. Better yet, it works on every channel agents and customers use, supporting additional training and an agent’s ability to resolve the issue.
3. Historical and real-time reporting: Knowledge of the past allows you to deal with the future
Reporting provides insight into processes and events that may not be visible upon quick inspection – something that is especially important in the virtual contact center where service and operations are spread across remote locations.
When it comes to day-to-day business operations, contact center reporting can be immensely beneficial when integrated with the use of AI in three specific areas: Time wasted is reduced by ensuring human agents can focus on the jobs that matter most matter: human agents and distractions are monitored and assessed for how they can be minimized, and call durations and busy peak times are reduced, as contact centers can ensure they have sufficient staff available during busy periods, with the emphasis on how conversations can be made more efficient are.
To maximize the value of their data, contact centers need two types of reporting: historical reporting and real-time insights. Both are essential for highlighting key pain points in the customer journey and addressing them with precision.
4. A safe place: Keep data safe with Microsoft Azure AI
After all this, the importance of safety cannot go unnoticed. Gen-AI requires access to a large data set, and in a contact center environment this could be personal customer data that needs to be kept secure. If you store customer data, it goes without saying that you need secure technology that keeps this information private.
For example, a solution that is natively integrated with Microsoft Teams means that the entire tech stack, including AI models, is based on Microsoft. Therefore, all data is stored in Azure Open AI, and therefore all data is always retained in the tenant customer. Risk and security monitoring, security assessments, prompt shields, and security system messages are just a handful of the new features coming to Microsoft Azure AI to help businesses stay safe. Take a cyber attack as an example. If a cyber attack meets certain criteria defined by the security team, AI can automate the response and isolate the affected assets. Generative AI goes a step further by producing original text, images, and other natural language content based on patterns in existing data.
Keeping customers safe is a top priority for Microsoft. That’s why the company invests $1 billion every year in security, including protecting its Azure infrastructure. It also employs 3,500 cybersecurity experts, including 200 who are constantly looking for weaknesses. When it comes to how the technology works, data sent within the Azure environment is automatically encrypted by AI. Then, automated smart traffic monitoring and profiling make it easier to detect and deter threats because the system knows when something seems unusual.
The power of AI, when used correctly in the contact center, can be felt throughout the entire contact center chain. It starts with well-trained, empowered employees equipped with the tools and data to perform at an exceptionally high level. They can answer customer questions quickly and correctly, regardless of the language the customer speaks!
Contact center operations are optimized, whether it’s call duration and monitoring peak times; Contact centers can use AI to reduce wait times and ensure more staff are working during busy periods. Effective reporting software gives employees access to historical information and real-time insights to assess the severity of questions. Not to mention that all their data and personal information is kept safe and secure!
And finally, it all contributes to a better customer experience – whether it’s a quick fix, an initial resolution, short wait times or a call to the right department – it all falls under the CX umbrella.
Remember, AI does better at the tasks that are too time-consuming for humans, so people can better do the tasks they are good at: customer service.
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