Exceptional customer experiences drive success. Less-than-stellar service, on the other hand, can adversely impact customer retention. The numbers tell the tale: 73% of consumers stop purchasing from brands after multiple poor experiences, and 90% jump ship to a competitor offering a better customer experience.
One of the biggest challenges in delivering these experiences is the reactive nature of call centers — agents can only act based on the information given, which limits their ability to address the root cause of customer concerns. Artificial intelligence (AI) can help companies pivot from reactive to proactive service processes. Here’s how.
Basics and Benefits: The Role of AI in Call Centers
Artificial intelligence tools mimic the basics of human cognition. While they can’t process and act on information the same way as call center staff, they excel at combing through massive amounts of data to discover and analyze new trends.
This allows AI applications to proactively address potential problems, rather than reacting after the fact. Consider a customer calling for help with a delivery issue. The customer waits on hold, speaks with an agent, and the problem is (supposedly) resolved. But then it happens again. And again. Now, the call center agents start to face growing frustration as the customer’s patience wears thin.
AI offers a different approach. When the customer calls with their first complaint, intelligent tools ingest and analyze all relevant consumer data and discover a small but critical error in address details, for example. By resolving this issue, the source of the problem is eliminated.
Using AI can also help companies better predict customer needs. For example, businesses can use AI to analyze the purchase frequency of large-volume buyers and then offer discounts or bundles when they’re likely to make a purchase.
The combination of proactive issue resolution and predictive needs identification leads to increased customer satisfaction and retention.
Smart Strategies for Exceptional Experiences
AI sets the stage for improved customer service — but it’s not enough in isolation. To deliver exceptional experiences, call centers need to combine digital intelligence with human instinct.
Here are four strategies that can help empower agents and enhance customer satisfaction.
Leverage machine learning — AI tools rely on what are known as machine learning (ML) algorithms. Put simply, these algorithms are capable of improved decision-making over time as they are exposed to more data.
One possible application is a call center looking to optimize the number of agents online at any given time. Typically, this process relies on a combination of historical data and human experience — call centers are often busier during the holiday season or just after a new product launch. Using machine learning, however, the centers can pinpoint exactly when customer volumes start to increase and when they begin to fall. This allows more precise scheduling of agents to reduce both overspending and understaffing.
Deploy natural language processing — Natural language processing (NLP) allows AI tools to understand questions posed in plain language and respond in kind.
Consider a customer routed to an AI agent. The customer informs that one of its five packages is taking longer than the others, and asks for an estimated date when it will arrive. Using NLP, intelligent tools can parse the context of the query and understand which package has been delayed.
Integrate sentiment analysis — Sentiment analysis is an evolving field of AI that helps applications better understand both the context and the emotion of customer statements.
Imagine that in the example above, the customer went on to say that this is the last time they are putting up with a delay. Without sentiment analysis, AI takes this statement at face value: This event has happened before, but might not happen again. With the ability to analyze sentiment, however, the application can recognize that the customer is frustrated and can route them to a human agent for more help.
Don’t go it alone — As companies look to keep pace by implementing tools such as chatbots and predictive AI analytics, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. The result often comes down to a choice: Temporarily sacrifice call center efficiency to deploy AI, or focus on operations but fall behind the AI curve.
With the help of a professional contact center company, however, businesses don’t have to go it alone. Call center providers can handle inbound and outbound operations while businesses focus on the development and deployment of purpose-built AI tools.
Staying Ahead of the Game With AI
Customer service needs are evolving. Callers don’t want to wait on hold for hours just to be told that their issue can’t be resolved or hear promises that they know will not be fulfilled. AI offers a competitive edge by pairing human expertise with the predictive abilities of machine, allowing companies to proactively identify customer needs and take action to improve overall satisfaction.
