AI widens scope
AI finds use in more business processes by the day. It is a very broad notion, of course; more of an approach that can be used for dealing with a number of challenges. More customers go digital or add a digital dimension to their operations, and that is where AI can increase their performance. Because of that, nearly every second stand offers a blending of AI into the larger picture.
HR and wages always were the bottleneck for company growth in customer servicing; now AI helps curbing costs.
Some futuristic analytics are claiming that all contact center operations will go agentless in several years’ time; our position is more balanced. We are positive that all repetitive operations which do not require moving things around or providing service manually will be automated. So, the profession of an agent in the classic sense will go extinct. But on the other hand, it allows humans to educate themselves, gain skills and become more specialized, thus providing much better service with the same head count, doing ‘the human thing’ instead of a ‘machine thing’.
HR and wages always were the bottleneck for company growth in customer servicing; now AI helps curbing costs.
Some futuristic analytics are claiming that all contact center operations will go agentless in several years’ time; our position is more balanced. We are positive that all repetitive operations which do not require moving things around or providing service manually will be automated. So, the profession of an agent in the classic sense will go extinct. But on the other hand, it allows humans to educate themselves, gain skills and become more specialized, thus providing much better service with the same head count, doing ‘the human thing’ instead of a ‘machine thing’.
- Digitalization brings more business purposes for AI
- AI curbs costs
- AI takes over repetitive tasks
- Agents‘ skill development made possible
- Deeply specialized teams instead of general agent workforce
- Request categorization and routing
- Smart single-level IVRs
Voice bots / text bots
All of bots are an application of AI. As of late, implementation costs of such systems have diminished significantly. A project involving above 50 people would normally pay off in 3-6 months.
Bots are excellent for:
- Peak load balancing
- Information self-service
- Setting meetings
- Customers write or speak in a natural language
- GPT-chat-based conversational systems a reality
- Pays of in 3-6 months
Better UX/CX is all-important
While bots are and should be used for cutting repetitive manual labour, they are equally important for providing a better service.
In the modern economy, retaining the existing customers is a task that can not be over-valued. Scaring off them with poor user experience may ruin even large businesses. So, many exhibitors at the CCW are including UX/CX management into their agenda.
It may be argued that business needs and customer needs are in a constant contradiction: the customer needs to receive a better service at a lower price, and the business needs to spend as little as possible in expenses in order to maximize profits. But the current paradigm offers a more ecological approach.
- Retaining existing customers brings profit in the long run
- Paradigm shift: better service!
- Every system can be viewed from the UX/CX angle
Automation of business processes
Putting it all together, some vendors are offering a complete workflow that would employ customer interaction, request processing, and multi-step servicing. Depending on the business process, various systems may be integrated. Important is the process, not the building blocks. Process automation is the means for cutting costs and providing better service at the same time. Without automation, it is hardly possible to control service level for multi-step systems or outsource complex business processes.
- Workflow, not software solutions
- Introducing, improving and controlling SLAs
- Saving costs while improving service
Here’s an example of workflow tasks that require all the abovementioned points to be employed:
Task: Emails/Text message classification and service automation
Results:
- Accuracy up to 90-95% for 10-20 categories
- Savings up to 20% on wages of agents
- SLAs introduction for better UX
- Customers write in a natural language
- Automatic and semi-automatic responses
- Comprehensive reporting
Contact centers offer BPO services
Some larger contact centers are exhibiting at the CCW, and they are now widening their service line with the help of the new technologies. Automation and introduction of AI and bots allow them to offer business process outsourcing (BPO), where processes are complex and require many steps. These include secretary services, back-office, help desk, emergency services and many more. Shortly, the scope of business for contact centers has multiplied since the last CCW in 2020.
- Contemporary tools allow more BPOs
- Contact centers widen their market
- Secretary services
- Back-office
- Help desk
- Emergency services
- and many more
WFM: agents’ well-being in focus
One focus is business, the other is customer service and the third is agents’ well-being. If all the three focal point can be maintained, the employing companies receive a significant boost in development, and that is the paradigm shift that we in SoftBCom have been talking about for the last years. It is finally happening and we see how many more customers adhere to this strategy. Maintaining growth and introducing automation requires a completely different role of the agent. Agents are becoming higher-level employees whose skills are developed and maintained, and are taking active role in the company. Out of our Full Stack Offer the WFM solution was most popular.
Active agents:
- Set their shifts within rules
- Can exchange shifts
- Use mobile application
- Access from any device
Global vendors of contact center solutions are out
Before Covid years, Genesys and Avaya used to dominate the narrow Hall1, leading to the much larger Halls 2-4. They pulled out in the year 2020, when the anti-pandemic measures were already introduced in certain countries, and a little ahead of the official reaction in Germany. They couldn’t return this year, as their place was already taken.
- Covid has changed the corporate landscape
- Genesys and Avaya are out of the show
Global communication providers are in
Again, the Covid years have changed the communication landscape a lot. Maintaining the work from home possibility has become over-important for those companies in Europe who actually wanted to stay in business. This attitude has shown that in many cases a distributed office organization is cheaper and provides significant flexibility in human resources (people with limited time slots and/or limited ability to travel can now be incorporated into contact center operations). Illustrating this trend, Webex and Zoom are exhibiting for the first time, while Twilio has become much more prominent.
- Distributed offices are here to stay
- Human resources flexibility
- Webex and Zoom are in the show
- Twilio has grown