Jim Palmer, Chief AI Officer at Dialpad shows us how humans and robots can work together
With the rise of AI and other automation tools, enterprises have rapidly transformed their operations, and contact centres are no different. Across industries, more than 77% of leaders expect AI will provide their organisation with a competitive advantage.
Against the tide of limited resources and an increasing volume of queries, contact centres have looked for technological advantages, such as chatbots or interactive voice responses (IVRs), to sustain a flow of satisfied customers.
When backed by robust customer data, AI can significantly speed up query resolution by amplifying the work done by human agents. While virtual agents can be deployed to answer basic questions, AI tools can be implemented to track the general sentiment of a conversation and flag when a human agent is needed.
The underlying goal of each call is customer satisfaction through query resolution. A general barrier to achieving satisfaction is miscommunication which prevents the contact centre employee from understanding what the caller hopes to gain from the call. While this could initially be written off as a lack of product service knowledge on the employee’s part, there is an underlying emotional understanding that can often serve as the bedrock for a call’s success.
The role of emotional intelligence in customer satisfaction
Callers want an interaction that feels individualised to address their concerns – it’s why an overwhelming 70% of customers state that they feel more loyalty to a company that offers them a personalised experience. Emotional intelligence is an essential aspect of customer interactions to reduce misunderstanding and help customer service workers understand unique caller needs. Just as with technical proficiency and clarity, it’s a skill that can be honed and enhanced to ensure successful customer interactions.
The ability to recognise, understand and manage not just their own emotions but the emotions of others is a critical factor for businesses aiming to deliver a satisfactory customer experience. Failing to connect with a customer on a personal level can result in a conversation that is mired in frustration, which could have disastrous effects on the business, with 49% of customers leaving a brand to which they’d been loyal in the past 12 months say it’s due to poor customer service experience.
Conversely, a positive call experience can help a business thrive, with almost 70% of consumers purchasing more from companies that offer seamless conversational experiences. By nurturing empathetic connections with customers, businesses can foster loyalty and advocacy – and AI can help establish these connections faster than ever.
Instant customer sentiment insight
With the average contact centre call lasting just over five minutes, agents need to be decisive and precise in their language to ensure the interaction is a positive one. In the past, customer satisfaction was predominantly assessed with post-call surveys, meaning any lesson that could be taken from a call could only be applied in future interactions. Post-call surveys also traditionally gave a highly polarised view of customer satisfaction, with respondents tending to be either very satisfied or very dissatisfied. AI has revolutionised how contact centres gather and utilise data by integrating real-time analysis platforms to shape the success of the call, as it is happening.
The speed of resolution is the most essential aspect of the call experience, and AI sentiment analysis tools can be leveraged to deliver this. By identifying keywords and phrases that the customer relays, the agent can swiftly understand the issue at hand. The ability to gather suggestions that are backed by data and resolution history instantaneously can speed up the process and avoid customer frustration. Companies have the ability to leverage their knowledge base in AI platforms that can instantly be called upon by agents when needed. In many cases, employees won’t even need to call upon the knowledge base, as the AI can suggest responses based on keywords from the conversation. While not a new concept, advancements in speech analytics have allowed agents to make informed decisions in real-time.
These platforms can also gather data that present the sentiment of a customer live, to the agent by discerning subtle cues that inform them of how the caller may be feeling. This data can help the agent better understand when to adjust their language and also, if necessary, when the conversation is reaching a point of escalation that requires the involvement of a supervisor or manager. By distilling customer calls into data that can be presented live, the agent has a greater chance of connecting with the customer and resolving their issue in the most efficient way.
AI-based dynamic learning
AI complements human intelligence, and the data the platforms gather can help improve employee productivity by streamlining time-consuming tasks so more time can be dedicated to areas where agents can be the most effective. The data gathered from customer interactions can be translated directly into training modules that serve as the basis for understanding future calls. AI’s ability to instantaneously analyse and pull suggestions from large quantities of calls can help curate a dynamic learning platform that can increase productivity and output for contact centres.
AI should be seen as an opportunity to enhance the human experience when it’s needed, rather than detracting from it. By utilising the tools to their full abilities, AI can be implemented to foster a contact centre workforce that has a more profound emotional intelligence and the ability to find resolutions for their customers more efficiently than ever.
The importance of the human touch
AI has already had a significant impact on the contact centre industry. According to a C-Suite survey, 75% of respondents who worked with contact centres use AI before, during, and after calls.
Among these respondents, 39% use AI during a call, 32% use it before a call, and 29% use it after a call. The continued implementation of AI can empower contact centre agents and equip them with a deeper understanding of customer emotions, enabling them to respond with empathy and accuracy. AI platforms can be integrated into workflows to handle time-consuming tasks such as data handling and pattern identification, leaving employees to focus on bringing their uniquely human touches and emotional connectivity to the call experience.