The future of the contact centre customer experience lies within the “Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)”. In fact, 75% of CEOs have acknowledged that generative AI is essential to gaining a competitive edge. However, despite technology driving innovation, productivity and profitability, the process of integrating AI into the workplace is still in its infancy. There needs to be more support for contact centre managers embarking on this journey.

When it comes to AI applications, the possibilities are seemingly endless. From the use of chatbots and providing data analysis, to delivering predictive and automated responses, learning from previous customer engagement – AI has proven to offer the reliable assistance that agents need to excel. However, it’s vital for contact centres to integrate these technologies in the right way and ensure responsible and safe adoption to truly reap the benefits AI offers. After all, embracing AI doesn’t diminish the human touch, it enhances it to build a more meaningful customer experience (CX). 

The benefits of implementing AI and chatbots for agents and customers: 

1.   Enhancing the data feedback loop  

Leveraging insights and learnings from previous interactions with customers is important in improving the contact centre experience. AI tools can be used in identifying strengths and weaknesses around how agents handle customer experiences.

Contact centre agents generally conduct a number of mixed customer interactions, with varied outcomes. AI empowered Performance Management maps out elements they performed well with, which presented a challenge, and any gaps in knowledge – offering smart insights and improvement strategies.

When an agent reviews their performance metrics, they can quickly act on this feedback and improve the quality of their customer interactions, fostering a more attentive service. 

2.   Creating agility and personalised responses 

Customer interaction is designed to be a streamlined process. However, if all interactions boil down to following the same script, the nuance of offering bespoke service can be lost. Agents need to be flexible when managing customer queries creating a more empathetic experience for customers, who will feel as though their specific concerns have been addressed.

This is where chatbots elevate the experiences of both the customer, and the contact centre agent. By improving the filtering of customer queries and simplifying core issues, chatbots enhance interactions, offering a series of tailored and informed responses, instantly. Weaving AI into the mix streamlines contact centre agent workflows, offering more dynamic and smart decision making. 

3.   The key to real-time customer translation

Internationally, contact centre teams are often faced with customer interactions in multiple languages and local dialects. Global hubs need to field inquiries from multiple regional departments, which also may have customers that speak different languages. AI-powered chatbots simplify the complexity of multilingual queries by providing real-time translation enabling agents to interact with any customer, anywhere, in their preferred language, transforming the CX experience.

4.   Standardising the tone for empathic engagements 

The demographics of customers that engage with contact centre agents can vary significantly. Teams must be prepared to handle queries that demand a range of expertise levels. By leveraging AI powered tools and chatbots, agents can adapt and shift engagement tactics.

Sentiment analysis that uses generative AI to automatically detect the tone and language used in customer messages is key here. Feeding agents a series of appropriate enhanced responses, and fine-tuning them for specific scenarios, is key to deliver an empathetic customer experience. Customers generally engage support services when there are issues. Therefore, having the right tools to match tonality with the best responses on a case-by-case basis supports ongoing customer goodwill and loyalty.

Overall, AI tools and AI-powered chatbots are the core enablers in enhancing the contact centre experience. By leveraging new technology in the right way, contact centre managers and agents can streamline their customer engagement workflows and feedback loops.  Through the implementation of these technologies, agents can continuously adapt, improve, and provide thoughtful and considered responses with the customers that they engage with.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Puzzel can help you, contact us here to book your free demo.