54% of US online consumers believe that interacting with a chatbot will have a negative impact on their quality of life (Source: Forrester).
Statistics such as this make for difficult reading. Yet, they are scarcely surprising. After all, chatbots were the first form of conversational AI to hit the contact centre market, and misconceptions spread like wildfire.
However, since Forrester conducted this research in early 2019, a lot has changed. Not only has the technology evolved, but leading conversational AI vendors – such as Cognigy – are coming to the fore. Offering expert consultative services, these providers work closely with brands to develop solutions that not only complement business results but CX too.
Perhaps this trend is most evident in a State of Conversational Marketing report from Drift, which highlights that the willingness of consumers to use chatbots for purchases rose from 17.1% to 41.3% from 2019 to 2020 alone.
Nevertheless, there is a fine line between getting it right and wrong, no matter which channel a company deploys conversational AI.
To help companies toe that line, we have created a series of essential “dos” and “don’ts” with the help of Derek Roberti, VP Technology, North America at Cognigy.
Do: Clearly Define its Purpose
Whether a voice bot routes customers to agents or a chatbot resolves customer queries online, it must have a clear purpose.
If it is for self-service, fixate on which problems it will solve. Assess common contact reasons and uncover simple, transactional queries that plague the contact centre.
Avoid boiling the ocean. Tackle each query one at a time, starting with the issue that generates the most failure demand. Contact volumes will plummet quickly. Meanwhile, the agent experience will also improve, according to Roberti.
“Human workers are left with more engaging, interesting calls allowing them to become higher-performing employees who are more motivated by the inherent qualities of the job,” he says.
“Being able to automate a lot of the repetitive work that does not require human judgment, decision-making, or empathy adds to the time that human workforce has to do meaningful, challenging tasks”
Do: Consider Customer Preferences
Contact centres often make the mistake of forcing customers to interact with conversational AI. However, some will always seek out human support. Respect those preferences.
Of course, it is understandable to become preoccupied with what fits the needs of the business or simplifies the IT process. However, systems must support the ideal customer journey, not vice versa.
Making this point, Roberti says: “Give people the option of contacting a human agent but make it easier for them to do everything in a self-service fashion first.”
“That’s what conversational AI or conversational automation does. It provides a natural language interface and allows users to speak in their own terms, so they don't need to worry about remembering which button to press, and they can quickly solve problems on their own”
Do: Build an Escalation Pathway
“Agents will still receive calls that need human decision-making, despite the implementation of well-developed self-service systems,” notes Roberti. As such, contact centres must enable a seamless transition to human support.
After all, it is impossible to train conversational AI to overcome every customer issue imaginable. It is, therefore, crucial to create rules that dictate when a query escalates to a live agent.
Such a strategy may go beyond the complexity of an issue. Contact centres can use AI to detect when a customer uses highly emotive language. In these scenarios, a human touch can prove decisive.