With tools capable of effectively responding to human voice and typed queries, businesses can develop more streamlined, convenient customer service strategies. Already, there are endless examples of this in the CX space, from the clever chatbots on business websites to the IVR systems that go beyond the basics of telling customers to “press 1 to speak to an agent”.
As customers become more accustomed to interacting with bots, companies can use this technology to their advantage. In fact, around 80% of CEOs have either altered or intend to change how they interact with clients using conversational AI.
The question is, how do companies begin their adventure into the natural language landscape?
Step 1: Understand the Difference between Chatbots and IVA
The first step in implementing Conversational AI into the contact center is understanding what this technology can actually do. Today, the terms “chatbot” and “IVA” (Intelligent Virtual Assistant) are often used interchangeably. However, there are some significant differences between the capabilities of a basic chatbot and a rich IVA solution.
Traditional chatbots are simple automated tools that leverage FAQ information and automation triggers to resolve customer queries. They don’t pay attention to context, intent, or customer sentiment, and they can’t develop creative solutions to problems or improve their responses over time using machine learning strategies.
While both IVA tools and chatbots can help companies to build a successful self-service strategy, an IVA opens the door to new opportunities. These enhanced AI solutions can leverage natural language processing and understanding capabilities alongside speech recognition and other solutions to create more human-centric experiences.
IVAs can triage customer questions and deliver context to agents dealing with a call. They can route clients to the agent with the skills required to solve an issue, and they can understand more languages, emotions, and intent levels than the typical bot.
Step 2: Define Use Cases for IVAs
Once companies understand what IVAs can do, the next step is deciding where these solutions can deliver the most value to the business and its customers. Notably, while IVAs are growing increasingly more intelligent, thanks to enhanced AI algorithms, they’re still a way of “automating” aspects of the customer journey.
While automation can help streamline and improve experiences in some instances, it may not be suited to all customer/company interactions. Automation generally works best when dealing with transactional customer problems and queries. A conversational IVA can efficiently respond to questions about when a store opens, its delivery policies, and how customers can alter purchases.
It can also automate everyday tasks that agents deal with every day, such as scheduling appointments, sending shipment notifications to consumers, or even collecting data with surveys. The key to success is determining where a conversational bot can streamline a customer’s experience, remove friction points, and where a human may still need to be involved in an empathetic interaction.
Step 3: Define Success Metrics for the IVA Solution
After companies have defined use cases and goals for their IVA or conversational AI technology, they can use these targets to determine how they’ll evaluate the ROI or impact of each tool. For instance, if a company wants to reduce customer effort scores and improve average handling times, it can monitor how frequently IVA technology accelerates an interaction.
With the ability to understand human context and intent, IVAs can deliver benefits from both an employee and customer experience perspective. The right tools can reduce the work employees need to do to research a customer’s problem and deliver personalized service by providing direct access to valuable information.
They can also reduce the interactions that need a live agent, ensuring employees have more time to focus on the tasks that require their creativity and empathy. At the same time, IVA solutions can also improve customer engagement by resolving frequently asked questions faster at a time that’s convenient for the customer. They can boost CSAT and NPS levels and help customers get more value out of each interaction with a company.
Step 4: Explore Conversational AI Solutions
Companies around the world are already seeing significant benefits from conversational AI tools. Around 90% of companies say these solutions help them resolve complaints faster, and 57% of businesses say the tools deliver a high ROI in exchange for minimal effort.