Often, contact centers lack clarity when initiating digital transformation initiatives like customer service automation. As such, it is helpful to get to grips with some ground rules before getting started. Here are some excellent examples.
DO: Start By Assessing Customer Contact
Spotting automation opportunities starts with assessing common drivers of customer contact. After getting to grips with how agents answer these standard queries, contact centers can consider which are possible to remove with self-service automation or improve by automating the manual tasks agents complete when dealing with them. Such tasks may include form filling, launching applications, and copying and pasting information.
By following this process and building a portfolio of opportunities, contact centers can prioritize and tackle them one at a time.
DO: Keep a Human In the Loop
When aiming to automate entire customer contacts, ensure that there is an easy escalation path to a human agent built into the system. So, if it fails, an agent can step in and seamlessly resolve their query, minimizing customer frustration.
Ideally, the system will leverage machine learning to remember the human action, evolve, and - over time - be able to handle similar queries autonomously.
DO: Connect Customer Service With the CRM
Integrating the CRM with various systems opens up a plethora of automation opportunities. For example, when it connects to a unified agent desktop, it can auto-fill forms such as post-call summaries.
Meanwhile, when it integrates with a customer-facing bot, the contact center can automate more customer queries as it can fetch data, which may also help to personalize service experiences.
DO: Ask for Feedback, Just Like Human Interactions
Again, when automating customer conversations, create a follow-up process, just like with human interactions. After all, it is not best practice to assume that all AI-driven interactions are error-free. Contact centers must regularly review the system.
To do so, many operations monitor the satisfaction and sentiment of customer interactions with the bot, using the chat interface or embedded analytics tools to collect feedback.
DO: Leverage Templates, Playbooks, and Low-Code Tools
Building automation scripts and workflows from scratch is time-consuming and involves long-term upkeep. Already, many digital transformation strategies - across all industries - are falling behind schedule.
Thankfully, many customer service technology providers offer ready-to-use templates and playbooks that streamline the implementation.
From these vendors, query if they offer a selection of low-code tools. These provide simple building blocks for digital automation success yet enable developers to customize the solution and add finesse.
DO: Start By Assessing Customer Contact
Spotting automation opportunities starts with assessing common drivers of customer contact. After, getting to grips with how agents answer these standard queries, contact centers can consider which are possible to remove with self-service automation or improve by automating the manual tasks agents complete when dealing with them. Such tasks may include form filling, launching applications, and copy a
By following this process and building a portfolio of opportunities, contact centers can prioritize and tackle them one at a time.