Call centers have long been the go-to solution for this task.
Most businesses don't have the time, resources, or expertise to handle this task in-house. It is a lot quicker and cheaper to hire a specialized call center for this task, brief them on what they need done, and simply route calls to the call center. From there, agents can pick up the information that the customer is providing and either provide solutions or point them in the direction that they need to go. While this is simple in theory, it can become quite difficult in practice. This is reflected in how many people hate going through an IVR when they have a query or concern. They desperately press ‘0’ to somehow get a human on the line that they can talk to.
Call Center Challenges
Call centers are one-window solutions for many different clients. They can be handling calls for dozens of different businesses and this means they don't always have specialized resources for all tasks. Some large call centers do develop and dedicate teams to particular clients but the majority of call centers have a small group of people that are deployed in all the projects that they handle. For the client, this means that quality can be severely compromised. After all, you have one person that is working on multiple projects and there is only so much time for them to familiarize themselves with each project.
Call centers are also sometimes in a crunch for capital. Since the job requires computers, high-quality internet, space, people, and many other things, there is a lot to spend on and this makes it challenging for the call center management to scale their operations. Both inbound and outbound call centers suffer from this problem and eventually, it is the client that has to pay the price when their customers aren't getting the best service.
Timing is another issue. A lot of companies outsource their work to offshore companies in a different time zone. While this is an economical choice, you don’t get the best quality when your customer support team is working long hours through the night. Onshore service providers are considerably more expensive so the price makes it worth it for clients.
Also, this physical distance and difference in time zones lengthens the communication path. Something that was discussed with a client by a customer support representative might not be relayed to the client company for the next 12 or even 24 hours. For the customer, this means poor quality of service. In this way, there are many problems that the call center faces but it is the client that has to pay the price.
Software And Call Centers
Call centers have used all kinds of software for a long time now but not many have experienced the power of AI. Software on its own might be good, but in a real-world setting, it is still limited to the competence of the user. Still, even having basic software can help drastically improve things from a completely manual system. According to a managementhelp.org article, there are more options in the market today than there have ever been for call centers. Whether that is for managing the numbers that outbound sales agents need to dial or whether it is an automatic customer complaint registration system, the software is cheap and there are plenty of options for each product category. Call centers can buy individual packages for each employee, or they can go for a corporate package.
AI is helping to take things a step further by applying computer intelligence to the process. However, customers have resisted AI implementation in the past. For instance, automated messages and robotic voices do not resonate well with people generally. People simply don't want to use anything that sounds like a machine because they feel like they won't find a solution to whatever they need. However, the latest AI-backed solutions are much better and much more realistic.
Better Service Quality
Human operators face human problems. When an operator is on a call with someone who is being difficult, or the operator is just having a bad day, naturally, the quality of service won't be the same. Human operators operate at different efficiency levels, they deal with different people differently, they are biased, they lie, they make mistakes, and they break rules. AI systems do none of this and they do it with much greater efficiency. For the customer, if they are able to talk to someone who doesn't make these mistakes and performs at a high level consistently, they get much better service quality.
Oftentimes if the customer gets good service they can overlook a fault in the product that they bought. However, if the business they are dealing with treats them poorly, this can be a deal-breaker. When you have a call center in the equation this task is no longer in your control.
Helping The Operator
AI is not just about serving the customer that calls; it can help the operator just as well. The latest AI systems can gather data on the customer that is calling and provide a detailed analysis to a human operator when the call is transferred from the AI system to the human operator. This way the customer gets faster and better service just because the operator was better informed.
Similarly, AI systems can study the customer, perform real-time sentiment analysis and try and figure out what exactly the customer wants. This information can be compiled based on written or spoken communication. AI can deliver its analysis to the human operator and present them with a list of potential solutions that the AI thinks will help address the situation. This helps reduce the work that the operator has to do in terms of trying to understand the callers' process and faster. The customer on the other hand is also getting better service.
Helping Business
These AI-powered solutions can also be used to help sales teams in outbound call centers. With knowledge about the customers' behavior, traits, and even mental state, the sales staff can make better moves to generate sales and even enhance customer loyalty with the brand. In fact, a lot of businesses are using their existing customer data and putting it through AI-powered software to analyze very specific things, such as how many times a person has said a certain phrase or word in all the times that they have called. This way a company can create very in-depth and personalized customer profiles and see how well their efforts in all regards are meeting the needs of the customers that they serve.
Having such intricate knowledge about the customer can completely change the way a business operates, from changing the time that they send a customer an email or text, to marketing specific products that the customer is most likely to purchase. AI systems can even learn how customers behave. Some customers might respond better to discounts, others to rebates, and others to getting a free gift or coupon. Then the business can modify its approach to treat these customers in the way that will get the business the most favorable response.
Improving Complex-Service Delivery
A lot of the tasks that call center representatives handle are basic issues that happen on a daily basis. For instance, if a caller forgot their network password or the caller wants to know when they will get their delivery, these are small issues that don't always need human intervention to solve. AI can very efficiently handle these problems, and human resources can be reserved for more complex issues that specifically require it.
This is helping to drastically reduce the workload on the employees, the number of employees that the call center has to have, and it also makes the process much better for the customer that is calling in with a complaint.
Personalized Services
AI can do predictive behavioral modeling. It can understand how customers respond to certain operators. It can understand how to best serve a caller to give them the best experience. It can also study the behavior of operators and understand how they communicate. This way the AI system can pair the right caller with the right operator so that both people have a better experience when they interact. Some people are naturally better at communicating with other specific kinds of people with a certain personality. AI helps make the match, and this benefits everyone overall.
Old IVR systems were good for basic things. They allowed you to select what kind of specialist you want to talk to and even delivered some basic information that you might have been seeking. However, they ranked very low on the customer satisfaction scale. With the recent developments in AI, not only are IVR systems better than ever, but they are helping operators to do their job better and they are earning the business a lot more revenue. Customers are feeling more satisfied than ever and call centers are scrambling to get their hands on this solution.
