Artificial Intelligence Can Lead to More Engaged Contact Center Agents

Your contact center agents face a challenge that is difficult for you, as their leader, to relieve. It’s boredom. While every manager wants a team that’s engaged and excited to be at work every day, there’s an inherent difficulty with contact center agents because what they do much of the time is routine and tedious.

From answering simple questions to assisting with the payment of invoices and reordering, the calls that contact center agents field all begin to sound alike. It’s no wonder that across every industry turnover is high in contact centers with about a third of agents turning over constantly.

Not surprisingly, the answer to boredom comes with new technology. While an automated telephone system can sometimes serve to only turn the boredom back on the customer, automation equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) can improve customer satisfaction and relieve contact center agents of their boredom.

Cloud-based AI agents are able to handle an increasingly complex set of tasks, relieving live agents of a variety of mundane calls. AI agents can navigate items like bill payments, order status, confirmation of appointments, account updates and credit checks. All they need to complete these tasks is the ability to access your customer data and instructions on how to respond to a variety of circumstances. They need to be taught which calls to handle and which to transfer to a contact center agent.

Cloud AI agents allow you to segment rudimentary calls to these automated bots while freeing up your contact center agents to handle the more interesting and complex cases. There are a couple of important benefits to this practice:

·         You’ll optimize your contact center, reducing the cost of each call and speeding up resolution on more complex cases. Each agent can now be trained for skills in handling complex customer service issues, allowing you to run your contact center more effectively and efficiently.
·         During high-volume periods, AI agents can lighten the load for contact center agents.
·         When you do experience turnover, you are able to reduce the number of agents you need to replace, allowing your best, loyal talent to deliver excellent service.
·         With additional professional training, your contact center agents are better-prepared to handle the most important issues and ensure your valued customers remain committed to your brand.

If you’ve been contemplating the implementation of AI technology into your contact center, contact us at City Communications. We can help you make the right decisions to maximize your return on investment and explore new technologies for your contact center.

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