How Cognitive Collaboration Can Improve Customer Experience

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The days of simply “smiling and dialing” are over. Digital transformation in the contact centre means using new technologies, like analytics and AI, to improve customer experiences. Taking advantage of the latest contact centre technology can save agents time and increase customer satisfaction in the process. Here are a few ways a cognitive collaboration solution can help improve customer experiences.

Intelligent Interactive Voice Response

Customers can quickly grow frustrated when listening to a menu of options telling them to “Press 1 for sales, press 2 for customer service,” and so on. An intelligent Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solution improves self-service by using AI-powered speech technology for a more personal interaction. This includes elements such as automatic speech recognition and natural language processing to let customers describe why they’re calling in their own words, and to direct their calls accordingly.

Queue Optimization with Machine Learning

With machine learning, organizations can now leverage data insights in contact centre operations and processes to handle the most frequent types of customer requests, without the customer ever speaking to a live agent.

For example, a cable company can use its data to see that one frequent customer concern, “My internet is not working,” can be resolved by rebooting their modem – unplugging it and then plugging it back in. The business can leverage this insight by adding an option “If your internet is not working, press one” to their queue. This would direct customers to a virtual assistant, trained with natural language processing, to interact with the customer and provide basic instructions.

Waiting on hold for 20 minutes just to be told “have you trying unplugging your modem?” can be a very frustrating experience for customers. By optimizing its queue, the cable company can greatly reduce the wait time for its customers, and help its agents focus on tasks that matter most to the bottom line.

Virtual Assistants

As seen above, not all customer inquiries will require an interaction with a live human. Whether or the phone, or in an online chat environment, a virtual assistant can handle these simple, specific requests to help reduce live agent workloads – while maintaining the ability to escalate to an agent when required. If a chat is escalated, the chat history will appear on the agent’s screen, so that they do not have to start over from the beginning.

But these assistants can also assist agents as well. An AI-powered assistant can listen to customer conversations and provide contextual insights such as processes, pricing, discounts and policy updates in real-time, so “let me place you on hold while I look that up” will no longer be a part of an agent’s vocabulary!

Customer Insights

This could be something as simple as remembering a customer’s birthday – and offering them an incentive on that date. But customer insights can also go much farther. Imagine, if you will, an airline app that knows whether you like to fly in the morning, afternoon or evening, whether you prefer the window or the aisle, and knows your reward point balance to offer a seat upgrade without you having to look into that yourself. Oh, and it’s your birthday? Enjoy this complimentary glass of champagne!

An AI-powered customer analytics solution can make this scenario into reality.

Contact Centre Agent Workflows

Call centre agents are likely familiar with the code “ACW” for after-call work. At the end of a call, administrative tasks are often required, from documenting how the call transpired to triaging email or fax inquiries. The good news is that many of these repetitive tasks that take up an agent’s time can be automated, keeping agents more active and engaged to assist the next customer sooner.

Not only can cognitive collaboration improve the customer experience, but it can make meetings less painful, too. Read this blog to learn more.