Embracing Conversational AI for Contact Center Success in 2023

Why are contact centers waiting to implement AI? The challenge of delivering efficient and effective support while maintaining high customer satisfaction levels is a pressure most contact center managers understand.

What is preventing you from introducing automation into your contact center?

• Are you facing budget constraints this year?
• Worried about losing the human touch in customer interactions?
• Struggling to obtain approval from upper management?
• Or perhaps you feel that your internal resources are insufficient to implement, develop or maintain automation solutions?

In this blog, I will help you overcome these concerns and familiarize you with the advantages of conversational AI, particularly through virtual agents, and how these roadblocks should not hinder your progress and can be effectively addressed.

Overcoming Budget Constraints for AI

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Implementing automation in your contact center offers numerous advantages, but the most prominent one is undoubtedly the potential for cost savings and enhanced efficiency it brings.

Conversational AI offers a compelling advantage in terms of cost savings through the automation of customer service interactions. By leveraging chatbots and virtual agents, companies can drastically reduce their reliance on a large workforce to handle routine inquiries. These AI-powered systems have the capability to engage in natural language conversations with customers, comprehending their queries and independently delivering accurate responses. Consequently, the necessity for extensive human staffing can be significantly minimized or stabilized, resulting in noteworthy cost reductions pertaining to salaries, benefits, and training expenses.

As your contact center grows, scaling your operations can be a complex and costly endeavor. Automation allows for easy scalability without the need for extensive infrastructure investments. Virtual agents can handle increasing call volumes without compromising on service quality. By leveraging automation, you can optimize your workforce, reduce operational costs, and achieve better cost-effectiveness in the long run.

Keeping the Human Touch with Your Customers

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Automation doesn’t mean sacrificing personalization. In fact, it can enable more tailored customer experiences. Virtual agents can access customer data and history to provide personalized recommendations and solutions faster than a live rep. By leveraging conversational AI, these virtual agents can engage in natural language conversations through the voice channel, chat, and SMS, recognizing customers quickly, and providing them with a range of solutions optimized to their preferences, account, or unique identifiers.

Today’s virtual agents not only communicate with surprisingly human-like quality but also, it’s important to note that virtual assistants have become an integral part of people’s daily interactions, and they are widely embraced and appreciated. The virtual agents of today, especially at SmartAction, are far from the robotic voices of the past. They are designed to sound like real people who are eager to assist. The best part is that even with virtual agents, your live agents will still be present and ready to provide assistance to any customer who requires it.

Struggling to Obtain Upper Management’s Approval

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Business leaders are focused on growing their businesses through profits and satisfied customers. What better way to do that than through the many benefits of AI?

Customers expect support around the clock, and manual staffing can be a challenge. With virtual agents, you can offer 24/7 availability without increasing your labor costs. Virtual assistants can handle after-hours inquiries, provide self-service options, and even schedule appointments. This ensures that your customers receive support whenever they have time, leading to higher satisfaction and loyalty.

In a contact center, efficiency is also key. Virtual agents, powered by conversational AI, can handle routine tasks and frequently asked questions, freeing up your live agents to focus on more complicated conversations. By automating processes through virtual assistants, you can streamline interactions, reduce wait times, and improve first-call resolution rates. This enhanced efficiency leads to happier customers and more productive agents.

Not Enough Internal Resources

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By working with a conversational AI vendor, you can leverage their expertise and experience in developing and deploying IVAs. They will handle the technical aspects, ensuring a seamless integration of the virtual agents into your contact center infrastructure. This relieves the burden on your internal resources and allows your team to focus on their core responsibilities.

Partnering with a trusted conversational AI vendor like SmartAction can be the ideal solution. We not only excel at building intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) tailored to your specific needs but also provide ongoing support throughout the entire service lifecycle.

Moreover, the partnership doesn’t end with the implementation phase. SmartAction remains committed to supporting you even after the virtual agent is up and running. Our dedicated team will provide ongoing maintenance, updates, and optimizations to ensure the IVA consistently delivers top-notch performance. Offering continuous support, you can rest assured knowing that you have a reliable partner who will be there to address any concerns and maximize the value of your automation investment.

By collaborating with a conversational AI vendor like SmartAction, you can overcome the resource constraint objection and tap into their expertise to build and maintain a highly effective virtual agent for your contact center.

The Pitfalls of Waiting Until 2024

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With so many benefits to implementing AI into your contact center, there still may be a myriad of reasons why you plan to wait. When it comes to the growth of your business and the satisfaction of your customers and agents, are these hurdles really too big to jump?

Here are some pitfalls to consider:

Competitive Disadvantage

The early adopters of automation will gain a competitive edge by providing faster, more efficient, and personalized customer support. Waiting until 2024 means falling behind your competitors who have already embraced automation and are reaping its benefits.

Increased Workload for Agents
As customer expectations continue to rise, your agents may become overwhelmed by the growing demand for support. Delaying automation means burdening your agents with repetitive tasks that could easily be automated, leading to agent burnout and high turnover rates.

Missed Opportunities for Growth
Automation provides valuable insights through data analysis, enabling you to identify trends, customer pain points, and areas for improvement. By delaying automation, you risk missing out on growth opportunities and the ability to proactively address customer needs.

Dissatisfied Customers

Customers today seek instant resolutions and consistent and personalized experiences. By postponing automation, you risk frustrating customers with long wait times, repetitive information requests, and inconsistent service quality, ultimately leading to decreased customer satisfaction and loyalty (and worse, CSAT scores).

So, what’s really holding you back from taking the plunge into AI?

Don’t Wait, Seize the Opportunity

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By embracing automation in 2023, you can unlock these advantages and ensure that your contact center remains competitive in a rapidly evolving customer support landscape. Don’t wait until 2024—start exploring automation today and pave the way for a more efficient and satisfying customer journey.

Remember, the future of contact centers lies in the power of automation and AI. Embrace it now to drive success and exceed customer expectations.

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Stop tying up your queues and live agents with repetitive, monotonous tasks. Virtual Agents with SmartAction can let your customers self-service on their time, and free up your live agents to handle more difficult conversations. Let us help take your contact center to the next level through AI voice, text, and chat. 

Discover why we’re the top-rated Virtual Customer Assistant solution on Gartner Peer Insights and have been named “The Leader in AI-enhanced Self-Service,” by Frost & Sullivan.