Lately when we talk about change, we can’t help but bring up the pandemic: the change accelerator like no other. But the truth is, change was happening long before Coronavirus.
What was driving it? Customer demand.
We all have high expectations. We have a problem and we’re looking for a quick, friendly, easy solution. For example, I have a question about my insurance bill. My mom wants help with her account login. My contractor wants to spend as little time as possible getting an answer. And my millennial co-worker doesn’t want to talk to a person, they want to solve it themselves.
How can the contact center make all of these customers happy?
Let’s look at these three ‘must haves’ that a modern contact center needs.
Must-have #1: Blended solution
A blended contact center means that customers get options – live agents, chatbots, intelligent virtual agents, or a combination of all of the above.
While humans have always been the best choice to solve problems for customers, facilitating one-on-one interactions for every question, big or small, is not only unnecessary but is probably unsustainable. Sooner or later, a customer is going to get put on hold and hear the dreaded phrase, “Please wait for the next available representative.”
Virtual agents and chatbots are great, but when you need a live agent, they can be beyond frustrating.
So offer both! The beauty of a blended contact center is that no option is better than the other; it’s simply a matter of meeting the customer’s needs. Sometimes customers just need to check their account balance. Sometimes they have very specific questions about their mortgage. In a blended contact center, the customer can start with a virtual agent that can collect all the information needed, use AI to predict what it will take to solve the problem and determine if a live or virtual agent will be the best solution.
Today’s virtual agents are able to understand natural language and respond appropriately. No more “I didn’t understand your answer. Press 1 to start again.” With intelligent virtual agents, contact centers can delegate a large portion of their calls to automated information systems. Live agents can then spend less time re-setting grandma’s pin, and more time solving complex problems.
NICE CXone Virtual Agent Hub with Google Cloud Dialogflow uses refined natural language processing technology and AI so businesses can deploy “virtual agents,” or conversational AI bots that can chat, speak, and answer questions just like a human. With the ability to listen to natural speech patterns and respond in a human-like manner, virtual agents can take on even more responsibility.
With the intelligent Interactive Voice Response, the virtual agents are capable of being spoken to as if they were human agents. This experience not only improves efficiency for contact centers but leaves customers feeling as though they’ve just experienced something from the future…because they have!
The efficacy and productivity of bots are no secret. In fact, 80% of businesses are projected to use some form of chatbot system this year. 1
But whether it’s a bot or a live agent or a mix of both, having the right option is what’s most important to the customer.
Must-have #2: Integrated CRM
Another non-negotiable element of a successful contact center is an integrated CRM.
With companies overwhelmingly transitioning to remote or hybrid workforces, maintaining a single source of truth on a unified platform is more difficult than ever. When we imagine the contact center of the past, we imagine a sea of cubicles with agents navigating up to six different applications while holding tedious conversations with frustrated customers.
In a modern contact center, agents are empowered to focus on making customers happy. When you connect NICE CXone with CRM data, agents can view all of the customer’s information on a single interface. And they can do that from the comfort of their own home with their favorite tacky animal socks on.
The age of repeatedly entering your personal information just to speak with an agent that’s in the wrong department is over. Through CRM integrations, agents answer every call with a 360-degree view of the customer on their screen. They know their account information, transaction history, as well as their sentiment score and channel preferences.
It gets better. All of the data from your CRM can help you identify opportunities for cross-selling and upsell pitches. Based on predictive analytics, agents can recommend additional products and services that customers are likely to be in the market for. This creates higher success rates when selling to existing customers and can increase customer lifetime value by fulfilling their needs before they know what they are.
My mom loves calling the bank because they have all her information at their fingertips. Whether it’s a question about an online order on her credit card, a birthday check to her grandson, or interest rates on her mortgage, they usually know more about it than she does.
Must-have #3: Cloud-based software
If you weren’t in the cloud before COVID-19, you certainly are now. It’s hard to imagine how the entire world could transition to remote workforces without cloud-based services. Businesses continue to migrate core systems and workflows to the cloud at a rapid pace, and the contact center should be next in line.
While my contractor might not realize it, it’s another reason he enjoys calling the bank over the power companies or the roofing suppliers. Every time he is connected to an agent—or even if it’s a chatbot—they have all of his information ready. Regardless of whether it’s Jessica in Wichita, Steven in Savannah, or Damon in St. Petersburg, all the agents are getting their information from the same interface in real-time.
Cloud-based software facilitates faster connectivity at a lower infrastructure cost while keeping your data more secure than on-premises data centers. By eliminating the costs of data centers (and the system upgrades and security costs that accompany it), running your applications in the cloud can reduce your capital expenditure while providing a reliable pricing model that enables high levels of scalability. In fact, according to Nucleus Research, cloud-based solutions achieved an average ROI 1.7 times more than on-premise solutions.2
The cloud also enables many of the artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics features that most companies rely on to create competitive advantages.
Sharpen your competitive edge
Talking robots and a global pandemic; it’s a remarkable time to be alive. The innovations that have taken place before and in response to COVID-19 have had a positive impact on the operations of contact centers throughout the world. Driving towards maximum efficiency and ease, the contact center will never be the same. NICE is committed to transforming customer experiences through advanced contact center technology.
Are you ready to join the party?
1 https://linchpinseo.com/chatbot-statistics-trends/
2 https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/01/28/the-roi-of-the-cloud/?sh=6ffb4faf7671