Today's consumer expects proactive customer service using Omni Channel Technology, a multi-channel approach for a more seamless customer as well as agent experience. It is no longer acceptable to spend 5 minutes navigating an IVR system. If anything the pandemic has accelerated the "Amazon Effect", the leading ecommerce disruptor of our time, specifically in proactive customer service.
If a customer has tried to obtain answers by chat, sent two support emails and is now calling the contact center, the agent receiving the call should already have all this information at their fingertips. If the caller is calling from their phone number on file, the agent should already know this.
If a customer has bought a digital product but has not logged in in 48 hours, the system should take note and anticipate that the email with the password was overlooked. If the customer bought a new washing machine and has visited the FAQ section 12 times, perhaps an email or SMS with an 800 number might be in order.
The root of every problem is a human problem, so it is important that contact center implementation retains the human element. A poorly implemented chatbot is worse than no chatbot at all.
Outsourced contact centers can be done for certain tasks but should be avoided for others. If you are a bank, you may want to think twice about outsourcing your security center to another country, as it will create a less than favorable impression of data security. On the other hand, level one tech support via chat can be implemented rather seamlessly from overseas.
AI is not replacing human operators but can be a powerful tool. It is important that agents are trained to train the AI. The agent should know that they are playing a key role in teaching the AI and are forming a team, with the AI taking over the repetative and mundane parts of the job such as tagging, natural language processing, data visualization, content classification, automatic routing and tagging.