6 Factors To Consider In Chat Bots For Customer Service

Before actually investing in chat bots, AI-based tools whose function is to interact with users through chat platforms to improve customer service, organizations have to consider what the objective behind this initiative is. Why are chatbots relevant to the organization and its customers? What results do companies expect to ultimately achieve?

The effectiveness of the bots depends largely on the environment in which they operate. If the organization does not cultivate the best possible scenario for the new technology, it will not be able to take full advantage of the potential of the solutions.

The elements related to people, the process and the general environment of the call center have a great impact on bot technology. To increase the chances of a positive impact, CCW Digital has established 6 factors to consider in chat bots for customer service.

1) Travel Mapping

The bots are tools to improve the experience offered at points of contact that already exist (or should exist) in the user’s journey. The organization needs a detailed and real-time map of the trajectory of its users. You should know where users prefer to handle certain problems. Using this information, you can determine the best way to implement bots.

When deploying the bots, the company must continue to monitor and map the user’s trip. How is the use of the channel changing? What problems tend to give bots more problems? Is there a change in the types of interactions that are transferred to live agents?

2) Operational Transformation

In addition to focusing on how bots impact the user experience, organizations should focus their attention on the impact on the operational landscape.

All bots (user-oriented or commercial, based on rules or conversational, proactive or reactive) have ramifications for the contact center; they simply change the way the organization engages with users.

From the point of view of user experience, the company must take into account factors related to performance metrics, scaling and routing processes and the collection of user voice.

3) Good Knowledge

The bots are as good as the artificial intelligence that drives their operation. Cultivating knowledge, therefore, represents a key component of the bot strategy.

The bots based on AI have a great base on which to obtain knowledge (they learn based on their real interactions), but the organization still plays an important role in the optimization and expansion of that knowledge.

The organization determines the systems in which bots are integrated, the types of interactions they handle and the range of questions they ask (which, in turn, determines what information they collect from users).

The “data challenge” has always been a concern of the call center: where can the “voice of the user” be obtained, how can we turn that data into usable intelligence and how can we communicate that intelligence to the agents? Organizations start to ask themselves those questions, but with respect to bots instead of only live agents.

5) Retraining The Agent

If the bots have a role in user commitment, a degree of agent retraining is needed. Believing that bots will handle the most simple and transactional issues, some organizations believe that agents will focus on the complex and nuanced. Therefore, agents must possess the experience, comfort and personality necessary to think critically and connect emotionally.

6) Scalability

By replicating, automating, simplifying and / or improving tasks, bots inherently allow the organization to perform beyond the limits of its human workforce. Scalability, in fact, is a fundamental principle of bot technology.

Leading organizations focus on ways to extend the impact of bot technology. Based on the results of a channel or a problem, they develop a plan to expand the reach of their bots. They are thinking about how bots can contribute to other elements of the user experience journey.