Artificial intelligence (AI) developed for customer service is not intended to replace agents, but to complement them. The emotional intelligence of agents combined with the automation provided by AI is the perfect combination to deliver a flawless customer experience (CX).

But its power does not end there. This technology also has a positive impact on the agent experience (AX), freeing them from managing simple enquiries and performing repetitive tasks where they do not add value.

Here are ten use cases that demonstrate the benefits of integrating AI to help agents be faster, more efficient and work on their continuous improvement.

1. INTENTIONAL QUALIFICATION

Bots are ready to ask an open-ended question like “How can I help you?”, interpret the customer’s response in the moment, and decidewhether to offer self-service (if within their capabilities) or transfer the conversation to the most qualified agent to handle the request.

As with IVR menus, you can use them to identify the user’s intention and intent and create transfer rules that take into account agent skills.

Unlike IVR, conversational and/or generative AI bots do not require you to configure the conversation diagram per channel and provide a better customer experience by understanding the customer’s query first.

2. USER IDENTIFICATION

Another task a bot can do before transferring the conversation to an agent is to identify the person it is talking to.

By querying the CRM, ERP or ticketing tool, it can search the database for the ID card, phone number or any other identifying information the user has provided.

This way, when the agent receives the call or chat, they can address the customer by name and quickly check their call/message history and customer record.

3. CONVERSATION SUMMARY WITH AI

When the customer indicates they want to speak to an agent, or the bot has determined it’s best to transfer the conversation to an operator, the agent receives the call or chat along with a summary of the previous conversation.

In addition to a transcript of the conversation and a record of all actions taken by the bot, the summary of the conversation identifies keywords and the customer’s sentiment.

With this information in advance, the agent can resolve the customer’s query more quickly and efficiently, because they know exactly what the customer needs, what the bot wasn’t able to provide, and what tone to use depending on the customer’s emotional state.

For example, if the bot has detected that a customer is angry because they have a problem with their phone line, the agent will know all this information before answering the call and will be much more effective in their verbal communication and problem solving.

4. RESOLVING COMMON QUERIES

According to a recent study we conducted, bots can handle up to 80% of simple queries in a contact centre.

Whether answering FAQs about a product or service, resolving a technical issue found in a user manual, resetting a password or recommending a credit line, bots free agents from these types of calls or messages, giving them more time to handle inquiries that require emotional intelligence or to assist those customers with special needs.

5. SENDING DOCUMENTS

In addition to resolving simple queries, bots can also provide self-service by sending documents to the customer, such as invoices, contracts, forms, etc.

Whether verbal or written, the bot can instantly deliver the document the customer needs through any platform.

For example, if a customer calls the call centre and asks for their latest electricity bill, the bot can send it via the customer’s preferred channel: WhatsApp, SMS or email.

6. TICKET GENERATION

As part of self-service, bots can also generate a ticket detailing the customer’s problem. By gathering all the relevant information from the conversation, they can create a new ticket, fill it in, and send the customer the incident tracking number.

Especially for queries that cannot be resolved in the first instance, bots can handle this part of the process, reducing human error and freeing agents from repetitive tasks.

7. INSTANT TRANSLATION

As well as being omnichannel, Artificial Intelligence is multilingual, meaning it speaks and understands all languages. This feature opens up a world of possibilities for contact centres, not only to better deal with requests that are not in our native language, but also to provide service in any language.

Whether it is a voice or chat conversation, we can ask the bot to transcribe the customer’s answers in the language we want, and also respond to the customer in their own language.

This functionality is ideal for when we have a spike in Spanish calls in the queue, as we can redirect these calls to agents with basic knowledge and have them assisted by the bot to help customers more smoothly and professionally.

8. KNOWLEDGE BASE

In addition to assisting during a call as a translator, the bot can also help agents when they have a question about a product/service or a clause in a contract.

If we share all our documentation with the AI: manuals, legal documents, blog posts, use cases, etc., we will end up with an internal ChatGPT that is knowledgeable about all our processes and products/services.

This will be the great ally of the agents, because if they don’t know how to answer a customer’s question, they can ask the internal AI Agent, and if it’s in the documentation we’ve provided, it can answer it.

This functionality not only avoids prolonging the conversation, but also allows any agent to provide support on a topic they are not an expert in.

9. ACW OPTIMISATION

The After Call Work (ACW), refers to all the tasks that agents must complete after each interaction before moving on to the next customer.

Artificial Intelligence can speed up this process by creating a real-time transcript of the conversation, analysing customer satisfaction by highlighting keywords that serve as typification, and linking this data to the details of the conversation.

The ability to automate AWC time as much as possible is essential to increasing agent efficiency.

10. AGENT EVALUATION

AI also has Speech Analytics capabilities, which means it can evaluate the performance of agents. This data helps contact centre managers to identify each agent’s areas for improvement and work on strengthening them.

We can train AI to generate a report after each interaction that includes: the ID number of the interaction, a title, a summary and, for example, an assessment of the agent’s presentation, friendliness and effectiveness.

This functionality contributes to the continuous improvement of agents and therefore to their speed.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As we have seen from these examples, AI provides automation across the entire customer service cycle: from the tasks that precede the interaction to the assistance it provides during and after the conversation.

Currently, there is no other technology that can optimise so many processes at once, taking into account both the customer and agent experience.

Want to meet the artificial intelligence that will revolutionise your customer service? Call us on +34 900 670 750 or fill in this form.

La entrada 10 examples of AI automation to help agents work faster se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

In the dynamic world of customer service, we are often confronted with an uncomfortable reality: long and tedious queues on the phone. Would customers rather wait or be assisted by a machine? The answer is simple: neither. According to a survey we conducted, eight out of ten customers consider waiting on hold to be the most frustrating part of customer service. These same customers prefer to be assisted by a human agent. So what’s the solution to this apparent dilemma?

The answer lies in the hybrid model, a powerful combination that promises not only to reduce tedious queues, but also to increase Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for companies and create memorable human connections with customers.

To address this new scenario, a new Artificial Intelligence proposal has emerged, designed solely to assist humans rather than replace them. For example, the bot designed to queue for users becomes the perfect ally in the fight against phone queues. The AI informs the user that they are in a queue, offers to wait on their behalf, and notifies them when it’s their turn. In this case, the technology is not used to replace people, but to help them provide better customer service.

This approach achieves:

• Improve customer experience and build loyalty: When customers feel their time is valued and they are served efficiently, they are more likely to remain loyal.
• Improve KPIs by minimising waiting times. Feeling neglected is annoying and feeling ignored is frustrating. Maintaining transparency with the user throughout the process is essential to ensure positive reviews.
• Offer a positive brand image: Using AI demonstrates that companies are at the forefront of technology and care about the customer experience.

True innovation lies in finding the perfect balance, where minimal AI is combined with maximum humanity to deliver exceptional service and build strong customer relationships.

Being more human thanks to AI is possible, as long as we seek the balance.

“Thanks to the hybrid model, the speed of artificial intelligence combines with human understanding to unleash a storm of efficiency. Bots can handle repetitive and administrative tasks, freeing up valuable time for human agents to focus on more complex and valuable issues. So it’s a win-win situation for both employees, who can do their jobs more accurately, and customers, who don’t have to wait and get their needs met”.

Jorge García, Head of Product at Enreach

La entrada Enreach launches an artificial intelligence system that eliminates call waiting times se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

In fact, Okta and Statista conducted a study to determine whether or not employees would prefer flexible working arrangements. This movement towards more adaptable working conditions is indicative of a broader trend in the workforce. Employees value the freedom to work when and where it suits them, as it helps them achieve a better work-life balance without sacrificing productivity.

However, there is a huge gap between what employees want and what they actually have in terms of their working conditions. Only 43% of employees are able to work remotely. The 28-point “preference gap” shows how difficult it is for employees and companies to agree on what constitutes remote and hybrid work, according to an Ivanti survey. The benefits of a happy, hard-working workforce are at risk for companies that do not embrace and facilitate flexibility.

Benefits of hybrid working

Hybrid work arrangements offer a number of benefits for both companies and employees. It helps employees save time and money on commuting, improves their health and well-being, and gives them more freedom to manage their personal and professional lives. In fact, Ivanti found that 71% of business leaders believe that allowing employees to work remotely has a positive impact on morale.

Disadvantages of hybrid work

However, there are a number of difficulties associated with the shift to hybrid working. According to Ivanti’s analysis, this alarming trend is particularly problematic among younger workers and knowledge workers. More than a quarter of office workers under the age of 40 are considering leaving their jobs in the next six months, and a third of those who have ‘quietly quit’ have done so. Workload-related burnout and subsequent deterioration in mental health are often cited as the main reasons for this outlook.

How can organisations support hybrid work?

To overcome these difficulties and realise the full potential of hybrid work, organisations need to invest in critical areas to support their employees and create a more inclusive and productive working environment.

For hybrid work to be effective, companies must invest in tools that facilitate communication and coordination between employees, such as Enreach Meetings. It is important to look beyond traditional communication methods and think about process-oriented solutions that allow workers to perform their tasks effectively from anywhere. Distributed teams can benefit greatly from a streamlined service management solution that is deployed across the enterprise.

Potential risks of hybrid working

New security risks have emerged as a result of the increase in remote and hybrid working. Ivanti’s report highlights the importance of having a risk plan in place to mitigate the negative effects of remote working. Organisations should implement enterprise-wide security measures to protect sensitive information and ensure regulatory compliance. By challenging the security status quo and taking a more proactive stance, organisations can protect their assets while giving their employees the freedom to work securely from anywhere in the world.

It is vital that organisations prioritise the health and happiness of their employees to reduce IT burnout as they face the challenges of hybrid working. By streamlining processes and reducing the number of tools required, IT departments can run more smoothly and for longer. To prevent burnout and foster a positive working environment, business leaders must understand the importance of reducing complexity and providing the necessary support to IT staff.

Organisations can close the trust gap between employees and management by actively seeking their opinions and implementing new technologies to improve employee performance. Remote and hybrid workplaces can benefit from the use of dynamic collaboration technologies, automated workflows and AI-powered bots to increase productivity and efficiency. By harnessing these resources and encouraging employee feedback, organisations can foster a more welcoming, enthusiastic and fruitful workplace for everyone.

The future of hybrid work

As we move towards the consolidation of hybrid work, it will be crucial for organisations to embrace these changes in order to create a strong and stable workforce. The full potential of remote and hybrid working models can be realised if organisations prioritise employee wellbeing, invest in technology and develop a culture of collaboration and inclusion.

La entrada The Future Of Hybrid Work: Towards The Potential Of Remote Work se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

Most customer interactions now start digitally, with AI-powered bots or intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) accounting for around 85% of these interactions, according to ZK Research. With the advent of generative AI, bots can handle even more complex transactions.

Despite these advances, there are situations where generative AI falls short, particularly when customers are unable to resolve their queries effectively. This underscores the importance of human involvement in customer service, especially when it comes to complex issues and problem solving.

THE IMPACT OF AI ON CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The customer experience is now the most important brand differentiator, surpassing other factors such as price and product quality. According to data from ZK Research, two-thirds of millennials have changed their brand loyalty based on a single bad experience. Today, 90% of companies compete on the basis of CX, a significant increase from 28% five years ago. Improving the customer experience is a top priority for organisations with digital transformation initiatives.

In short, AI is likely to impact most business or customer interactions. 78% of organisations plan to invest in AI to improve the customer experience. Companies that provide a superior experience continue to be patronised by customers, who remain loyal to the brand. On the other hand, those that don’t provide a good experience struggle to retain customers.

Generative AI makes it easy to quickly personalise customer interactions thanks to its ability to analyse vast amounts of data. Natural language processing (NLP) tools powered by generative AI, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, are democratising AI beyond the realm of specialised companies. Such tools are now available to everyone.

LINGUISTIC MODELS AND EVOLUTION OF INTELLIGENT VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS

Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) have had a mixed reception, ranging from scepticism to outright dislike, mainly due to their limited intelligence without AI. An IVA is another form of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) which, despite its role in customer service, has been more frustrating than helpful to users. One of the main problems was the lack of integration between systems, with agents failing to capture the information entered into an IVR. The same was happening with IVA.

With the implementation of large linguistic models, IVAs have become more conversational. Instead of using specific phrases, users can now communicate using natural language. Some IVAs have improved to the point where human agents are preferred in certain scenarios due to their speed and lack of waiting time.

Applying AI to IVAs has made them smarter, more accurate and more capable, resulting in a significantly improved customer experience. People can speak in their own voice and be understood, without having to adapt their speech patterns to the needs of the software.

CHANGING METRICS FOR CALL CENTRE PERFORMANCE

In the age of AI, traditional performance metrics such as average handle time and first call resolution are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Artificial intelligence and advanced routing systems have enabled contact centres to handle complex transactions such as mortgage processing in a single call, improving customer satisfaction and potential revenue generation.

In addition, the customer journey is now a key focus for call centres. The new performance metric ensures that customers who need human intervention reach an agent quickly, while others are served efficiently by AI. This represents a significant shift from high frequency, low complexity interactions to high quality, high engagement interactions.

THE STRATEGIC APPROACH TO AI ADOPTION

Organisations looking to adopt AI should take a strategic approach, which includes identifying key business use cases. For certain use cases, such as understanding the nuances of customer queries, generic AI may not be sufficient. This is where ‘custom AI’ comes in, designed and trained to handle more complex queries. Therefore, companies may need to build AI models using unique data sets that meet specific needs.

Human oversight remains essential in the use of artificial intelligence, especially in critical applications such as healthcare and finance. All companies should have policies in place to implement technologies such as ChatGPT effectively and ethically.

Companies should ask their vendors how they plan to integrate AI, and assess their own data to determine if they are ready to take advantage of it. Although it’s still early days, there will be many new opportunities and challenges ahead as we move into an exciting future with artificial intelligence at the forefront.

La entrada What is the role of generative AI in modernising the customer experience? se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

CCaaS or Contact Centre as a Service platforms offer companies the freedom and flexibility they need to create dynamic CX centres that can be accessed from anywhere. In an age of hybrid and remote work, these tools have become increasingly popular. In fact, according to Accenture, they are accelerating toward an expected value of around $11.76 billion by 2028.

As interest in these cloud solutions grows, so does their range of features and functionality. In this post, we look at some of the major trends that are likely to influence CCaaS solutions in the coming years.

What CCaaS Trends Await Us?

1) Aligned CCaaS and UCaaS Tools

As companies move more of their communication to the cloud, it becomes more and more common to combine the back-end environment with the customer support team. Aligning UCaaS and CCaaS solutions on a single platform makes it easier for companies to maintain comprehensive visibility across all of their technology.

It also ensures that employees responsible for managing customer experiences can collaborate with subject matter experts and team members from across the company. With an all-in-one environment for communication, organisations can reduce the number of disparate invoices they need to manage each month and ensure their employees stay in sync and aligned.

Many evolving CCaaS providers are even starting to consider the concept of “XaaS” or “Everything as a Service”. These platforms allow companies to integrate not only their Unified Communication (UC) tools, but also other SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions with their call centre environments.

2) Advanced Features for Employee Experience (EX)

Engaged and empowered employees are crucial for any company that wants to create effective customer experiences. When workers have the right tools and support to work seamlessly in any environment, they are more productive, efficient, and able to satisfy customers. This has led many CCaaS providers to incorporate employee engagement tools into the Contact Centre as a Service space.

Increasingly, we’re seeing a growing number of tools built specifically to support all kinds of in-office, remote, and hybrid workers. Workforce engagement and management tools help schedule and organise employees, while gammification features keep staff motivated.

New call centre features are even emerging to provide business leaders with a way to track employee experiences. Reporting and analytics tools can track everything from technology adoption to changing levels of efficiency in an employee’s workflow.

3) More Channel Options

Both the UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) and CCaaS industries have begun to see an increasing focus on using multiple new channels and tools to communicate with customers. Over the years, consumers have begun to move away from relying solely on phone and audio conversations for the service and are starting to look at channels like messaging, social media, and even video.

In the years to come, CCaaS platforms will continue to introduce a variety of new platforms for business leaders to explore. Some already include tools and APIs that allow companies to integrate contact centre functionality into their own mobile apps or link to tools like WhatsApp. Many also include multiple options for aligning voice, video, and text communications in a single environment so agents can more easily manage their workflow.

4) Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) For Proactive Service

Most companies know that if they want to deliver valuable and personalised experiences to their target audience, they need to collect and leverage the right information. As a result, we are seeing a multitude of new analytics capabilities emerge in call centres. 

By using a combination of intelligent monitoring tools, machine learning (ML), and historical information, organisations will be able to stay one step ahead of potential issues facing their target audience. This could make it possible to remove them before they appear.

5) Improved Self-service

Artificial Intelligence is starting to play a bigger role in helping customers navigate their buying journey. While self-service solutions have been available within contact centres for some time, older solutions have largely focused on question-and-answer bots, designed to respond to specific words with predetermined phrases.

With 81% of customers indicating they prefer to troubleshoot on their own rather than contact an agent, self-service tools need to get more advanced. CCaaS providers are beginning to implement conversational analysis and natural language processing tools in their self-service portals to improve the customer experience. Intelligent bots and virtual agents can now complete tasks for customers and solve a wider range of queries with intuitive strategies.

These enhanced self-service solutions can also help optimise the employee experience by giving staff members’ access to intelligent tools that help them find crucial information automatically. The right tools can even provide next-best-action suggestions to employees when they’re struggling to deal with a complex query.

6) Increased Security and Control Functions

Finally, as regulatory guidelines and compliance concepts continue to evolve around the world, CCaaS providers are beginning to focus more on security and control. Many of the best tools now offer companies more choice in how they structure their contact centre environment.

Many CCaaS solutions are built in for encryption, multi-factor authentication, and access control, so businesses can maintain full visibility over the flow of data. It is even possible to create IVR tools and bots capable of complying with GDPR guidelines.

New advanced tools can help protect consumers and mitigate fraud by using biometric scanning to determine if a customer is who they say they are. AI bots can also automatically scan for policy risks and inform employees and business leaders when there is a security issue on their network.

Exploring the Evolving CCaaS Landscape

As the demand for flexible and agile call centre environments in the cloud grows, providers in this space are constantly looking for new ways to improve the quality of their solutions. Today’s CCaaS tools offer access to everything from AI automation and sentiment analysis to intelligent self-service.

La entrada What CCaaS Trends Will We See In The Coming Years? se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

In recent years, we have seen the rise of omnichannel solutions and virtual assistants. The adoption of new cloud technologies by customer service centers is increasing, as are the expectations of customers to resolve their problems in as few interactions as possible.

Top 5 Call Center Trends for 2023

1) The Omnichannel Contact Center

The pandemic brought a natural evolution of digital transformation. As a result of this, users began to turn to digital channels more than ever to connect with companies and ask for support. People now expect to connect with organizations how they want and when they want.

Customers now do not accept being confined to one touch point or communication channel. They demand the possibility to interact with a company in the way they prefer: social networks, live chats, SMS, email, phone or via WhatsApp.

An omnichannel contact center solution allows agents to access information from every interaction on a single platform, collecting important data and helping them deliver optimized and personalized customer service, as well as a consistent experience across all devices and communication channels.

An omnichannel solution is critical to improving CX and should be considered as a customer engagement strategy if a business wants to provide improved and competitive service.

2) The Call Center in the Cloud

According to Gartner, more than 95% of companies will use Cloud Computing by 2025. This is explained by the many benefits that a cloud call center solution can offer to organizations that seek to optimize agent experiences (AX) and the clients.

The cloud-based solution allows companies to hire agents from different time zones, based in different countries around the world. This not only allows a company to offer 24/7 customer support, but also reduces the number of internal agents, saving costs. In addition, the best talent can be hired regardless of their location.

3) Optimized IVR

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is still considered the central channel for all contact centers. It is one of the first trends in call center automation and, without a doubt it is here to stay.

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has had a positive impact on IVR. The combination of both technologies has optimized processes and has given rise to advanced IVR systems such as conversational IVR in more modern call centers. AI introduced speech recognition to IVR, resulting in easy call routing to agents who are best trained, or with specific skills, to respond to each customer’s needs.

Although customer service is now possible across multiple platforms, the phone remains one of the preferred ways to handle high-priority or confidential inquiries.

4) Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Enhanced CX

The power of technology has impacted almost the entire call center space. Innovation has accelerated and new solutions for contact centers have emerged very quickly. AI is one of the latest technologies that has been applied to the call center industry and has brought multiple benefits.

Artificial Intelligence-based applications allow companies to implement intuitive call routing and offer multi-channel support. It has created routing algorithms, saving call center managers hours of coding. AI also helps generate automatic responses based on information that is assimilated over time, creating patterns that can be easily addressed.

Thus, AI allows a company to offer a consistent service to each client, which contributes to improving the brand image and a better user experience.

5) Advanced Self-Service Tools

We all know that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a much greater need for virtual assistance. With this came the demand from customers to independently solve their problems and find the answers they were looking for. For this reason, self-service tools have become one of the preferred customer service methods for consumers.

In addition to providing answers to the most common questions, self-service tools are also beneficial to agents, as consumers view interactions with an agent as a last resort. This offers the ability to reduce call queues and wait time, while freeing up agents to deal with more complex issues.

Customer self-service tools will continue to increase, and businesses should focus on the availability of enhanced online self-service tools, linking content from Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), articles, video tutorials, and troubleshooting pages to most common customers’ issues.

Now, customers trust call centers to meet their demands more than ever. To do this, the adoption and implementation of new technologies and the trends mentioned above must be seen as strategic initiatives that improve CX, contact center metrics and drive business growth.

La entrada Top 5 Call Center Trends for 2023 se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

A genuine understanding of customers—where they are, what they want, and how they want it drives exceptional CX.

How Do You Deliver An Exceptional Customer Experience?

1) Prioritizing The “Customer Everywhere”

“The Everything Customer” is a term coined by Gartner to illustrate modern customers who want to maximize their technology and the brands they access through it, all at once. Thus, consumers almost always start their service journey outside the reach of a company, doing an online search or visiting their social networks, according to LocaliQ.

2) Knowing What The KPIs Measure

Why are KPIs like standard CX measures of Average Handle Time (AHT) when they are driven by performance and cost? These aspects matter, but to whom? Exceptional CX focuses on what matters most to the customer. For this reason, it is important to define the KPIs that are really convenient to measure.

The best indicators of CX success are difficult for companies to measure, such as empathy, understanding, and tone of voice.

3) IVRs And Chatbots Are New In a Self-Service World

The best way to assess an organization’s self-service is to use it as a hypothetical customer. Suppose a user initiates a conversation using proactive chat, that is, a pop-up chat window that appears on a website with a message such as “How can we help you?” and starts a conversation like:

Customer: “I want to know more about a product.”

Company: “Hello! We are very happy that you have contacted our company. Most likely you are looking for something in particular. Whether it’s technical support, information about products or services, we have what you need. What can we help you today?”

The warning signs are clear: lack of context and a response that forces the customers to repeat themselves. Small changes can be made here to have a big impact, like limiting the length of chatbot responses to one or two sentences and prioritizing customer value when writing copy for your chat interface.

How To Create a More Intelligent and Intuitive Self-Service?

• Asking: what are clients trying to solve for themselves that they can’t? This will help understand user intent.
• Being completely transparent about any limitations or issues with self-service.
• Easily launching an intelligent bot trained to understand the different intentions of customers.

4) Rethinking The Entire Agent Experience (AX)

After searching for answers on their own, interacting with a bot, and waiting to speak to a human, the last thing a customer wants is to talk to an agent who’s busy with administrative stuff and doesn’t know their background. We can find three problems: 

1. a) Agents Do Not Have The Right Technology To Help Customers Effectively

There are solutions that help agents work smarter and faster, from real-time guidance (information that automatically appears on the screen to inform the next step, etc.) to omnichannel attention that allows customers to connect with agents through your favorite channel.

Many of these solutions are simple and address some of today’s biggest CX issues, such as customers having to repeat their query over and over and agents feeling like they’re having a hard time resolving user issues.

1. b) Agents Are Buried Under Organizational Silos

Different business units solve different parts of a customer problem, all of which play a crucial role in the customer journey. These units often use different tools that prevent communication and data insights from flowing freely throughout the organization. Therefore, departments have to work together to solve what customers see as a single problem. Organizational silos are obstacles in what should be a seamless end-to-end service journey.

1. c) Agents Are Not Free To Work Autonomously

Customer service employees are capable of skillful and creative problem solving, but they need the freedom to do so. Agent training needs to be reassessed in line with CX-focused measures and empowered. To create real human connections, agents have to be real and human.

La entrada How To Offer An Exceptional Customer Experience (CX)? se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

However, there is still a lot of work to be done, since it is necessary to hire more trained agents who know how to solve user queries, thus offering a better customer experience (CX) and increasing their satisfaction.

According to Accenture, today’s society is less tolerant of poor customer service and if they don’t meet their expectations, they take action, either with formal complaints or through social media like Twitter.

Part of what drives this intolerance for poor service is that modern consumers know what is possible and what is not. Conditioned by their own experiences with private sector companies, they wonder why public sector entities cannot do the same.

And it is that companies have set the bar very high. This is why, according to Salesforce, today’s users have high standards of customer service, such as:

• 83% of customers expect to interact with an agent immediately when contacting a business, an increase of five points from 2021.
• 96% of consumers expect companies to make it easy to switch channels without having to repeat information.
• 66% of users expect companies to understand their needs and expectations.

Although expectations are high, they are not beyond the reach of the public sector. Call centers of public administrations can comply with them by implementing CX improvement solutions.

3 Ways to Modernize CX in Public Administrations

Adopting more customer-oriented metrics is one way to improve CX, but it’s not enough. In this digital age, technology plays a vital role in delivering satisfying customer service experiences. Let’s look at three technology solutions that can modernize public sector CX.

1) Implement a Contact Center Platform in the Cloud

When call center software is in the cloud, call center workers only need to access it through a browser. This means that the provider:

• Provides and manages the hardware.
• Keeps the software updated with the latest version.
• Takes care of the database.
• Is responsible for data security.
• Reduces IT overhead.

The nature of cloud software also provides several important capabilities:

• Easy to integrate.
• Highly secure.
• Supports a hybrid workforce model.
• Offers the option to add new channels and capabilities.
• Reduce costs.
• Availability 24/7/365.

2) Provide Omnichannel Experiences

Many public administrations offer both voice and digital support. Providing multiple ways to communicate is synonymous with convenience and allows users to select the channel of their choice to resolve their query.

But when these multiple channels are not available and integrated into one platform, it creates frustrating friction. Consumers often begin an interaction with the customer service center on one channel and then end it on another. For example, they may send an email and then call a couple of days later if they haven’t heard back.

If the contact center doesn’t have omnichannel capabilities, the agent won’t have access to the email the customer sent, requiring the customer to repeat the information they already provided. This is a huge frustration for users and, in the public sector, it happens far too often.

The best contact center software can deliver optimal experiences through capabilities like smart routing, smart workforce management (WFM) tools, and a unified agent desktop.

3) Optimize Self-Service Options

Most people try to resolve their queries on their own before contacting customer support. In fact, a Harvard Business Review article indicates that 81% of all customers try to solve their problem on their own before contacting an agent.

Well-designed digital self-service satisfies users and can help governments absorb peak call volumes. For example, there are tools that can answer frequently asked questions and perform rule-based tasks, such as scheduling appointments and providing back-office status in multiple languages.

3 Tools that Help Improve Digital Self-Service

1) Administrative Knowledge Management Platform

A well-designed back office knowledge management platform delivers fast, relevant answers to users at multiple points in their customer journey, including the back office website and chatbot or other self-service channel.

Agents also have access to instant responses that help deliver more effective service. This will ensure that consumers receive consistent and accurate information at every touch point and on every channel.

2) Conversational IVR

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to allow customers to use words to indicate which department they want to address when they call. This provides a better experience than tapping numbers on a phone keypad. Conversational IVRs can help make routing more precise.

3) Virtual Agents

Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered virtual agents are bots that can be implemented in websites, apps, messaging systems, and IVRs. They can facilitate all of the types of management we’ve mentioned above, as well as provide proactive customer service. For example, organizations can place them in sections of the website where users may need additional help. Additionally, virtual agents can predict follow-up questions and provide answers before customers ask for them.

La entrada Call Centers of Public Administrations: Citizens Demand Good Customer Service se publicó primero en Enreach ES.

In this way, users have planned their vacations outside their usual residence and this has caused a collapse in Spanish airports that have recovered 92% of pre-COVID traffic in July, as Aena has confirmed.

To this boom in flights have been added the strikes of the workers of the main airlines that operate in Spanish airports and that have disrupted the plans of some tourists, which has led to the multiplication of claims, up to 133 on average a day, on airlines such as Ryanair or EasyJet. Thus, the platforms that collect complaints requests assure that they have received thousands of demands for delays, cancellations, overbooking and loss or damage to luggage.

With this heated context today, agility and resolution in the first contact with the customer have become priority services for airlines. Enreach, a leading European provider of converged communications solutions for companies, explains that in order for flight companies to achieve a good customer experience (CX) in the incidents they are collecting during this summer, they can bet on a strategy that groups several channels of contact, so that the user decides to communicate with the companies by his preferred way and his case is resolved effectively.

In this sense, an omnichannel platform is one of the most efficient options, so Enreach points out below the reasons why betting on an omnichannel strategy in your customer service is essential for the customer experience at a time claims reviewer:

1) Users Have at Their Disposal Different Ways to Choose

An omnichannel strategy brings together channels such as WhatsApp, WebChat, telephony, Click&Talk, email or SMS so that travelers who have questions can contact the airlines in the most convenient and efficient way, as well as helping to streamline procedures.

According to the CEX Association, 77% of users continue to use the telephone to contact companies, 11% choose email and 4% chatbots. Thus, Vueling assured at the end of 2019 that 80% of customers who contact by phone are attended to in less than thirty seconds, those who do so by mail have the incident resolved in less than twenty-four hours and matters that require more than one process, they close in less than two days.

Likewise, a study by Emplifi has verified that the response time in the comments and complaints of the users in the social networks of the airlines is relatively short. On Twitter 1.7 hours and on Facebook 5.4 hours.

2) Helps to Set Priorities in the Call Queue

Thanks to a smart routing system, airlines can direct users to the agent that is best prepared to attend to their query. This process is very much in line with the needs of these companies, since personalization is associated with a more special treatment, and they need to demonstrate to users who contact them about incidents that their problems matter to them, all in a peak period of claims where an agile and efficient service is required.

3) Monitor in Real-Time What Happens in the Company’s Contact Center

It should be noted that a complete omnichannel solution monitors the activities of the contact center in real-time to, later, make better decisions, for example, based on the level of work that the agents are having. This also improves your productivity and quicker responses to passengers.

4) Integrate Innovative Technologies Such as AI to Improve Management

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology helps bots, so common in omnichannel platforms, understand what the customer requires in order to resolve their queries. Specifically, airlines use this service to provide exclusivity in reservations, promotions and travel advice, among others. Thus, the relationship with the customer will be from the purchase of the flight until the passenger has landed, which helps to complete a satisfactory customer experience.

“Customer service is decisive in companies such as airlines, since it is a sector that needs it because it encounters hundreds of incidents every day. In this situation, prevention is better than cure and it is crucial that airlines are aware of the latest technologies that are coupled to contact centers, since it will be what differentiates them from the competition. In this sense, creating an omnichannel strategy is highly recommended because it combines all the necessary tools to meet the needs of passengers and even build loyalty,” concludes Santi Vernet, Enreach Spain CCO.

La entrada The Omnichannel Strategy, Key to Managing the Rise in Daily Claims at Airports se publicó primero en Enreach ES.