Why Is Automation Important To Improve The Customer Experience?

According to a study by CCW Digital, automation represents an important investment focus in the contact center sector. Improve customer satisfaction and reduce the effort in their communication with companies are two key challenges for the call center during this year. But, why automation is important to improve the customer experience?

Since most organizations cannot have active agents that instantly relate to all customers to solve problems, they adopt automation as a practical necessity. All that is required is that bots or other forms of self-service driven by artificial intelligence are “good enough” to help customers when agents are not present. Other companies see automation as a mechanism to reduce operating costs. They focus exclusively on taking advantage of bots to automate routine and repetitive tasks that do not require a human touch.

In both cases, the leaders of the customer service centers ignore the real value of automation: the ability to increase the commitment of users. Automation technologies can offer a better experience for customers, as well as increase agent satisfaction.

Why is automation important to improve the customer experience?

1.- Help to understand your clients: All front-end automation initiatives have an impact on the customer experience. To understand the value of a particular project, it is essential to consider the profiles, needs, desires and expectations of customers. How can automation contribute to improving the ‘customer journey’?

• Identify the tasks for which the automation solutions are most important.
• Help create additional value for customers.
• Focus efforts on generating more satisfactory and valuable experiences for users.

2.- Facilitates the management of performance bottlenecks: The automation of processes represents a fundamental focus for companies. According to the CCW Digital study, 85% of organizations plan to use automation to improve the performance of their contact centers in 2018. In addition, 30% of them state that automation will play a key role in performance management.

The success or failure of the process automation initiatives requires proper execution. This execution depends on the precise management of performance bottlenecks (and opportunities) within a customer service center. 

Organizations must identify challenges or internal tasks that prevent employees from devoting their time to high-value work. On the other hand, by identifying the connection between internal systems and the quality of engagement, companies will discover opportunities to use automation in order to have more time to interact with customers.

3.- Help to understand your agents: Automation can also be a way to a better agent experience. For this, the organization needs to determine the needs of the agents. A focus on the agent for automation works in the same way (and produces the same type of benefits) as a customer-centric approach.

4.- Improvement of the understanding of the contact center strategy: The low appreciation of automation is a central theme of CCW Digital’s study. This lack of appreciation manifests itself as companies see automation as a way to reduce costs rather than a way to raise commitment. It can also mean that companies see automation as a way of performing individual tasks rather than a way to transform the overall strategy of contacting the customer.

To maximize the value of investments in automation, contact centers have to consider how automation changes the front-end customer experience, optimizes workflow and improves agent engagement.

Increase customer commitment

When evaluating opportunities through these four key aspects: customers, performance, agents and contact center, organizations will identify the mechanisms through which automation can improve customer engagement.

A popular form of automation, for example, is to provide a “pop-up screen” with customer data at the time agents answer a call. This type of automation is only possible if the company’s CRM and telephony system are integrated. In this way, agents can offer personalized attention to customers.

In conclusion, according to the study, the contact centers have to focus their efforts on using automation to increase customer commitment, improve their experience, and increase agent satisfaction.