The speed of digital technology evolution has revolutionized the way today’s contact centers operate as well as the way customers interact with your contact center. Digital technology now enables greater customer convenience through the use of innovative self-service options.
Today’s consumer demands and expects more convenience. Savvy contact centers have the perfect opportunity to provide their customers with what they’re looking for through the implementation of digital self-service offerings.
Increasingly, digital technology in the contact center environment is having a positive effect on customer experiences. In fact, consumers are more likely to do business with companies that provide self-service options; 70 percent of customers now expect businesses to provide self-service options.
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At the same time, the job of the contact center agent is made easier with the assistance of technology while the contact center itself realizes significant savings.
Each year, companies spend more than $1 trillion on customer service calls. But thanks to the advent of AI and digital technology solutions, major savings can be had. According to a recent study from Juniper Research, such technology can save companies as much as $8 billion a year in customer support expenses by 2022.
So, how can you boost digital self-service options in your contact center?
Here are a few suggestions.
AI-powered applications
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has several uses in a contact center. Sophisticated AI technology can be used to power virtual contact center agents to complement real-life personnel. This helps streamline customer interactions and can be a money-saver for contact centers.
Thanks to AI applications, contact center agents have relevant data at their fingertips when speaking with a customer. Before a customer is connected to a live agent, digital technology can help collect data to ensure a more personalized customer service experience.
Rather than having to search through various channels to arrive at the solution the customer requires, contact center agents can begin the call with the information they need to provide pertinent solutions and assistance.
AI virtual agents
In many cases, live agents can co-exist with virtual agents to automate the customer experience and streamline the contact center environment. Virtual agents can serve as a front-line communicator with customers by assessing the exact need of customers before directing them to the appropriate agent. In some cases, the customer’s entire interaction with the contact center can be a self-service experience.
Today’s AI can tackle all sorts of tasks and help customers arrive at their end solution, including handling claim status, answering questions, processing payments, and scheduling or rescheduling appointments through the use of speech and text recognition.
Self-service portals
Self-service options are becoming increasingly common, and consumers appreciate them. The explosion of self-checkout portals at grocery stores is a testament to the DIY options being made available. The same concept can be applied to the contact center.
Self-service portals can give customers the chance to deal with their issues on their own without compromising functionality. Similar to a virtual agent, a self-service portal can help customers conduct a myriad of functions to resolve an issue or complete a task, such as paying bills, checking the status of a claim, or even applying for a credit account.
These portals may require sophisticated technology, but successfully integrated, they can boost customer satisfaction and even alleviate contact center call loads.
Smart search function
A search box is nothing new, but a “smart” search box that recognizes natural language iseven better. While search boxes typically use keywords to understand what the user is looking for, natural language recognition will allow this technology to provide appropriate answers without the need for specific keywords.
Innovative chatbots
Chatbots are revolutionizing just about every aspect of online life, including contact center interactions. Having smart bots carrying the “conversation” with customers is a must.
These chatbots help contact centers handle a large influx of customer questions quickly and efficiently. Those that use cutting-edge text-to-speech processing are especially useful in dealing with hundreds of customer conversations, all at the same time.
With the right tools from RingCentral, contact centers can seamlessly provide their customers with the experience they want and expect. Our all-in-one cloud communications platform perfectly marries cloud technology, team messaging, telephone, and video conferencing to create an effective and streamlined contact center environment.
With the implementation of intuitive RingCentral solutions, contact centers will be better equipped to resolve customer issues much faster. RingCentral enables dynamic self-service options for customers, elevating customer experiences and saving time and money at the same time. Speak with a RingCentral representative today to request your free demo.
Originally published Feb 03, 2022, updated Dec 30, 2022
