Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how businesses execute their operations and communicate with their customers. This transformation raises a question; Will AI replace call center agents in the future? Or will it help to better customer experience?
With the advancement in technology, customers expect much more from customer service. They are not used to waiting for a long time before their quire is answered. Delaying a customer can damage trust of customer and affect the business.
Call centers always have to upgrade to new technologies to improve their operations and services. Now, it is time for a shift to Artificial Intelligence. AI is a helper for both customers and agents. As it reduces the workload on call center agents which increases their efficiency and in turn, we have satisfied customers.
What AI can do for call center agents?
AI can be the best friend of call center agents’ as it lessens their burden. Call center agents become exhausted when they have to deal with back-to-back calls. Their exhaustion may sometimes result in unsatisfied customers. Here are some of the ways AI can reduce the burden on call center agents.
Frequently Asked Questions
A lot of people contact with simple questions related to payment methods, delivery, and in some cases when a disruptive event occurs. Answers to these questions are simple and AI can easily answer them. This can save time and effort for both the agents and customers.
In other cases, AI answers initial questions in form of pre-recorded messages. The call is transferred to the agent if a query cannot be handled by AI. All of this work done by AI saves a lot of time for agents to deal with other customers that have more complex quires.
Contextual Information
Agents feel more relaxed and confident when they have time-saving tools which analyze the content and reason of call and show possible solutions on the agent’s screen. It saves much time on both ends rather than the agent looking up for information manually and then delivering it to the customer.
When customers are given concise and quick responses they feel more confident in doing business with your company.
Appointment Scheduling
AI plays role in scheduling appointments for businesses like healthcare and finance. A simple appointment can be scheduled with voice assistance while when AI is used for appointment scheduling it can give follow-up calls after fixing the appointment at a mutually suitable time.
Reasons Why AI Cannot Take Over Call Center Agent’s Job
1. Human communication
Despite the advancement in technology people mostly prefer to talk to humans rather than automated calls. When agents talk to customers they respond according to customers’ needs and feelings. While automated calls cannot understand the emotions or show empathy towards customers which can sometimes leave a negative impact on customers.
Customers cannot have a proper conversation with automated calls which is why they might want to directly contact the agent. In the past, many customers didn’t like IVR and they continuously pressed “0” so that they can avoid IVR questions and directly contact the agent.
AI although is a good way to save time and resources when it’s about simple everyday problems but when it comes to complex problems IA cannot deal with them on its own. In such cases, customer’s demand is fulfilled by agent.
2. Wrong Answers by AI
The whole world is going crazy with AI and thinks it has found the solution to everything but it’s not true. Although AI is amazing as it can process a large amount of information in a short time. It can mostly work as a human in activities like language, voice, and image recognition but it is not 100% accurate.
AI is not flexible like humans rather its responses are designed and it cannot get creative to deal with problems. While humans can use their critical thinking and experiences to come up with new solutions to a problem.
When everything depends on AI in a call center there might be cases when a customer is facing a problem that is new to the system and AI does not know the correct answer. This may give a negative impact on the business.
3. AI is Costly to Implement
AI is all based on algorithms and a well-developed algorithm is very costly. The decisions that AI makes depend on the algorithm. AI also needs to have high-end computing. Data moves through many systems which can cost extremely high.
4. AI can only Reduce Workload
AI can only reduce the workload of the agents as it can answer the basic and common questions asked by customers. But when it comes to random questions or complex problems it’s the job of the agent to satisfy the customer.
AI can be extremely helpful when the call center is short-staffed and there are so many back-to-back calls to deal with.
Result
Although, AI can perform simple tasks, give a detailed analysis of data, and first-call resolution yet it cannot replace call center agents, as it cannot deal with complex problems which require human insight and creativity.
Both AI and call center agents when working together can provide maximum customer satisfaction.
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