Deflect phone calls to automated customer journeys for self-service

Customer service has evolved into a comprehensive function operating within the domain of customer experience (CX). Having to change their approach from cost-centric to customer-centric, businesses are now aiming to improve CX right from the first touchpoint. Improving CX while keeping costs under control is an endeavor that customer service leaders can only succeed in with the help of scalable technology solutions - solutions that increase a contact center’s operational efficiency by automating customer interactions in a way that is accepted and appreciated by customers.

To do this, companies can use the messaging trend of recent years to their advantage: With more and more customers wanting to communicate with their favorite brands on the same channels and apps they use with friends and family, contact centers can deflect calls to channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, Apple Messages for Business and RCS.

Today’s technology is capable of automating customer journeys on these digital messaging channels to serve customers faster and better than ever before resulting in higher productivity and happier customers.

According to Gartner, organizations have reported higher customer satisfaction after implementing a VCA (Virtual Customer Assistant). Gartner’s survey also reveals a reduction of up to 70% in call, chat and email enquries as well as a 33% saving per voice engagement. Considering businesses spend $1.3 trillion on billions of customer service calls each year, businesses would be negligent to turn down the opportunity arising from the messaging trend.

Deploying AI chatbots on digital messaging channels as a first line of customer service will not only reduce inbound call volume but provide faster response and resolution times to customers who are always ‘on-the-go’. Paired with the option to seamlessly transfer to an agent, customers are empowered to self-serve while having the confidence that they can get help from a human, if needed.

For one of our customers, a utilities company in the UK, implementing this solution resulted in a 40% reduction of propensity to initiate contact with a human agent. For you it could yield similar results: What would it mean to your business, if your agents would no longer have to deal with routine, high-volume enquries such as “how to” or “where is” and be able to handle the remaining enquries faster and under less pressure?

More and more businesses are recognizing the need to reduce contact center calls and augment customer service through AI and automation; not just to reduce costs but to significantly improve customer satisfaction and retention rates. This is why AI-powered self-service is here to stay and will soon be the new normal. Offer voice-based customer service to help resolve complex customer enquries and complement your contact center operations through the power of AI to deliver nothing but the best to your customers.

Learn more about what Call Deflection can do for the contact center in 2020.

Download Whitepaper here.