Top 5 Benefits of Low Code Contact Center Automation

It’s an exciting time for contact centers, as new technologies like intelligent automation, conversational customer experience (CX) and artificial intelligence (AI) promise to improve virtually every aspect of day-to-day operations. More than that, though, these solutions can help businesses streamline and enhance the contact center experience from start to finish and deliver better support to customers. That means happier customers who are more likely to stick with your brand for the long haul.

Recognizing the value that these tools offer and actually implementing them are two very different stories, of course, especially when it comes to scaling complex platforms. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our blog discussing the challenges contact centers have to address when scaling contact center AI tools. Bottom line: It can take a lot of time, money and energy to put these cutting-edge technologies in place across the entire contact center environment.

That’s not set in stone, though. How much time, money and aggravation that kind of project costs you really depends on your approach. Low code contact center automation offers an easy and affordable way to implement cutting-edge contact center solutions — and then scale them as needed. As the name suggests, very little, if any, coding is required to develop and implement these kinds of contact center applications. Instead, businesses can use intuitive, user-friendly templates and dashboards to manage requirements ranging from integration and deployment to governance and analysis.

Let’s go over five of the major benefits (beyond costs alone) that low code contact center automation can offer.

1. Improve digital-first and phone-first interactions

Your customers engage your contact centers in many ways, sometimes going through interactive voice response (IVR) systems, connecting directly with live agents or using virtual assistants. Consumers have more options than ever, and channel preferences can vary significantly depending on the person. According to HubSpot, 48% of consumers prefer to speak to an agent over the phone for their customer service needs, while 42% would opt for a live chat interface.

The contact center journey isn’t linear anymore, either. In the past, all customer service roads might have eventually led to a call center agent, but today’s customer experience can jump back and forth across different channels and touchpoints. More companies are incorporating multimodal customer experience solutions that bridge the gap between digital and voice interactions. For instance, an agent could update a customer’s account while on the line, and the caller can see those changes happen on their mobile app in real time.

Creating a holistic customer experience that accounts for and takes advantage of both digital-first and phone-first interactions is a great way to deliver frictionless support that exceeds customer expectations. When paired with a no-code multiexperience designer, a low code middleware tool kit can make it easier to build in those capabilities, helping companies provide a more seamless CX that engages customer across all channels.

2. Bring voice and visual UX together in multimodal CX

As we noted, different customer engagement channels don’t necessarily need to happen in isolation. In fact, they often integrate and overlap in the modern contact center. Companies that really excel at CX typically bring disparate channels together to create a better and more seamless contact center journey that delivers answers and solutions quicker than ever before.

The combination of voice and visual user experience (UX) is a perfect example of this new arrangement in action. A caller may begin the interaction on their mobile app but then receive a prompt that directs them to an IVR system. That system can reference visual interfaces, fields and prompts presented on a caller’s mobile device as it walks them through different options over the phone. 

For instance, a customer could use an IVR system to go step by step through the process of ordering a replacement smartphone through their mobile app, asking questions along the way. The IVR system tells them what fields to fill in, where to find required information like serial numbers and how to submit the request. 

Sound far-fetched? Not with low code middleware. It enables contact centers to simultaneously guide customers through both voice and visual modalities, depending on what makes the most sense in a given situation. Companies can use low code middleware to introduce these interactions into the contact center journey and deliver better customer service results.

3. Deliver conversational UX with rich graphical UX

Virtual assistants and chatbots are widely used in contact centers today, giving customers more options to troubleshoot issues and find answers to their questions. When these tools work as intended, they’re great assets, but they can sometimes create friction when they are unable to understand customer intent. 

Low code middleware makes it easier for companies to build, manage and refine virtual assistants, rolling out more sophisticated platforms capable of recognizing and responding to customers. That leads to fewer misunderstandings that may frustrate customers and get in the way of an easy resolution. 

By allowing for continual upgrades and enhancements to be made with chatbots and virtual assistants, low code middleware opens the door to even more complex interactions between bots and customers. Those include digital conversations involving multiple steps and hand-offs between different platforms and live agents. After all, one of the most important features to have in a virtual assistant is the awareness to know when it’s time to direct the customer to an agent. With low code middleware, companies can expand features and test their effectiveness to steadily improve the contact center experience.

4. Boost digital adoption

There is a wide variety of digital engagement solutions available to support contact centers, but they’re only as good as their level of adoption. If customers aren’t taking advantage of these tools, then they’re simply not providing a strong return on investment. With that in mind, it’s extremely important that organizations keep tabs on each tool, interaction and step in the user journey, no matter how trivial it may seem. Every aspect of the contact center experience can either be an asset or a point of friction.

With low code middleware, your business analysts can track usage in real time and run A/B tests to see what’s working in your favor and what’s working against your user experience. Go even further and design intent flows that let an agent step in and intervene when a customer runs into an issue using different digital customer support tools. In this way, low code middleware allows you to weed out unhelpful features without sacrificing the customer experience.

5. Integrate silos in your CX tech stack

Contact center IT environments are extremely complex, and they stand to only become more complicated as businesses implement some of the cutting-edge technologies we’ve discussed here. A whole host of disparate systems need to seamlessly integrate with one another to support intelligent automation and contact center AI across the entire contact center environment.

That’s where low code middleware can help. The combination of a no-code designer, low code middleware and robotic process automation (RPA) removes integration barriers so processes and workflows can seamlessly integrate systems from one system to another. Just about any advanced contact center platform, whether it’s conversational CX or AI, is going to require integration between back-office systems and customer- or employee-facing interfaces, and low code middleware helps connect those assets.

Build the contact center of the future with low code contact center automation

The latest wave of contact center technology presents countless opportunities to improve customer engagement and deliver better support services. Companies need to carefully approach the implementation and ongoing management of those solutions to remove potential bottlenecks and get the most value out of them. 

Low code middleware significantly simplifies the logistics of incorporating complex and advanced technologies into your contact center. It’s an affordable option that requires a relatively low amount of effort to drastically improve the user journey across every channel. Take advantage of new customer experience tools and features while lowering your total cost of ownership within the contact center. 
It’s not a pipe dream. It’s low code middleware. Check our recent webinar to learn more about it.