Service providers who sell contact center solutions have a lot to consider when deciding which technology to include in their CX offerings. There are technical questions, integration considerations and cost factors just to name a few. With the thousands of offerings and technologies available, it can seem like a complex and, at times, overwhelming process. However, at the end of the day, only one question really matters: how can you help your customers serve their customers more effectively and easily? And for contact centers, the agent touchpoint is where the rubber hits the road. Help your customers’ agents perform better, and you’ll become a lock-in as their service provider of choice. Just how can you optimize the agent experience? Let’s take a look.
Rise Above the Crowd
Today’s CX market is littered with “me too” solutions and value propositions, and it’s getting more and more difficult for service providers to differentiate their CX offerings. Customers and prospects face an ever-growing array of platform and purchase options to consider, and service providers need to explore new ways to cut through the noise and raise their solution above the crowd.
Solve Your CX Customers’ Biggest Challenge
Despite the advances in self-service, the majority of callers still prefer to speak to a live agent. As a result, their experience relies solely on the skills and knowledge of the agent they interact with. That makes finding and keeping good agents the number one challenge your CX customers face. For many of your customers, retaining skilled staff has become a crisis—a recent survey results show that more than 90 percent of call center agents report planning to quit in 2022.
Service providers that offer solutions that help their customers retain skilled, experienced call center staff will gain a significant competitive advantage and win more deals than their peers.
The CX Technology Gap
There have been many advances in the CX technology landscape. The explosion in support channels leading to “omni-channel” customer support, the introduction of new self-service technologies like AI-powered chatbots and social media response automation, and the rapid ascent of cloud-based CPaaS offerings with fast deployment and open APIs are just a few of them. Despite these developments, the majority of today’s CX technologies still primarily focus on accomplishing two tasks: deflecting calls and routing calls to live agents. Today, omni-channel routing streamlines routing to the “best available” agent; however, once the call is answered, technology takes a back seat. This approach fails to address the needs of agents who need better tools to help them to deliver a better customer experience.
Service providers that can successfully address this gap by introducing new and emerging CX technologies designed to help make the agent’s job easier and less stressful during and after the call will rise above the crowd.
Address the Gap With Agent Assist AI & Automation
New AI and automation technologies are now available that make the job of a call center agent easier. With the right combination of AI and automation, you can give every agent a skilled and experienced virtual co-pilot during the call that can immediately surface the information needed to solve the customer issue and automate repetitive tasks, such as navigating multiple systems and screens to fulfill the customer request. After the call, this virtual assistant can immediately produce an accurate summary of the call for upload to CRM, summarize the promises made during the call and, with the agent’s approval, complete the follow-up steps to fulfill those promises.
Service providers who add agent assist AI and automation solutions to their CX portfolio will help their customers address stressful staffing challenges while raising key performance indicators. It’s a win-win for customers, agents and businesses looking to deliver a better customer and employee experience with better outcomes.
To compete in today’s crowded CX market, service providers must offer a compelling reason for customers to choose them to provide their CX technologies. Agent assist AI and automation technologies that integrate easily with customers’ existing CX platforms offer service providers an obvious, next-level advantage. By weaving these innovations into their CX offering, providers can create a truly differentiated service that speaks to what their customer really want: a solution that optimizes their most important customer touchpoint—the agent.