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Offering positive contact center experiences is a major factor in the ultimate success of a company. Contact centers are currently part of a $500 billion industry that is expected to grow to $750 billion by 2030. Companies that fail to prioritize the customer experience will quickly fall behind and be replaced by innovators not afraid of experimenting. The contact centers leading the pack in 2030 will be the ones currently obsessing over how to improve CX with technology.Remember, it can cost four to five times more to acquire new customers versus retaining current ones.
In this article, we’ll explain how forward-thinking contact centers are using technology to their advantage. Also, we’ll explore how generative AI can help contact centers stay ahead of the curve and become a leading provider of exceptional customer experiences.
Understanding Customer Frustrations
Automation in contact centers often falls short of customer expectations, especially during complex interactions. Oftentimes, a customer will go through a chatbot only to be transferred to a human agent, facing long wait times and becoming more frustrated. They likely have to repeat the same information to the human agent that they’ve already told the chatbot, increasing their stress levels even more. According to a 2023 study, nearly a third of customers said they’ve sworn at customer support robots or agents in the past year due to frustration.
Many customer frustrations boil down to wasted time. In fact, 75% of consumers say that long wait times are the biggest reason they become dissatisfied. However, half (45%) say they would prefer to have their inquiries handled by AI if it’s faster. Time is of the essence to customers, and just as wasted time can ruin customer experience, finding a way to make more efficient use of customers’ time can improve CX greatly.
How Human-in-the-Loop Fixes Flaws in the Customer Experience
Adopting the right customer support technology is a key first step in addressing the frustrations above. Conversational AI, for example, can greatly improve the customer experience. It works best when collaborating with human agents. By combining the best of both worlds, humans and AI can deliver the best possible CX, improving metrics such as customer satisfaction score (CSAT), wait times and resolution times. This process is called “Human-in-the-Loop,” and it enables a technology called “Task Orchestration” to give agents real-time AI guidance and smoothly move the interaction forward.
For example, conversational AI leader Interactions has an Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) with a 97% accuracy rate in understanding a customers’ intent and communicating appropriately. Even with a high success rate like this, though, there will be outlier situations in which theAIrequires human intuition — like when a customer requests a discount.
This is when it brings in a human agent to help. But rather than handing off the customer to an agent and requiring them to repeat the conversation they just had, Task Orchestration keeps the IVA in control of the conversation. The human agent works in the background, providing information to the IVA where needed. This provides a seamless experience for the customer where they can continue to self-serve without needing to be put on hold or transferred.
Get Results That Truly Make a Difference
With humans and AI working together seamlessly via Task Orchestration, customers can self-serve through any transaction. By removing long wait times and other common customer frustrations, contact centers will see increased efficiency and a better experience for agents and customers alike.
They may also see a reduction in live agent handle times, which can help provide noticeable operational cost savings. Ultimately, Human-in-the-Loop is the most optimal approach for businesses who are looking to provide the highest level of customer service. Human touch is the essential connection that drives long-term customer relationships, and it can be made even more effective with intelligent AI guidance.
Learn More About the AI Technologies That Contact Centers Need to Excel
Automation currently falls short in many organizations, but they can give their CX a much needed boost by adopting the latest in AI solutions. These tools, like the Interactions Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA), take the best of both worlds from human agents and technology solutions to transform CX and minimize frustration among customers. To learn more about how AI can help agents deliver the best CX, check out the Interactions demo below!
