Supporting Contact Centre Agents
with Conversational AI
It is undeniable that the way in which we communicate with brands and organisations has changed. With the expectation from many consumers that they should be able to interact with a business via channels that are convenient for them, 24/7, and increasingly these are digital.
There is, however, still a desire to speak with real humans, often to express frustration or explain a complex issue that a chatbot or FAQ document can’t resolve. Additionally, agents often sit behind these digital channels and more traditional ones (email or telephone) to provide resolutions. Yet, as a function, they face numerous challenges which can impact customer satisfaction and retention for businesses.
34 - 50%
Average annual attrition rates for contact centres.
NICE
One of the biggest challenges facing many contact centres is the high staff turnover, with one industry report finding the annual attrition rates are between 34 – 50% (NICE). Contact centres can be stressful environments, with agents needing to speak to emotional and frustrated customers regularly. This can take its toll and goes some way to explaining the high turnover.
Whatever the reasons (and there are many), the impact on businesses is that they continually need to recruit and train new agents, which takes time and costs. On average, it can take anywhere between 6 weeks – 12 weeks to train new agents (QATC.org). This period can be even longer for more complex services such as pensions, sometimes extending to 6 months. The lengthy training period can often impact the customer experience, with 84% being frustrated when agents do not have the information they need (Kolsky) and 59% saying wasted time waiting for a resolution was their biggest complaint (TCN).
So, the question for many businesses is how they ensure that agents have the knowledge and information they need to support customers regardless of where they are in their training cycle. Conversational Assistants could offer a solution.
Similar to how Conversational Assistants are used to support customers, they can also be used by contact centre agents, providing on-demand information and actionability. Agent Assistants can be deployed via internal communication channels such as Slack, CRM, or Sales systems and standalone applications, meaning they are easily accessible to agents on calls. Solutions, such as Humley’s, can automatically ingest training guides and FAQs to create knowledgebases and provides the ability to easily add responses related to top call log requests.
Additionally, utilising the flow functionality, Assistants can guide the agent on a call through questions to provide accurate and tailored information for the customer they are speaking to, helping to improve experiences. Crucially, Agent Assistants can also deliver actionability via securely integrating with internal systems to perform tasks such as validating customers, retrieving account information, and even claims submission or onboarding. This capability significantly reduces the time needed on a call and improves first-time resolution, improving customer satisfaction with services. Additionally, delivering efficiencies to other teams through automatically handling the common tasks associated with customer services.
In conclusion, by providing agents with on-demand support via Conversational Assistants, businesses fast-track their agent’s knowledge and ability to support customers, leading to improved experiences and retention for both parties.
If you would like to find out more about how the Agent Assistants could support your contact centre, get in touch today.