The growth in robotic process automation, digital technology and big data analytics has contributed to rapid changes in business processes. According to a 2018 Gartner research, as much as 25% of customer service channels will include a virtual agent by 2020. Adopting virtual agents to deliver enhanced customer experience requires digital fluency of the evolving technology. This is where digital enablement will play a major role.
What is Digital Enablement Platform?
A digital enablement platform is software designed to assist people with performing digital tasks and improve their productivity in the digital workplace.
Early trends predict that the future is virtual
COVID-19 has spurred the adoption of contact centre AI solutions
Virtual customer assistants are cost-effective
The human agents will continue to be a necessary force
Virtual agents empower human executives with real-time information
Customer executives will champion brand connect
Human agents will have more complex deliverables
Preparing the ecosystem for virtual agents
Early trends predict that the future is virtual
A burgeoning number of people are getting used to interacting with AI-based tools and virtual assistants. Juniper Research has predicted roughly 8 billion personal assistants globally by the year 2023. With customers getting accustomed to using virtual assistants in the form of home speakers, wearables and smartphones, a commercial interaction with a virtual agent will be an organic progression.
Virtual agents rely on AI technology to perform advanced customer service tasks. They can answer customer queries, recommend products, and help customers find information. They can take up large volumes of customer calls and ease the load off human customer care executives.
COVID-19 has spurred the adoption of contact centre AI solutions
The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many companies to adopt contact centre AI solutions to bridge the gap in customer service due to COVID-19 induced restrictions on their employees. Liveperson, a tech company dealing with conversational AI software has observed a 20% spike in their conversational volume since February 2020, with hospitality and airlines industry showing the highest increase.
Cost is another crucial factor that contributes to the adoption of virtual customer agents. The cost of a live service interaction is anywhere between $7 to $13, while virtual agents cost just a tiny fraction of that. This is because they work round-the-clock, outside of business hours with no extra investment leading to higher cost efficiency.
With the growing adoption of virtual customer service agents, organizations are seeing a staggering drop of 70% in the total volume of customer calls, chats or emails received. According to Gartner, these companies also reported a jump in customer satisfaction with a 33% reduction in cost attributed to voice engagement.
With all the above benefits, autonomous agents are on their way to become a rule in contact centres, rather than being an exception. According to CRM solutions provider , 69% of consumers prefer talking to a chatbot when connecting with a brand.
Virtual customer assistants are cost-effective
Cost is another crucial factor that contributes to the adoption of virtual customer agents. The cost of a live service interaction is anywhere between $7 to $13, while virtual agents cost just a tiny fraction of that. This is because they work round-the-clock, outside of business hours with no extra investment leading to higher cost efficiency.
With the growing adoption of virtual customer service agents, organizations are seeing a staggering drop of 70% in the total volume of customer calls, chats or emails received. According to Gartner, these companies also reported a jump in customer satisfaction with a 33% reduction in cost attributed to voice engagement.
With all the above benefits, autonomous agents are on their way to become a rule in contact centres, rather than being an exception. According to CRM solutions provider, 69% of consumers prefer talking to a chatbot when connecting with a brand.
The human agents will continue to be a necessary force
Does the arrival of smart virtual agents mean that the human customer service agents are set to retire? Definitely not! If anything, the emergence of chatbots and other AI-powered tools has ushered in an era of the knowledgeable and aware customer who seeks a high-end CX (customer experience) delivered to him. This is not achievable without the value addition of a customer care executive. Virtual agents are in fact the tools that can help human agents achieve that goal.
Virtual agents empower human executives with real-time information
According to Alison Greenberg, CEO at Aflow, a conversation design studio, modern consumer demands an intelligent and immediate response to his queries. Contact centre agents, chatbots and IVRs convert customer data into information that the customer executives can leverage. Virtual agents help executives identify customer’s intention by asking them the right questions. They assist them to make suitable product recommendations and fix issues.
Customer executives will champion brand connect
As low-end conversations will be tackled by the virtual agents, humans will have to manage the more complex tasks. Empathy and compassion will be at the core of the most intense conversations between a brand and its consumers. This is where human agents will play a crucial role.
Brands cannot afford to exclude the human touch from their brand experience. AI powered agents can handle high volumes of customer issues day in and day out, but they cannot feel empathy. Only human agents can display genuine care, think out of the box and be creative. Thus, human agents will play a fundamental role in delivering high-quality customer experiences.
Human agents will have more complex deliverables
All of this also means that human customer agents will have to evolve as custodians of the brand by going beyond scripted answers. They will need to generate trust and brand loyalty as part of their business deliverables. Augmented agents will have to support the human agents with real-time information and resources to achieve these goals. Which means that the virtual agents should have access to an entire ecosystem of data, products, services, and tools within a company. Therefore, to harness the capabilities of virtual agents, organizations will have to create an ecosystem where they can operate at maximum efficiency.
Clearly, to work with the virtual agents, the human agents will also need to be tech-savvy and forever inquisitive. They will have to rise above their current level of knowledge to handle complex interactions in the future. This amalgamation of human and virtual agents will be continually fine-tuned as businesses arrive at new learnings. Either way, humans will be at the core of their organization’s digital enablement strategy for customer services.
Preparing the ecosystem for virtual agents
Of course, to integrate augmented agents into the workforce, companies will require to train their customer care executives. They will need to revisit their key business metrics for measuring agent performance and customer satisfaction levels. In addition, companies will do well to integrate their multiple customer touch points. This will enable a seamless cross-channel delivery to the customers as they move from one channel of interaction to another.
According to a report, 80% customers believe that service is as important as the product. Similarly, a study by American Express states that 78% customers have given up on a transaction because of poor customer service. The ultimate goal of any brand is to enhance its customer experience and customer service plays a vital role in that. Virtual agents can assist human agents to offer exceptional customer service and help a brand’s customer experience reach new heights.