17 Oct Why call centres need chatbots now more than ever
‘Estimated waiting time 30 mins’, is the most dreadful sentence to hear when we need instant assistance for any inquiry or problem, we’re facing with a company’s call center. According to Harvard Business Review the most hit hard department in corporations during the coronavirus pandemic is customer service. From travel cancellations to bill payments and refunds, the amount of complaints during the pandemic increased by 2.5 times in a span of a week which rendered the departments responsible for managing those complaints overwhelmed and much less efficient. This drop in efficiency was caused by several factors most of which is the lack of structure and reliable connections with customer service employees working from home. This has a direct impact on call centers in a time when the only way we are connected to the world is through our phones and internet connection.
In short the world is rapidly changing increasing the need of clients for information in times of uncertainty, and lacking the infrastructure and proper resources to meet those demands. Facing all those factors chatbots become the ultimate solution capable of meeting the world’s demands. Chatbots do not replace humans but rather complement them. For tedious routine tasks robots take over and when the problematic is beyond their capacity humans take the lead.
The preconception that chatbots and robots are not receptive and do not provide the needed answers does not apply to all robots: Not all chatbots are created equal. With the power of Artificial Intelligence chatbots are now smarter than ever and will get even sharper over time through multiple interactions with clients.
How do chatbots offer competitive advantage to call centers?
- An employee who never gets tired and never sleeps
After a long day at work customers might find after hours the best time to solve their pending issues with call centers. Having employees present around the clock to cater to their needs is expensive and tiresome. The staff might be limited during those times and productivity can be low. With an automated chatbot, you have the ability to be responsive to clients around the clock catering to all their needs
- The valuable insights you can gather through the interaction with the chatbot
In addition to being able to interact interactively with your users and answer their questions, chatbots and even better, conversational robots, take note of what is wrong, for a better customer experience with each conversation for instance:
What are the most frequently asked questions? What are the company’s weaknesses? What are the complaints most often requested by customers, etc. All of this information is instantly gathered by the robot and presented in reports that can identify and present valuable information for different departments on how to optimize their operations, or how to better respond and satisfy customers in the next conversation.
- Consistency in answers
With a chatbot customized only to the call center of your company, you can count on the robot as an internal employee that knows nothing but your company’s operations and the best way to answer the client with the right information. Unlike other chatbots, the ‘Olivia’ robot developed by Innovention is not connected to the internet and is developed using an advanced self-sufficient technology that relies on machine learning.
- Rapidly adapts to business needs
Last minute campaign promotion or closure? All of this information can be directly integrated without the need to communicate through different channels for employees to receive the information. The chatbot can also act as an official representative of the company answering questions internally to different employees.
- Adaptable to different touch points
Nowadays clients are connected not only on a brand’s website but also on its different social touch points. A chatbot has the ability to integrate into all of those touch points giving the brand the opportunity of communicating with its clients anywhere and at any time.
The new reality we are facing in the world will change the facets of many industries and the need for true information is now more important than ever (not mentioning the danger of fake news to be aware of). Chatbots are a determining factor here to assist in this overwhelming period bringing in the expertise of a technology made for optimizing employee performance and the business as a whole. With the implementation of chatbots and more specifically conversational robots, you enter the age of AI, and therefore become more competitive and efficient by combining the power of the best of both worlds. These two worlds are the ability of humans to create and innovate combined with the ability of robots to perform repetitive tasks and deliver accurate, up-to-date information quickly and efficiently.