It’s clear the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to adapt like never before, with research showing the crisis accelerated the digitalisation of customer interactions by several years (McKinsey survey, October 2020). But at a time when there’s more pressure on businesses to streamline activities and increase productivity, customer satisfaction is more important than ever.
That’s where artificial intelligence comes in. There’s an underlying attitude that AI is only for businesses at a certain scale, with enterprise use of AI growing 270 per cent over the past four years (Gartner, 2019).
However, when it comes to customer engagement, business size doesn’t matter. In this article we explain how, with software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, AI implementation can revolutionise the way you do business with your customers.
Personalisation comes first
Incorporating AI innovations into any customer engagement set-up allows you to offer more tailored communications, and in turn solutions, for current and future customers.
For any inbound interaction, AI-driven intelligent routing can immediately assign the enquiry to the most suitable team member. This can be based on the call purpose, or additional criteria generated and recorded from previous contacts. The end result is minimised wasted time for the agent and customer alike, and higher levels of customer satisfaction.
AI chat bots can also keep your comms one step ahead of your customer at all times. If a potential customer has repeatedly checked one of your products online, chatbots can generate conversations based on this browsing history, supporting the sales journey without any action needed from a contact centre team – a clear win for business.
Increased quality means rocketing results
Automatic sentiment analysis – which facilitates live monitoring and rating of calls – is vital in gaining a holistic view of customer communications. Without AI, call monitoring and marking can fall on the backburner as it’s a time-intensive manual task. Through sentiment analysis, time can be freed up for team members to do what matters most – outreach, sales and customer support.
Gamify is also a game changer when it comes to employee engagement. Contact centres are fast-paced, high-pressure environments, where incentivisation is key to maximise morale and team performance. AI-driven gamification software turns the stick into the carrot, motivating staff to perform at their best through fun, engaging activities. One of our global clients was even able to boost their productivity by 233% after adopting gamification, driving over £1 billion of revenue.
Real-time data for decision-making
AI can streamline all decision-making. For example, automated keyword extraction of spoken and written queries can generate live recommendations while an agent is managing a ticket. By tracking customer emotions, or frequency of word use, agents can adapt their engagement tactics to better handle the situation based on this analysis and insight, helping increase resolution rates and creating an essential positive experience.
The data-rich information can also support businesses in dealing with unpredictable events. By tracking behavioural patterns of customers during transactions, AI can identify those at risk of leaving, and signal the need for action to retain them. It can also quickly identify unforeseen events – for example a spike in call volume referencing an outage or complaint – alerting teams to address a problem that might otherwise have gone undetected before spiralling out of control.
It’s time to act
Artificial intelligence implementation sounds daunting, but it shouldn’t. Ultimately, through AI-powered initiatives, your business can revolutionise the way you manage inbound and outbound enquiries, as well positively influencing productivity, staff retention and the bottom line.
Through Connex’s powerful next-gen technology, we arm businesses with the capability companies need to thrive when it comes to AI-driven customer engagement. For more information and to set-up a free demo of our platform, click here.
