Call Center Management Featured Article
Keeping People Front and Center in Call Center Digital Transformation
Companies today are striving for “digital transformation.” It’s a buzzword-friendly way of reworking their technology infrastructure to reflect today’s digital-first processes, so that companies are getting the most out of their IT investments when it comes to saving manpower, effort and money. Digital transformation embraces a number of technologies, including machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), mobility, and cloud computing. In the world of the contact center, these technologies often present themselves as automated customer support solutions such as chatbots and cobots, which free up agents and call center management to do more creative or higher levels of work.
It’s important to remember, however, that most organizations are primarily made of people, and people can’t be “digitally transformed.” They can, however, be trained and encouraged to engaged in digital best practices. They can also be heavily assisted by digital technology.
A recently released Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) report entitled, “Why People Must be a Critical Aspect of Digital Transformation” reminds companies not to forget what the first word in the catch-phrase “people, processes, and technologies” is. These technologies, when used correctly by humans, have the power to improve both the customer experience (CX) and the employee experience (EX), but only if the human-bot relationships exists in harmony.
While automation through self-help platforms and chatbots can help customers solve simpler tasks on their own, these technologies are unable to replicate human contributions to customer support such as problem-solving, intuition, and empathy. In difficult customer support settings where more in-depth help or reassurance is required, or the customer’s problem falls outside standard process, only a human will do. So before your call center management ventures into AI-driven customer support, be sure that it’s implemented to be complementary to human interactions rather than try to replace them.
Not even the most advanced chatbot can provide the complex thinking, empathy, reassurance, and problem-solving ability of a well-trained contact center agent. When you’re thinking of implementing “digital transformation,” focus on the place where technology meets your human workers, and ensure that you’re complementing your customer service efforts, and not complicating them.
Edited by Maurice Nagle