Call Center Management Featured Article
The Evolving Role of Chatbots in the Customer Service Realm
Providing superior levels of customer service while maintaining an efficient and productive call center is a challenge for any manager. Increasingly, call center managers are turning to AI and chatbots to automate routine tasks, streamline operations, and assist human agents as they strive to offer omnichannel engagement and exceptional customer interactions.
The use of chatbots in the customer service realm is certainly on the rise. In 2019, more than 67 percent of consumers globally reported using a chat session for customer support. And Gartner (News - Alert) predicts that 47 percent of organizations will use chatbots for customer care during the next two years. One of the biggest technology changes expected for chatbots in the coming year is that they will be able to handle more advanced queries and issues. Predictive analytics will be used to create real-time conversations and contextual interactions with customers, elevating the role of chatbot within the customer service space.
Indeed, chatbots may be expected to provide more human-like customer interactions moving forward. Machine learning and natural language processing, along with AI, will play a major role in building the next generation of chatbot. The result will be the ability to provide personalized customer interactions, delivered through the communications channel of the customer’s choice. And of course, chatbots will bring myriad benefits to the contact center in the form of reduced costs and productivity gains, offering major benefits to managers and human agents, who will be free to handle more challenging tasks.
The next generation of chatbots will go beyond first-line customer service and automation of routine business processes. Advanced chatbots will be capable of monitoring the performance of human agents and coaching them in real time, as well as offering recommendations and critiques to management. They will also heavily rely on contextual interactions to better predict customers’ needs and analyze their behavior, all in an effort to offer better customer service and streamline call center operations.
Chatbots may even be used for the hiring of new employees, analyzing applications and qualifications to pinpoint candidates with the best feature set. Similarly, they can then monitor new and existing employees to ensure their core strengths are being utilized to full advantage.
Global Market Research predicts the worldwide market for chatbots will hit $1.3 billion by 2024, so it’s clear the technology is growing and evolving at a rapid pace. While chatbots have myriad applications across a broad range of vertical markets, the call center is an ideal platform for the technology. Managers are expected to significantly increase its use in the coming year, thanks to the massive cost savings, productivity boosts and efficiency gains enabled by chatbots.
To learn more about the evolution of chatbots and how they will impact the call center and other markets over the coming year, TMC (News - Alert) is hosting a Future of Work Expo in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The event, which is happening February 12-14, 2020, will explore how chatbots, AI and machine learning technologies are being used to transform customer service and communications and are rapidly shaping the future workplace and planet.
Edited by Maurice Nagle