If you’re searching for a way to optimize the efficiency and output of your call center, automation should be a key part of your strategy. As mentioned in Forbes, companies count on automation technologies such as AI to increase productivity by a staggering 67 per cent.
Automation is becoming the norm and the key to maximize your resources, cut running costs while increasing your customer satisfaction, this is the case, especially for 24/7 call centers that need to be responsive and available.
Not sure where to start? Let’s take a look at call center automation, how it works and the benefits it can bring to your business.
So, what is call center automation?
Call center automation essentially means the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and the use of various software to complete time-consuming tasks and processes that would have previously been carried out by humans, in an effort to improve business efficiency and reach annual company goals.
It’s possible that more mundane and repetitive tasks can be completed by automation, while human employees are redirected to more complex tasks appropriate for their skills.
There are many types of automation that can assist you with tasks and with streamlining workflows. Automation can also help to enhance the call center customer experience by offering more self-service options, for example with the use of conversational AI chatbots.
With a wide range of automation tools and techniques available for use in call centers, you can increase efficiency across multiple workflows with the use of software for call routing and auto-dialing systems.
Why is automation important?
Call center automation can help streamline existing workflows and processes and can become an important addition to traditional call center operations.
It can enable employees, and the business as a whole, to save time and resources.
Automation can also help a business keep pace with customer needs and expectations. You don’t need to be tentative about your business embracing this technology as part of its customer service; an amazing 88% of customers claim that they already expect automated self-service when visiting an ecommerce website.
Current predictions suggest that AI will be able to effectively automate 95% of all customer interactions by the year 2025. Investing in automation, and making it part of your company’s plan for the future, will be crucial to making sure that your business stays in line with your competition.
Customer service is embarking on a new world of responsive, intelligent interactions and representatives equipped with the best resources possible to allow them to do their jobs effectively and enjoy their role.
Types of call center automation
There are several different types of call center automation that can cover different areas of your business, providing enhanced processes and workflows across multiple departments.
Voice Call Automation
Voice call automation can be a great self-service tool that can reduce waiting times. Voice bots that respond to natural language can be a great asset and allow for more intuitive customer experiences while increasing First Call Resolution rates.
Call scheduling
This enables you to line up calls with customers based on a specific, pre-defined reason. For example, if a customer is eager to buy a product, or requests a callback, you can automatically schedule the call and address their needs. This saves time on manually booking calls and prioritising contacts.
Chat automation
Chatbot automated conversations powered by AI cost less than your typical support channels and can improve your resolution rates by 90 per cent boosting your NPS rate. Acting as virtual agents, chatbots that use AI learn over time and are capable of analyzing conversation data allowing you to identify opportunities.
Workflow automation
Tasks that are repetitive and prone to human error - including data entry and sending emails - can be performed by artificial intelligence. A good example is using software to enter customer data into the company’s CRM database. This will streamline your workflow and free up human agents for complex tasks.
Conversational AI and Large Language Models
LLM is a cutting-edge automation technology and is the future of AI-driven communication. It allows your virtual agents and chat automation tool to scan and condense conversations, help customer service agents fine-tune responses and can even create pre-written messages.
Sales and marketing automation
You can arrange for the automated launch of promotional emails, including welcome messages, upselling emails and follow-ups, to increase conversion rates and boost sales when needed. You can also capture customer information via emails to better inform future marketing campaigns.
Data forecasting
As well as data entry, automation can go a step further by forming data insights and analysis. Greater long-term insights into your customer activity will help your business identify trends and make predictions. This will also help your team sort through the sizeable amount of data that you collect
Virtual queuing automation
You can implement an interactive voice response system, or IVR, to place your customers in a virtual queue once they’ve made a call. Even if the customer hangs up, the IVR system means that their call remains in the queue and your customer service agent can contact them as soon as they’re able to do so.
Call center automation tools and technologies
Certain forms of call center automation are fast becoming a vital part of offering positive customer service and helping businesses run effectively.
As previously seen in the types of automation available - chat automation, voice automation and LLM - AI technology is quickly gaining traction among many companies and is revolutionizing many industries. According to Forbes it has an expected annual growth of 37%.
Self-learning AI tools have the potential to release your human agents from repetitive tasks so they can focus on other revenue-generating activities while helping you maintain a high-quality customer experience.
For example, AI-powered virtual agents can automate interactions at scale and can play a key role in directing customers more effectively. They can also help companies deliver fast response times and even help customer service agents generate more revenue by automatically assigning them upselling opportunities.
These AI-powered automation tools can even integrate with, customer relationship management tools, which means that your support team will have the benefit of a contextual overview of your company’s relationship with a specific customer. Callers can be quickly identified, their interaction history is available, and so they will receive more personalized service from your business.
Other technologies such as automatic call routing is also an effective solution, allowing for more targeted customer queries. Using call distributor software will ensure that a customer’s call is routed to the most relevant department to help with their query, and place to to an agent who is available.
Then there is cloud software, a tech solution that more companies are coming to rely on with the recent growth of remote and hybrid working styles. Cloud-based call centers mean that your representatives can operate from anywhere at any time, allowing you to create cost-effective remote call centers wherever needed in the world. Without a conventional phone operation, your representatives can use digital interactions for greater efficiency and lower maintenance costs.
As previously mentioned, conversational AI chatbots are a great use of automation that many call centers already employ. They can assist with workflow automation, offering consistent customer service like a 24/7 call center and helping customers perform independent, self-service tasks without the need of a human representative.
Chatbots that use large language models are the next step in chatbot technology, helping companies personalize their whole CX experience even more and increase agent response capabilities.
For customers, chatbots represent a valuable first point of contact that is always available and ready to provide support. Helpfully, chatbots can also pass on customers to human agents with the information already provided, meaning that your human agents can pick up the conversation seamlessly.
Benefits of call center automation for your business
Here, we will explore what your company stands to gain from increasing call center automation.
A higher first call resolution rate
Resolving calls on the first interaction is a key metric for good performance in a call center. With the number of customer issues that automation could potentially resolve, your first call resolution rate could receive a major boost quickly.
24/7 customer service
Maintaining a consistent 24/7 call center will take the weight off your representatives and provide great support to your customer base around the clock, no matter where they are.
Smoothing out errors
Completing many mundane, repetitive tasks can easily lead to mistakes by your human representatives. You can increase precision and accuracy, ensure your operations are more efficient and free up your staff for more important, skills-based tasks thanks to automation.
A shift of KPIs and metrics
You will no longer need to focus on ‘operational’ metrics relating to calls made and time spent. You can instead shift to a new culture of outcome-based metrics relating to customer satisfaction and issue resolution, which is a much better indication of customer experience and potential customer loyalty.
Higher employee satisfaction
By eliminating mundane tasks, implementing outcome-based KPIs and increasing productivity, you will help to boost your employee satisfaction as your team frees up time for more sophisticated and satisfying objectives.
Higher customer satisfaction
In a fast-paced and competitive world, customers will turn elsewhere if left unsatisfied by a business. Call center automation meets their needs responsively and quickly, building a connection between the customer and your brand.
Key challenges of call center automation
While automation will play a significant role in the future of call centers, it’s important to acknowledge the technology’s limitations.
Call centers have been established precisely because customers desired human interaction during their customer service experience. A human touch brings empathy and emotion and has a better chance of forming an authentic connection with a customer than an automated tool.
It’s exactly that connection between your brand and the customer that will keep them returning to your business, a necessary part of establishing business success.
Remember that automation is best-used when applied selectively, to support your customer service but not take it over entirely. You must ensure that it’s working effectively and actually cutting wait times and improving performance as intended. As it stands, automation will always require oversight to optimize your call center’s efficiency.
While your automated services can help carry the weight of repetitive and mundane tasks, freeing up your human representatives, automation is currently limited in completing more complex tasks.
Human input should not be underestimated, and in adopting automation, it’s equally important that your business understands its limitations too. It will help you get the best out of your automated services and your human members of staff.
How to integrate automation into your call center
Intelligently implementing automated services to your call center first means identifying which tasks and processes are best suited for automation. This will ensure that your automated solutions are more effective further down the line, with a higher chance of providing genuinely valuable support. When considering this, you should take into account running costs, workflows, the repetitiveness of specific tasks and your customer needs.
Wherever you decide to implement automation, it’s important to choose tools that can seamlessly integrate into your current working system. You might be able to find trials for certain software products, so you can give your employees a free trial to familiarize themselves before purchasing a full package.
Track your progress; once you’ve taken steps to automate certain tasks and processes, monitor your performance metrics to see if there are improvements.
Be open to feedback from your team too. Their input is important, as they will be the ones interacting with the software on a frequent basis. Make sure that you address any training requirements needed so that your staff can use new software to its full potential. Without proper training and the understanding of your staff, it will be a waste of time, effort and resources to implement new methods of automation.
Top providers of call center automation
There is a wide selection of top call center automation solutions available. You may already be familiar with some of them. To help you get started, here are five examples of high-performing, effective solutions and their providers.
Salesforce
This is a powerful cloud-based CRM tool used globally by businesses of all types. Salesforce allows your brand to gain crucial insights into customer data and sales management.
Boost AI
Boost AI is a conversational AI software that is easy to manage and allows you to scale your business. Build advanced virtual agents to automate customer service and internal support channels without requiring any coding. It also integrates with applications such as Slack, Salesforce and Zendesk.
Zendesk
Implement AI support across the whole customer journey with Zendesk. Their solutions are personalized, and powered by OpenAI, with the purpose of providing context and a full set of resources for agents while cutting repetitive tasks.
Qualtrics
If you want a unified, omnichannel view across all aspects of customer experience, the connected system of Qualtrics has this. With automatic issue detection, key customer insights, and more, this is a strong all-round package.
Genesys
You can find smooth cross-channel support with Genesys, a cloud call center solution that isn’t limited by physical restrictions. It provides adaptable software ideal for remote and hybrid-working businesses at scale.
If your business is looking to streamline processes and workflows, enhance the customer service experience and provide critical support to your representatives, automation is waiting in the wings to be utilized.
Call center automation is fast becoming a crucial aspect of customer service and will develop to offer greater sophistication in the years to come. As a means to save time and resources on repetitive tasks, direct focus to skills-based activities, provide 24/7 call center support and boost employee and customer satisfaction, there will never be a better time to invest in automation for your business.