Advancing the Human Connection with Artificial Intelligence in Call Centers
By Josh Feast, Co-Founder & CEO of Cogito
In the dynamic customer service landscape, call center leaders should recognize artificial intelligence (AI) as a vital resource poised to bolster their business objectives. Customer service agents are expected to maintain high professionalism when dealing with customers. To enhance their ability to perform effectively, they increasingly see AI as a helpful tool and a collaborative partner. At the same time, a recent Cogito survey finds that nearly half (46%) of consumers prefer to speak to an actual human during customer service interactions but feel comfortable if the agent uses AI in the background to improve the experience. Forward-thinking organizations must understand the value of optimizing it to advance the technological side of service and facilitate human-to-human interaction. Not doing so could disrupt and even diminish future growth.
By placing human agents at the forefront of customer interactions while AI operates behind the scenes, we can empower agents to enhance customer conversations by leveraging real-time, contextually appropriate AI cues.
For example, AI can analyze voice signals, words, and phrases to provide real-time Emotion AI cues to help agents consider the customers' perspective to foster deeper connections. Additionally, Conversation AI cues enhance workflow adherence, simplifying procedures for more effective interactions. Through intelligent recommendations, the agent can pull what the conversation needs, such as tailored customer information, product knowledge, or even ways to capitalize on cross-sell or upsell opportunities. AI cues are delivered in real-time and at scale, ensuring agents feel confident handling the evolving complexity of customer conversations.
Doing so improves efficiency, enhances accuracy, and allows for more meaningful agent/client engagement. This elevates customer (CX) and employee experiences (EX), leading to a higher rate of first-call resolutions and reduced agent turnover, ultimately increasing the business' bottom line.
So, how can call centers effectively balance and advance the human/client connection with AI? Let's consider the five fundamental approaches to making this synergy possible.
Provide Thorough Training
The various AI cues derived from customer behaviors and interactions enhance CX and strengthen agents for upskilling and ongoing training. Human agents should receive comprehensive training to utilize and collaborate with AI tools effectively. Doing so optimizes their workflow adherence and leads to better call outcomes; it also mitigates the risk of agent burnout, fatigue, and turnover, fostering a more resilient and engaged workforce.
Empower Employees
Although AI tools excel at handling routine inquiries and enabling contact centers to operate more efficiently with fewer human agents, this shift towards automation should not overshadow the importance of human expertise. AI's real-time guidance solutions should be leveraged to empower agents to handle evolving scenarios, allowing them to specialize in complex tasks such as handling escalations and sales. Effectively balancing the human connection involves AI playing a pivotal role in supporting employees and supervisors, enabling them to provide deep guidance and achieve larger goals, ultimately achieving job satisfaction and motivation to grow even further.
Personalize the Service
AI can be used to analyze customer data and personalize interactions based on individual preferences, history, and behavior. Human agents can leverage this information to better connect with customers by providing relevant information and recommendations tailored to their needs. This benefits the enterprise and enhances the agent's confidence and enjoyment in solving customer queries and concerns, thereby contributing to a positive customer-centric culture where AI and humans work together.
Prioritize Ethical Considerations
The matter of ethics is a hot debate in AI, given its limited data sets by which it determines information that can be incomplete, biased, and unfair. Leaders need to consider ethical considerations when implementing AI in call centers, such as data privacy, fairness, and accountability. They must ensure that AI systems are designed and deployed responsibly to avoid bias and uphold customer trust. This isn't a quick fix and will require time and effort to update the existing data sets. Human agents can play a meaningful role in filling the gaps, providing sociocultural insights that AI does not capture, and providing human understanding to monitor and train models and determine if certain threats are really a problem. In doing so, they can help advance the ethical compass by which AI is led in call centers and balance out the perspectives by which it operates.
Keep an Open Communication Channel
Many are coining the term "human-in-the-loop of AI." In other words, redefining interactive systems where humans step in where automation can't, allowing each to work in conjunction with the other and creates a continuous feedback loop. Human-in-the-loop can be used for deep learning AI projects involving transcription and natural language processing (NLP), and for AI content moderation, human agents can review the content flagged by AI and confirm its accuracy, elevating the technology's algorithm for decision-making. With a continuous feedback loop, humans can ensure AI accuracy and reduce bias, while AI can increase efficiency and better evaluate data. There should also be transparency with customers about how AI is using their data. Human agents reassuring that customer inquiries are being handled by a familiar figure efficiently and securely will go a long way in establishing customer trust and elevating CX.
The Power of Striking a Balance
Balancing and advancing human connection with AI in call centers is crucial for providing excellent customer service while also optimizing efficiency and scalability. By striking the right balance between human connection and AI, call centers can deliver exceptional customer experiences that combine the efficiency of automation with the empathy and problem-solving skills of human agents. Not doing so risks the loyalty and trust of your customer base, ultimately impacting your business's future.
About the Author
Josh Feast is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cogito. He is a serial entrepreneur and thought leader with a passion for creating innovative technology that helps people live more productive lives. Josh has more than a decade of experience as a senior executive and is regularly quoted in Forbes, Fortune, and The Wall Street Journal.
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