Transforming Contact Centres with AI: A New Era

As customer contact centres in the wealth industry grapple with numerous obstacles, service providers are asking how they can enhance AI to support work in contact centres and how can AI be harnessed for future digital transformation in the sector?

Current Customer Contact Centre Challenges

Speaking with Simplify Consulting’s Chief of Staff, Matt Short (formally the head of a Call Centre in a large UK wealth provider), he highlighted the key issues currently facing contact centres are low customer satisfaction, high staff turnover and capacity planning difficulties. Tackling these areas are an immediate challenge as currently customers feel frustrated with call wait times, and they are unhappy about the quality of information they receive – often due to inadequate staff training. Even worse, they are often bounced from department to department as issues are not resolved in a timely manner.

High attrition rates are an ongoing problem for the industry. Staff turnover since Covid has increased to 42%, and in some instances to 58% ¹. Managers must reconcile inbound calls and staff rotas to ensure key call centre metrics, such as customer satisfaction rates, Average Handling Times (AHT) and abandonment rates.

Application of AI in Contact Centres

Considering the hurdles faced by contact centres, there is significant potential for AI to assist in executing changes smoothly without causing substantial interruptions to customer service. Voice communication is vital for contact centre effectiveness, therefore AI aims to enhance, not replace this. Here are some primary applications and solutions that AI can provide to address these challenges:

• AI-Powered Recommendations is an innovative new tool designed to assist a call handlers that will revolutionise the way calls are handled by providing support and guidance at every step. It will analyse the call in real time, highlighting any relevant data and providing contextual AI nudges based on an understanding of the call. The prediction is that this tool can lower AHT’s by almost 40% and reduce call handler errors by as much as 70%. Companies implementing this can experience a reduction in repeat calls and overall improvements in the customer’s experience.

• Predictive Call Routing (PCR) has become more sophisticated. Instead of just routing the inbound call to a specific team or department, it can single out handlers who are best able to take the call. This means supporting the customer based on skill set or personality, rather than just the ‘next available representative’. This allows for a more personalised service to be provided to the customer, leading to an improved consumer journey, making them feel valued and increasing brand loyalty.

• Call Transcriptions are an effective way to collect data that both adds to the customer’s information and gives a more personalised experience. In addition, they can be used as a training resource for new staff and can help bring down attrition.

• Customer Verification has been effectively trialled by numerous UK banks and wealth management providers over recent years, enabling full AI customer verification by speech, rather than the usual line of questions.

• Emotional Intelligence AI can now assist call handlers by assessing sentiment and empathy in a call, and as a result it can deliver real-time results. By understanding customers’ emotions/vulnerabilities, it can help the handler by suggesting appropriate responses. This has the potential to increase productivity, highlight customer complaints prior to being raised and improve overall customer satisfaction.

Combining these AI tools in contact centre environments has several positive effects, including enhanced efficiency through the automation of manual tasks and assistance with basic customer inquiries. But there are also risks and challenges. One is the ethical considerations of customer privacy and data protection, but perhaps the biggest challenge is that AI lacks the human touch.  Without it, customers can be easily frustrated.

Looking forward, perhaps a re-balance is needed so that humans spend less time on menial tasks, such as changing a client address or bank details, and more time on those roles where a human voice is essential.? Equally, what if customers were given a choice: AI or human, with respective wait times made clear?

What Are The AI Possibilities?

In a blue sky, utopian future, what might be possible for AI, and how could it be applied to contact centres? Here are a few options:

• Staff Management: AI can help in planning and rotating staff with relevant skill sets to ensure necessary coverage for calls. It can identify external factors that might affect call volumes, such as news coverage, and alert team managers while also suggesting a resource plan.

• Summarising and Analysing Calls: AI can retrospectively review and summarise calls en masse. For example, if a product change has occurred and a large number of letters have been issued, AI could identify calls related to that mailing based on the conversation transcripts. It could also understand why the mailing generated a call and help improve mass communication.

Currently, 31% of customers perceive AI to have a negative impact on service quality according to data from the UK Call Centre Management Association. To address this and to realise AI’s benefits, there must be recognition that its fundamental purpose is to enhance human interactions, not replace them. As work practises evolve to allow for a more personalised customer experience, AI might provide convenience by effectively offering customers a one stop shop to complete requests.

These tangible benefits are designed to counteract the challenges currently faced by contact centres within the industry and are certainly within our grasp within the near future.