In the past 12 months we have seen rapid acceleration of automation and AI solutions. However, when it comes down to dealing with customers, human relationships still have their place.

We are all customers and there are times when we just want to get something done quickly. In banking terms that may be a balance or transaction check, give me the information that I need fast and simple. It could be a renewal of your insurance or to check where an order is.

But what if the balance isn’t what you expected or you have a duplicate transaction? The renewal price has changed dramatically, or the order isn’t arriving today after all, and you’ve taken a holiday day to wait for it? Well, you probably want to speak with someone, you want understanding and empathy. Another human to say to you it has all been sorted and there is nothing to worry about, to apologise – and mean it.

So, it is likely there will always be some form of need for human intervention in the process.

People determine the processes 

AIAI can determine when a customer is likely to need to make contact based on analysis of various data points and the creation of insights. It can run tasks/journeys to make proactive contacts at the right times based on customer lifecycles.

However, it has not reached the point of autonomy yet where it can decide what the CX should look like, it can give the tools but you still need to direct the effort, so people remain key.

Are your automation objectives aligned?

 Few outsource providers have the technology inhouse to satisfy the needs of their clients directly, few clients have the experience to implement AI themselves. As an outsource community of CX specialists you have the opportunity to shape the service delivered and the enable your clients to deliver better outcomes for their customers, differentiate their brand and help them either grow their business or reduce costs.

There is no point putting your head in the sand; this change is here, it is happening now. To say “it’s coming and we will get to it” is too little, too late.

The best thing that you can do is ensure that you have the right partners to enable you to deliver the changes that your client needs and the right commercial agreement with your client to ensure that your business is sustainable.

“If you aren’t talking to your clients about AI and automation someone else will be.”

Those who simply try to protect their headcount will find that they are on the losing side when it comes to contract renewal. Don’t wait until renewal comes along to talk to clients about innovation and cost saving, they will see straight through this!  

There are benefits to automation that can support your business

We have seen massive change through homeworking during the pandemic, increased attrition, increased salary costs due to inflation and pressure on clients to manage costs as a result of reduced customer spend due to a hardening economy.

We have seen increasing amounts of work being placed offshore, however there remains the risk that other labour markets become increasingly competitive and then costs will start to rise again.

Customers expect automation for certain tasks, they crave it, so you need to be able to provide solutions for your clients.

“Choosing the right technical partner could be critical to your future success”

As a business you need to ensure that you have:

Remember you get out what you put in. Be sure to properly resource any implementation project, scope realistically, ensure you have a clear business case, deliverables, testing and sign off processes, choosing the right solutions is only half of the story.

Want to know more?

Join Us for our webinar on September 14th, when we will be discussing in more detail the opportunity that AI offers to the outsource community. 

We’re all told that necessity is the mother of invention, but today it’s probably equally true to say that headcount reduction commitments are the mother of innovation.

Over the past couple of weeks, both BT and Vodafone have announced plans for massive job cuts – 10% of the workforce for Vodafone and a whopping 40% (55,000 jobs) for BT. These cuts will take place over years, not months, and many will be on the back of natural attrition, will include the non-retention of contractors and will no doubt be eased by some attractive voluntary redundancy terms.

It won’t come as a bit surprise that both the firms themselves and the media has made much of claims that the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and techniques will be a big enabler of falls in headcount. For some, this has been a very positive illustration of the game-changing benefits AI can bring. For others, it’s a chilling harbinger of an AI-driven jobs cull.

There’s no part of the economy in which the mass adoption of AI won’t have massive potential impacts and even the true AI experts don’t pretend to know what these impacts might be; what roles and processes will be changed, upended – or just ended.

The contact centre world is far from unique in the impact that new technologies has and will have on people, but it’s way ahead most because so many AI solutions (or solutions that claim to use AI) have been deployed in the customer service and customer experience world. Bots – whether they rely on defined logical rules or have genuine AI, self-learning capabilities – have already had a massive impact on contact centres and their customers. Ultimately, the applications of AI techniques and insights in contact centres will go far wider than assisting and automating interactions with customers, but for many struggling centres they can be a great start. When applied correctly.

One of the real world examples that has contributed to the recent – understandable – clamour of concern and excitement over the impact of AI on work and jobs comes from Octopus CEO, Greg Jackson. He has gleefully revealed that that AI solutions are saving the work of 250 customer service advisors, while delivering better quality scores than humans (though head to LinkedIn and you’ll find that not all customers agree).

Ofgem figures have revealed that energy customer contact volumes have increased up to 300% through the energy price crisis. So Octopus – like all energy providers – will have had a compelling reason to seize the benefits of technology, especially in customer service.

What is maybe of note, though, is that Octopus has started with the automation of emails. A relatively low-risk, text-based, asynchronous communication channel. To do so is sensible and shows a degree of understandable caution, allowing a controlled roll-out of new technology through which quality and customer impacts can be monitored and assessed. No doubt if the achievements Mr Jackson describes are sustained then Octopus will embrace AI still further, but it seems to be doing so in the way you would hope it would any new solution; in a managed and measured way.

We’re all told that necessity is the mother of invention, but today it’s probably equally true to say that headcount reduction commitments are the mother of innovation. If you want to see an organisation rapidly seeking the productivity benefits promised by AI, then find one whose executive team has already committed to reduce headcount. Then the real organisational challenge is how they go about realising those opportunities.

The profound business and employment changes that BT and Vodafone anticipate over the next few years will obviously stretch far beyond customer service and bots. But, at its best, the contact centre world can potentially prove a useful example of how AI can be implemented in a measured, balanced way – ideally with customers and colleagues at the centre of use cases and decision making.