AI has the potential to completely transform the way companies offer support. At the forefront of this trend, AI call centers use a combination of practical and generative AI and automation to streamline their support.
But agents are still a crucial part of the process. Sometimes customers have more complicated issues, and a human-led support experience can make all the difference.
However, increased demand on call centers has made agent retention an urgent challenge. Take a look at these stats from McKinsey:
- 61% of CX leaders have reported an increase in calls to their teams, and 58% expect call volumes to increase even more over the next 18 months.
- Even worse, talent is hard to retain. Almost 50% report increased employee attrition over the past year.
- And it’s time-consuming to train new staff. 41% of leaders say it takes at least 3-6 months to fully train a new employee, while another 20% say it takes longer than 6 months.
To scale their support, service more customers, and reduce expenses, call centers need engaged, empowered agents.
And AI offers the perfect solution.
How can AI improve agent experience?
Using a combination of practical and generative AI, plus robotic process automation, new AI call center solutions can:
- Provide agents with the essential information they need
- Accelerate issue resolution
- Deflect calls and decrease distractions
Ultimately, AI can help businesses empower their agents with more information, while decreasing the amount of repetitive or low-level inquiries they have to handle. Agents then have more bandwidth to focus on higher-level issues, which they’re able to solve faster and more accurately.
So how do AI call center solutions work? Let’s dive in.
#1: Provide Agents with Essential Information
It’s difficult to offer effective support if agents can’t access information about the customer they’re serving.
But the vast majority of customers expect the people who help them to be informed: 71% of B2C and 86% of B2B think support teams should know their personal information and needs during an interaction.
AI call centers can keep your agents informed and cut down on customer tracking chaos. CRMs that provide a total picture of customer interactions, across channels, are essential.
For instance, if a customer first seeks help from a self-service chatbot, and then reaches out to an agent, that agent should be able to access their chat history.
Beyond customer information, agents should be able to quickly access answers to customer issues, either by storing that knowledge or using their own internal chatbot to pull up documents, records, and other information.
Fully-integrated CRMs and internal wikis ensure agents aren’t flying blind, and create better cross-channel experiences for customers.
#2: Accelerate Issue Resolution
Customer issues happen. With rising expectations, it’s more important than ever that resolutions are well-handled.
AI call center tools like helpdesks are essential to improving customer experiences. Tools that can filter, organize, and even independently respond to inbound inquiries make work easier for agents, and solve customer issues faster too.
Here’s how tools like Capacity help agents with issue resolution:
- An AI Toolkit suggests and improves responses for agents, pulling directly from your organization’s knowledge base.
- Integrations keep workflows, well, flowing. Our 200+ secure, robust integrations enhance systems you already use, like Salesforce.
- Broadcasts ensure agents have the latest, most accurate knowledge to resolve issues.
To make your helpdesk more efficient for agents, and more helpful for customers, businesses should invest in AI call center tools that prioritize smart helpdesks.
#3: Deflect Calls and Decrease Distractions
Not only is it boring to answer the same question, 50 times a day—it’s a waste of time.
Agents can’t focus on more complicated or urgent customer issues when they have to spend valuable time answering low-level, repetitive inquiries.
To help maximize agents’ time, AI call centers have developed tools that can deflect tickets and emails before they even reach agents. Chatbots play a major role, but now so does generative AI.
For example, Capacity’s Autopilot can independently answer repetitive questions on behalf of agents, before they ever see them. The generative AI pulls the answer directly from your company’s existing knowledge, ensuring it’s accurate.
Autopilot speeds up the support process, ensuring customers get quick resolutions. And since agents no longer need to spend time on easily answered questions, they can focus on complex work that drives back more value.
Want to explore AI for your team?
Top-notch agent assistance increases employee retention while creating an ideal customer experience. Leveraging an AI call center means support teams can scale their operations and boost their company’s bottom line.
Want more insights on how AI can help you offer faster support? Read our guidebook, The Future of AI for Contact Centers, for tips on deflecting tickets, empowering agents, and transforming your Contact Center into a true revenue driver.
The Future of AI for Contact Centers
Discover:
- The different types of AI
- A framework for applying support automation
- Tips for choosing solutions