In the first of a series of articles exploring how CX in the customer service and enterprise messaging world is evolving, Tata Communications explains how current trends from AI to big data to greater adoption of cloud and self-service tools are impacting on the market’s development.
“We’re in a different world for CX that now encompasses live-assist, human-assisted bots, virtual digital assistants and multiple channels for customers to choose from,” says Karan Batra, the Senior Manager for Product and Proposition Marketing at Tata Communications.
“CX has evolved away from exclusive using live agents on phones and now encompasses an omni-channel environment in which customers choose how and when they communicate. Enterprises are moving to address this need by harnessing the power of new technology enablers”
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Karan Batra[/caption]
This evolution is being powered by the coming together of different technologies to enable richer, more flexible CX . Artificial intelligence (AI) is being utilised to save time, increase efficiency and ensure experiences are consistent, regardless of the channel utilised. A recent study has highlighted that businesses plan to increase their investments in in-app chat-bot technology by 48%, in employee helpdesk technology by 42% and in interactive voice response (IVR) technology by 40%. Call centres are deriving benefits from data-driven insights, increasing productivity by 59.9% and resulting in 36.2% better decision making.
“At the same time, the move from legacy infrastructure to cloud-based apps is resulting in reduced opex, zero capex and improved agent productivity,” adds Batra. “The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has also seen a huge increase in utilisation of self-service technology such as IVR, which has seen 33% of companies adopt IVR for the first time and 42% of companies increase their existing usage of IVR.”
Improvements from the increasing use of AI with human call centre agents have been estimated to result in a 69% improvement in agent satisfaction, a 68% increase in operational efficiency, 66% better agent productivity and a 61% uplift in customer satisfaction.
Open programmable application programme interfaces (APIs) are also driving improved customer experiences and better return on investment on CX tools. Such APIs enable organisations to plug in technical capabilities that were previously impossible to implement. These encompass click-to-call capabilities and data processing that have wider benefits to digital transformation efforts, among many others.
