It should go without saying that when a customer calls a contact centre they’re confident they’ll receive all the information they need, quickly and efficiently. However, most people seem to dread these interactions and, for one reason or another, contact centres have gained a bad reputation. With advancing technologies and a greater focus on motivating and empowering agents, however, contact centres are experiencing a renaissance. Neil Titcomb, Managing Director at Odigo UKI, a leading Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) provider, explains one of the game-changing technologies being implemented in modern contact centres.
Whether it’s a time-pressed customer or a busy contact centre agent, efficiency in customer relations is crucial. This means streamlined communication that gets the results needed in a smooth and timely manner. Exactly the sort of service the outdated automated systems cannot provide. Indeed, anyone using these is likely to find themselves on the back foot.
Times, however, are changing. Innovative technologies are ushering in a new era for the contact centre and changing forever the delivery of information. Developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have improved and diversified the customer experience (CX) organisations can offer. One of the most promising new technologies is speech-to-text recognition.
Perhaps known to many as a simple smartphone gizmo, the application of speech-to-text solutions in contact centres has begun to reshape customer experience across sectors. The solutions offer a tailored approach for each customer, helping solve their queries faster. By implementing speech-to-text solutions, organisations across all sectors can improve customer relations and excel where automated contact centres fall short.
How is AI speech-to-text technology different?
AI-powered speech-to-text technology can transform customer experience and provide an all-round better solution. Not only is it a more cost-effective option for organisations, but it allows them to provide a more tailored, ‘human’ customer experience that moves away from the rigid, automated systems of the past.
Major improvements in conversational AI and natural language processing (NLP) mean that customers can now use everyday language to explain what they’re looking for, thanks to better speech recognition capabilities. By analysing customer voice data, NLP can accurately interpret and understand a customer’s intent, before producing a tailored, targeted and natural response.
The process works in a variety of stages. The first stage is speech recognition; here, the bot simply recognises the customer’s command or query and converts it into text format ready for the interpretation stage. This next stage involves natural language understanding (NLU). This is when the technology interprets the transcribed customer intent and draws on data to produce a personalised response. Finally, the text response produced is converted into speech and relayed back to the customer, offering a more efficient, accurate and life-like response to their query.
Why previous systems don’t work
In comparison, automated contact centres often rely on interactive voice response (IVR) systems, which are commanded via the customer’s keypad and require several touchpoints before an agent is reached. This can cause frustration for the customer and is time-consuming, and even sometimes results in them reaching the wrong department.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, IVRs can trigger negative emotions among customers. Frustration, stress and anger often result in callers hanging up even before having their query answered. Most negativity towards IVRs comes from a few of their key characteristics, including the lack of relevant options for complex queries, too many menu options and the length of time it takes for callers to reach human agents.
However, organisations must realise that this is more than an inconvenience for the customer. The effect of insufficient contact centre systems can have a profound impact on an organisations’ reputation. Customer service is business-critical and a customer’s experience is often passed along via word of mouth and social media – anything negative will likely be front of mind. For many potential customers, this would encourage them to turn to a more ‘helpful’ competitor.
In addition to its impact on brand loyalty, IVRs also fail to cut costs for contact centres. Customers often look for the quickest way to bypass these systems and in doing so, cause a spike in the internal transfer rate, costing time and money for the business.
It’s clear that IVRs, once state-of-the-art, is no longer enough for the modern customer or business, which is why smarter, more agile solutions are needed.
Looking ahead
AI-powered speech-to-text technology is driving a revolution in customer experience. Not only is the technology benefitting the bottom line of organisations across sectors, but it is also improving brand perception among customers by ensuring positive customer experiences.
The recent pandemic has proved how quickly customer expectations can change- it is vital organisations act now to ensure their customer service offerings are effective, accurate and fit for service.
