Break Free from Business Lockdown with an AI Virtual Agent
As we all struggle to adjust to the new normal under worldwide COVID-19 lockdowns, digital transformation has never been more critical. Staying home under quarantine with countless hours on Wi-Fi means more consumers than ever are shopping online, outside of traditional working hours. The pressure is now on businesses to boost their level of online support to readily supply information, services or goods. Moreso, with supply shortages and extended delivery times challenging many households, the business that can respond in real time has a clear advantage.
Whether you’re seeing a massive shift to online orders and queries or are seeking ways to adjust your business model to stay relevant during the quarantine, consider how AI technology can help your business cope. You can quickly build and implement a customized Contact Center AI Virtual Agent to handle any new territory.
Before COVID-19, North Yorkshire County Council had implemented a Mitel chatbot solution to offset the volume of calls and web chat requests coming into their internal IT service desk. Mitel’s Google AI-powered Virtual Agent provided digital self-service with intelligent handoff to a human agent—a capability that greatly curbed the volume of routine calls and liberated agents so they could respond more thoroughly to service requests.
When the COVID-19 outbreak hit, the council experienced a surge in customer contact center and service desk requests. The chatbots proved invaluable, enabling the council to field the influx of questions from residents and employees so agents could focus on more tangible actions.
As North Yorkshire County Council discovered, contact center AI can allow 24-7 services to be automated so customers (and constituents) can be tended to. Meanwhile, remote-based human agents can be free to handle more complex cases and provide an enhanced customer experience.
Your digital transformation strategy does not have to mean a significant spend—in fact, with today’s cloud-based technology you can maximize your existing investment. Instead focus on streamlining and enhancing operational processes and systems with specific attention paid to the customer and agent journeys. Consider how you can alleviate the pressure on your agents and reduce stress by leveraging technology. By providing up-to-date information on your website using virtual agent and chat, customers get their questions answered and feel seen and heard.
The impact of COVID-19 on people and businesses, while monumental, is not insurmountable. At 4Sight Communications, we’re primed and ready to help you move forward with confidence, even in uncertain times.
This article was first published by Mitel.
