The Future of Contact Centers Is Technology, Amplified by Empathy

Hexaware is a Business Reporter client.

Everyone knows that customers can be extremely demanding. And they are becoming more so; that’s not a big surprise. Unfortunately, customer care is under greater pressure due to cost and staffing constraints.

Many organizations address this issue by focusing on customer service teams. They look for humans to solve the problem while ignoring the absence of tools that customers might use to serve themselves, which would alleviate pressure on customer service teams.

The absence of these tools can lead to customer service agents being put in very difficult positions. Imagine an agent contacted by a frustrated and angry customer, but the agent doesn’t have the information they need to deal with the complaint. They don’t know who the customer is. They don’t know what action they should be taking to best help the customer.

And yet, with the right tools, this information could easily be made available to the agent in the contact center in real time.

Omnichannel customer experience management

Contact centers are a key touchpoint for customers. Most customers use several different channels to engage with a brand—stores, advertising, websites and social media, for example—as well as the contact center itself.

All these channels are important. And certainly, the consumer sees them no differently; they are viewed as part of the same brand experience. That is why organizations need to consider their communication strategies holistically, and to combine all their channels into one experience that reflects one single brand.

The problem is that, historically, many organizations have managed these different communication channels separately. The teams responsible for online self-service have been different from the teams managing the contact centers, for instance.

But because of changed customer expectations, this approach is no longer acceptable. Customers demand a single experience, irrespective of the channel they are using—an omnichannel customer experience. And the technology powering the best contact centers is at the heart of this experience.

Building brands with empathy

Contact centers have always been brand ambassadors. A poorly designed interactive voice response (IVR) journey will be irritating to most customers. Worse, though, a frustrating experience with a contact center agent who does not know who the customer is can be very damaging to a brand. But an agent empowered with calling line identity (CLID) software who welcomes each customer as an individual, and perhaps even predicts why they are calling, can build a powerful connection between brand and customer.

Contact centers need to leverage technology as well as human talent in order to deliver the best outcomes for the business and its customers. Technology can guide individual consumers, helping them solve their problems by themselves or with the support of an automated virtual agent. And where that proves impossible, a human agent, supported by technology that delivers the right information, will be able to advise on the next best action for that customer.

Importantly, contact center agents who have relevant data at their fingertips are able to relax and actively listen to their customers. When someone actively listens to you, they are treating you as an individual. When they acknowledge your feelings, they are showing that they have heard and understood what you are saying. And when they have appropriate data about you, they can be even more empathetic.

Showing empathy is a very powerful way of establishing a connection between two people. When a customer is looking to buy, it is an effective way of closing the deal. When they are expressing unhappiness, it is a potent way of dispelling anger and even generating gratitude.

Enabling empathy through data

To be empathetic, contact center agents need access to data about the person who is calling them so that they can easily and quickly respond to that customer’s situation. If they have this data, then they can be guided toward hyper-personalized results, where their script is specific to the likely customer need, as well as to the organization’s requirements and limitations, such as delivery times.

Automating empathy

In some cases, customers who call a contact center will be best served by being routed through to an automated system. For example, in some situations—when making an insurance claim, for instance—people often prefer speaking to a machine than to a human.

In addition, automated processes can be simpler and more accurate, especially when data, such as an address, must be captured. In these circumstances, routing a caller through to a human only after the relevant data has been input may well be a better experience for both the organization and the customer.

Helping the agent do a better job

By influencing customers to use the most appropriate channel for their requirements (for example, a web form, IVR, chat, SMS, email or voice), those routed to a human contact center agent, either immediately or at an appropriate stage of the transaction, will benefit most from the agent’s time.

With automated call routing, customers can be put through to a customer service agent in the right department, who is able to take appropriate actions without having to refer the customer elsewhere.

With the right tools, agents can be empowered with relevant data about the customer. For example, they can know the caller’s history with the brand and why they called the agent instead of being able to serve themselves. And the agent can be given information on how to best serve that customer and what is likely to please them most.

If the agent is empowered in this way, their experience of serving customers will be enriched; a motivated agent engaged with their role is likely to be far more empathetic and effective than a bored and frustrated one.

The appropriate use of technology will build stronger connections and trust between consumers and the businesses they engage with. This does not mean responding to all customer contacts via the telephone. Instead, organizations should collect data from all channels, generate insight about an individual customer with the assistance of AI, predict their needs and then use that insight to route the customer to the appropriate channel where they can be given the most applicable information.

For those customers best served by an automated process, customer experience will be improved. And when customers need attention from a human agent, providing that agent with the appropriate data will enable them to display far greater empathy, driving customer satisfaction and loyalty—a win-win both for the customer and for the business.

Hexaware works with organizations looking to improve their customer experience or planning to modernize their contact centers, and helps them select the right technology to enable a true omnichannel experience.

_{This article originally appeared on Business Reporter. Image credits: iStock - 1267270697}