how the chatbot is one of the most powerful up-and-coming tool

In a typical contact center scenario, an agent requests a customer to wait for an issue resolution. Any slight delay or a short-of-best response, and the customer may look elsewhere to solve the problem. Even switch over to a competitor. As businesses push to reduce inefficiencies and costs, automation and other artificial intelligence (AI) programs are gaining prominence. And contact centers of the future may look beyond human agents to handle simple customer queries to provide better resolutions

Will chatbots be the answer to provide better customer care in the future? Which human tasks can chatbots perform diligently, and can they perform complex tasks hitherto managed by humans? The jury is out on that. But the bigger question is, do we see a model of coexistence emerge in the future where the agent and the bot complement each other's value proposition? In my assessment, this situation would be both scary and bright. Scary because it will demand an overhaul of the workplace. Bright as it will create a new niche agent work model.

Engage enterprises and customers in real time conversations

 

The Case for Chatbots

When chatbots were first introduced around 1966, they were programmed to respond to a user's questions with simple matching patterns. Today, they possess sophisticated techniques to understand users' questions and deliver useful and relevant responses. For a chatbot, time is never a constraint. If a customer calls even at midnight for an issue resolution, the chatbot is at his service. If the customer is dissatisfied with the resolution and wants a longer conversation, the bot can still handle it.

With businesses looking at reducing hiring and recruitment costs, chatbots can provide significant cost savings by replacing live agents at lower costs. For businesses, good customer service equals brand success. By using chatbots for instant response - even if it is just a plain "thank you" - and providing appropriate timelines for resolution, businesses earn customer goodwill. Chatbots may be contact centers' answer to the fundamental question: How do you delight customers without losing the human touch.

Chatbots assist businesses by providing real-time, accurate responses to low-complexity customer queries, which largely revolve around non-functional product, warranty expiration, etc. Since time is of the essence, chatbots can bypass dependency on repair personnel and directly provide responses to customers and save precious time. Also, customer information is stored in the organizational database, making it easier for chatbots to dig out previous instances of customer problems and offer speedy resolution.

The Future of Chatbots

A study says nearly 80% of companies have used or plan to use chatbots by 2020. As AI marches, chatbots will move beyond customer service roles. But on the larger question whether they can fully replace human agents, the answer is no! They can be enhancements to the existing customer service processes. They can be deployed for basic, routine, and mundane tasks, freeing agents for complex processes. In the customer service business, chatbots will result in reduced holding times.

Marketing, sales, research, lead generation are some areas where chatbots can be deployed. Contact centers that handle healthcare clients can use chatbots to expedite consultation-related paperwork and save time on administrative tasks. In finance, streamlining of cumbersome processes can be relegated to chatbots. Chatbots in retail and e-commerce businesses can be used to provide personalized shopping experience to customers and assist them in making logical decisions during shopping.

We do see a future where businesses will integrate chatbots in many operations. Their use will help contact centers to reduce operational costs and improve process efficiencies. Chatbots will not replace intelligent human operations, but they will surely complement and assist human agents in delivering superior customer service. The art of crystal-gazing is fraught with risks, but chatbots are here to stay!

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