Meeting the demands of always on, tech-savvy consumers with smart CX technologies and evolving work models

In today's digital age, consumers expect instant access to information, products and services. The rise of smart technology and evolving work models have made it possible for contact center organizations to better meet these demands and provide a seamless customer experience (CX).

This article will explore how contact centers can use smart technology and flexible work models to stay ahead of the curve and meet the needs of digitally connected consumers. From automating processes to remote work and beyond, we will cover the key strategies and technologies that can help businesses thrive in a digital-first world.

Smart CX

The wave of digitization has drastically influenced consumer demands, who expect to be serviced 24/7/365 and engage through their preferred channel with the freedom to seamlessly switch between devices without losing context or relevance. To meet these new demands with agility and accuracy, contact centers must amplify existing capabilities with emerging smart customer engagement technologies.

Integrating smart technology with smart people to deliver smart CX

Leveraging smart technologies in contact centers can empower and augment human agents to deliver more complex, value-add services, effectively transforming them into ‘super agents’. Combining digital-first engagement tools, including artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics with existing customer interaction histories can unlock opportunities to gather and analyze customer data in realtime and elevate CX delivery.

Moreover, AI can create dynamic customer profiles through data integration and real-time analysis, allowing agents to accurately identify and cater to a customer's unique preferences. And automation solutions, such as virtual agents and self-service platforms, shifts menial tasks away from human agents, which opens capacity for them to deliver value-adding services that boosts the CX journey. For example, virtual agents help both the customer and contact center agent to achieve more in less time. Virtual agents can extend operating times and reduce response times, saving valuable human agent resources (and thus costs) and improving CX.

CX tasks best suited to robotic workers/ virtual agents

 Smart technologies eliminate certain manual and repetitive tasks, as well as respond to routine customer queries and standard requests. Specifically, robotic process automation (RPA) automates process-based tasks between multiple systems, reducing human error and boosting operational efficiency.

Other automated solutions, such as chatbots and virtual agents, cater to the demands of digital-first consumers, who prefer self-service options over voice and demand expedient query resolution times. By deploying automated chatbots into web and mobile applications provides customers with uninterrupted, 24/7 real-time assistance, even when contact centers are closed or overloaded. Additionally, always-on chatbots can process greater call volumes than human agents, resulting in improved service delivery and customer satisfaction levels.

Other variants of AI-powered solutions can detect behavioral patterns and anomalies to adapt engagements according to unique consumer contexts.

CX tasks you should keep with human workers

However, smart technologies do not provide empathetic engagement with a warm, friendly and personal touch, which are critical when customers have complex issues. In this regard, human agents can apply emotional intelligence (EQ) to detect when a customer is frustrated, worried or responding aggressively, allowing human agents to respond appropriately. Similarly, higher-order tasks that require strategic and creative thinking are better suited to highly trained and skilled human agents.

However, collaboration with smart technologies and insights serves to complement human agents in these complex scenarios, delivering greater value to the customer and the business.

Automation keeps jobs To extract the optimal value from smart technologies, contact center operators will up-skill or re-skill their staff to perform more advanced job functions augmented by technology. In this way, embracing smart technologies in the contact center will retain rather than displace the human workforce. This is supported by findings in the 2022 Global CX Vertical Demand Report produced by Genesis GBS, where 22% of respondents reported that staff moved into more analytical functions as technology managed their previous tasks.

What’s more, the emergence of smart technology is creating numerous new job titles. For example, Data Detectives correlate and analyze data and Personal Data Brokers negotiate and execute data trades.

Smart working models

These technologies are essential for enabling evolving work models, which exhibit the flexibility and agility that is required to meet the demands of always-on consumers. As such, contact centers can respond to future threats and shifting market dynamics. However, are evolving work models, particularly work-from-home (WFH), the answer to keeping tech-savvy consumers satisfied?

The benefits and concerns of work-from-home (WFH) agents

One of the major benefits WFH has yielded contact center organizations is retaining workers through greater flexibility, as indicated by 84% of contact center operators. Another contributing factor to employee retention is lower stress and better mental health for contact center employees (60%). Simultaneously, WFH opens access to a deeper pool of knowledge/ brand advocates (57%) and a wider pool of talent (19%).

Increased talent accessibility allows for a more inclusive and diverse workforce (32%), which provides a wider array of perception, creativity and innovation.

However, lower productivity levels and inconsistent CX delivery are one of the concerns expressed by contact center organizations. Physical disparity can also result in the erosion of company culture and teamwork, reducing much-needed collaboration for improving CX.

CX can also be impacted by poor home office technology and broadband capabilities, leading to frustrations on both the sides of the agent and customer. Remote, digital set-ups are also highly susceptible to security breaches and cybercrime, due to unsecured networks, lack of security software and lack of IT support.

The “new normal” outlook for future work models

Despite these concerns, global organizations have noted the valuable benefits WFH offers and are prepared to reinvent their working models. To succeed in this 'new normal', the establishment of best practices will be crucial for operators to organize and manage distributed workforces. These include the deployment of technology ‘must haves’, performance monitoring solutions, access to knowledge, communication protocols and stringent security measures and frameworks. On-site or work-from-the-office (WFO) structures and practices will also need to change to empower workers with autonomy and expedite decision-making processes to remove operational bottlenecks and increase agility.

The hybrid/blended model

A hybrid working model will be key to maintaining operational resilience in the ‘next normal’. A combination of both WFH and WFO working models, a hybrid arrangement entails employees splitting their time between home and office locations. Rotating workforces enable businesses to realize the benefits of both WFH and WFO arrangements. However, a series of best practices and supporting technology will be required in ensuring seamless transitions in and out the office.

Can smart technology and smart work models meet changing consumer demands?

Smart technology and smart working models have the potential to meet the demands of digitally connected consumers and help contact centers achieve high quality CX outcomes. Analytics, AI, automation and RPA can enhance CX deliverables by taking over mundane, process-based tasks and augment contact center agents to conduct value-add tasks that require creativity and EQ.

The agility of smart technologies can complement and boost smart working models. Although WFH can be useful to tap into a wider pool of talent and boost employee satisfaction, it also comes with several challenges. In this case, a hybrid working model may be an effective solution to 'the next normal', but best practices are required to make it work for the contact center employer, the client and the employee.

Ultimately, it's important to find the right balance between leveraging smart technology and fostering a positive work culture to achieve the ultimate goal of providing exceptional CX to always-on consumers.

Author: Mark Angus, CEO of market research consultancy, Genesis Global Business Services and Founding Partner of The World Source Marketplace for Global Business Services (GBS.World)

This article comes from magazine:
FOCUS ON Business #9 March-April (2/2023)