Call Centers: Agent Assist to the Rescue!

Solutions of the Future

Working in a call center can be challenging at times. Employees are expected to provide excellent customer service while sometimes dealing with frustrated or difficult customers. In addition, they must be able to handle a large volume of calls and keep up with the pace set by management. This can often lead to long hours and little down time.

In such a working environment, Agent Assist, a solution powered by AI technologies, becomes an invaluable tool to lighten the workload and make being a call center agent more enjoyable. In order to provide excellent customer service, call center employees must be well-trained and able to handle a variety of situations. But they must also be patient and polite.

This extra courtesy often comes at a price and is far easier to generate if agents are not overwhelmed by time consuming technological processes. It is here where Agent Assist really shows its worth. Whether it is handling customer inquiries and complaints, processing orders and payments, or providing information about products and services, Agent Assist helps grease the wheels of the exchange and ensure a satisfying outcome for all parties.


The Goal is a Better Process

Our aim at Konverso is simple and singular: to find that sweet spot between human endeavor and artificial intelligence. Gone are the days when customer agents are lost for explanations, acting without support, or worn down by complexity. Agent Assist gives your agents real-time assistance to provide customers with faster and more effective results in the here and now.

By providing a simple yet vital helping hand, agents can save seconds, and even minutes, while performing daily activities. The net gain is significant long-term efficiency and satisfaction on all fronts.


How the Magic Works

Agent Assist works by using Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to provide real-time assistance to contact center agents during customer interactions and does this in a number of different ways.

Multichannel Assistance:
Customers can connect Agent Assist to their telephony system or to their live chat. Agent Assist receives the data of the conversation and immediately starts supporting the contact agent with the query.

Initial Context:
In case a bot has filtered the initial request, Agent Assist ensures that the agent receives the context between the customer and the bot captured at the beginning of the conversation—before the agent joined in. This collected information includes a transcript of the bot itself.

Suggestions:
Agent Assist gives updated “knowledge suggestions” based on the context of the conversation. Agents no longer need to seek out FAQ information on their own and can instead focus on the customer, with Agent Assist providing real-time suggestions based on what came previously.

Step-by-Step Instructions:
Agent Assist provides the agent with clear step-by-step instructions with which to help guide the customer as the call progresses. These step-by-step instructions are invaluable for narrowing down the customer’s issue and quickly finding a solution.

Keeping Track:
Agent Assist keeps track of everything that is exchanged, including a transcription of voice interactions between customers and agents. This helps keep agents from missing any part of the conversation.

Post-Call Summaries:
Agent Assist automatically produces in-call summaries, which mean that contact agents won’t have to do it themselves post-call. This also has the positive knock-on effect of reducing call-waiting times.


Time is Money! That Old Adage

“Time is money!” and this has always been true no matter the service being provided. However, when it comes to customer relations, Agent Assist has shown itself to be an effective way to speed up processes and save money. Agent Assist can increase the contact center agent productivity from between 3% to 7%. By automating parts of the workflow and providing quick and accurate answers to common customer questions, average handle times (AHT) start tumbling and significant savings are made.

With a more efficient workforce, service-level agreements (SLA) can also be met and customer satisfaction increased. Better first contact resolution (FCR) means that customers are always more likely to return in the future.

It is not only in the day-to-day tasks of current employees that Agent Assist can help though. When it comes to training new customer service agents, Agent Assist reduces training costs in a similar way to how it helps customers with queries. Simply put, time and money is saved at both ends of the call—and even before any calls are answered.


Konversing with the Future

We at Konverso believe that the desire for powerful AI tools such as Agent Assist will only increase, the more companies come to realize its full benefits. Automation of certain tasks in the workplace is a foregone conclusion, but a positive one too. It allows employees and managers to focus on the parts of the job they perform best while keeping the human element front and center.

Businesses that employ Agent Assist never go back, and Konverso is passionate about supporting them in every way we can. Our focus is on continually improving organizational performance by pushing conversational AI services to the next level and beyond. Agent Assist is just one of those many services.