AI-Powered Contact Centers: The Rythm of Modern Customer Communication

Dear LinkedIn Community,

We’re back again with another milestone — the 50th issue of Velvetech’s IT Talks is here! ??

As we pass this jubilee mark, we think about all the editions and topics covered behind. Well, it’s already been a long journey, but we still have a lot to share with you, thanks to the questions of our clients with inquisitive minds and the expertise that we accumulated throughout two decades of technology delivery.

Today, we’d like to talk about contact center solutions, the advanced ones. This is the area our team is an old hand at. For years, they’ve been building and implementing a variety of products that boost call center operations and help businesses streamline communications with clients. One of them is Velvetel Pulse , an AI-driven platform designed to level up customer experience and automate the work of sales, marketing, and service teams.

So, based on our experience, we’ll answer your burning questions about smart contact centers. Let’s get to it. ??

Q1: What are the key features of intelligent contact center solutions to consider?

When evaluating intelligent contact center solutions, it’s essential to look for features that enhance both customer and agent experiences. What functionality can do this? First of all, today, it’s about omnichannel communication that allows interactions to flow seamlessly across voice, email, chat, and social media.

Intelligence is often centered around data analytics and boosted by artificial intelligence (sorry, for tautology). So, naturally, AI-powered analytics is something you need to look for in modern contact center platforms. It provides a variety of metrics and insights into customer behavior, sentiment, and performance. Plus, advanced dashboards can help you get a comprehensive agent performance overview and make data-driven decisions easier.

Another super interesting feature is dynamic call scripts. They adapt to conversations in real time based on the context, helping reduce call handling time, boost first-call resolution rates, and enhance customer satisfaction in general. Finally, pay attention to such functionality as automated call routing, as it will direct your customers to the best-suited agents based on their needs and the agents' availability.

Explore the Top 6 Characteristics of the Modern Contact Center

Q2: What types of tasks can AI automate in contact centers?

It’s very natural to wonder what operations of contact centers AI can help with. In the end, not all businesses require these complex solutions. Let’s see what landmarks to consider.

If you handle lots of routine inquiries such as order status or payment processing, customer self-service options like chatbots or voice bots can jump in. As we mentioned in the previous part, AI can also optimize call routing by analyzing incoming queries and directing them to the appropriate agent or department.

Managing follow-ups, and there are too many of them? Automate it with AI that schedules interactions based on previous customer behavior and engagement. The technology can also serve as a real-time assistant for agents and offer recommendations on how to respond to customer issues or even suggest opportunities for upselling. Additionally, AI can automatically log all interaction details, relieving agents from repetitive data entry tasks.

Of course, smart algorithms can’t replace humans entirely, but they can analyze customer sentiment during interactions and flag conversations that may need a more personal touch. So, the most powerful approach, in our opinion, is to combine technology with human intelligence and capitalize on both.??

Q3: If we aim for omnichannel communication, how can AI help?

In fact, AI plays a crucial role in ensuring a cohesive omnichannel communication strategy, but specifically, it has a lot of forces in several areas:

Seamless Integration Across Channels ??

AI ensures that customer information is updated in real time across all communication channels. So, agents can pick up the conversation wherever it left off, whether on chat, social media, or phone.

Contextual Responses ??

Yes, AI can recognize customer intent and provide relevant responses tailored to the specific platform. This, no doubt, ensures a consistent experience across channels.

24/7 Availability ??

Customers want to get timely responses regardless of the channel they’re using and even outside of business hours. And AI-powered chatbots can maintain such communication.

Channel-Specific Recommendations ??

Since AI is good with historical data, it can analyze and define customer preferences to help determine the best communication channel for a particular interaction.

Q4: Can AI-powered contact centers handle complex customer inquiries, or are they limited to simple tasks?

Well, everything evolves. If years ago AI was indeed capable of handling only simple things, today, the algorithms have become more sophisticated and support contact centers with more complex operations.

With advances in natural language processing and machine learning , AI-powered contact centers not only excel at automating routine tasks but are also capable of managing more intricate queries:

• NLP for understanding complex queries. AI can comprehend multi-layered customer inquiries and extract relevant information from conversations. This way, providing accurate responses or transferring to a human agent if needed.
• Agent collaboration. For highly complex issues, AI systems often collaborate with live agents. Even if they don’t solve the issue themselves, they suggest possible solutions and provide agents with real-time contextual information. That leads to faster query resolution.
• Learning over time. Again, AI systems evolve and learn from past interactions. So, in the near future, we’ll see them handle more complex cases.

Q5: How should we evaluate an AI-based contact center solution before implementation?

The first factor we’d like to highlight is scalability. Most likely, you’ll want the solution to grow alongside your business and manage increasing customer interactions across various channels. Speaking of the latter, it’s also important for your platform to integrate with existing tools like ERP or CRM systems . It will ensure seamless data flow and optimal performance.

No need to say that data should be secured, especially when contact centers handle sensitive information. Ensuring that the solution complies with regulatory standards like GDPR or HIPAA is non-negotiable.?

What else to pay attention to? AI should be user-friendly both for customers and agents, providing seamless transitions between automated responses and human assistance when necessary. And customization is also key. The ability to tailor workflows, responses, and escalation paths to fit your specific needs is vital. Eventually, there are businesses with similar requirements, but usually, they are not completely the same.?

Lastly, look at the system’s ability to provide detailed performance metrics because, as we’ve found out, advanced analytics is the core of AI-based contact centers. Customer satisfaction scores, call resolution rates, agent performance, and overall efficiency — these are just a few examples to name.

Discover the Key Trends of Contact Center Technology

What’s Your Perfect AI-Powered Contact Center?

While, on the one hand, there’s a lot to factor in when choosing your contact center solution, on the other, it’s not that much. No matter how primary or complex your needs are, AI is the hero that is capable of handling all of them. Well, almost all of them: a human touch still makes a difference for some tasks.

If you’re not sure about what features to include in your solution or to what extent AI should take part in it, we’re here to help. Having developed our AI-driven contact center platform , we know the inside outs of the field. And 20+ years of working with companies across various business domains allows us to understand the nuances of your field, too. So, our team is ready to support you whenever you need it.