Generative AI and the Voice of Reality

Redefining the Self-Serve Experience

You’ve heard the phrase “Voice of Reason.”? Let me introduce you to its cousin, “the voice of reality.”

Don’t get me wrong.? As an AI technology company, Cielo is excited about the promise of recent advances in artificial intelligence.? It’s just that we understand the reality of what it takes to successfully deliver AI applications.? Not to mention the challenge of navigating change across the enterprise.

?Sensational headlines suggest Generative AI will eliminate customer service agents and replace them with AI-enabled chatbots.

It’s reasonable for C-Suite executives to believe the hype.? After all, they have long viewed the customer service department as one of the most expensive functions in the company.?

This mindset continues despite ample evidence that improving a company’s customer experience has a direct and measurable improvement to top line revenue - a 16% premium on price according to PWC.?

So, it’s natural, especially for those who live outside of the contact center industry, to see ChatGPT as the end of the customer service agent.?

This is a short-sighted strategy.?

In fact, Gartner predicts, investment in Generative AI will lead to only a 20% to 30% reduction of customer service and support agents by 2026.? The truth is, it will take time to adopt Generative AI while managing the risk of spreading inaccurate and/or proprietary company data.?

Then you must ask yourself, what is the best strategy to take today, so that you don’t fall behind.? The biggest risk of all is not acting.?

STICK TO WHAT WORKS?

The best strategy continues to be the same: develop self-serve applications which automate low-touch issues, freeing agents to focus on higher touch contacts.?

This is our core business here at Cielo.? We help companies find the right balance between automation and the human touch.?

Our progress with Large Language Models simply means we’re getting better at self-service and shifting the balance more toward automation.?

CMP reports the top priority of contact center executives in 2024 will be increasing the adoption of self-serve applications.? This is strategic.?

However, CX expert Shep Hyken writes that “just 31% of customers prefer using these self-service digital customer support solutions. The phone continues to be the No. 1 preferred method of communication.”?

As a result, we believe it is essential that, when incorporating Generative AI into self-serve chatbots, your bots:

1. should be deployed directly into your IVR as a deflection strategy, and
2. they must be integrated with the enterprise’s corporate systems.

Voice remains, overwhelmingly, the preferred channel for customers seeking answers to their questions.? Therefore, a comprehensive self-serve strategy must include frictionless deflection of low touch calls out of your IVR, connecting them directly to a SMS chatbot.?

Even the most rudimentary IVRs can send a text message to mobile callers.

THE NEED FOR INTEGRATION

CMP’s survey of contact center executives found that 45% believe the biggest barrier to successful self-serve experiences was that they lacked integration with their current tech suite.?

Better conversational AI happens when chatbots can access enterprise systems to get the information needed to deliver a complete resolution.?

If a bot can’t answer the “Where’s My Oder” question, simply because it’s not integrated with your shipping carrier, then the customer is left frustrated. ??And, this is such an easy thing to do.?

Guess what happens when customers are frustrated?? Self-serve adoption drops and unnecessary calls land on the agent’s desktop.?

Integrated chatbots that can access information in real-time, and resolve the customer’s question completely, will surely redefine the self-serve experience.? Now guess what happens, loyal customers and more effective agents.?

AGENT FACING GEN AI

The Generative AI applications with the highest ROI are those which sit on the agent’s desktop, providing guided assistance and improving the quality and accuracy of the voice channel experience.?

This is especially true in contact centers which experience high agent turnover or face short term seasonal customer service demand.?

Cielo’s business is focused on helping companies improve the voice channel experience.? So, we do expect an evolution in the agent workforce.? We see important new roles and skills for the agent.? They will ?become highly valuable “bot supervisors”, intervening when the chatbots get stuck.? Not unlike today’s existing workforce supervisors.?

So, what is the voice of reality really saying?? Don’t expect the wholesale replacement of customer service agents, but rather a transformation of the agent workforce value network.

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