Insight of the Week: Maximize ROI with a Bot Management System

by?Kerry Robinson

Nearly 85% of contact center leaders say they're excited by chatbots, according to a survey by?Call Center Helper.

?A third say they have a chatbot already. Another third have it on their wishlist.?

According to the survey, the primary driver for implementing AI like this is customer satisfaction. Then contact/cost reduction. Then revenue.?

But only a third of consumers say they've had positive experiences with chatbots.?

Unhappy customers cost more to service. And they're more likely to switch to a competitor.?

So how do we fix this? How can chatbots, and other forms of conversational AI, like IVR and voice assistants delight customers and deliver better outcomes for the businesses that are investing in them??

I think it comes down to management. Bot Management.?

Instead of thinking about your chatbot or IVR as a piece of tech. You need to think about it more like a Bot Workforce, that needs leading, and managing, just like humans do.?

I like to think of it as a circular process like this...

Customers interact with your human agents (and bots, if you have them). That creates data.?

We need to analyze the data to understand what it means. That's Bot Analytics.?

Then we need to see what the data means in the context of our business. What could bots do? What should they do? What's it worth? That's Bot Strategy.

Then we need to craft an experience that will feel comfortable and easy to use. That's Conversation Design.?

Then we build or update the bots, customers interact with them, and we get more data. Back to Bot Analytics to see how we're doing.?

It sounds simple, but so few businesses do this. Why??

Well, the platforms don't make it easy. You typically need to build your own custom reporting, but as long as you can get at the raw data, that's doable.?

Vendors in this space don't make it easy, either. They'll sell you a platform and help lift-and-shift what you've already got, or build what you tell them you need. But how do you know what you need??

But there's more you can do, too. And you or someone around you already knows how to do this... because you do it with your human agents already.

You need to hold your bot workforce to account. Here's a 5-step plan:?

1) List out each of the tasks that your IVR / voice / chatbots actually do. These are like the agent skills/skill groups you have set up, but for bots.

2) Try out those tasks yourself. Call up your IVR. Start a chat session. Put yourself in the position of your customer. Are your bots being smart, helpful, and resourceful - as you'd expect your agents to be?

3) Estimate the benefit of doing each of those tasks, compared to the alternative which is typically having an agent do the task instead.

4) Ask for the data: how many customers attempt each of the tasks. How many complete those tasks successfully. Go beyond simple containment here. Are you?sure?the customer walked away happy?

5) So what? What does the data imply? Where are the greatest benefits coming from? Could you double down there? Where are customers failing? Can you re-design that? Or remove it??

This isn't rocket science. It's just good management. And something you're probably already doing with your agents: understanding the contact types they handle (step 1), listening in on calls (step 2), understanding the AHT / cost to serve for each contact type (step 3), and looking at agent performance data for issue resolution (step 4). And then you take action... to hire/ train / coach your agent workforce to deliver better outcomes (step 5)?

You need to do the same for your bots.

A Bot Management system has direct and indirect benefits:

• It makes sure every change you make is intentional.
• You track the intended?and?unintended consequences of each change.
• It makes sure that every prioritization decision is driven by data.
• It allows you to demonstrate ROI and build momentum... more budget flows to leaders that demonstrate the return on their programs.

If you don't already have a Bot Management system in place, get going now. It'll have a bigger short and long-term impact on the ROI from your investments in conversational AI.

So… are you already managing your bots? How’s it working for you? Keen to get started but not sure how? Drop me an email and let me know.?

This is the second in a series of emails covering the key topics of my webinar?"Making Sense of Conversational AI."?If you missed the other two, you can check them out here:

• Choosing the right conversational AI platform
• Strong AI is 20 years late... and counting

Be sure to sign up to receive a notification when my next webinar, "Building a Business Case for Better Conversational AI" ?is available, next Thursday, March 24th??

Kerry

Kerry Robinson?is an Oxford physicist with a Masters in Artificial Intelligence, Kerry is a technologist, scientist, and lover of data with over 20 years experience in conversational AI. He combines business, customer experience, and technical expertise to deliver IVR, voice, and chatbot strategy, and keep Waterfield Tech buzzing.

"Making Sense of Conversational AI"?is now on-demand.?Watch it here.

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