But behind the scenes, they’re leading the charge in using both humans and AI to make guest experiences even better. 

In episode five of Dialed In, Gadi Shamia, CEO and co-founder of Replicant, is joined by Hanlin F., Airbnb’s Head of Digital Experience, to explore the hospitality brand’s unique customer service challenges. 

The conversation revolved around the role of AI in addressing customer service issues and providing a seamless experience for both hosts and guests on the Airbnb platform.

Hanlin, who leads the digital products in the community support organization at Airbnb, shared her insights on leveraging AI and machine learning in customer support. She emphasized the importance of combining the power of AI with human intervention to handle the complex and unique issues that often arise for their users.

Listen to the full episode here.

Key topics covered in the episode include:

Airbnb’s Unique Customer Support Challenges: Airbnb faces unique challenges due to its diverse host and guest base, spanning across numerous countries, languages, and policies. These challenges require creative solutions and a deep understanding of customer issues.

AI in Agent Training: AI is being used to help agents quickly understand and access Airbnb’s detailed policies, making it easier for them to provide timely and accurate support, especially in urgent situations. It’s also seen as a valuable tool that assists agents in resolving customer inquiries faster. It can provide real-time information and suggestions, helping agents make informed decisions during customer interactions.

Harmony Between AI and Humans: The vision for Airbnb’s customer support is a symbiotic partnership between AI and human agents. This approach ensures that the strengths of both AI and human support are utilized to deliver the best possible customer experience. Airbnb aims to strike a balance between full automation and human intervention. While automation can handle straightforward issues efficiently, human agents are crucial when emotional or complex issues require a more empathetic and personalized response.

Policy Summarization and Emotional Recognition: AI is being employed to summarize and highlight specific policy details for agents, enabling them to quickly address customer inquiries without extensive policy reading. AI can detect sentiment and emotional cues in customer interactions, enabling agents to intervene when emotional support is needed, even for seemingly simple issues.

Data Integration for Personalization: Hanlin emphasized the importance of connecting various data sets, including host data, guest data, support data, and more. By integrating these data sources, Airbnb aims to gain a holistic view of customers and hosts to provide more personalized experiences.

The Role of Curiosity in Future Agents: When asked about the future of customer service agents, Hanlin highlighted the need for curiosity among agents. A curious mindset can help agents adapt to AI technologies and provide better support by learning continuously. Hanlin shared that one thing people may not know about customer service is how stressful the job can be for agents. Understanding the stress that agents experience can lead to more empathetic interactions.

The Impact of AI on Customer Service: Hanlin emphasized that AI’s ability to facilitate natural conversations is a game-changer for customer service. It allows for more engaging interactions between AI and humans. When asked about the percentage of customer service that can be fully automated by AI in the next few years, Hanlin mentioned a significant shift from a few percent to around 70% in just two years, highlighting the rapid transformation taking place.

Airbnb’s commitment to leveraging AI to enhance customer support while recognizing the importance of human touch in addressing the unique challenges of the hospitality industry is all about balance. The company’s approach reflects the evolving landscape of AI-powered customer service, where human-AI collaboration is key to delivering exceptional customer experiences. 

Listen to the full episode here.

The post Dialed In: How Airbnb is Leveraging Human-AI Collaboration appeared first on Replicant.

Tell us about yourself! Where are you located and what was your path to joining Replicant? 

My name is Rowley and I’m a part of the growing group of Replicants from Toronto, Canada! I spent the previous three years working at two very large corporations being a very small cog within a very big wheel. I wanted more than that as I began my early professional career. This is what ultimately led me to Replicant; the opportunity to lead various initiatives, working with every part of the business, and creating my own autonomy and flexibility at work.

What team are you on and what are some of the main goals your team is focused on?

I work on the finance team comprised of a few people. As a small team in a very fast growing start-up, we’re stretched in many different directions but our main goal is to ensure that the business is operating as efficiently and effectively as possible. This means monitoring our revenue, headcount, cash burn and other strategic initiatives to promote growth at a sustainable rate.

What does a typical day in your role look like? What kinds of projects do you work on?

A typical day includes starting my morning reviewing any emails from the night before. Since we work in a remote first environment, people work across many time zones so catching up on any missed emails is always the first thing. Then I have a few hours of heads down time to catch up on any work as I wait for my team to log on. This is followed with a series of meetings with the business, my team and different department heads to tackle the most pressing issues for the day. Within the moving parts of each day, I also try to fit in some of my recurring responsibilities.

What’s one favorite thing about your city that would surprise others?

My favorite thing about the city is the ability to experience all four seasons in Toronto. Each season brings its own unique charm to the city and lasts just long enough for me to yearn for it as it passes. The summer days are filled with endless amounts of sunlight and the fall evenings are brisk in temperature. Winter mornings are filled with excitement of the first snowfall and spring afternoons are filled with the scents of recent rainfall. It’s taken a long time for me to appreciate the different seasons.

What’s one thing you’ve learned while working at Replicant?

One thing I’ve learned while working at Replicant is that peoples’ culture makes a huge impact on your performance, mentality and day to day happiness at work. Because we have a relatively flat hierarchy, I get to interact with everyone from junior developers all the way up to management. Everyone has made it a point to be open, encourage questions and give you opportunities to grow. Other companies talk about peoples’ culture, but Replicant puts peoples’ culture at the forefront of each day.

How would you describe Replicant in three words?

It’s tough consolidating all that we do as a company and group of people into just 3 words, but if I had to it would be:

• Innovative
• Collaborative
• Customer-oriented

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

If I had one superpower it would be the ability to teleport. There are so many places I would love to travel but I am constrained on the amount of time I have. Being able to teleport anywhere in the world would make traveling so much easier! I could travel, explore and work from anywhere in the world and be home for dinner each night with my family.

The post Replicant Spotlight: Rowley Luo, Finance Manager appeared first on Replicant.

But that’s become much easier said than done. On top of the challenges facing every CX team, healthcare contact centers have their own unique set of obstacles:

• Cyclical busy seasons. From January to March, new patient onboarding and appointment requests swell following open enrollment periods, while the later months experience increased demand around flu season.
• Unpredictable call spikes. On top of foreseeable busy seasons, healthcare contact centers can be faced with a barrage of calls at a moment’s notice during events like public health emergencies or supply chain shortages.
• Clinical imperatives. Many healthcare calls are costly, requiring clinically trained experts to handle them. But high demand can force experts to field non-clinical calls and cause answer rates for clinical calls decrease.
• Non-traditional business hours. Healthcare contact centers often operate on non-traditional schedules, like 5×12, causing after-hours and weekend calls to go unanswered. 
• Strict SLAs. Partnered health plans can come with stringent SLA requirements that state a maximum wait time before a call must be answered, putting added pressure on contact center business models.

To tackle these challenges, healthcare services and technology are prioritizing “operational changes that will improve efficiency, including through the use of technology and automation across services” through 2026. 

Many providers have already started, leveraging Contact Center Automation to bolster their patient experience. From hospital systems to dentists, fitness programs, telehealth companies and provider networks, healthcare contact centers can meet more SLAs and lower costs with AI-powered customer service. 

Resolve More Patient Requests With Zero Wait Times

Reducing costs and meeting more SLAs shouldn’t come at the cost of the patient experience. Replicant’s Thinking Machine is designed to fully resolve – not deflect – patient requests, so clinicians and agents can spend more time on the tasks that matter most. 

Replicant helps millions of patients access care faster with natural, automated voice conversations that increase CSAT compared to IVRs and legacy chatbots. Common flows automated by the Thinking Machine include:

Intelligent Routing Accurately get patients where they need to go without forcing them to sit through long IVR menus. 

• Route existing patients to the correct queue and get new patients into intake and onboarding faster
• Accurately route health plans to the correct queue to ensure SLAs are met
• Immediately escalate urgent or emotional requests to appropriate clinical team 

HIPAA Authentication

• Authenticate existing patients with an API call to access account details 
• Securely collect details and patient information like zip codes, date of birth and member IDs
• Leverage SMS-based Flex Forms to accurately collect patient information

Appointment Scheduling

• Create, update and manage appointments
• Send outbound appointment reminders
• Provide members with appointment options over the phone or via SMS-based form
• Determine appointment eligibility and route complex appointment types to appropriate team

Intake 

• Collect patient information via voice or secure form
• Pre-qualify new patients before transfers
• Reduce repetitive work during agent handoffs

Account Management 

• Update patient information 
• Resolve document requests end-to-end

Outbound 

• Send appointment reminders
• Schedule prescription reminders and instructions

Case Study: How a Leading Healthcare Provider Achieved a 4.7/5 CSAT With Replicant

Customer Overview: Before partnering with Replicant, a healthcare provider that offers members a healthy aging and exercise program was interested in modernizing their IVR. They wanted to eliminate wait times and free up agents to spend more time with members. But, as their VP of Customer Service said, “conversational AI hadn’t gotten to the point where I felt like it was a good member experience until we saw Replicant.” 

The Partnership: Replicant partnered with this provider to identify four initial use cases that would lower costs and improve the member experience. The selected call drivers – Member Authentication, Provide Fitness ID, Determining Eligibility, and Find a Gym Location – were high in volume, prone to seasonal spikes, and repetitive, making them ideal automation candidates. Replicant designed a Thinking Machine around three goals: 1) deliver natural conversations 2) fully resolve member requests and 3) provide seamless handoffs to agents when escalations are needed.

“Our first true test was that first week of January and the Replicant Thinking Machine performed really well. Having the pre-verification step off our agents’ plates gives them the ability to focus on what the member actually needs versus just checking the initial boxes.” – VP of Customer Service, Leading Healthcare Provider

The Outcome: Replicant launched at the start of the calendar year, when Fitness ID requests are at their peak. Now, members can resolve these requests naturally without having to navigate a rigid IVR or wait on hold. This streamlined the member experience and significantly reduced the time agents spent on simple requests. Meanwhile, agents who received escalations no longer had to collect initial member information, which saved valuable time in their workflows. With Replicant taking calls, the provider relies less on temporary FTEs, making member experiences more consistent and workforce management more efficient. 

• 4.7/5 Member Satisfaction
• 3 Min. Avg. Time Saved in Escalations
• Up to 25% Total Call Volume Automated
• 50 FTEs Saved During Peak Season
• Scale Symbol Elastic Scalability During Spikes

“Our partnership with Replicant has been very successful in meeting our expectations and evolving the call flows with each use case. We’re learning a lot every day by listening to recordings and A/B testing.” – VP of Customer Service, Leading Healthcare Provider

The post The CX Rx: How Healthcare Contact Centers Serve More Patients With Replicant appeared first on Replicant.

Tell us about yourself! Where are you located and what was your path to joining Replicant?

I live in Red Bank, NJ. I’ve worked in sales for 15 years. Prior to Replicant, I worked at SaaS startups in FinTech, InsurTech, and Process Mining. Prior to my career in technology sales, I sold medical devices.

What team are you on and what are some of the main goals your team is focused on?

I’m an Enterprise Account Executive on the Sales team. My main goals are to identify prospective clients, build relationships and generate lasting partnerships for the company.

What do you think sets Replicant apart from its competitors?

We have extremely happy and successful customers that are always willing to speak on our behalf. This is a critical differentiator in this emerging market.

How would you describe Replicant in three words?

• Social
• Challenging
• Collaborative

What stands out about the culture at Replicant?

The people I work with at Replicant today will be people I stay in close touch with even after my time at Replicant is over. I love working with all of my colleagues. 

What has been one of your biggest accomplishments here so far?

I secured Replicant’s first partner in the public sector, NJ Transit. They have been tremendously successful so far!

What do you enjoy the most about communicating with prospective clients about our product?

Old versus New. Many clients have a preconceived notion that machines offer bad customer experiences. I can’t blame them, because over the past 20 years my experiences with legacy technologies like chatbots and IVRs have been poor.

Being able to see and and listen to prospective clients’ reactions when they hear live calls with our Thinking Machine never gets old.

What excites you about the future of AI?

AI will be embedded in most products and services in the near future. The need to call out “AI” as part of your offering will soon become obsolete because if you aren’t working with AI in some form or fashion you will be left behind. 

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Super-speed.

The post Replicant Spotlight: Mike Borelli, Account Executive appeared first on Replicant.

NJ TRANSIT is the nation’s largest statewide public transit provider by area. With a ridership of over 175 million per year, customers in New Jersey rely on the agency’s buses, trains and light rail to get where they need to go quickly and safely.

Through their ADA paratransit program, Access Link, customers who are unable to use fixed routes can schedule specialized rides and receive support through a dedicated contact center.

Industry: Transportation
Size: 175M+ Annual Ridership
Call Volume: 89K+ Calls / Month
Use Cases: Check Ride Status, Cancel a Ride

The Challenge

NJ TRANSIT’s Access Link program measures success in three ways: timeliness, efficiency and customer satisfaction. While their service levels were on par with other state agencies before implementing Replicant, they were comparatively lower than those of traditional contact centers.

Their CSAT scores declined due to a dated IVR and agent staffing challenges. Access Link needed a solution that was intuitive, easy to implement, and could accommodate customers with disabilities or those who speak a non-English language.

They also needed a way to lower agent costs, reduce hold times, and navigate unpredictable call volumes. NJ TRANSIT chose Replicant in part because our platform could plug into their systems without forcing them to overhaul everything.

The Partnership

Replicant and NJ TRANSIT partnered to accomplish two main goals: Increase customer usage of their automated phone system and reduce wait times by freeing up agents.

Replicant designed a Thinking Machine to first fully automate Ride Status and Ride Cancellation calls, two of their highest volume requests. By doing so, NJ TRANSIT could provide a way for customers to manage their rides without waiting on hold.

Additionally, they could avoid hiring additional agents by instead redeploying their workforce to focus on more complex requests while the Thinking Machine handled basic ride inquiries. This significantly improved agent satisfaction and engagement, and made the most of the long training cycles needed to onboard an agent trained in paratransit.

The Outcome

Within the first month of going live with Replicant, NJ TRANSIT’s wait times for automated calls not requiring a live agent were cut to 0 minutes. Compared to their previous IVR, which struggled to achieve higher than a 9% usage rate, customers began opting to use the Thinking Machine at well over a double-digit clip in less than a month.

The increased usage rates immediately translated to higher agent efficiency, increased service capacity and reduced hiring costs. An average CSAT score above 4 out of 5 reflects an effective, intuitive customer experience. And where their previous IVR’s data was locked in a black box, Replicant’s advanced analytics are enabling NJ TRANSIT to scale automation to new use cases and lead the way in paratransit innovation.

• 0 Min. Wait Times
• 12K Calls Automated Per Week
• 4.3/5 CSAT Score
• 45% Resolution Rate
• 68% Callers with 5/5 CSAT

The post New Jersey Transit Brings Rapid Service to Paratransit Riders With Replicant appeared first on Replicant.

Tell us about yourself! Where are you located and what was your path to joining Replicant?

My name is Zainah Siddiqui and I’m the Senior HR Coordinator at Replicant! I’m located in Toronto where I’ve lived all my life. I love to explore local spots and enjoy hiking through the forestry around my neighbourhood. My path to joining Replicant was unexpected but a great change for me. I was in healthcare prior to joining Replicant when I was referred by a friend of mine who worked closely with the Head of Talent, Margaret Cichosz. A few interviews, later I found myself drawn to the culture and drive at Replicant and the decision made itself!

What team are you on and what are some of the main goals your team is focused on?

I’m on the People Team (aka Human Resources). Our goals are to ensure that potential Replicant hires have the best experience interacting with the company, that they have the best onboarding experience once they get past the interview stage, and the best employee experience while working at Replicant. We want to make sure Replicants have the tools and resources they need to succeed in their jobs.

What does a typical day in your role look like? What kinds of projects do you work on?

A typical day consists of answering general questions from the Replicant team, making sure we’re prepared to welcome aboard upcoming new hires, and updating existing materials and platforms so Replicants always have access to the right information! Other projects I work on are assisting with drafting new policies and developing resources for managers to help them succeed in their roles!

What’s one favorite thing about your city that would surprise others?

How close it is to a large national park. The Rouge River National Park is one of the many reasons why I would find it extremely hard to leave. If I walk 10 mins in any direction, I end up on a trail. I also love how many food options we have! Toronto has options that can cater to any dietary restriction or allergy and it’s something I greatly appreciate, especially when I travel to a location that doesn’t have many options.

How would you describe Replicant in three words?

• Exciting
• Challenging
• Compassionate

What stands out about the culture at Replicant?

At Replicant, we strive to achieve a healthy balance between personal and professional. We want people to feel accomplished and driven at work but also take a step back and recharge by spending time with their families and friends. With remote companies, there are limited opportunities where you get to connect with your fellow coworkers in person, but Replicant provides those opportunities in the form of initiatives like team offsites and Disconnect to Reconnect – a week where we encourage Replicants to take a day to see their regional peers!

What has been one of your biggest accomplishments here so far?

While not my “biggest” accomplishment, I would say my most meaningful accomplishment is my work with the co-op students. I enjoy interacting with the students and making sure that they are getting the most of their co-op experience. I believe strongly in the value of helping students grow and realize their potential and being a part of that journey is very exciting… Especially when they go on to join us at Replicant!

What’s a fun fact that most people don’t know about you?

I love volunteering and have spent the last several years working with the deaf community; and from that I have picked up a little sign language! I even took some classes to learn it properly.

What excites you about the future of AI?

The potential it could have for the future of healthcare. I used to work in senior living and the idea of being able to identify illnesses/challenges before they happen would literally be a lifesaver.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

As silly as it sounds, I want telekinesis. I would love to not have to get up for the remote.

The post Replicant Spotlight: Zainah Siddiqui, Senior HR Coordinator appeared first on Replicant.

But a changing customer service landscape is making it harder for insurers to not only staff enough agents, but deploy them efficiently in order to meet member demand.

These challenges include:

• Seasonality & Call Spikes Call surges during events like open enrollment and tax season can overwhelm phone lines, and natural disasters are becoming more commonplace and harder for home and auto contact centers to manage.
• Inaccurate Routing Outdated IVRs not only make it harder for members to get to the right department, inaccurate transfers waste valuable agent time and exacerbate the labor shortage.
• Multi-touch Flows Requests like Emergency Roadside Service are time-consuming, complex and manual, with a combination of inbound and outbound calls needed to resolve each case.
• Claims Intake Claims and First Notice of Loss requests can involve first and third-party callers, and include a long list of repetitive intake questions and follow-ups that can take hours.
• New Member Conversions Inaccurate IVRs and poor self-service options can cause Sales representatives to miss out on deals and force prospective members to wait on hold or abandon calls, costing businesses revenue.
• Lack of Visibility A lack of accurate data into why customers are calling harms insurance contact centers’ ability to forecast and plan their technology around their most opportunistic call types. 

According to the 2023 Benchmark Report, Contact Center Automation has become a top investment priority for over two-thirds of contact centers in response to challenges associated with economic uncertainty. 

And with Gartner predicting that AI-powered automation will reduce contact center costs by more than $80 billion by 2026, the sheer scale of insurance contact centers means they have a lot to gain. 

Automation Resolves Common Member Requests With Zero Wait Times

Replicant’s Thinking Machine helps millions of members access their policy benefits faster. Designed with the understanding that insurance contact centers handle some of the most complex and urgent call types in customer service, the Thinking Machine frees agents to focus on the highest priority calls while providing members with instant resolutions for tier 1 requests.

Common flows automated by the Thinking Machine include:

Roadside Assistance End-to-end support, including intaking a request, locating a driver, and dispatching a truck:

• Member Authentication 
• Request At-Home Service 
• Request Roadside Service
• Service Updates & Cancellations 
• Keep Members Informed
• Assign Dispatch to a Shop

Membership Services A-Z support for everything members need to keep their policies up-to-date:

• Member Authentication & Routing 
• Make a Payment
• Update Payment Method
• Manage Policy 
• Policy Info & Status 
• Request Policy Documents & Proof of Insurance 
• Membership Renewal

Claims Agent-saving support that streamlines claims and cuts down on manual processes:

• Member Authentication & Routing 
• First Notice of Loss
• File a Claim
• Claim Status
• Update Claim 
• Identify Claims Adjustor 

Case Study: How a leading pest control brand closes more business with Replicant

Customer Overview:
CAA Club Group is part of the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA), made up of CAA South Central Ontario and CAA Manitoba and serves over 2.5 million Members. CAA Clubs provides its members Emergency Roadside Services, complete Travel Services, Member Savings and comprehensive insurance offerings.  

The Challenge:
Changes in Eastern Canada’s weather have included extreme conditions and unpredictable storm surges that wreak havoc on roads. For CCG, that’s made it harder to meet member needs.

After challenges with their previous automation solution, CCG was hesitant to commit to another platform but ultimately decided to test Replicant out with credit card payments and updates to explore how their members would respond to the Thinking Machine. 

The Partnership:
Quickly into their initial implementation, CCG saw a significant spike in usage of their automation channel and expanded the Thinking Machine to automate Inbound Emergency Roadside Service (ERS) Calls, and Verbal Copy Calls.

Prior to Replicant, the average handle time for ERS at home was about 11 minutes. Even with background noise and distractions, Replicant’s Thinking Machine could capture customer information accurately, locate the member, and get a locksmith dispatched in under 5 minutes.

The Outcome:
As a result of implementing Replicant, CCG was able to increase elasticity in their call centers and better handle fluctuations in volume from weather events while enabling their agents to focus on highly emotional or complex conversations. During this past winter, when call volume typically spike, Replicant seamlessly scaled up to handle the equivalent call volume of 41 agents.

One member even said, “Your technological device was easy to use and saved me a lot of time. I liked that I was able to update my credit card info, make a payment right away and renew my membership without having to call someone to do it for me. It was smooth sailing! I was pleasantly surprised.” 

In the past month, CAA has gone live in production with the Thinking Machine’s enhanced LLM layer, helping resolution rates for their car collection use case soar to 90%.

“Having implemented Replicant, we are prepared for whatever may come. Whether it’s an economic downturn or a spike in call volume tomorrow, we will be able to answer calls because of the automation we already have in place.” – Steve Bennett, Supervisor of Member Care

The post We’ve Got You Covered: Insurance Providers Resolve More Calls With Replicant appeared first on Replicant.

Tell us about yourself! Where are you located and what was your path to joining Replicant?

Hi! I’m Melissa Prince and I live in Los Angeles, CA.  I am an Account Executive at Replicant and have been here for over a year. Although I have a degree in broadcasting, I have been in sales for my entire career.

What team are you on and what are some of the main goals your team is focused on?

I’m part of the West Coast sales team and we are focused on educating contact center leaders about automation, generating new partnerships, and scaling customer growth.

What does a typical day in your role look like? What kinds of projects do you work on?

There is no such thing as a “typical day,” but tasks that I’m focused on throughout the week are, first and foremost, moving any active deals through the various steps in the relationship cycle, prepping for upcoming meetings, educating brand new prospects with information specific to their contact center, attending customer meetings and demos, building new demos, meeting with partners, attending engagement meetings with customers going through implementations, checking in with our Business Development Representatives… the list goes on and on!

What do you think sets Replicant apart from its competitors?

Our customers. It’s rare in the start-up world to not only have the number of customers that we do, but see them have so much success and willingness to advocate for us whether it’s speaking at an event, being a reference for our prospects, joining internal company meetings on-site or off-site; it’s truly something special. 

What’s one thing you’ve learned while working at Replicant?

That AI is taking over the world!

How would you describe Replicant in three words?

• Fast
• Efficient
• Smart

What stands out about the culture at Replicant?

People dictate culture, and we have great people that work here. 

What has been one of your biggest accomplishments here so far?

I’m in sales, so I base my accomplishments off closing new partnerships!  

What do you enjoy the most about communicating with prospective customers about our product?

Sharing the success that our customers are experiencing and, more than anything, that working with Replicant is a true partnership, where we are extremely invested in their success. I enjoy taking care of people, and if you’re a prospect or customer of mine, my favorite part of my job is building the relationship with the customer and going above and beyond to make sure they are happy with the partnership.

What excites you about the future of AI?

I read something not too long ago that said by 2045, AI is expected to completely surpass human intelligence. This is so wild to me. AI is so fascinating and exciting and I think we have only scratched the surface.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Teleportation.

The post Replicant Spotlight: Melissa Prince, Account Executive appeared first on Replicant.

Naturally, Customer Experience leaders have a vested interest in understanding how LLMs can improve their contact center.

Replicant has gathered data from hundreds of millions of customer interactions to become one of the first solutions in production using LLMs to deliver 90% resolution rates for customers.

This cheat sheet provides an overview of the key things CX leaders should know about LLMs like ChatGPT.

Download the Cheat Sheet

How can LLMs improve CX?

LLMs are essentially trained on the entire internet. With billions of parameters and exponential computing power, they can process and respond to almost any question naturally and informatively in fractions of a second. LLMs far outperform legacy chatbots in their ability to quickly and accurately identify customer intents from natural, unstructured questions.

What are the biggest CX limitations of LLMs?

LLMs are not without their risks. They are oftentimes more focused on providing an answer than providing the right answer. This can lead to hallucinations – instances where the LLM makes up words or actions if it doesn’t know exactly what to say –  and inaccurate or inappropriate responses.

In addition, LLMs don’t have the security and compliance to be trusted with sensitive customer data or PII. For these reasons, contact centers should never connect customers directly with LLMs.

How can contact centers leverage the benefits of LLMs?

The power of LLMs are accessible through a reliable Contact Center Automation platform that prioritizes enterprise scale and the voice channel. A solution must have high-availability telephony, omnichannel, out-of-box integrations, conversation design, analytics, A/B testing and more.

Once these requirements are in place, LLMs can immediately increase call resolution rates, lower handle times, and accelerate time to value by cutting deployment times down to just weeks.

How does Contact Center Automation eliminate LLM risks?

Contact Center Automation platforms only rely on LLMs for specific tasks like intent recognition, not to provide answers directly to customers. They have guardrails in place to prevent LLMs from receiving customer information or any data that could be sensitive or private. This means that contact centers are always in full control of exactly how their machine will respond to customers and there are never any surprises. 

What does an LLM deployment look like for CX leaders?

Leveraging LLMs in your contact center is as simple as deploying Contact Center Automation. As a customizable and scalable solution, CX leaders often begin by automating a single call driver (usually something common and high-volume like Account Management) and scaling to new use cases from there.

Once a use case is chosen, a solution is integrated into the necessary systems like CCaaS and CRM and conversations are customized to your brand. In a matter of weeks, a solution can be designed and deployed with up to 90% resolution rates on day one. 

The post ChatGPT Cheat Sheet: 5 Things CX Leaders Should Know appeared first on Replicant.

Tell us about yourself! Where are you located and what was your path to joining Replicant?

Hello! I’m Joe. I live in Chicago and I joined Replicant in January 2022. I was laid off at my job before Replicant and was deep in conversations with other companies to join their team. But a member of the Replicant team sent me a Linkedin about the opportunity. While laid off, I took a “say ‘yes’ to every opportunity” approach. So I took an interview despite being very close to accepting a different role. Right off the bat, I was blown away by the team, the product, and the prospects of the company. So I forgot about those other roles and dove right into joining Replicant.

What team are you on and what are some of the main goals your team is focused on?

I am on the digital marketing team where our main goals are to build demand, create awareness, and grow a community. I specifically do this through our website, advertising, social media, email and other tactics.

What does a typical day in your role look like? What kinds of projects do you work on?

The beauty of working at a company like Replicant is that no day is the same – and that is not a bad thing. There are always exciting new projects and initiatives to work on. But typically, I start the day off working on my own tasks and responsibilities. Come late morning and early afternoon, I meet with teammates for status updates and to collaborate on our joint initiatives. In the later afternoon it is back to working on my tasks and top priorities. It’s a great balance of work time and meeting time.

How does Replicant’s marketing team collaborate with other departments to achieve common goals?

As anyone in marketing and sales knows, it is super important for the marketing and sales team to work very closely – which we do. We have weekly meetings and are constantly discussing tactics and performance. Our product marketing team is super locked in with our product and engineering teams to ensure that we are representing the product accurately in our marketing efforts.

What’s one thing you’ve learned while working at Replicant?

The world is about to change as AI becomes more sophisticated and deployed across businesses and products.

How would you describe Replicant in three words?

• Bold
• Innovative
• Caring

What stands out about the culture at Replicant?

I’ve worked at startups where it is a very intense, chaotic and unorganized environment. The leadership here has us very focused, determined, and aligned. The culture is one where people are seen as people (crazy idea, huh?!?). From top down, everyone is extremely respectful of each team member’s life outside of work.

What has been one of your biggest accomplishments here so far?

I led our website redesign when we rebranded the company in the summer of 2022. I was entrusted to own the entire process. From selecting the agency to writing most of the copy, It was an amazing opportunity to work on.

What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing a career in marketing at Replicant?

If you like to roll up your sleeves, are curious, and have fun – then you found the right place!

What excites you about the future of AI?

AI is the next great frontier of the technology world. It is exhilarating to be in the early days of the next world changing technology. But don’t take it from me, take it from Bill Gates’ recent blog post. He writes that over the course of his life, he has seen two demonstrations of technology that he deems as revolutionary. The first being the graphical user interface – the forerunner of every modern personal computer. The second being AI. I mean, that is pretty cool right?

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Switch roles with my puppy. Who wouldn’t want to nap, eat treats, and get belly rubs all day?

The post Replicant Spotlight: Joe Berenz, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing appeared first on Replicant.

Tell us about yourself! Where are you located and what was your path to joining Replicant?

I received a message from Margaret on the People Team telling me about Replicant and the role. I really enjoyed the interview process and the people I met. Before joining Replicant I was a Senior Engagement Manager managing global initiatives for a Fortune 500 company. I am currently located in the Montreal area in Canada.

What team are you on and what are some of the main goals your team is focused on?

I am part of the Delivery team in Professional Services. We are passionate about enabling a contact center to use automation to quickly solve customer service problems and improve the relationship between businesses and consumers. This also allows agents to focus on the most difficult customer issues. I am also the EM for the ASCII squad, where we focus on delivering high quality projects.

What does a typical day in your role look like? What kinds of projects do you work on?

A typical day would involve having client meetings to discuss their requirements and provide updates on ongoing projects. Additionally, there are internal sessions with team members to review priorities and next steps, as well as meetings with the squad to plan for the next sprint. Finally, the day ends with a meeting with my team to review new processes and ensure we are continuously improving our approach. I mostly work with projects for Auto Clubs customers but also have projects across travel, healthcare and consumer services customers.

What have been some of your favorite project/client engagements so far at Replicant?

I’ve really enjoy the client relationship with one of our transportation companies in particular. We have a great synergy with their team and we recently had a visit to their offices to finalize the roadmap for 2023-2024.

What’s one thing you’ve learned while working at Replicant?

I learned so much while at Replicant, two things in particular are telephony and conversation design.

How would you describe Replicant in three words?

• Dynamic
• Innovative
• Challenging

What stands out about the culture at Replicant?

Everyone is ready to help each other and collaborate. We have a great diverse culture!

What has been one of your biggest accomplishments here so far?

Ramping up from onboarding less than a year ago, having delivered 11 projects so far and already looking into the future of our Auto Clubs product has been a great accomplishment for my team and me.

What sets us apart from others in our industry, and how do we provide value to our clients?

Besides the white glove service we provide, we care about our clients and their customers. We deliver a solution with a business transformation mindset, instead of just delivering call flows.

What excites you about the future of AI?

I am really excited about the new LLM initiative we have with our Thinking Machine, and leveraging AI even more in our daily roles so we can focus on more complex tasks.

The post Replicant Spotlight: Carolina Manterola, Senior Engagement Manager appeared first on Replicant.

Tell us about yourself! Where are you located and what was your path to joining Replicant?

I’m located in the heart of Atlanta, GA. I’ve been in the tech industry for some time, working at a few start-ups, and was interested in taking on a new challenge in my career. I had heard some exciting things about AI, and wanted to see what the buzz was about.

Once I came across Replicant, I watched the demo on the website and immediately recognized the power it offered. I knew this was a place full of exciting promise for growth and opportunity, and I was even more excited when I met the wonderful team during the interview process.

What team are you on and what are some of the main goals your team is focused on?

I am on the Customer Success team. Replicant is mission critical for our customers and our primary function is to support their success. We function as a quarterback, partnering with almost every other team internally as we strive to ensure that Replicant delivers exceptional performance, thereby satisfying their customers, satisfying them as clients and helping them accelerate expansion.

CSMs focus on:

• Thinking Machine Success: How we define, track, and improve the KPIs to exceed expectations
• Business Impact & ROI: Help the customer  realize value with Replicant’s Thinking Machine and align with broader business goals to help them expansd
• Voice of the Customer: Become trusted advisors, build partnership at every level, and tell our customer stories

What does a typical day in your role look like? What kinds of projects do you work on?

CSMs spend our days either preparing for meetings with our customers, or holding meetings with our customers. In preparation, we build dashboards to measure success and monitor caller behavior trends, and serve as a liaison between Support, Leadership, Professional Services, Product, Thinking Machine engineers, and Marketing on behalf of the customer.

During the meetings, we discuss strategies to deliver the most value for our customers, and keep momentum going to achieve our KPIs. This culminates into Quarterly Business Reviews, or QBRs, which is where we help showcase how the Thinking Machine has helped our client’s organization achieve their goals, and keep their leadership informed and engaged. During QBRs, it’s essential we have a strong partnership with clients. This is their chance to show their own teams their accomplishments.

How do you work with other teams, such as sales or product, to ensure the success of our customers?

We partner with to identify new use cases that are fit for expansion, and we collaborate on maintaining a long-term client relationship. We partner with Professional Services team to ramp the customer up during implementation, and we also assist them in crafting the scope for future expansions.

We work with Product to build tags and dispositions in the Thinking Machine dashboard, optimize the conversation design, and share feature requests from our customers. We work with Marketing to share success stories of the customer provide platforms for them to share their thought leadership through webinars, speaking at Resolve, and various other activities. We partner with Thinking Machine engineers to improve the success of the Thinking Machine constantly.

What’s one thing you’ve learned while working at Replicant?

Trust is the most important component of a relationship, business or personal.

How would you describe Replicant in three words?

• Pursuing
• Continuous
• Improvement

What stands out about the culture at Replicant?

I learn from everyone that I work with at Replicant. The level of talent and passion is extremely high, and it motivates me to bring my best work, knowing that my peers will do the same.

What has been one of your biggest accomplishments here so far?

I inherited a customer who was going through a very involved implementation. By providing white glove service, I was able to turn turn our relationship into a true partnership and get them through implementation successfully. A few months later, they were finding new use cases to expand the Thinking Machine to, and pushed us to the front of their IVR. The customer credited my dedication to our relationship as the reason why they began to see success from the Thinking Machine.

What advice would you give to someone interested in becoming a Customer Success Manager at Replicant?

Our goal is to become the customer’s Trusted Advisor. We want them to come to us for consultation, rather than to simply “take their order.” This occurs by gaining their trust through transparency and preparation.

What excites you about the future of AI?

The possibilities are endless. Ideally, it is exciting to think about all of the ways that it can improve the standard of living for so many. AI could be used to remove the dull and mundane from our everyday lives.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Generating money on demand. Kidding (not really). Time travel would be pretty cool – I’d be very interested to see what technology looks like a few millennia from now. Also, a rewind button never hurt anyone before… I think.

The post Replicant Spotlight: Asante Muhammad, Customer Success Manager appeared first on Replicant.

ECSI is the leading provider of accounts receivable management for campus-based student loan servicing. In 2022, they serviced almost 1.4 million calls across three contact centers. ECSI partnered with Replicant to deploy a Front Desk solution to authenticate, route, and resolve customer calls. As a result, they’ve been able to navigate rising demand and hiring challenges while driving savings and efficiency.

• Industry: Financial Services
• Use Case: Front Desk (Tax form processing, Refunds, Loan servicing)
• Annual Call Volume: 1.4 Million

“Automation has become integral to what we do. Our business is dramatically different today with Replicant. It’s really made a difference in our employees’ lives and the experience from the borrowers and parents who call us, as well as how we run our business” – Mike Bowman, Senior Director, Operations, ECSI

Replicant Flattens Spikes During Busy Seasons

Replicant’s Thinking Machine currently serves three of ECSI’s core products: tax form processing, refunds, and loan servicing. These flows are all highly seasonal, peaking in the summer and winter months. The Thinking Machine was deployed to gather caller intents, authenticate customers, and contain or route them appropriately. This led to transformational benefits an IVR couldn’t provide.

Some of the key benefits include:

• Unlimited seasonal elasticity
• Analytics for every caller intent
• Natural conversations
• 24/7 no-wait service

“Last year’s biggest win for us wasn’t just the $1.5 million dollars we saved with automation. The Thinking Machine is really good at collecting information to show us what our obstacles are and where people get stuck. We can use that data to design a better process, to design a better website, to start new solutions.” – Mike Bowman

Results That Speak for Themselves

ECSI didn’t just look at traditional KPIs to measure the success of Replicant. They surveyed customers who were contained by the Thinking Machine as well as callers who spoke to an agent. They found customer satisfaction was almost identical between the two. For calls that the Thinking Machine couldn’t contain, ECSI’s handle times still dropped during escalations. With Replicant at the “Front Desk,” the Thinking Machine authenticates customers, gathers initial information, and passes a summary to each agent, saving thousands of minutes each year.

Transformational Impact:

• 40% decrease in escalation handle times 
• 70% faster agent response times
• $1.5M in annual savings

“The reason you got our businesses is because you’re honest, straightforward and responsive. You were very inclusive with my team, showing them how things work and making them part of the build process. There was just a lot of transparency, openness, honest. You would hope this isn’t true, but you just don’t see that everywhere.” – Mike Bowman

The post ECSI Saves $1.5M Automating Front Desk Calls With Replicant appeared first on Replicant.

OnProcess provides a service that helps their customers recover hardware after a customer contract has ended. They came to Replicant to automate their inbound and outbound calls that their agents did not have the capacity to perform. They now see an 11% increase in their hardware recovery rates.

“The results with Replicant are unbelievable. Absolute home run.”
– Mark Oldani, COO, OnProcess Technologies

2. 13.7% Decrease in Technology & Labor Costs for ECSI

Being in the loan servicing industry, ECSI’s call center experienced spikes in call volume around tax season and has historically always had to hire temporary agents. The tax season after implementing Replicant is the first time that they will not need to hire temporary agents and will depend on the Thinking Machine to handle the extra call volume.

3. 68% Decrease in Cost Per Call for AAA

AAA provides its members with emergency roadside assistance. Prior to Replicant, the average handle time for emergency roadside assistance was about 11 minutes. Replicant’s Thinking Machine gathers customer information and location, and gets a locksmith dispatched in under 5 minutes.

4. 70% Cost Reduction Per Call for Hawaiian Telcom

Hawaiian Telcom provides high speed internet, phone, wireless and other services for homes and businesses. Since automating their customer service calls with Replicant, they have resolved issues they were facing around long handle times and agent capacity.

5. 50% Savings vs. BPO for Doordash

DoorDash, a food delivery service, was using an expensive BPO to make outbound calls to restaurants. DoorDash decided to automate their contact center with Replicant. Within six weeks, Replicant was 89% as effective as offshore agents and after three months Replicant outperformed agents, escalating 16% fewer calls.

6. 20% Reduction in BPO Costs for Xenial

Xenial provides a global payments platform to restaurants. Xenial faced a BPO provider failure leading to emergency need. They were up and running with Replicant in a matter of days and at full capacity in 2 weeks. Xenial was paying $1.30/min to their BPO before moving to Replicant. They now see a 20% cost reduction from making the switch.

Transformative automation at scale

Replicant customers do more with Contact Center Automation. Customer service agents are freed from repetitive, mundane work. Business leaders gain insights into every conversation with built-in analytics. Customers get no-wait, omnichannel service that they actually enjoy speaking to. And seasonal spikes are flattened with an infinitely scalable automation platform.

The post Six Companies Experiencing Profit Margin Miracles with Replicant appeared first on Replicant.

Contact Center Automation’s ability to transform customer service operations, improve the agent experience, and boost bottom lines is making a huge impact at companies across industries.  

But how organizations approach an automation deployment varies greatly. Some take a gradual approach, starting by automating a single process like Routing or Customer Authentication. 

Others leverage automation to start offering after hours support or as an overflow option when demand spikes. Others implement around a more robust use case, like automating 100% of Appointments or Dispatch Requests. 

In each scenario, the goal is the same: test the impact of Contact Center Automation and, eventually, realize enough value that the business case of going all-in becomes clear. 

This was the case for OnProcess, a supply chain business focused on equipment recovery.

At Resolve 2022 Mark Oldani, COO of OnProcess, shared why his team decided to dive head first into Contact Center Automation after understanding its benefits. Their partnership with Replicant has transformed their ability to interact with customers while adding significant value for their agents. 

OnProcess manages the circular supply chain for companies that require moving hardware and equipment around, processing some 20 million service orders and returns a year in over 110 countries. 

The recovery of inventory is the largest part of OnProcess’ business, according to Oldani, but it’s also a very straightforward job dependent on the repetition of fairly simple tasks.

“When you look at the agents that we had on some of our most routine programs, those are the ones that had the highest attrition rates,” said Oldani. He said the attrition rate for agents in these entry-level roles was in the 9-11% range on a monthly basis because the job “was not complex, it was super routine and redundant.” 

Oldani explained that when OnProcess started moving their agents out of jobs with “routine and mundane work” and into roles with more complex responsibilities, the company saw “a huge difference in their satisfaction level and their retention level.” In fact, the attrition rate for employees with enhanced responsibilities dropped to 1-3% per month.

Attrition dipped for entry-level agents, too, down to 4-6% per month, “Because we don’t need to hire as many people at that first level,” Oldani said. “And even the ones on the first level jobs can see what we’re doing. And they can see how [automation] is benefiting them in their jobs.” 

But Contact Center Automation didn’t just help create a greater purpose for OnProcess agents. It also improved the company’s capacity to resolve many common customer requests by providing automated support across a variety of channels. “We want to be available any way and every way,” said Oldani.

For the more complicated customer support requests that still require the expertise of a live agent, “we want them to engage with that customer with the data in hand,” said Oldani. Indeed, Contact Center Automation provides agents with knowledge and information about customers that helps inform the response and potential resolution before the interaction even begins. 

Oldani called the implementation and success of their Replicant partnership an “absolute home run” for OnProcess – and he has the metrics to back it up:

• 11% improvement in equipment return rates
• CSAT improved by 40%
• 500% increase in outbound volume
• 70% reduction in average hold time
• 35% net monthly savings

Alongside these impressive figures that demonstrate the value Contact Center Automation has brought to OnProcess, Oldani also highlighted another key fact. “We haven’t laid off anybody associated with this,” he said. The changes have actually allowed the company to win new business faster by freeing up nearly 40 agents and transitioning them to help out with new clients. “The great news is people are going into new jobs, these digital services and automation jobs,” he said.

“It’s a constant effort to keep building energy around a digital transformation. And going all in on automation is not a one-time thing, it’s a constant thing,” said Oldani. “We don’t know what’s coming next. This world is changing quickly. Technology’s changing quickly. But if you’re all in, you’re going to be positioned to take advantage of the next wave of whatever it is when it comes.”

Check out Resolve Rewind to access a trove of insightful presentations from contact center leaders and customer service innovators, and learn more about how Contact Center Automation is changing the way companies engage with their customers.

The post Why OnProcess Went All-In On Automation appeared first on Replicant.

As businesses evaluate call center automation solutions, it’s important to consider a company’s particular priorities and needs. For many organizations, today, improving the customer experience, reducing wait times and costs, and finding ways to deal with the labor shortage and high attrition rates top that list. Replicant’s conversational AI software successfully addresses those issues with industry-specific contact center automation solutions.

What Is Call Center Automation?

Call center automation involves using AI to improve customer experience. For example, when a person calls, chats, or emails a business, that inquiry is resolved quickly and immediately and added to that individual customer’s repository of data for future reference. This eliminates wait time, reduces the number of resources to call resolution, and shifts only the most complex calls to live agents.

What Are The Best Automation Solutions?

The best solutions for call center automation use natural language processing and other contact center automation tools to address repetitive, common questions with zero wait time and no human interaction. Instead of a frustrating keypad or keyword-only interaction, customers can simply speak in a natural manner. The best-automated solutions can understand multiple customer intents and retrieve an accurate answer automatically.

Industries such as hospitality and travel, insurance, finance, and healthcare, which experience high call volumes and repetitive inquiries regarding balance status, reservation changes, or appointment inquiries can automate a vast majority of their calls.

What Is The Top Call Center Automation Software In 2023?

Replicant’s conversational AI solution is one of the top automated contact center solutions available today. Its platform is built on millions of real customer interactions, providing every new customer with an easy-to-implement solution that’s immediately effective. The longer Replicant is used, the more it “learns” about a specific business’s customers and the “smarter” it gets over time.

Replicant has years of experience, successfully automating millions of calls for some of the world’s most trusted brands. We provide a robust, secure solution that is easy for both managers and customers to deploy, maintain, and constantly improve. 

The Benefits Of Implementing Now

Today’s call center automation technology can provide omnichannel support, well-designed and effective conversations, conversation analytics, agent collaboration, comprehensive integrations, and security. This, in turn, means that contact centers can automate common customer requests, increase the availability of agents to take complex calls, collect richer data, and reduce costs significantly. 

Call center automation software is still relatively new within the industry, and front-runners will benefit the most. Many contact centers are still upgrading other parts of their technology stacks, which means those who automate now gain a competitive advantage. 

National consumer satisfaction indexes are down. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, there has been a sharp decline in customer satisfaction since 2019. “There are several reasons for the flattening and subsequent decline of customer satisfaction. While COVID-19 has certainly played a role, the fall in customer satisfaction began before the advent of the pandemic. From 2010 to 2019, about 70 percent of the companies tracked by ACSI had declining or flat customer satisfaction scores. Since then, American customers have become even more dissatisfied. As of the fourth quarter of 2021, almost 80 percent of the companies have now failed to increase the satisfaction of their customers since 2010.”

That means those contact centers that automate now will shine against the competition. Early adopters can also see which requests are best suited for automation and gather more accurate data to inform future decisions. Since Replicant’s solution can answer an unlimited number of simultaneous calls, contact centers are ready for unpredictable spikes in demand. 

Try Replicant

Learn more about call center automation software by scheduling a demo now. Our expert team has years of experience in helping organizations like yours achieve their ROI goals. Consider the call center automation ROI your company can achieve.

The post Call Center Automation Software in 2023 appeared first on Replicant.

According to Gartner, worldwide end-user spending on conversational AI solutions within contact centers was forecasted to reach $1.99 billion in 2022. Contact center management is under increasing pressure to deliver a faster and more personalized customer experience.

What is contact center AI?

Contact Center AI is a technology that’s based on artificial intelligence (AI) designed to answer customers’ questions immediately. Using natural language processing and implemented in every channel, call center AI resolves the vast majority of inquiries without human interaction. This technology eliminates wait time and allows live agents to assist customers on more complex inquiries requiring empathy.

How can AI increase the customer experience?

An AI contact center improves the customer experience because questions and issues are addressed and resolved immediately. A Zendesk study recently reported that nearly two-thirds of customers said that long wait times and sitting on hold are the most frustrating part of working with a business. Contact centers using AI have zero wait time.

How can AI increase performance in a contact center?

Contact center AI solutions can improve performance in a contact center by resolving more customer questions and inquiries at a faster rate than without using cloud contact center solutions. First, all calls are immediately and can be simultaneously answered, even during peak periods. Second, those simple and repetitive questions regarding things like order status, account updates, or appointment changes can be managed automatically with no human intervention. And, finally, live agents are then freed to help customers with more complex issues more quickly. Since complete conversation notes are transferred, customers do not have to repeat basic information multiple times.

Reaching goals with AI in the contact center

Today’s contact center management teams are focused on increasing customer satisfaction, addressing ongoing staffing issues, automating customer service processes, reducing costs, and upgrading legacy technology.

Based on conversational AI technology, a cloud contact center transforms traditional call centers into efficient, data-driven organizations that are able to serve more customers faster while freeing agents from their most redundant tasks.

Benefits of an AI contact center

By using an AI contact center, businesses can reap many important benefits. Some key advantages include:

• Consistent service. AI allows contact centers to provide the same consistent automated service across channels, so customers don’t have different experiences whether they call, chat or text.
• Single data repository. All customer interactions from every channel are rolled up into one data repository, allowing every interaction to build on previous ones.
• Happier agents. By shifting repetitive mundane work off the plates of live agents, contact centers can create a more rewarding employee experience. Agents are more challenged with solving complex problems that require knowledge and empathy.
• Unlimited scalability. Because conversational AI can answer an unlimited number of simultaneous calls, businesses can scale growth or manage call volume peaks without affecting service performance.
• Higher customer satisfaction. Contact center automation is proven to resolve Tier One customer requests faster and with higher satisfaction rates than human agents. 

Replicant’s value proposition

For more than six years, Replicant has helped many organizations transform their contact centers using automation. Our team has worked side by side with contact centers to identify opportunities best suited for automation, create an ROI model, design conversations, integrate with existing systems, and everything in between.

Replicant experts help contact center customers launch battle-tested automation in just weeks, so they don’t have to dedicate time, money, and resources to designing a solution themselves. Instead, our customers can focus on their core business as well as serving their customers better and faster. 

Try Replicant

If you’re ready to give customer service automation a try, reach out to our Replicant team today. We have years of experience in helping contact centers just like yours successfully implement contact center technology.

The post AI Contact Center: A Faster and Personalized Customer Experience appeared first on Replicant.

For many businesses, the question of whether or not to use IVR voice bots remains. While traditional voice IVR tends to fill customers with dread, IVR technology has advanced. And, when it’s combined with AI, smart IVR solutions can make a huge positive difference for agents and customers. 

What is Interactive Voice Response (IVR)?

Interactive voice response has automatically greeted customers for decades in lieu of live agents. It’s an automated machine that answers every customer service call and directs them to a self-service channel or a live agent. While it was an innovative solution in its time, technology progressed so quickly that voice IVR is now outdated. 

IVR is no longer the most efficient call center solution as it often blocks customers out of customer service instead of giving them the information they need. Because it’s not human and because it doesn’t have the voice AI technology of modern solutions, it doesn’t understand customer preference; for example, it may not pick up on a customer’s desire to speak to a live agent instead of using self-service channels. 

Finally, because voice IVR has more difficulty understanding natural language, customers often have to repeat themselves or select an option from a rigid menu. 

What is Smart IVR and How Has It Advanced?

Fortunately, though many call centers continue to use outdated solutions like IVR, progress has been made. Traditional voice IVR contact center systems, when paired with modern automation, conversational AI, and natural language processing, can become a powerful tool. 

Smart IVR no longer relies on a short list of options, a rigid phone tree, or a selection of the right keywords. Instead, with machine learning and artificial intelligence, it’s become much better at understanding everyday phrases, thus eliminating many of the frustrations that customers associate with IVRs. 

How Has IVR Evolved?

IVR technology has come a long way. Traditional voice IVR took much of the load off the shoulders of call center agents. Though it might not have solved every problem, for the most part, IVR did what it was supposed to do.

However, the world of technology is always changing and improving, and IVR has had to evolve to succeed among other advanced call center technologies that enhance customer experience. As Forbes puts it, “artificial intelligence (AI) is the key to reinventing IVR, because it takes the technology beyond simple voice recognition to a level of voice understanding.”

Differences Between Traditional IVR and Contact Center Automation

There are a few major differences that set traditional voice IVR apart from modern automation solutions like Replicant. 

• Faster comprehension: Traditional voice  IVR uses frustrating dial pad methods and keyword matching to understand questions. Contact center automation uses AI to comprehend and respond to questions asked in natural language in less than a second. 
• Access to more features: Replicant’s solution offers all the benefits of a traditional voice IVR and many other benefits. For example, you’ll also receive access to an extensive library of conversation components so scaling up is easy and inexpensive. 
• Customer support: According to McKinsey, many call centers make the mistake of using IVR to reduce costs instead of to improve customer support. In contrast, Replicant’s automation solution puts customers first, keeping them informed of potential wait times and alternative options – without the cost of additional agents. 

Try Replicant’s Solution

Whether you’re just starting out as a business or trying to update your contact center, smart voice IVR systems that use modern technologies like AI and automation can be a game-changer. Calculate your contact center automation ROI to find out if Replicant is the right solution for your business.

The post What is Voice IVR and Does Your Call Center Need It? appeared first on Replicant.

Within the contact center industry, AI chatbots are increasingly being used. According to the 2022 Benchmark Report, roughly 95 percent of contact center leaders have either already adopted, are implementing now, or are planning to begin automation within the next year. Why? Because today’s contact center automation and AI chatbot software can now allow contact centers to resolve 100 percent of their Tier One calls, chats, and texts using automation. This means that live agents can focus on more complex calls that require urgent human help, empathy, and creativity. 

What Is A Customer Service Chatbot?

A customer service chatbot is an automated solution that can respond immediately to a customer’s question or inquiry. Although original chatbots were extremely limited in their capabilities, drawing from very few frequently asked questions, today’s AI chatbot software can understand natural language and multiple customer intents, resolving a vast number of inquiries with zero wait time or human intervention.

How Can Chatbots Improve The Customer Experience?

Chatbots can improve the customer experience by answering an unlimited number of simultaneous customer inquiries quickly and immediately. The vast majority of customer questions are repetitive and can easily be automated, which means a customer can call, text or chat and resolve their concern without waiting or repeating information. 

How To Use Chatbots To Increase Customer Service?

Contact centers can use chatbots to boost customer satisfaction by selecting a leading conversational AI solution provider like Replicant. Replicant’s Thinking Machine saves contact centers money, improves their CSAT scores, lowers average handle times, and increases their readiness for unpredictable spikes in call volumes. 

What Industries Benefit Most From AI Chatbot Software?

Industries that receive high volumes of repetitive calls from customers are great candidates for the best chatbot software. These businesses will get the greatest return on their investment. Here are some common applications:

• Travel and Hospitality: In this industry, customers are constantly calling to make, change, or cancel reservations. These inquiries are simple to automate but can often cause a backlog and result in poor user experience. AI chatbots can handle an unlimited number of these requests simultaneously.
• Financial Services: In banking and investment areas, customers often need to check account balances, make transactions, or ask informational questions. AI chatbots can manage all of these inquiries without human intervention.
• Healthcare: Having a HIPAA-compliant system that allows healthcare organizations to manage appointment scheduling, bill payment, and inquiry, or triage activity can free live agents to handle more urgent or sensitive questions and concerns.
• Insurance: Similar to financial services, insurance companies deal with a vast number of customer inquiries that are similar to one another. Customers need policy information, coverage data, or account updating services. All of these can be communicated by the customer speaking naturally and AI chatbots can often resolve these issues immediately.
• eCommerce: Customers often contact online eCommerce companies to order products or services, check on existing orders, cancel or update orders, change account information, or track shipments. Returns, exchanges, and FAQs can often be easily automated as well.

How Do AI Chatbots Help Agents?

Not only does chatbot technology improve the customer experience, but it also improves the employee experience. According to Forbes, “the problem is, the call center experience, or ‘customer service’ more generally, is not only the most stressful part of the customer experience there is, but it is also the most stressful part of the employee experience.” When the employee experience is improved, an even better customer experience follows.

Live agents dislike answering repetitive questions all day long. When these tasks can be bumped into an AI chatbot, they can work at a higher level, helping customers resolve more complex problems that require creativity and empathy. This boosts employee satisfaction and retention.

Try Replicant

If you’re ready to learn more about customer service automation, reach out today. Our experienced team would love to help your contact center boost customer satisfaction to stellar levels.

The post Boost Customer Service with AI Chatbot Software: Find Out How appeared first on Replicant.

If your business hasn’t yet implemented a conversational AI solution, now might be a great time to do so. First, however, it’s a good idea to understand exactly what conversational AI is and how it works so you can make an informed decision between available contact center solutions. 

What is Conversational AI?

Conversational AI is artificial intelligence for call centers that streamlines customer experience (CX), fosters customer engagement, and improves brand loyalty. It works alongside human agents, often resolving tier-one customer requests and answering frequently asked questions. Other more complicated calls are escalated effectively to human agents with short or no hold times. 

To get a better idea of what AI customer service looks like in action, here’s an example of automated problem resolution. A customer calls the customer service number or types a question into a chatbox. A bot instantly responds. The customer explains his or her question, and the bot uses natural language processing to understand the question regardless of how multi-faceted or complicated it is. Next, if AI can resolve the customer’s request, it does. If it determines that the issue requires agent attention, the bot escalates the customer request to a human representative with a full history of conversation notes so no information must be repeated.

Where is the Future of Conversational AI?

As McKinsey accurately states, “companies need to address every opportunity to improve productivity while delivering a better service experience” to unlock maximum value. Conversational AI technology is one of those opportunities. The success of this technology makes it clear that automated self-service and AI chatbots won’t disappear anytime soon from contact centers and customer service. As a result, business owners might want to consider the implications. 

• If you haven’t already implemented a conversational AI solution in your call center, seriously consider finding one. Conversational AI is key to customer satisfaction and will continue to be important in the coming customer experience era, as many call centers have found that it overcomes agent shortages, increases ROI, provides data insights, reduces costs, and supports stellar customer support. 
• Companies who have already started using AI should use it to its fullest potential. AI solutions like Replicant offer analytics that give deep insights into customer service, so make use of those to improve the future of conversational AI within your own business. 
• When you implement automation technology, it will change certain dynamics within your call center. Help your call center representatives work efficiently alongside automation and machine learning by implementing a solution that is designed to integrate into existing workflows and processes. 

Will AI Replace Humans in the Customer Service Industry?

The replacement of human call center agents by artificial intelligence is a great hope – or fear – of many business owners and customer service representatives. However, Businesswire believes that “the imperative to maintain the human element in the customer experience will assume even more importance” in coming years. Though many automation technologies are successfully replicating that human element with natural conversation abilities, it is unlikely that technology will completely eliminate the need for humans in contact centers. 

Try Replicant’s Solution

It’s difficult to predict exactly what the future holds for customer service, but you can count on automation and AI technology sticking around. If you haven’t yet implemented a customer service solution, take advantage of Replicant’s conversational AI demo to find out what these technologies could do to improve customer retention.

The post Conversational AI For Customer Service: The Future appeared first on Replicant.

According to Fortune, “as frontline employees, working in a contact center isn’t easy. New research found that 96 percent of contact center agents feel stressed weekly and are taking more calls than ever. Calls rated as ‘difficult’ by customer service agents increased by 100% over the past two years. At the same time, contact center workers are plagued with stress, overwhelm, and a lack of engagement. It’s challenging to provide excellent customer service when the agents can barely keep their heads above water.”

Although call center outsourcing solutions have provided some level of relief, in today’s competitive market, it is no longer a long-term viable solution.

The staffing shortage that many call centers face today is affecting business process outsourcing providers as well. This usually means high turnover rates and lengthy training processes. The number of agents is frequently out of line with the volume of calls. Businesses may either be paying idle agents, or customers may experience long wait times if agents are not trained and available.

Providing an excellent alternative to outsourcing, Replicant provides a call center automation solution that can scale immediately to any volume.

What are the pros and cons of outsourcing a call center?

The main advantage of call center outsourcing companies is they may be able to provide additional agents to answer calls when your in-house agents are unavailable. However, disadvantages include the inability to scale the number of available agents to call volume perfectly as well as long training times and turnover issues.

What are the pros and cons of call center automation?

Call center automation, on the other hand, can automatically scale to the existing call center volume. It can answer any number of calls simultaneously, eliminating customer wait time and providing a better customer experience. A solution such as Replicant has been trained on millions of real customer service calls and continues to learn over time. There are very few disadvantages to call center automation.

What are the alternatives to call center outsourcing?

There are alternatives to call center outsourcing solutions, including hiring more internal agents and adding an automated call center. The current labor shortage can make the former alternative a challenge. By turning to call center automation, a business can easily handle the majority of repetitive, Tier One customer calls with no human interaction through machine learning.

Why is Replicant a better alternative to outsourcing?

Call center outsourcing companies are not the only options out there. Replicant is an excellent alternative. It has been trained on millions of real customer calls, which means it can be quickly and easily implemented. Over time, the solution will continue to learn about your organization, becoming a more valuable team member every day.

In addition, Replicant uses natural language processing, which means that questions and inquiries can often be handled automatically without human intervention. This frees your live agents to manage more complex questions that require human empathy. If this is the case, Replicant forwards a complete transcript to the agent so that customers do not need to repeat information.

Replicant’s Contact Center Automation solution is highly flexible and can be customized to meet individual call center needs. For example, our technology can be used in front of interactive voice response (IVR) as a “front desk” that handles the initial intake of every customer. Customers can state any number of requests and the Thinking Machine will either resolve them or collect the necessary preliminary information and efficiently pass off requests to appropriate agents.

It can also be used behind an IVR, triggered when a customer has a particular request that the Thinking Machine has been designated to handle. Many contact centers leverage Replicant to handle requests after normal business hours, on weekends, or during holidays as well.

Try Replicant

If you’re ready to learn more, reach out to our team today. We love to share our call center automation solutions with you.

The post Replicant: The Alternative to Call Center Outsourcing Solutions appeared first on Replicant.

But this is simply not true. When you dig deeper into the technology behind AI chatbot conversation, it is far more complex – and it has many more capabilities. And you’ll see the benefits of these bots within your own call center when you start using a conversational AI bot to answer your customer service calls. 

What is the History Of Conversational AI Bots?

Smart conversational AI bots combine several technologies, including natural language understanding, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. But these bots weren’t developed in a day. Though AI bots aren’t the same as rule-based chatbots, they developed from them; software developers realized that chatbots had user experience issues and solved those issues through better technology. 

Alan Turing came up with the basic idea of chatbots in 1966, realizing that computer programs could potentially interact with humans. The first chatbot, named Eliza, was then created, and many iterations of this chatbot soon followed. Call centers realized they could be extremely helpful in customer service, and they weren’t wrong. But, as Forbes put it, these traditional chatbots only “offered scripted and robotic user experiences.”

However, with the advent of AI technology, conversational AI bots have evolved into something far beyond the traditional chatbot. 

Are Chatbots the Same as Conversational AI Bots?

No, chatbots and conversational AI bots aren’t the same, and they offer very different digital experiences. The biggest difference is in the level of intelligence each technology has. Forrester says that, for chatbots to delight customers, designers “need to master conversation design.” Conversational AI is the tool that makes that possible. AI for chatbots allows them to self-improve using data from past conversations, speak naturally to customers, and understand natural speech and complex questions.

What Are Examples of Conversational AI Bots in a Call Center?

Suppose a customer calls the customer service number. A conversational AI bot answers the call immediately and determines that the customer wants to know how to edit personal information. The bot walks the customer through that process. If at any point, the conversational AI bot realizes that it can’t solve the customer’s issue, it can escalate the call to an agent. 

Compare that to a chatbot. It may answer the phone immediately, but it will force the customer to communicate beneath its rigid structure. That may mean using specific keywords or pressing numbers to select a question or category. 

While chatbots are occasionally able to resolve customer requests, customers tend to get stuck in the system because chatbots often don’t understand customer requests, resolve them, or know when to escalate calls. And when they do manage to redirect customers in the right direction, agents are typically so overloaded with calls that customers have to wait anywhere from five minutes to two hours to talk to a human. 

Try Replicant’s Solution

There was a time when a chatbot was the best contact center solution you could get. But technology has moved far beyond that, and it’s time to take advantage of it. When you implement Replicant’s AI bots, you’ll see your conversational AI ROI skyrocket.

The post Conversational AI Bots Are So Much More Than Just Chatbots appeared first on Replicant.

What is Call Center Automation?

Call center automation is all about responding quickly to questions and inquiries from customers coming in from any channel. Calls are answered immediately and simultaneously, which means zero hold time. Ideally, questions are resolved accurately and immediately with no human intervention. 

Call center automation should be a priority for many organizations in the coming year. In fact, McKinsey reports that survey “respondents say their top three priorities over the next 12 to 24 months will be retaining and developing the best people, driving a simplified customer experience (CX) while reducing call volumes and costs, and building their digital care and advanced analytics ecosystems.”

How do you automate a call center?

Automating a call center requires implementing technology that can automatically answer incoming calls. While phone trees, interactive voice response, and chatbots have attempted to move contact centers in this direction, they often fall short. 

The McKinsey report states, “While digital solutions and the shift to self-service channels will solve many of these challenges, they aren’t quite reaching the goal. For most organizations, most digital customer contacts require assistance, and only 10 percent of newly built digital platforms are fully scaled or adopted by customers.” Conversational AI solutions use machine learning and natural language processing to understand and respond to Tier One customer calls rapidly.

What types of calls can be automated?

While just about any calls can technically be automated, the ones that generate the highest return on investment and customer satisfaction scores are those calls that are repetitive and frequently asked. Identifying which call streams these include will be unique for every organization but often include:

• Account and order management
• Authentication
• Billing and payments
• Call routing
• Outbound calling reminders, and 
• Scheduling reservations

A proven process

Contact centers should begin the process by determining which customer service requests are best suited for automation. Select an experienced partner such as Replicant and bring together key leaders in the organization. Pull together your data sources and work together to identify your contact center’s Tier One call flows.

Start with those calls that generate the highest volume, those conversations that take place thousands of times every week. These may include reservation management requests, order inquiries, or account information updates. Automating these calls helps you to achieve economies of scale that significantly impact your contact center operations and ROI.

Typically, these high-volume calls are simple, repetitive, unemotional, and prone to spikes during peak periods or seasons. Such calls are ripe for call center automation solutions.

A proven solution

Replicant’s Thinking Machine is built on millions of actual customer calls and offers hundreds of pre-built conversation components that work out of the box. This leads to fast implementation and helps contact centers design the most optimal conversation flows without heavy IT involvement. Replicant also integrates with any combination of solutions like CRMs, CCaaS and telephony platforms, meaning deployment can happen in a matter of weeks, not months or even years.

That said, Replicant’s conversational AI solution can personalize these conversations with the Thinking Machine, so each customer gets customized service based on their personal purchasing and interaction history. Over time, Replicant learns more about the calls specific to your contact center, becoming more efficient and effective with every interaction.

Learn More

Our call center automation experts would be happy to work with your organization to help you determine the best customer calls to automate. Learn how much automation can help you save with our contact center automation ROI calculator now.

The post Call Center Automation: The Best Calls to Automate in Your Contact Center appeared first on Replicant.

What is IVR in a Call Center?

At the most basic level, an IVR is an answering machine that receives every customer request. Then, using the keypad or keyword instructions, IVR redirects calls to agents. 

Unfortunately, IVR represents frustrating customer service for many consumers because it uses route trees and keyword matching to understand customer requests. When they get on the line, customers are forced to listen to several options before pressing or saying a number.

Additionally, call center IVR often fails to resolve customer requests. It can’t automatically resolve them and it often doesn’t understand when to transfer them to an agent. This wastes time and leads to high caller abandonment rates.  But artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and machine learning have dramatically changed and improved traditional IVR systems. 

What is Smart IVR?

Smart IVRs use modern technology like conversational AI and natural language processing to determine customer intent, understand complex questions, and eliminate the need for clunky keyword communication. As a result, customers speak normally in a conversation with AI.

For example, Replicant’s Thinking Machine is built to handle a wide range of customer requests independently of an agent. It sets out to change customers’ negative perceptions of IVR contact centers while making stellar call centers affordable and dependable. Once you integrate Replicant’s advanced call center technologies, you’ll see customer satisfaction and cost savings spike. 

How Does Today’s Smart IVR Differ From Previous Versions of IVR?

Forrester considers whether IVRs are a necessary evil, old technology on its way out, or a strategic component of self-service. While customer feedback makes it easy to condemn IVRs of any type, it would be a mistake to reject IVR technology based on the versions first developed. 

Companies that put resources into call center IVR have realized that answering customer requests with automation doesn’t have to be bad. Customers interacting with smart IVRs are often surprised that they can ask any question without hopelessly confusing the machine. Heavy accents, unique dialects, and speech disabilities don’t affect its ability to understand. Businesswire predicts that speech-enabled IVR will become the preferred user interface in the coming years. 

What are Some Best Practices For IVR in Modern Call Centers?

If you decide to implement a call center IVR solution, you should use it to its fullest potential. Too often, when a new technology solution is introduced, teams are reluctant to put time into learning how to use it, and thus they never benefit from it. Replicant makes transitions easy, as it integrates into the processes you’re already using. 

Here are some tips for getting the most out of your IVR solution:

• Get your agents on board with updating your call center. 
• Implement a smart IVR solution for the best customer experience. 
• Understand how it works and how each of its elements could benefit your business.

Try Replicant’s Solution

Our solutions use the latest in call center technology and offer an unmatched ROI. If you want to learn more about our technology and the difference it could make for your business, set up a  conversational AI demo and see for yourself.

The post Smart Call Center IVR: Refining a Long-Standing Problem appeared first on Replicant.

“It has now become unthinkable to fail to provide real-time support. Whether it’s via live chat or chatbots, your business is expected to respond to customer queries 24/7,” stated a Fortune article. That’s why AI customer service must play a role in today’s contact centers.

While delivering good customer service has become table stakes, a bad experience can have dire consequences. In fact, according to another article in Forbes, 96 percent of customers will leave as a result of poor customer experience.

In addition, the measuring stick goes far beyond your company’s specific market. The Forbes article explained, “customers no longer compare you only to your direct competition. They compare you to the best service they have ever received from anyone … The benchmark may be set by companies outside your industry. These companies have given your customers their customer service education.”

How can AI be used in customer service?

AI can be used successfully in your customer journey by handling the myriad of basic, repetitive calls immediately and simultaneously. The vast majority of calls in many industries are tier-one in nature: account updates, order status requests, frequently asked questions, and so forth. Using conversational AI in customer service solutions can easily take care of these requests with zero wait time, freeing live agents to manage more complex inquiries that require human empathy.

How can AI improve customer service?

The main things that customers complain about when it comes to poor customer service include long wait times, the need to repeat information throughout the inquiry process, and the inability to obtain a resolution or an answer quickly. AI customer service can address all of these complaints.

For example, Replicant’s Thinking Machine can answer an unlimited number of calls simultaneously, which means that companies can eliminate hold time even during peak seasons. It also generates a complete conversation record regardless of channel, which allows a human agent to pick up exactly where Replicant left off, eliminating the need for customers to repeat information. For Tier One inquiries, Replicant can resolve issues and answer questions immediately, accurately, and without human interaction.

Replicant customers have consistently achieved high customer satisfaction scores as a result of its machine learning and natural language capabilities. The solution has been trained on millions of real customer calls, learning along the way. The learning continues once it is implemented in your organization, which means the tool will be more effective and efficient as time goes on.

A partner to live agents

Unlike some automation solutions, Replicant’s conversational AI customer service solution is not designed to replace live agents. In fact, part of its purpose is to make life easier for your customer service representatives. 

First, Replicant removes all the boring, mundane questions that live agents hate and answers them immediately. This allows representatives to work at the top of their skill level, solving more complex problems for customers and working with situations that require human empathy. This, in turn, means a higher level of agent satisfaction and lower turnover rates.

Second, Replicant takes complete conversation notes from all channels, providing agents with a history of interactions with the customer. This allows the agent to pick up where the automated solution left off instead of starting all over again. 

As a result, Replicant delivers exceptional agent satisfaction, which then plays a role in the representative being able to improve customer experience in person when needed.

Try Replicant’s Solution

Ready to embark on AI customer service and see your customer satisfaction scores increase? Scale up your contact center automation with our Thinking Machine. Our holistic and customizable approach to automation has delivered proven results, improving customer service, reducing costs, and helping customers succeed in multiple industries.

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Ever since the beginning of the global pandemic of 2020, consumer expectations have risen at exponential rates and contact centers have struggled to keep up with these demands. The labor shortage and high turnover rates have exacerbated the problem, resulting in long hold times and dissatisfied customers.

The new year is the perfect time to review modern automated contact center solutions that can handle the most repetitive, common questions easily and efficiently. Such a solution can help free up live agents to handle the most complex calls that require a human touch. Read our Definitive Guide to Contact Center Automation.

What makes the best contact center solutions in 2023?

In 2023, the best contact center solutions must automatically answer basic, repetitive customer inquiries immediately and eliminate hold time. Solutions should be able to understand natural language so customers can speak just as if they were talking to an agent as well as keep complete conversation notes that can be forwarded to an agent if an escalation is required. Finally, the system should be able to answer unlimited calls simultaneously, allowing contact centers to scale easily even during peak periods.

What should I look for in contact center solutions today?

Contact center management should look for a solution that can automate tier-one customer calls quickly and seamlessly. The vast majority of customer calls handled by a business are repetitive. Consumers are often seeking account or order information, checking or paying balances, or requesting basic data. All of these can easily be managed through AI and machine learning today, saving businesses money in the long run. In fact, Gartner predicts that conversational AI technology will reduce contact center labor costs by $80 billion by 2026.

A focus on delighting customers

The reality is that customers’ high expectations are not going away. In fact, it’s likely that the new year will usher in even greater demands. As a result, contact centers must up their game–avoiding customer disappointment is no longer good enough; today, businesses must work to delight their customers. According to Forbes, “Modern customers want what they want, and they want it now. Speed and convenience matter to customers more than ever, and brands that deliver instant gratification have a huge competitive advantage.”

In this modern age when consumers are used to getting anything and everything they want to be delivered within a day or two, they expect companies to be at their beck and call around the clock and throughout the year. Businesses must offer an always-available omnichannel contact center, giving customers the opportunity to reach out by phone, text, or chat.

Ideally, communication through all channels is funneled into a single customer record, allowing access to that information in every interaction. This eliminates the customer’s frustration of having to repeat information each time they reach out. When you combine the customer record with zero wait time and immediate problem resolution, customer service is vastly improved.

Key functionality

It’s a widely-known fact that customers hate limited phone trees and endless voice-activated loops. The focus in these systems is simply to get to a live person, regardless of how simple the question may be. 

As you evaluate the best contact center solutions for 2023, you’ll want to make sure you select a system that offers conversational AI and machine learning functionality as well as natural language processing. Replicant’s Thinking Machine has been a proven solution for hundreds of call centers around the country, massively driving down costs and improving customer service.

Because this solution is trained on millions of actual customer calls, implementation is usually straightforward and simple. As Replicant begins answering customer calls, it will learn the nuances specific to your business, becoming a stronger part of the team with every interaction. 

Learn More

You can learn more about the best contact center solutions by contacting our team here at Replicant. Discover how much you can save with our online ROI calculator.

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As a result, it’s essential that you understand what these technologies are and what their roles should be within a contact center. Whether you want to focus on improving customer service, boosting your KPIs, or giving your agents a break from the customer service calls piling up around them, you’ll need to determine for your company which technologies will make the biggest difference.

Virtual agents are one of these technologies. While they can be very useful for certain tasks, they are by no means the right solution for every situation. Like any other technology, virtual call center agents have a number of advantages and disadvantages. Read our Definitive Guide to Contact Center Automation.

What is a Virtual Call Center Agent?

An intelligent virtual agent (IVA) is a rule-based self-service tool that takes care of customer service requests. It communicates information, directs customers to websites, and sometimes helps customers resolve issues. However, it can’t handle multiple questions at the same time or resolve the majority of customer requests. As a result, a virtual support agent often results in lower customer satisfaction. 

What is an AI-Powered Virtual Agent?

Many CCaaS platforms have integrated IVA into their customer call center solutions. These virtual agents use artificial intelligence for friendly communication and problem resolution. While AI-enabled virtual agents can be quite useful within a contact center, they are a more primitive solution compared to newer technology. 

Replicant’s cloud-based contact center automation solution, for example, is able to do all an AI-powered virtual agent can – and more. Contact center automation uses artificial intelligence to its fullest potential, creating the possibility for “self-service through human language”, according to Forbes. Because it aims for resolution rather than deflection, Replicant eliminates the need for agent involvement in the majority of customer requests. 

What Do Virtual Agents Do?

Virtual agents were designed to solve an ongoing contact center issue: a shortage of human agents. Contact centers often struggle with high call volumes as there aren’t enough agents to handle them. As a result, customers find themselves either struggling to get a bot to understand them or waiting hours for a human agent to become available. 

Created to resolve very basic customer calls, virtual agents free live agents so that they can take care of other requests. While, for some industries, virtual agents make clear communication and great customer service possible, they are often inadequate. They take some of the load off agents’ shoulders, but customers continue to find themselves stuck in an IVR cycle or waiting for an agent. 

When Should a Virtual Agent Be Considered?

When deciding on a contact center solution, think about the type of customer service requests you receive on a daily basis. Do they tend to be essentially the same questions, or do you often receive multi-faceted and complex requests? Let the answer to that question factor into your decision between a virtual rep and other solutions, like contact center automation.

Harvard Business Review suggests thinking about whether or not your business really needs the help of bots. However, if you determine that a contact center solution would make a big difference, keep in mind that virtual support agents can only handle a certain level of complexity. Artificial intelligence and automation solutions have advanced a long way within the past couple of decades – and they’ll continue to improve. If it makes sense for your company, use the latest cutting-edge technology to keep your business as up-to-date as possible. 

Try Replicant’s Solution

If you’re considering virtual agents as a contact center solution, you might want to consider Replicant as an alternative. With a more holistic and customizable approach to automation, Replicant has been the answer to customer service issues across a variety of industries, improving contact center automation ROI and enhancing customer service. 

The post Understanding Virtual Agents and Their Role appeared first on Replicant.

Good technological solutions take years of research and trial and error to develop. Because there is a huge market for automation and AI technology, the competition is intense and many of these solutions never succeed. As a business, it’s up to you to determine which solutions will be successful, especially for your particular industry.

Businesses that are ready to start using AI to improve customer experience should make their decision with a solid understanding of different solutions and the industry as a whole. These tools and trends will give you that understanding so you can make an informed decision. 

What is Contact Center Automation?

Before you start the search for the perfect automation solution, you should understand what contact center automation is. It’s a customer service technology that automates customer requests without the clumsiness or rigidity of an IVR, which, according to McKinsey, has one major flaw: people don’t like it. Automation, as an alternative to IVRs, creates a natural environment that makes customers more comfortable and gives them greater confidence. 

How do Contact Center and Robotic Processes Automation Work?

Using natural language processing and AI chatbots, automation achieves a high level of understanding of a variety of complicated customer requests. As a result, customers can talk with a bot as they would with a human being instead of using keywords and numbers to communicate. Because AI can solve common customer requests, agents are never involved in the vast majority of repetitive calls, which eliminates hold time. An automated contact center redirects difficult calls to available agents, who quickly resolve them. 

What are the Key Tools and Trends in Contact Center Automation?

Examining the past helps predict the future, so knowing which technologies have been increasing in popularity can give business owners useful information about where technology is headed. These are some of the key contact center automation trends and tools that you should know about.  

• Conversational AI: Artificial intelligence will continue to handle the vast majority of inbound calls, particularly common customer issues, requests, and tasks. While talking to a bot instead of a human used to irritate customers, the technology has developed to the point where there isn’t much of a difference. And while customers might prefer to talk to a human agent, the benefits that come with this contact center automation tool are immense. Hold times – another major customer complaint – are basically eliminated as agents don’t have to interact with every single person who dials the customer service number. 
• Natural language processing: When they call your company, customers want to have their call answered immediately and resolved within a few minutes. However, because technologies used in the past have been notoriously unsuccessful at these simple tasks, consumers have lost all faith in the ability of technology to resolve their issues. Natural language processing is designed to change that – and, so far, it has succeeded, making it a contact center automation tool you should know about. 
• Omnichannel communication: Advancements in other areas of technology have increased customer expectations. While phone calls have been the default customer service communication channel in the past, Forbes points out that each of your customers has different preferences as to which channel to use. 

Try Replicant’s Solution

Replicant removes the risk from contact center automation with guaranteed results and fast deployments. It uses the latest call center technology to create a contact center solution that improves customer experience, increases customer retention, and contributes to success. Automate your contact center today.

The post The Future of Contact Center Automation: Key Tools and Trends appeared first on Replicant.

The four customer service pillars highlighted by Gartner include:

• Getting Connected
• Process Orchestration
• Knowledge and Insight
• Resource Management

Replicant, as the industry leader in Contact Center Automation, has a clear interest in these four pillars and has made strides to incorporate them into Replicant’s platform. The success of Contact Center Automation becomes even more critical when taking a look at another recent report from Gartner that predicts investment in conversational AI will surge to nearly $2 billion this year – and by 2026, will ultimately reduce contact center agent costs by $80 billion. 

Getting connected

This pillar is all about “creating a seamless customer journey across assisted and self-service channels,” according to Gartner, which points to cloud-based technologies as an important avenue to manage customer support and employee engagement. “Cloud enables organizations to focus on transforming customer experience (CX), rather than managing the day-to-day technology needs of users,” said Kraus. 

Replicant tackles this critical pillar through its omnichannel approach. Not only does the cloud-based platform allow customers to receive support via whatever channel they’re most comfortable with – whether it be voice, text or chat – but customers can also switch seamlessly between channels if necessary, without losing context. All customer information from these channels is processed by a single conversation engine that in turn informs automated interactions and resolutions across channels. 

Process orchestration

Automation is the focus of this key pillar, according to Gartner, as automation has improved to the point where supporting increasingly detailed customer needs is not only possible – but practical for contact centers facing budgetary and staffing challenges. “The emergence of sophisticated AI voice capabilities have made large-scale call center automation viable, with huge potential for savings and positive CX,” said Kraus. 

Indeed, Replicant’s game-changing approach to conversational AI has been employed to successfully resolve some 30 million customer service requests. Conversational AI allows people to speak or type naturally with a machine without being beholden to limited menu options and keywords. This is achieved through best-in-class conversation design and accurate machine learning and natural language processing models that ensure fast, accurate, and contextual conversations – that feel as natural as speaking to a human. 

Knowledge and insight

Customer and operational insights are the driver behind this category highlighted by Gartner. In other words, data and analytics. Gartner presents customer data platforms (CDPs) as an example of the type of software that can help a company unify customer data from multiple sources to better understand behaviors over time. 

Replicant provides an out-of-the-box and customizable dashboard to streamline the process of accessing valuable conversation data as a chief component of the powerful suite of tools to manage Contact Center Automation. Beyond automatically transcribing conversations for future analysis, data is compiled to help reveal key trends about the customer experience. Reasons for contacting support, top-performing conversation flows and frequent escalation issues are just a few of the insights that can be explored through Replicant’s platform. 

“Not only has Replicant allowed us to scale our call center operations, but it’s given us insights into caller behavior at a much deeper level than we could have expected – which ultimately helped us improve the customer experience,” said Mikel Bowman, director of customer support operations at ECSI. 

Resource Management

This pillar relates to technology as a means to enhance and empower employees. Improving workforce management by utilizing resources that help enhance employee engagement ultimately creates a stronger customer experience, according to Gartner. But there are also benefits for employees and companies as well, especially as adoption of automation expands in the coming years. Gartner projects that one in 10 agent interactions will be automated by 2026, up from 1.6% today. 

Replicant’s innovative approach to Contact Center Automation is able to resolve most common customer requests, which frees up agents to handle more complex problems that require a higher level of engagement and empathy. This creates a more meaningful work environment and reduces employee turnover. According to Daniel O’Connell, VP analyst at Gartner, the efficiency gained by using automation to even just capture basic information like names and policy numbers “could reduce up to a third of the interaction time that would typically be supported by a human agent.”

Learn more about how Contact Center Automation is a transformative solution for customer service operations across industries – and what a roadmap to automation looks like.

The post Believe the Hype: How Replicant is Positioned to be a Breakout Star in Customer Service  appeared first on Replicant.

It might be easy to dismiss customer service technology if you think your business doesn’t have the resources to boost CX. But what you may not realize is that certain contact center technologies don’t require additional agents, hardware, or training. Replicant uses AI to create an efficient omnichannel call center that results in an improved customer experience, happier employees, and contributes to overall business success – without huge costs. Calculate your contact center automation ROI using our AI solution.

What is an Omnichannel Call Center?

In an Omnichannel call center, customers can communicate with a company through a variety of channels, including phone calls, texts, chat boxes, emails, and social media. Customers can contact the company using any device and at any time in the way that feels most comfortable for them. All these communication methods can be seamlessly connected through cloud-based contact center solutions with omnichannel software. 

For example, customers struggling with ongoing issues are able to use different methods of communication without losing the history of their previous calls, emails, and texts. When agents take up issues that have already been discussed in an email, with a bot, or with another agent, they’ll be provided with the customer’s information and communication up to that point. 

As a result, customers won’t have to deal with the annoyance of having to constantly repeat their account number or email address to different agents at different times. They also won’t waste their own time or the agent’s time repeatedly explaining the problem.

What is the Value of Omnichannel?

The real value of an omnichannel call center is in the improvement of customer service – which leads to happier customers who are more likely to remain loyal to your brand. According to Salesforce, the lack of a consistent customer experience across multiple engagement channels could be a dealbreaker for 73% of consumers. 

Simply put, omnichannel capabilities play a crucial role in improving the customer experience because consumers are provided with a great experience. With Replicant, you can resolve customer issues across all channels using a single conversation engine.

How Does Omnichannel Improve Customer Experience?

Customers are used to having the internet at their fingertips all day every day. They can communicate with family and friends, browse social media, or check the weather instantaneously. And the pandemic fast-forwarded the ever-developing technology of our time. 

According to Forbes, businesses responded quickly to their consumers’ changing needs during COVID. This improvement in customer service was a silver lining to the pandemic. But because customer service did improve, customers continue to expect high-quality customer service from the brands they purchase from. Whether they need help updating their account information, have a question regarding the product they purchased, or have a problem with a product, customers are easily put off by long wait times, confused representatives, or even limited single-channel support.

An omnichannel call center, on the other hand, allows customers more flexibility without creating the chaos of multiple conversation histories across various communication channels. Moreover, AI-based customer service makes customer service agents’ jobs easier through the use of intelligent routing and natural language processing technologies so they can focus on more important tasks.

Learn More

Learn more about how Replicant’s omnichannel contact center automation can transform your business. Request a demo today. 

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In particular, customer service automation has eliminated many mundane and repetitive tasks. Instead of requiring employees to spend valuable work hours on these tasks, they are instantaneously completed by AI technology without the need for human interference. 

Agents no longer need to use the majority of their time answering the same questions, punching in or editing account information, or walking confused customers through processes over and over. Ultimately, autonomous customer service results in clear communication, allows companies to eliminate hold time, increases customer retention, and contributes to overall business success. 

What is Autonomous Customer Service?

According to the Harvard Business Review, automation processes like AI and machine learning give businesses a huge advantage over competitors. This is especially true for customer service. Autonomous customer service is an emerging category in which companies automate their most common customer service calls. This in turn frees agents up to focus on more complex and nuanced customer journey challenges. 

Once you implement AI-based customer service, customers will experience no wait times. Because the vast majority of calls can be resolved by AI and natural language processing, agents are available for those calls that need to be escalated to a human agent. 

How Can Autonomous Customer Service Improve Customer Experience?

Autonomous customer service uses a combination of conversational AI, NLU, and machine learning to answer every single customer call, text, or chat message immediately. Rather than simply rerouting or deflecting callers, automation can often resolve customer requests end-to-end. As a result, the contact center can lower call handle times and make services available 24/7. 

Things to Consider When Choosing An Automation Solution

Businesswire sees automation as “magical” when it comes to optimizing resources. However, many automation solutions are available, so it’s important to think about the following features before purchasing a solution. 

• Find a solution that is proven to work well. Review the feedback an automation solution has received from customers who have interacted with it and from real businesses that have implemented it. For example, Replicant has resolved 90 percent of common call drivers across millions of customer service interactions. 
• Consider integration. Some solutions may work great, but require that you get rid of all the technologies you’re currently using. Replicant’s Thinking Machine is a natural fit with any tech stack, and it works with IVR, CCaaS, CRM, and telephony, enhancing instead of replacing existing technology. Agents are thus able to continue using the processes they’re accustomed to, creating a smoother integration and implementation process. 
• Think about a solution’s capacity for analytics. Analytics are incredibly important if you want your business to grow and improve. Think about it; if you don’t know what’s going on within your business, you won’t know where to direct improvement efforts. Replicant provides visibility into all customer support conversations and analyzes insights from conversation data, success rates, unsupported call flows, CSAT, self-serve script edits, and more. While Replicant provides many out-of-the-box features like these, you can also personalize it to your business; for example, you can create custom dashboards that help you optimize your business’s performance over time. 
• Make sure your automation solution has the capacity for natural conversations. Replicant doesn’t use endless IVR or keyword-driven call trees; instead, the Thinking Machine is powered by cutting-edge NLU that allows customers to speak naturally when making customer requests. For example, they can say phrases like “the Tuesday after next” or “sometime in the morning works great” and still be understood. 

Learn More About Replicant’s Solution

In the coming years, AI-based customer service is the technology that will make ROI skyrocket while eliminating hold times and increasing customer loyalty. If you’re ready to see the difference Replicant could make for your business, calculate your call center automation ROI using our solution and schedule a live demo.

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When customers call your contact center, they usually have a question, problem, or inquiry. Conversational AI solutions eliminate wait time by immediately answering every call, regardless of volume. That means customers can reach your organization even during peak periods. You can use AI to improve customer experience by ensuring that your selected automation technology can understand natural language and resolve the majority of Tier One questions without transferring to a live agent.

In addition, a customer service call center should be able to transfer more complex inquiries to a live agent with a complete set of conversation notes, eliminating the need for customers to repeat basic information multiple times.

How AI Improves Customer Experience

Using a solution powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can greatly improve customer service in a call center. Today’s fully automated AI solutions differ from the chatbots of the past – which did not use artificial intelligence at all. Instead, they simply offered access to a frequently asked questions (FAQ) database. 

According to Forbes, 80 percent of customers consider speed and convenience most important for good service. Current AI powered solutions are capable of:

• detecting multiple customer intents 
• handling the vast majority of repetitive, commonly asked questions
• and eliminating wait times.

Simple inquiries like account changes, order status, contact information updates, or reservation or appointment requests can be fully resolved with AI. Organizations can deliver real-time service, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Five Tips to Help Improve CX

Here are 5 tips to help you improve CX in your customer service call center:

1. Don’t keep customers waiting. Customers hate being on hold so much that the Wall Street Journal recently published an article on hacks to get to a real person. Selecting a conversational AI solution like Replicant scales infinitely so customers never need to wait, even during peak volumes.
2. Don’t make customers think like a computer. When people have a question, they don’t want to play guessing games on how to best say or type a question so it gets answered. Be sure your solution uses natural language processing to understand natural human speech.
3. Find a multimodal solution. If a customer is on the phone, be sure your system is integrated to accept sensitive information by text if necessary. If all channels are connected for each interaction, the resolution will be more complete, timely, and accurate.
4. Accept diverse callers. Be sure your system can understand accents and different languages and block any noise from the caller’s end.
5. Be available around the clock. Customers have questions at all hours and every day of the year. Be sure your conversational AI system is up and running, ready to serve as soon as customers call.

More About Replicant

Learn more now. Calculate the call center automation ROI you could receive with Replicant’s solutions. Then, schedule a live demo. Our team is dedicated to helping your customer service call center save money, improve agent and customer satisfaction, and affordably deal with overflow and peak customer calls.

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AI chatbot solutions are different. They are powered by natural language processing software that can detect multiple customer intents and understand natural human speech. As a result, they can resolve most Tier One customer questions and inquiries with zero wait time for the customer and no live agent interaction.

What is an AI chatbot?

A conversational AI chatbot is a type of technology that is far superior to many basic chatbots. Its goal is to resolve customers’ questions as quickly and completely as possible, not to deflect them to other sources. Using natural language processing, the best AI chatbot can understand a customer’s question regardless of language, accent, or phrasing, as well as a live agent. This delivers a superior customer experience.

How does an AI Chatbot Work?

The most advanced AI chatbot works by tapping into a vast library of customer interactions using multiple pre-built components to make implementation rapid, easy, and affordable in terms of IT resources. Once they are up and running, an AI-powered chatbot can handle repetitive, mundane questions immediately and simultaneously, easily scaling to any needed volume.

Does an AI-Powered Chatbot use machine learning?

An AI-powered chatbot uses machine learning to refine its base of knowledge. For example, Replicant’s contact center automation platform was built using millions of real customer queries and interactions across many industries. Once it is implemented in a specific contact center, it continues to use machine learning to broaden its understanding of that particular business and its customers.

This information is then accessible through our dashboard, providing current data to help contact center managers make adjustments to conversation scripts or other areas that can be improved. Our solution also makes it easy to visualize conversations across channels. With dozens of pre-built components, companies can quickly deploy automation without a significant resource drain on the IT department. 

How does Replicant’s solution work?

Our AI chatbot is part of an omnichannel solution. This system fully resolves more than 10 million Tier One inbound questions every month across the hospitality, travel, insurance, financial, retail, and other industries.

Omnichannel solutions improve customer service scores by eliminating wait times, cutting average handle time in half, and providing consistent experiences across channels in any language. Customers are often just as satisfied with the service as they would be witha live agent.

Using this automation process frees customer service representatives from mundane, boring, repetitive questions. Live agent satisfaction means better performance and higher retention rates, which reduces recruiting and training costs for the organization. In fact, TrueList notes that the cost of losing an employee is 33 percent of their annual salary and Forbes reports that a “whopping 71 percent of service agents have considered leaving their job in the past six months and 69 percent are considering leaving customer service roles entirely.”

Learn More

Learn more about the AI chatbot in our omnichannel customer service solution. Schedule a demo today. We bring years of expertise to the table in helping contact centers just like yours with customer service automation that generates significant cost savings and ROI. 

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Fortunately, AI in customer support has improved greatly in recent years, allowing consumers to ask questions to a computer in the same way they would ask a live agent. For example, Replicant’s conversational AI solution uses natural language processing to understand multiple customer intents. The system resolves repetitive, common questions without human intervention or wait time. As a result, customer satisfaction is increased and feedback is positive.

How can AI automate customer support?

Implementing AI customer support means that the majority of Tier One questions can be immediately answered with zero wait time or human intervention. Automation on this level frees live agents to deal with more complex requests that require active listening. This combination of virtual and human agents results in more efficient and faster problem resolution. Over time, it has been shown to support increased customer loyalty.

How AI can improve the customer experience?

According to Forbes, “The level and quality of service that customers receive from companies is a key feature of the experience it provides. Contact centers play a big role in this – if customers know they will spend a long time ‘on hold,’ be passed between multiple departments or end up speaking to poorly trained advisors who can’t help them solve their problems, they are unlikely to rate their experiences with that company highly.”

Today’s contact center can deliver a superior customer experience using AI customer support solutions. Product knowledge as well as common customer inquiries can be learned by the system – which can then respond quickly to frequently asked questions and requests. Hold times are eliminated. Customers get the answers they need quickly and efficiently. The system can even be scaled up during high-volume periods. The result is improved customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.

Benefits of AI customer support

Implementing an AI-based customer support solution delivers many benefits to your contact center. Here are some primary ones:

• Better service. First and foremost, your customers will receive higher quality, faster service. If they have a Tier One question, they would not have to wait as calls can be answered immediately and simultaneously. If a call needs to be escalated, a full transcript is sent, eliminating the frustration of repeating information.
• Happier agents. Since agents can be spared answering the same repetitive, mundane questions repeatedly, they will be more challenged in their jobs. If they find the work more fulfilling, they will be less likely to leave your organization.
• Lower costs. Replicant’s conversational AI customer support solution has been proven to reduce costs by as much as 55 percent when compared with expensive business process outsourcing or additional hiring efforts. In addition, training new agents can be expensive with the high turnover rates currently seen in contact centers.
• Loyal customers. Finally, if customers have a good experience, they will not only keep coming back but also be an excellent referral source for friends and family. 

Try Replicant

If you’re ready to learn more about how AI customer support can help your company or organization, reach out to our team today. Schedule a customer service automation demo that will illustrate how Replicant’s conversational AI solution can make a big difference in your contact center.

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Conversational AI aims to resolve customer requests fully, accurately, and quickly with zero wait time and no human intervention. It can also recognize and respond to questions across all omnichannel communication including voice, text, and messaging. This technology also uses natural language processing to understand the way humans talk, eliminating the need for strict word choices and excessive escalations.

Chatbots, on the other hand, primarily work through only the chat messaging function of a website, not on SMS texts or as part of a phone system. In many cases, they are designed using strict rules and limited if/then reasoning, which results in many customer questions being deflected to self-service channels or ending up in hold queues.

What is Conversational AI?

Conversational AI is an automated call center solution that can answer an unlimited number of customer inquiries at one time. It is designed to handle all Tier One repetitive calls without human interaction, which frees customer service representatives to handle more complex questions and improves agent satisfaction. It can be integrated with other channels to offer a more complete picture of contact center activity.

One example of this kind of contact center automation is in the hotel and travel industry. Many businesses deal with a large number of new reservations as well as changes and cancellations. These inquiries are repetitive and simple to automate yet can be boring and burdensome to live agents. A solution such as The Thinking Machine by Replicant gives the capability to answer unlimited customer calls simultaneously, delivering value to both the company and the customer.

What is a chatbot?

A chatbot is an automated technology that usually sits on a web page, inviting customers to type any questions into a messaging box. After searching a FAQ database using keywords from the query, it provides standard answers from the FAQ library. If these AI conversations cannot be resolved, the chatbot transfers the customer to a live agent to resolve the issue. According to Gartner, “By 2027, chatbots will become the primary customer service channel for roughly a quarter of organizations.”

What is the Biggest Difference?

The main difference between these two solutions is the customer service experience they generate. Conversational AI technology offers a much richer customer interaction than chatbots. Instead of redirecting the customer to self-service information or into a queue to wait in line for a live agent, the customer’s problem can be resolved immediately. This leads to higher customer satisfaction.

Try Replicant

According to a McKinsey report, organizations today have “produced a seemingly never-ending wave of tech-based breakthroughs that keep resetting the bar for customer care. The use cases for artificial intelligence, automation, and analytics in the contact center are increasingly expanding, making these technologies fixtures in virtually every executive boardroom discussion.”

Learn how Replicant’s conversational AI solution can help you save time, improve customer satisfaction and increase ROI in your contact center. Schedule a demo to talk with one of our experienced professionals. We’d love to share how we can usher your call center into the future.

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Technology is at the heart of a remote contact center. Replicant’s call center automation is a conversational AI based solution that can make a huge difference in your company’s customer support as you move from a traditional environment to a remote one. As you transition, you’ll notice vast improvements in customer and employee satisfaction, overall efficiency, and company profit. 

What is the Difference Between a Remote Call Center and a Traditional One?

In a traditional call center, agents work in an office environment, complete with computers, headsets, and desks. Each agent takes calls as they come in and resolve customer problems. 

A remote call center solution that includes contact center automation can move partially or entirely to a virtual environment. Agents can then handle calls wherever there is an internet connection. This allows for greater flexibility and availability within the agent’s job.

How Does Replicant Make Remote Centers Possible?

“Remote channels – telephone and digital – have become steadily more crucial in managing customer relationships and generating revenues,” says an article by McKinsey. Moving customer interactions to a virtual environment became particularly crucial during the pandemic, but it remains important even outside of COVID. 

Replicant brings the benefits of a virtual environment to the next step, making it possible for call center agents to work remotely. This is incredibly valuable for companies that experience seasonal spikes and struggle to find and train new agents in a tight labor market. Current agents enjoy workloads reduced by automation, as well as the increased flexibility that comes with a remote environment. 

Benefits of Employing a Remote Center

It won’t take long to see improvements from Replicant’s solution. A better customer experience may be the most obvious. Automation reduces hold times so customers don’t have to wait for an agent to become available, and issues will often be resolved by automation alone. Those questions which require an agent will be seamlessly passed off to the appropriate agent with minimal wait times. 

Another area of improvement will be employee satisfaction. Agents will be free to focus on more engaging work instead of tedious and repetitive customer requests. In this way, it creates more opportunities for employees to grow in their careers.

Finally, automation allows for much better data and analytics. According to Forbes, “data today is like currency. It’s extremely valuable for successful call center management because it gives you insight into both your customers and your employees.” This data creates the potential for deeper insights, increased efficiency, and improved customer retention. 

Automation won’t just improve customer experience, agent satisfaction, and data storage. The advantages of automation will spill over into other areas of the business. More enjoyable jobs attract higher-quality agents, better customer experience causes more loyal customers, and improved data allows for constant improvement.

More About Replicant’s Remote Call Center Solution

Replicant’s remote call center solution makes it possible for your business to move to a remote environment. It uses the latest automation and artificial intelligence technologies to reduce agents’ workload, improve customer experience, and increase overall efficiency and profit. Regardless of industry, businesses need stellar customer service to surpass competitors. Learn what remote call center ROI could look like for your business. Contact us today for a live demo.

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Conversational AI and chatbots can vary in effectiveness. According to Forrester, “Chatbots can be a helpful tool . . . or a source of customer frustration.” Some chatbots are very basic with the ability to address only the simplest of inquiries. Other technology seems to serve as a bridge to a live agent, who may or may not be available around the clock. The best AI chatbot is one that has the ability to answer a wide range of Tier One customer questions on the spot without requiring any human intervention on the part of the user.

When selecting an AI chatbot for your contact center, you’ll want to take several factors into consideration. Things like integration into an overall omnichannel system, whether it can handle multiple languages and understand the natural conversation, and the level of data it can provide to help you continuously improve your customer experience will be essential to its overall success.

What is the best AI chatbot?

The best AI chatbot is programmed based on millions of real customer conversations so it comes into any new contact center well-versed to help address repetitive consumer inquiries. It can understand natural language, allowing customers to type as they speak into a chatbox, and determine multiple customer intents. The best chatbots are also integrated with other channels such as voice and phone to help deliver a comprehensive picture of customer interactions.

What are AI chatbots?

AI chatbots provide customer service through an online, real-time written conversation, usually on a business’s website. The idea is that as potential or current customers are exploring a site, they may have questions that need to be addressed immediately. The chatbot is then available to have an AI conversation when and where the customer desires.

What are the most important features of an AI chatbot?

In order to choose the right AI chatbot for their business, contact centers will need to ensure that the solution can switch between different channels seamlessly. This allows each customer interaction, regardless of channel, to maintain a single, continuous session state. Be sure the solution offers customizable and branded flex forms to facilitate faster information collection over all channels.

In addition, contact centers will want to offer consistent customer experiences that simplify automation across multiple channels and languages using a centralized conversation engine. Finally, be sure that your conversational AI solution can integrate seamlessly into your live agent platform so that any needed escalations can happen smoothly and with complete conversation notes. This eliminates the need for customers to repeat basic account information multiple times. According to Orbelo, one of “the most disliked aspects of customer service [is] having to repeat the same information multiple times.”

Replicant’s competitive advantage

Replicant’s conversational AI bot uses natural language processing (NLP) to fully resolve customer requests across all channels, including voice, text, and chat. This sets it above and beyond popular chat-only solutions like Drift. Replicant also better serves enterprise contact centers because it doesn’t immediately try to deflect customers to another channel and can be scaled limitlessly.

Try Replicant

If you’re ready to choose the best AI chatbot for your contact center, reach out to Replicant today. Our team has been implementing omnichannel contact center automation solutions for years, helping organizations just like yours improve their data analytics, operations, and customer satisfaction.

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More and more organizations are turning to automation to help relieve some of these stresses, and implementing a conversational AI platform is one effective way to do that. The best conversational AI platforms can resolve customer questions and requests with zero wait time and without human intervention, providing analytics and continuous learning capabilities.

What is a conversational AI platform?

A conversational AI platform is a form of artificial intelligence technology that supports today’s modern contact center. This AI technology works to answer and resolve Tier One customer questions that tend to be repetitive and mundane in nature automatically without human intervention. Ideally, it is an omnichannel solution that incorporates voice, text, and chatbots in an integrated system to work seamlessly for both the customer and the business.

How does conversational AI work?

Conversational AI platforms such as Replicant are trained on millions of customer interactions each day and can continue to learn and improve with every conversation. They should be able to understand natural language and multiple customer intents as well as a wide variety of other languages, making it as easy as possible for customers to communicate with a business.

Never-Ending Learning

One of the most challenging components of running a contact center today is the level of training required for live agents to get up to speed on a business’s products, services, and common questions. According to ScreenSteps, many call centers report their average time to new agent proficiency is four to six months. When you consider that a call center agent stays at the same company for an average of only three years as reported by A Better Answer, those training costs can quickly add up over time.

Replicant’s conversational AI technology is purpose-built for customer service, designed to excel at understanding diverse populations and collecting standard information like names, alphanumeric strings, and unstructured data. It has and continues to automate millions of calls each month and applies continuous machine learning to improve every interaction.

Such a solution will never “quit,” requiring you to start the entire training process again. Replicant’s conversational AI solution will continue to change and grow with your organization, becoming an ongoing and valuable “member” of your team and offering infinite scalability. 

A Growing Trend

Contact center automation powered by conversational AI is on the rise in contact centers around the country. According to Replicant’s 2022 Benchmark Report, around 95 percent of contact center managers have either already adopted or are planning to implement automation within the next year.

Besides providing superior customer service and supporting overwhelmed live agents, conversational AI can deliver a wealth of contact center analytics to your management team, providing the foundation to help you grow and improve in the future.

Conversational AI is particularly suited for industries that receive a high number of repetitive inquiries. For example, the travel, hotel, and hospitality industry process millions of requests for new, updated, and canceled reservations. The insurance industry also receives similar requests for account updates, policy information requests, or coverage changes. Financial institutions can provide account balances, payment data, and contact information updates through a conversational AI platform.

A solution such as Replicant can quickly process these requests with zero hold time and no live agent assistance, which means that even during peak periods, customers have a positive, rapid, and complete experience.

Try Replicant

If you are ready to automate your call center, reach out to Replicant today. Our team of experts has years of experience helping contact centers implement and integrate conversational AI platforms to improve their call center efficiency as well as customer and agent experience.

The post Conversational AI Platform: What It Is and How It Works appeared first on Replicant.

The answer is that an AI call center should not replace live agents. Instead, it should support and complement their work. An artificial intelligence call center should incorporate conversational AI technology to handle the most repetitive, frequent inquiries, relieving live agents from mundane work and eliminating customer wait time. This results in improved productivity and greater agent satisfaction. Read more in our Definitive Guide to Contact Center Automation.

What is an AI Call Center?

An AI call center incorporates technology to answer Tier One customer questions and inquiries automatically. Conversational AI can answer an unlimited number of calls simultaneously and often without human intervention. Complex calls are forwarded to appropriate human agents with full conversation notes to eliminate the customer needing to repeat information.

Will AI replace call center agents?

No, AI solutions will not replace live agents. Their purpose is to relieve the workload for human agents, freeing them to handle more complex calls that require human empathy. As many contact centers are struggling with labor shortages and employee retention, having a virtual agent can help close this gap and improve customer experience.

The combination of AI and humans in call centers is truly transformative. By using artificial intelligence, contact centers can fully eliminate hold times. This one change can make a significant impact on customer retention and satisfaction. According to Forbes, “fifty-seven percent of people think long hold times are a disappointing, unacceptable part of the service experience.”

Artificial intelligence can facilitate a consistent customer experience across different channels including voice, text, and messaging. This allows a true omnichannel experience, which not only serves customers better but also provides important analytic information for the business. McKinsey reports that advanced analytical data can help contact centers put customers first.

In addition, AI can reduce costs by engaging and retaining live agents. Their morale can be improved because they can give up the most repetitive and mundane calls. Increased agent retention leads to lower turnover rates and decreased training costs. It also eliminates the need for expensive business process outsourcing contracts.

How does a customer interact with an AI call center?

When customers call an AI call center powered by Replicant, they receive an answer to every call, chat, or text immediately. The caller can make their request in any language as naturally as if they were speaking to a human agent. They get their request fulfilled with the same natural-sounding conversation.

If our conversational AI solution is unable to fulfill a request, the system escalates the customer to an agent with a full set of notes so they are prepared to pick up right where the conversation left off. Clients that use Replicant in their call center often implement our conversational AI technology to make scheduling or reservation requests, manage accounts and order-related requests, and/or handle billing and payment inquiries.

How is implementation handled with Replicant?

Replicant integrates with every major Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform, CRM, and telephony system as well as with custom in-house built systems. It is trained on millions of real customer interactions, which allows design and deployment to happen as rapidly as a few weeks. The longer a company uses the system, the more Replicant “learns” and improves its performance over time.

Explore More

Explore how our conversational AI call center solution can help your contact center increase ROI and support your live agent team. Schedule a customer service automation demo now to learn more.

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According to Fit Small Business, call center IVR boomed in the 1980s when the first mainstream provider entered the market and made the technology cost-effective. A decade later, voice IVR became a must-have for contact centers. Over the next 30 years, IVR technology has advanced to integrate with analytics, text messaging, and marketing campaigns.

The goal of voice IVR is to connect callers to the appropriate resources. For example, a call may be directed to either a self-service web page or a live agent to answer questions or resolve customer issues. 

This solution, however, is not without its drawbacks. It has difficulties understanding multiple languages, understanding accents, and handling multiple customer intentions. With customer patience waning today, this technology is no longer enough.

What does IVR stand for?

Interactive voice response (IVR) is a technology that answers customer calls. It usually requests the caller to say or press specific numbers in order to move forward. Unlike the machine learning capabilities of an artificial intelligence call center, the goal of IVR is simple – to give access to common information, or redirect to an agent or a webpage for a resolution.

What is IVR in a call center?

IVR in a call center uses interactive voice response software to answer customer phone calls. Once the caller is connected and verified, he or she is usually provided:

• a set of common departments to choose from,
• account information, 
• updates in order status, 
• company fax or email information, 
• or company address and direction details. 

Callers can get the information they need by selecting from a predetermined set of options and depressing corresponding numbers. Any inquiries outside of these predetermined parameters will be routed to a live agent for resolution.

How does IVR work in a contact center environment?

Voice IVR works in a contact center in a very similar manner, taking its cue from either a voice call, text inquiry, or messaging system. Because it has limited ability to understand the nuances of customer questions, voice IVR is often only a stepping stone to a final resolution. Instead of answering the question or solving a problem, IVR typically forwards the customer to an agent or self-service landing page.

How is conversational AI different from IVR systems?

Conversational AI systems, such as Replicant’s Thinking Machine, are able to resolve customer questions and problems immediately without deflecting callers to another information source. Our client’s call centers can handle any number of calls simultaneously using voice AI, allowing them to scale indefinitely.

According to Forbes, “AI for the contact center has been a popular topic of discussion for some time, but we predict that in 2022, we’ll see an increase in adoption of AI to augment agent performance, automate quality management, and deliver more proactive care.”

Machine learning technology and natural language processing allow Replicant’s solution to not only understand multiple languages and accents but also to decipher multiple customer intents in a single conversation. This means zero wait time for customers and a lighter, more interesting workload for customer service representatives.

If a complex question or problem is encountered, Replicant’s Thinking Machine can forward the caller to the right agent with a full transcript of the conversation that has already occurred. It eliminates the need for the customer to repeat the same information.

Our Solution

If you are looking to trade your call center IVR for more advanced technologies, try our conversational AI solution. Our team has had years of experience with contact centers around the country, helping them improve their customer experience and reduce their call center expenses.

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To make an informed decision, it is wise to compare call center automation vs outsourcing solutions, weighing the pros and cons of each. Let’s review some of the basics to help provide you with the background to do so.

What is call center automation and what does it entail?

Call center automation involves using contact center AI technology to:

• simultaneously answer an unlimited number of Tier One calls;
• offer customers zero wait time; and,
• free up live agents for more complex interactions. 

In addition, data is collected with every conversation, providing comprehensive analytics for contact center management to use for future improvements.

What are the pros and cons of call center outsourcing?

The pros of utilizing call center outsourcing companies revolve around the ability to provide additional live agents to handle overflow or high-volume periods for their clients. This way the client can have additional customer service representatives available without hiring full-time staff. 

The cons of this solution include the fact that outsourced call center services require significant training time, suffer from similar labor shortage and retention problems, and require a committed cost investment regardless of usage. 

What are the advantages of call center automation?

Modern contact center AI solutions have many advantages as they can take an unlimited number of incoming repetitive calls simultaneously, allowing a business to pay for only what it uses. Conversational AI technologies offer the ability to learn from every interaction, provide comprehensive analytics, and assimilate customer conversations across all channels, including voice, text, and messaging. Gartner reports that more than half of the companies it surveyed are already using some form of automation or conversational AI. 

How does automation impact cost?

Automation impacts costs in 3 ways:

1. Call center outsourcing companies often charge costly premiums while contact center AI vendors only charge for the automation used.
2. Additional customer service support during off-hours and high-volume periods will not cost extra as companies do not have to pay for shift differentials or overtime.
3. Automation can resolve common questions and inquiries which leads to customer retention and future sales.

Overall, Replicant increases cost savings by an average of 55% when compared to a highly optimized BPO solution. In addition, our automated solutions are able to log and transcribe every call while offering deep analytics that other outsourcing solutions can’t.

From outsourcing to automation: A customer success story

DoorDash used to rely on outsourcing to handle mealtime call volume spikes. However, the  popular food delivery service found that they still had many cancellations and could not capture all their potential business. 

DoorDash partnered with Replicant to automate outbound food orders for non-partnered restaurants with higher success rates and lower costs. Restaurants preferred to speak with Replicant’s Thinking Machine because of its straightforward capabilities that made it easy to communicate in a noisy environment. In addition, Replicant was able to reduce order cancellations during busy times by handling an unlimited number of calls simultaneously. 

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If you’re ready for an alternative to call center outsourcing companies and would like to try a conversational AI, cloud-based solution, reach out to Replicant today. We’d love to share our technology with you and show you what kind of call center automation ROI you can expect at your organization.

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Our conversational AI platform is designed to handle a contact center’s most repetitive and frequent calls and questions, freeing live agents to focus on higher-level, complex problems that require human empathy and critical thinking. Learn more about how virtual agents are disrupting the industry.

What is the Replicant Thinking Machine?

The Replicant Thinking Machine is a conversational AI bot designed to handle all Tier One customer inquiries with zero wait time for the customer. It understands natural language and multiple customer intents, interacting very much as a human would. The Thinking Machine scales to any call volume, learning from every customer interaction.

What is the technology behind the Replicant Thinking Machine?

This technology is based on millions of live customer service calls and machine learning, utilizing conversational AI bots. Contact centers can expect Replicant’s Thinking Machine to be trained on its specific company and customer interactions in a matter of weeks with very few IT resources required. In addition, this cloud-based software solution continues learning as time goes on.

Our clients say it is one of the best conversational AI platforms available on the market today. Apart from resolving repetitive questions and issues at the first point of contact, our solution automates across channels, in any language, and provides management with valuable insights into customer interactions.

What is a conversational AI platform?

A conversational AI platform is a tool that uses sophisticated bots that can reach across multiple channels including voice, text, and messaging. Such an omnichannel platform is trained on millions of live interactions, continues learning over time, and uses natural language processing to understand multiple customer intents without human interaction. It can quickly and accurately resolve customer questions and issues.

What sets Replicant apart from other solutions?

Replicant offers a unique contact center optimization solution that can deploy within weeks. This is a much faster option compared to other call center technology solutions such as Amazon Lex or SmartAction. These types of technologies may take months or even years to build, implement, and deploy.

Our conversational AI technology can effectively replace common chatbot solutions or an interactive voice response (IVR) that focuses on deflecting callers as opposed to resolving issues. Instead, our omnichannel automation solution delivers consistent customer experiences across every channel, rolls up analytic data throughout the organization, and provides management with the data they need to continuously improve.

According to a Gartner review site, one user noted that “the system is very intuitive. We can report on a lot of different things that we did not have the luxury before to do…Replicant is quick to answer our concerns and a resolution in a timely fashion.”

Benefits of Using Replicant

Hundreds of contact centers around the country are using Replicant’s conversational AI platform successfully. Here are some potential benefits you can expect if you follow suit:

• Eliminate customer hold time. An article on How Stuff Works reminds us that, “Angry customers who hang up after 27 minutes on hold are more likely to badmouth the company on Twitter or switch to a competitor. It’s called the ‘economic cost of waiting.’” Replicant’s clients can bring hold time consistently to zero as it can answer Tier One calls simultaneously using conversational AI bots.
• Happier agents. Most customer service representatives hate the boring, repetitive nature of their jobs. Since Replicant automatically offloads the most mundane questions to a machine, live agents are free to take more interesting, challenging calls that can use their skill levels more appropriately. This leads to better job satisfaction and higher retention.
• Cost reduction. Alternative solutions such as offshore business process automation (BPO), hiring more agents, or sub-par technology can be expensive. Replicant is proven to lower the cost of operating contact centers due to its ability to scale easily and “train” automatically.
• Ongoing Improvement. Because Replicant can continue to learn with every customer interaction, the platform will get “smarter” as time goes on. In addition, contact center management will have access to complete data and analytics, providing the basis for smarter business decisions.

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The best way to know if Replicant’s AI solution is right for you is to watch a live demo and learn more. We will show you how our conversational AI platform can increase ROI and employee job satisfaction. Our team would be happy to help you explore the possibilities and help you automate your call center today.

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However, regardless of your company’s industry, current automation technologies have the ability to streamline requests and reduce the need for additional customer support agents. Using the right autonomous support can increase ROI and transform your customer service department. This can result in an improved customer experience, happy and loyal patrons, and greater profits.

What is Autonomous Customer Service?

An article by Hubspot points out that the vast majority of Americans look at customer service quality as a factor when deciding whether or not to purchase products or services from a company. However, many businesses don’t have the resources to hire the agents they need in their contact centers. In many cases, a viable solution is automation technology. 

Autonomous customer service is a call center technology that utilizes modern AI to streamline customer requests, increase ROI, and make agents’ jobs more fulfilling and enjoyable. AI in customer service also allows for natural conversations, eliminating the need for keywords or numbers. Solutions like Replicant’s Thinking Machine can learn from conversations and adapt to enhance future ones. 

How Does Technology Play a Role in Autonomous Customer Service?

Autonomous AI technologies are at the heart of call center automation. However, automated customer support isn’t supposed to eliminate the need for live agents. Instead, it is designed to aid them and make their jobs easier, giving them the tools they need to create the best possible customer experience. 

How is Autonomous Customer Service Typically Implemented?

The following are the components of the implementation process.

• Define the Use Case: Many automation opportunities can be found in use cases that are high volume, prone to spikes, low emotion, and/or low-to-mid complexity. 
• Conversation Design: The conversation design process defines the structure of communication between a human and a machine, both functionally and technically. 
• Go-Live: Once deployed, the contact center automation technology can begin resolving customer conversations with minimal training. 
• Analytics: Replicant offers a user-friendly analytics dashboard that makes it easy to measure results in a meaningful and practical way. 
• Scaling: Data-based improvement opportunities are used to offload more customer requests during high volume periods.

What Technologies Are Typically Used in Customer Service Automation?

Artificial Intelligence is one of the main technologies that characterize Replicant’s autonomous support. AI in customer service allows for natural conversations with customers who no longer need to say the right words or press specific numbers to communicate. Their requests can also be more nuanced and varied, as autonomous AI has a greater capacity for understanding multiple and unrelated questions simultaneously. Contact center automation technology creates the possibility for machine learning so that the solution will develop and improve over time, with absolutely no agent input.  

“Most leaders can likely identify around eight to 10 domains where AI can transform their business,” said an article by McKinsey. One of those domains, customer service, is where automation and AI technologies can make a great and immediate difference.

What Does a Successfully Automated Call Look Like?

Here’s an example of an autonomous customer service request to show what it looks like in an actual customer scenario.

1. A customer gets a flat tire and calls his or her insurance provider to request roadside assistance.
2. Replicant’s Thinking Machine takes the call, confirms the problem, and sends an SMS to accurately locate the customer. 
3. Replicant places an outbound call to request that a service technician be dispatched to the customer.
4. Replicant creates a ticket in the CMS and reaches out to the customer with an estimated time of arrival.
5. The technician arrives, the customer’s car is repaired, and the ticket is closed. No human interaction is needed.

Try Replicant’s Solution

Replicant has been implementing conversational AI to handle Tier One calls, texts, and chats for some of the world’s most trusted brands. Our products are constantly evolving and improving to meet the needs of customers. If you’re ready to increase your company’s contact center automation ROI and improve the overall customer experience, try our autonomous customer service solution. Request a demo now.

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This solution is called call center automation. It integrates with a variety of other customer service solutions so that any customer service department can implement automation without compromising frictionless customer experience, even temporarily. 

Why Insufficient Call Capacity Affects Customer Experience

Nearly everyone who has tried to call customer service has had the experience of being placed on hold for half an hour or more. This is due to a common problem in the world of customer experience; call centers are understaffed and can’t handle their call volumes. The result is long hold times, inefficient processes, poor analytics, and little possibility of improvement. 

At the same time, Forbes found that over three-fourths of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. As a result, insufficient call capacity and the hold times that come with it can be a decisive turnoff for a potential customer.

How Can Call Center Automation Increase Call Capacity?

The most obvious solution to streamline customer service is to hire more agents. However, that would require more equipment, more employees, and a higher budget, making it an impractical option for many companies. But this doesn’t mean companies should give up on effective call center capacity planning. Instead of trying to stumble along with understaffed call centers and overworked agents, they can implement Replicant’s call center automation solution. 

In the past, automation has a rather poor reputation among customers who have called the customer service line only to be put on hold for hours and never have their issue resolved. While this is often the case with older solutions, new call center automation technology allows more natural conversations with customers and escalates certain requests to the appropriate live agent. Today, machine learning is able to improve efficiency over time, offering the ability for full contact center optimization. Learn which chats and calls you should automate.

How Automation Works Alongside Live Agents

Replicant doesn’t aim to replace live agents. Rather, it’s intended to work alongside live agents to handle repetitive and mundane customer requests through contact center optimization. Depending on a business’s current customer service situation, automation makes it possible for agents to answer more interactive requests while minimizing or eliminating customer wait times. 

Customer service centers get hundreds of calls every day from customers who simply want to edit their account information, reset a password, or cancel a credit card. From the customers’ perspective, an automation system immediately resolves their issue – and they won’t need to wait even five or ten minutes for a live agent to become available. From the agent’s perspective, they’re not spending hours every day talking to irritated customers who have been holding for a half-hour. They’re also not spending their time inputting the same information, answering the same questions, and watching the backlog of calls pile up. 

Benefits of Automation in Customer Service

Fortune believes that for technology to be successful in the customer service world, there must be a “clear and measurable impact to bottom lines.” Contact center optimization through automation has far-reaching benefits that impact the day-to-day of customers and agents in a call center. 

Because contact center optimization doesn’t depend on agents to function, it can help protect against unpredictable spikes in call volume. As a result, call center automation is particularly effective for companies that are growing, experiencing seasonal surges, or modifying processes. 

Especially with current labor shortages, jobs need to be appealing to hire and retain skilled agents. Answering calls might not seem attractive to a potential employee, but the job can become far more interesting and interactive with call center automation solutions handling all Tier One calls. Agents don’t need to spend their workday resolving tedious questions. Instead, they’ll answer more meaningful customer requests and actually make a difference in how customers view the company.

Replicant’s Solution

If you’re ready to increase call capacity, reduce hold times, and improve customer service, request a custom demonstration. Learn how call center automation can improve your ROI based on your company’s particular goals, needs, and challenges. 

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For example, check out this recent video Replicant produced. In just over 2 minutes, it explains the nuts and bolts of Contact Center Automation and details how the service can be deployed to tackle many routine requests through natural human-to-machine conversations. This in turn helps customer service leaders address growing challenges like hold times and employee retention.

8 Key Features: How to Identify Contact Center Automation

So what exactly is Contact Center Automation? Replicant’s Harry Chang has created a trove of resources that helps explain this cutting-edge customer service innovation, including this piece that explores some core features:

Natural Conversations          Conversation Interface
Omnichannel Support            Agent Collaboration
Conversation Design              Comprehensive Integrations
Conversation Analytics          Secure Infrastructure

All of these key pillars of Contact Center Automation are explained in detail and Chang presents evidence for why each matters. But more importantly, he makes a strong case for why they’re all necessary in concert to create a valuable tool and a complete experience for contact center leaders. “As a unified solution, Contact Center Automation is a sum of its parts,” Chang writes. “Without strong horizontal features, the ability of the platform to effectively serve and scale with customers is hampered.”

15 Biggest Benefits of Contact Center Automation

Now that the features of Contact Center Automation have been presented, let’s talk about the tangible benefits of the service. Essentially, it boils down to resolving many common customer requests with automation through whatever channels customers prefer. This allows agents to focus on addressing more complex needs that still require a human touch. Contact centers, in turn, become more efficient – and more cost-effective. “Agent time is maximized, customers are offered self-service options they actually enjoy using, and contact centers receive never-before-seen efficiency,” Chang writes.

Indeed, Contact Center Automation can deliver a range of benefits for an organization’s customers, agents and the business itself. Chang identifies five critical improvements for each that can be achieved by integrating Contact Center Automation into customer service operations, providing insight and commentary about why this matters for all parties. He then dives deeper into the various benefits customers, agents and contact centers will enjoy after adopting this exciting new resource.

Contact Center Automation is Moving to the Mainstream

You may be wondering if there’s any useful data that further illustrates the power of Contact Center Automation and the value it can bring to customer service operations. In fact, Replicant and Demand Metric recently surveyed 300 enterprise contact center leaders across the country for a report titled “Automation in the Contact Center” – revealing a wide range of fascinating findings about the state of contact centers and the future of customer service.

“This survey confirms what we’ve seen in the market, that automation, especially natural sounding voice automation that resolves customer challenges, will soon be standard in every contact center,” said Gadi Shamia, CEO and co-founder at Replicant. “More and more companies are using automation to address chronic agent shortages and lower costs, while allowing their live agents to focus on more challenging and interesting customer issues,” said Shamia, who also recently wrote about this “Brave New World of Contact Center Automation” in Forbes, making the case that the technology will reshape how humans and machines can work together.

“Automation has the power to transform the industry, as evidenced by the accelerated adoption of the technology.
–Gadi Shamia”

Beyond showing that automation is clearly viewed as a critical investment, the survey also delves into the top challenges, strategies and trends important to contact center leaders representing a variety of businesses. The full “2022 Benchmark Report: Automation in the Contact Center” is free to download and contains important information that all customer service leaders will find valuable.

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Wading through the many solutions that are available can be overwhelming. It’s important to take the time to carefully evaluate the leading players in the market today and choose the partner that will best meet your individual organization’s specific needs.

What Is A Cloud-Based Contact Center Solution?

A cloud-based solution is a comprehensive set of tools, applications, and services designed for businesses that want to communicate through modern channels. These include phone, text, and chat messaging. Such contact center technology not only helps companies respond quickly and efficiently to customers communicating through all these channels but can also integrate customer records, perform sophisticated call routing, manage different live agents and provide sophisticated analytics.

According to Gartner, “enterprise IT spending on public cloud computing, within addressable market segments, will overtake spending on traditional IT in 2025. Enterprise adoption of distributed cloud has the potential to further accelerate cloud shift because it brings public cloud services into domains that have primarily been non-cloud, expanding the addressable market. Organizations are evaluating it because of its ability to meet location-specific requirements, such as data sovereignty, low latency, and network bandwidth.”

Who Are The Top Contact Center Solution Providers?

The top four content center solution providers are: 

• Replicant’s Thinking Machine
• SmartAction’s Conversational AI for the Contact Centers
• Amazon Lex’s Conversational AI and Chatbots 
• Interactions Intelligent Virtual Assistant

What To Look For In A Contact Center Solution

As you evaluate how to best automate your call center, be sure to look for the following capabilities:

• Consistent Experiences: Consistency is important for both the customer and the contact center itself. Look for a partner that can provide both low latency and natural conversations across voice, text, and messaging.
• Multiple Languages: In our increasingly global marketplace, it’s critical that customers speaking a wide variety of languages can all have a stellar customer service experience. Be sure your call center solution providers you evaluate offer services in the most popular languages and in all channels.
• Custom Integrations: Every contact center is unique so it’s important that your chosen call center technology can meet you where you are, providing custom integrations at every level.
• Real-time Transcriptions: One important part of any conversational AI solution is the ability to deliver real-time transcriptions of automated conversations. This can be invaluable if questions or requests must be escalated to a live agent so that customer information does not need to be repeated. It can also serve as an important asset in the long-term customer record.
• Deep Analytics: The best cloud contact center solution providers will be able to provide deep analytics that can help contact center managers improve overall performance and continuously improve to provide better cross-channel support. 
• Pre-Built Use Cases: With IT resources always stretched, it’s important that vendors deliver pre-built use cases for common contact drivers. This allows contact center automation deployments to be completed with little IT effort within a few weeks.

Try Replicant

Why choose Replicant as your contact center solution provider? Our system is in the cloud, powered by conversational AI, purpose-built for customer service, and boosts ROI. It is trained on millions of live calls so this type of contact center automation solution is constantly self-improving. As a result, Replicant boosts a customer call resolution rate of more than 80 percent and CSAT scores that are on par with live agents. Request a demo and learn how to automate your contact center today.

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An AI call center is not meant to completely replace live customer service representatives. Instead, it is designed to support and assist those customer service representatives with the most repetitive, mundane tasks. Conversational AI technology helps businesses expand their capacity to handle customer inquiries and questions while providing human agents with more challenging and fulfilling work.

How does AI work in a call center?

AI call center technology handles Tier One repetitive customer questions and inquiries automatically with zero hold time for customers and no live agent resources required. The AI uses natural language processing technology and understands customer intent automatically, pulling answers and data from a prepared library of answers and information. This technology can be used to either manage phone-based calls or through an AI chatbot.

What is an AI chatbot?

AI chatbots are automated software tools that many websites use today to answer frequently asked questions through an instant messaging platform. When a customer types a question, the AI chatbot searches through FAQs to provide the most likely answer. More sophisticated AI chatbots can access customer accounts and other databases to provide more specific data as well.

How does an AI call center perform compared to a traditional call center?

When it comes to handling Tier One customer inquiries, an AI customer service system far outperforms live-agent-only call centers. Autonomous AI can handle repetitive calls and AI chatbot messages simultaneously, which means unlimited scaling for peak periods or seasonal demand. In addition, it can continuously learn from every interaction, providing continuous improvement that is simply not possible in a traditional contact center.

What are the benefits for live agents?

While some customer service agents may feel threatened by AI technology, the reality is that it can really help offload the mundane calls they dislike the most. No one likes being bored at work; in fact, according to Forbes, nearly half of all employees are bored in their jobs.

One major aspect of boredom for human agents is the number of repetitive calls. McKinsey reports that many customers themselves are repeat callers, and the questions they ask are often the same as many other inquiries. Instead, these inquiries can be handled by AI through either a phone call or AI chatbot on your website. 

Automating the repetitive calls and offering an AI chatbot messaging option can free up agents to handle those customer interactions that require more human empathy and intelligence to resolve. Agents can feel more valued and needed by customers that really need to talk with a person to answer a complicated issue or fix an unusual problem.

This, in turn, can mean higher retention, lower turnover, and more satisfied agents for the organization as a whole, which will ultimately decrease recruiting and training costs.

Conversational AI handles unexpected volume increases

One area in particular where AI can outperform live agents occurs during unexpected volume increases. While seasonal demand or higher call volumes due to a planned product release may be managed by hiring and training months in advance, this cannot happen as easily with unplanned situations such as inclement weather.

For example, a leading auto insurance group was able to handle an unexpected spike in roadside assistance requests during a major storm using Replicant’s automation solution. Since conversational AI and machine learning are designed to resolve customer issues naturally and consistently across languages, channels, and request types simultaneously, customers received immediate assistance, speeding up roadside help in difficult situations.

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If you’re ready to put AI vs live agents to the test, request a demo. We’d love to share our call center outsourcing services with you to illustrate how powerful AI can be for your organization.

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Contact center automation is an effective tool to help your omnichannel call center meet that demand and scale your business as quickly as it’s able to grow.

What is contact center automation?

Contact center automation means engaging a software solution that can handle those repetitive questions and requests without human intervention. Basic inquiries and frequently asked questions can be addressed with zero wait time, simultaneously and, most importantly, automatically. Additionally, it offers seamless omnichannel call center services via voice, text, and messaging.

How can contact center automation help scale your business?

Contact center operations that use conversational AI solutions can help you scale your business because an unlimited call volume can be handled. Unlike human agents or business process outsourcing solutions, there is no need to train additional agents to handle growth. Tier One calls can be handled simultaneously, no matter how many come in at one time.

How to determine what automation will best scale in your contact center?

In order to determine how to scale a contact center with AI, it’s important to select a solution that has proven results. A conversational AI platform that can handle natural language processing and correctly interpret multiple customer intents should be used. In addition, your solution should be pre-trained on common customer service inquiries while having the ability to continuously “learn” about your specific business and industry.

How do contact center and robotic process automation work and how do they scale?

Some of the best call center optimization strategies involve contact center and robotic process automation. They utilize a collaborative platform for a seamless, omnichannel call center. Instead of training individuals to handle basic inquiries such as account updates, order status, or information-based questions, an automated solution can be easily programmed to manage those with zero wait time.

What does contact center automation mean for the bottom line?

Contact center performance will immediately improve with automation solutions as the same number of live agents will suddenly be able to handle a much higher volume of calls. As Tier-One calls are automatically answered through the conversational AI tool with zero wait time, the overall volume of calls decreases for your live agents, giving them fewer but more interesting calls to manage.

The return on investment is instantaneous because more customers have their needs met, which means greater loyalty, more repeat purchases, and positive referrals, all of which impact the bottom line.

According to a benchmark report published by Replicant, 95 percent of leaders have already implemented contact center automation or plan to within the next year with nearly three-fourths believing that the solution will reduce costs by at least 25 percent.

Gartner concurs, reporting that overall robotic process automation spending is expected to reach $2.9 billion this year, which is a 19.5 percent increase from 2021. Contact center automation is expected to be a piece of that spending geared toward establishing greater call center efficiency and more automated omnichannel call center workflows.

Try Replicant

Replicant has years of experience working with contact centers just like yours, helping them automate and scale their operations. Learn more about our call center outsourcing solutions now.

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The insightful discussion touches on numerous topics, including;

• Why we hate calling customer support – and how AI is making the experience better
• Why automation beyond interactive voice response (IVR) systems is saving contact centers
• What happens when AI makes bad decisions
• When it’s ok to “nudge” users to work with the bot – even when they ask for a human
• The ethical implications of bots pretending to be human
• What new careers will be created for call center employees as AI capabilities continue to expand

Listen to the full interview here:

Improving experiences with technology

The value of automation and leaning on machines to improve the customer service experience is a hot topic of conversation. The unpredictability of hold times can be maddening for a customer, but call volumes also present challenges for businesses looking to quickly scale service based on need at any given time. “The other problem,” Shamia explains, “ is that people don’t want to do this work anymore.”

“The agents on the other side are not really interested in getting minimum wage to sit and hear people screaming at them on the phone all day long.”

Overcoming automation hesitancy

After years of clunky experiences interacting with traditional IVR systems, people may be hesitant to engage with the intelligent machines being employed in customer service. Shamia explains that exposing people to machines actually solving requests is the first step in improving this perception. Fortunately, most calls have a clear path for a machine to guide customers to achieve a positive resolution – freeing agents to assist people with more complex needs that require empathy and creativity.

“Lucky for us and all our customers, 60-70% of the calls… have a clear conversion path, which means we can create immediate relief for companies and allow agents to really focus on where they can make a difference.”

Building safety into the system

Replicant’s Thinking Machines are designed with the safety of callers in mind and to never “lock people in what we call a botland,” explains Shamia. In the case of a roadside assistance call, for example, the Thinking Machine will always ask whether a child or pet is locked in a car and never become distracted or forget this crucial safety inquiry. The Thinking Machine also doesn’t punish callers for impatient behavior. “We don’t care if you scream at us or not,” says Shamia. If a customer truly needs immediate help and asks for an agent, the machine will always transfer the call.

“So far, over the more than 30 million calls, there was no case where we’ll mishandle something in a way that got anyone even close to a harmful situation.”

The evolution of call deflection

For many in the contact center space, diverting calls away from agents is a goal to reduce costs and call volumes. At Replicant, the goal in most cases is to facilitate a constructive interaction with the machine with a slight nudge to encourage the caller-machine conversation. A typical way to do this is to share the wait time with a caller who wants to speak with an agent and ask if they’d like to hold or try to resolve their request. “And most customers will actually say, ‘I’ll go ahead and give it a try,’” Shamia says. “And in most cases, we’re going to resolve it and we don’t have to transfer it to an agent.”

“Only 5% of the callers ask for an agent. That’s it. And we do a lot of work to make sure… that we build trust with the caller so they don’t ask for an agent.”

Automation and the future of work

Contact Center Automation won’t replace the human agents. Not only will the reliance on machines to address mundane aspects of the job improve the quality of the work by allowing agents to focus on the more nuanced needs of their customers, but it has been proven over time that automation leads to the emergence of new types of jobs in response. “As you free up capacity, what businesses tend to do is reinvest it in different ways to increase their revenue and value for their shareholders,” Shamia explains. “And that’s what’s going to happen in the customer service space as well.”

“The jobs of the agents is just going to transfer and change because companies are going to be more complex.”

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As a result of these heightened customer expectations, companies have been turning to call center workforce optimization (WFO) software like Replicant’s Thinking Machine. Our WFO software is designed to automate Tier One customer inquiries and questions, properly route complex calls to the correct live agents, and streamline communications between all channels.

What is call center workforce optimization?

Call center workforce optimization is a management strategy that includes contact center automation. This strategy ensures customers can quickly resolve their questions and problems. It also helps companies reduce budgets while increasing ROI. 

How do workforce optimization solutions in a call center work?

Solutions like our Thinking Machine use conversational AI technology. Customer support departments are able to resolve Tier One customer questions with zero hold time and no human interaction. Now overwhelmed live agents are freed up to manage higher-level work and calls that require human empathy.

How Replicant’s solution works

The Thinking Machine relieves customer service representatives from the most frequent, repetitive inquiries. Customers can automate their highest volume conversation threads, such as frequently asked questions or basic account information retrieval. Live agents focus on complex questions and problems.

Optimizing your workforce leads to both higher agent satisfaction and increased customer satisfaction. According to an article by Gartner, only one in three agents is engaged, leading to higher potential attrition. WFO can boost that engagement by providing more engaging jobs. Agents have time to add new skills like conversation analysis. Professional development and earning career-boosting certifications can replace hours of answering repetitive questions. Customers are happier because they can get their questions and problems addressed immediately.

Many organizations face seasonal or periodic spikes in call volume. These spikes often require them to hire and train temporary agents or use an offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) solution. Contact center automation can immediately scale as those call volumes change, eliminating the need to find and train new agents or pay for BPO that may or may not be required in a given season. This can result in significant cost savings.

Finally, using AI in customer support can mean a whole new level of data and analytics. As Forrester reported, “call centers will become a treasure trove of customer insight.” Replicant’s Thinking Machine can analyze conversation transcripts for every customer interaction across every channel and present this data in a single dashboard. That convenience makes it easy for contact center managers to obtain and study the data needed to drive operational excellence and make ongoing improvements.

What are the bottom line results?

Our customers are frequently very satisfied with our solution, citing high and rising resolution rates and customer satisfaction scores while decreasing escalation rates. In fact, Replicant’s call center workforce optimization solution often returns CSAT scores as high as live agent scores. 

Kelsey Holshouser, vice president of customer experience at Because, summed up the company’s experience, “Consistency within the customer experience is an extremely high priority for us at Because. We decided to double down on Replicant across channels because we know that by leveraging their technology, our customers will always receive the same excellent level of service, regardless of which channel they prefer.”

Try Replicant

To join Because and our other hundreds of satisfied clients, reach out to us today. Our contact center automation solution can help you achieve your call center workforce optimization goals.

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Contact center technology has evolved beyond simply improved efficiency of phone calls. It is now working toward providing an even more seamless, integrated approach to customer service. Omnichannel contact center solutions offer advanced features that are scalable, vastly improve the customer experience, and help deal with agent shortages.

What is an omnichannel contact center?

An omnichannel contact center is one that streamlines all customer interactions, regardless of channel, into a single workforce management solution. According to Gartner, live chat is the number one service choice for shoppers between 18 and 49 years old while Globe Newswire reports that three out of ten people would give up calls in favor of texting. 

Customers can now choose to call, text, or chat and an automated system driven by AI can respond. AI-driven contact center technology can retrieve and record the interactions for future use while providing data and analytics.

Why is omnichannel customer service important?

Excellent customer satisfaction is harder to achieve with rising consumer expectations. An omnichannel cloud contact center can help improve the customer experience by reducing wait times to zero and eliminating the need for customers to repeat themselves. It also contributes to live agent satisfaction by eliminating repetitive, boring inquiries, leaving them with more complex and challenging customer interactions. Contact center automation ROI can be significant.

How does omnichannel routing improve efficiency in the contact center?

Omnichannel contact center solutions can improve efficiency by using a single conversation engine. This engine leverages a shared intent library, which deploys and scales conversational AI rapidly across languages and channels for every automated conversation. 

In addition, these cloud-based call center solutions resolve issues naturally with seamless channel switching across voice, text, chat, and other digital channels. Customers can interact with you when and where they choose. 

Finally, the omnichannel call center software can analyze conversation transcripts for every customer interaction, regardless of channel. This information is displayed in a single dashboard that makes it easy to get the data you need to drive operational excellence.

Getting started

If setting up an omnichannel cloud contact center sounds too intimidating, it’s easy to get started in stages. You can start by automating a single contact driver over one channel.

For example, a hotel may choose to automate overflow reservations during peak vacation season by phone. Once that is working well, that hotel can add new contact drivers such as cancellations or billing requests. In addition, new channels such as text messaging or web chats can be folded into the AI contact center at a later time.

In the case of an auto insurance business, the highest priority may be to automate tax form information requests during one quarter of each year. Focusing on automating only that contact driver across all channels may relieve the company of enough volume to avoid hiring additional or temporary live agents.

Expected results

Besides improving customer service, reducing or eliminating wait times, and retaining more live agents in a tight labor market, omnichannel contact center solutions can be expected to see a significant return on investment. Replicant’s enterprise contact centers regularly return more than 55 percent in cost savings when compared to the cost of highly optimized business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions.

Our Solution

If you’re ready to embrace contact center technology in an omnichannel environment, we’d love to show you how contact center automation ROI can greatly benefit your customers, agents, and bottom line.

The post Omnichannel Contact Center Solutions That Work appeared first on Replicant.

According to new data found in the 2022 Benchmark Report – a survey of 300 US-based contact center leaders conducted by global research firm Demand Metric – organizations are experiencing clear challenges to their customer service goals.

While some challenges represent lasting effects brought on by the pandemic, new obstacles have introduced additional complexities:

• Customer expectations remain at all-time highs, and satisfaction remains priority number one for contact centers
• Customer service agent attrition rates are at 42%, and nearly a third of agents are actively looking for a new job
• The U.S. officially entered a recession in 2022, and managing contact centers costs remain a top priority

The report, titled Automation in the Contact Center, found that 91% of leaders believe automation is a critical priority to overcoming rising costs, hiring challenges, and call volume spikes. 

In fact, most contact center leaders (95%) have either already adopted, are implementing now, or are planning to implement automation within the next year.

“Automation has the power to transform the industry, as evidenced by the accelerated adoption of the technology,” said Gadi Shamia, CEO and co-founder at Replicant. 

“More and more companies are using automation to address chronic agent shortages and lower costs, while allowing their live agents to focus on more challenging and interesting customer issues. This survey confirms what we’ve seen in the market, that automation, especially natural sounding voice automation that resolves customer challenges, will soon be standard in every contact center.”

Read below for key findings from the report or download the full 2022 Benchmark Report: Automation in the Contact Center. The press release can be found here.

People and costs are top contact center challenges

The pandemic and ensuing Great Resignation saw contact center agents reevaluate their jobs – with many choosing to pursue other lines of work. As a result, customer service leaders have been forced to face rising customer demands and more unpredictable call spikes with understaffed operations and more expensive hiring cycles. 

According to the 2022 Benchmark Report:

• 54% of leaders cited high and increasing costs as an immediate challenge
• 49% said hiring enough agents is an immediate challenge
• Leaders of contact centers with 1,000+ agents cited call volume spikes as their top challenge

As hiring and training costs have risen, agent recruitment has become less of a viable solution to long wait times and dissatisfied customers. Still, improving customer satisfaction remains the top contact center priority (77%) by a wide margin, with addressing staffing/workforce issues second (60%).

Automation is the top solution

Nearly all contact center leaders (95%) have either already adopted, are implementing now, or are planning to implement automation within the next year. Results from the report shed light on the prioritization of automation deployment, as well as trends regarding contact center leaders’ automation goals and investment plans:

• 91% of contact center leaders report that automation is a critical or important priority in the next year
• 72% of contact center leaders believe automation will reduce costs by at least 25%
• 75% of contact center leaders who have invested in automation will increase their investment this year, while 20% will sustain their existing budget

Deployment obstacles, strategies, and trends

Contact center leaders indicate a disparity between customers’ most used channels and the effectiveness of each. Omnichannel service remains a goal for most, and leaders see the voice channel as a key value proposition of automation. 

In addition, the majority of respondents are not only excited about the prospect of automation in the contact center, but believe it will have a disruptive or revolutionary impact on customer service:

• 80% of leaders managing a contact center of 1,000+ agents indicated that an omnichannel experience is important or very important – however, 63% feel they’re delivering that to a large or very large extent. 
• Contact centers anticipate automation will address as much as 40% or more of tier-1 issues across channels such as voice, text, email, chat and more
• 87% of contact center leaders indicate that the voice channel has the highest perceived value of automation compared to any other channel they use

While the 2022 Benchmark Report confirms many of the challenges Replicant has heard directly from contact center leaders, the data makes it clear that that Contact Center Automation has passed its tipping point not just in adoption, but in perceived value:

• 66% of contact center leaders characterize themselves as excited about the prospect of using automation
• 54% of respondents believe automation will have a disruptive or revolutionary impact on customer service

As Contact Center Automation continues to return cost savings to operational leaders, its impact will be felt beyond just bottom lines. With Contact Center Automation at the forefront of customer service transformation, customers will continue to get answers faster, agents will be free to focus more on tasks that require human creativity, and brands can return to delivering exceptional customer service no matter what challenges arise. 

The post Benchmark Report: Contact Center Automation is Moving to the Mainstream   appeared first on Replicant.

What is a virtual call center?

A virtual call center is a contact center that does not need a physical space. Instead, live agents can work from anywhere to answer phone calls, respond to text messages, or answer chat inquiries. It’s one of the modern-day workforce solutions that can cater to the individual’s desire to work remotely as well as reduce infrastructure costs for the organization itself.

The solution that many leading businesses use today is Replicant’s conversational AI platform. Trained on millions of actual customer service conversations, Replicant’s Thinking Machine can effectively answer Tier One customer questions and inquiries with zero wait time and no human interaction. Below are a few examples of our technology in action.

The Travel and Hospitality Industry

The travel and hospitality industry is a perfect candidate for call center automation due to its high contact volume and the repetitive nature of the most common inquiries. It can improve customer success, reduce costs, and create happier agents.

Our virtual call center technology provides businesses like hotels with the additional customer support they need to minimize or eliminate wait times, especially during peak travel and vacation seasons. Instead of building, buying, or renting more physical space, or hiring permanent or seasonal representatives, hotels can use a call automation solution to handle repetitive requests. These requests include booking a room, changing or canceling a reservation, or answering frequently asked questions.

For example, Replicant partnered with a leading hotel management company to deploy the virtual call center solution in about eight weeks. Immediately following implementation, this hotel chain dropped wait times to zero for new reservations. Live customer service agents were instantly freed to focus on complex or unusual customer requests that require human intelligence and empathy.

The Auto Insurance Industry

With more than 228 million licensed drivers in the United States alone, automotive insurance is a big business. Between selling new policies, updating contact information, and handling billing transactions, auto insurance companies are often swamped with customer service inquiries and questions. And customers are getting more impatient with a rising number of hang-ups before call resolution.

Replicant’s virtual call center software solution can automate the vast majority of these requests. This saves organizations time, money, and the need to hire additional agents in a tight labor market.

For example, one auto insurance company with nearly 60 years of experience turned to Replicant for assistance. This 5-star business recognized that its 400 full-time agents were becoming overwhelmed by many repetitive requests that were a regular part of the 5,000 plus calls the company received each year.

Replicant designed a voice solution that automated its highest volume calls, which included policy questions, billing, and payment requests. By providing a clear roadmap, Replicant was able to accelerate this company’s automation plans. In a short 10 weeks, the company achieved a success rate of more than 80 percent in resolving or accurately routing every customer request, which translated to a 4.4/5 CSAT score, more available agents,  and a contact center that could provide 24/7 service with zero wait time.

The Financial Services Industry

Businesses that provide financial services are another major group that can benefit from virtual call center technology. Seasonal demand around tax season can boost customer call volumes to unmanageable levels, and finding trained agents in a tight labor market to fill the gap can be difficult if not impossible.

Many customer calls are repetitive and can be easily anticipated by the financial organization, making these companies perfect candidates for automation. Customers often call for account balances, common transactions, form requests, and contact information updates. Simply providing this basic information upon request can significantly improve the customer experience.

One of Replicant’s customers is ECSI, which has been a leading provider of campus-based student loan servicing for more than five decades. However, ECSI’s customer service teams were regularly overwhelmed during tax season. Until recently, this financial organization hired and trained temporary agents to handle the overflow. However, ECSI found it difficult to accurately predict their call volume from year to year.

They decided to partner with Replicant to provide a more seamless customer experience. In a brief 10 weeks, Replicant was able to help ECSI automate common loan requests, answer Form 1098 questions, and provide refund status updates. Within three weeks, the system scaled to handle 100 percent of the target volume of calls and achieved a CSAT of 4.6 out of 5.0. Soon after, they expanded their solution to automate and handle full loan servicing flows as well.

More About Replicant

If you are looking for a virtual call center solution, our company has a solid track record for improving customer satisfaction and increasing ROI in various industries. Learn how we can create a call center automation solution to help your organization do the same.

The post The Virtual Call Center Software Top Companies Use and Why appeared first on Replicant.

This series is dedicated to customer service innovators and leaders that have managed to turn their obstacles into opportunities, reinventing what it means to be a great leader and delivering exceptional customer service experiences despite today’s climate. From managing their teams through crisis, to pivoting tactics in record speed, to innovating with emerging technologies, these are the leaders transforming contacts centers in 2022.

Mike Bowman

ECSI

Senior Director, Operations

LinkedIn

Check out our previous spotlight and discover more Customer Service Innovators with Replicant’s 50 Leaders Transforming Contact Centers.

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Autonomous customer service can help contact center managers implement an effective alternative. By using AI in customer service, managers no longer need to hire customer service agents to deal with increasing call volumes. Instead, a vast majority of the Tier One, simple, repetitive inquiries can be handled with no human interaction at all. Advanced conversational AI technology today includes sophisticated natural language capabilities, accurate discernment of multiple customer intents, and the ability to “learn” from calls taken.

How can AI improve customer service?

When contact centers use AI in customer service, they will be able to respond to Tier One questions immediately with zero hold time for customers. According to Hubspot, “the average call center hold time is roughly 13 minutes, and most people are willing to wait 2-3 minutes on hold before getting upset. However, 57 percent of customers find long hold times to be a frustrating part of the service experience.” Eliminating wait times, therefore, is an excellent way to improve customer service.

How can AI improve customer experience?

In today’s busy world, customers expect to get accurate and rapid answers to their questions as well as solutions to service issues immediately. Implementing conversational AI solutions allows contact centers to streamline their voice, text, and chat channels to respond to customer inquiries as soon as they come in. In addition, the history of customer conversations is stored for further analysis and improvement.

What does AI-powered mean?

AI-powered means that a solution uses artificial intelligence to understand natural language, interpret customer intent, and locate the right answer the majority of the time without human intervention. Replicant’s solution is pre-trained on millions of customer service calls, allowing new contact centers to get up and running rapidly. That said, Replicant’s solution will continue to “learn” over time for each specific application.

Reducing Turnover

Another benefit of an autonomous customer service solution is to reduce live agent turnover. Since Tier One, repetitive questions are resolved automatically, customer service representatives are no longer burdened with these high-volume inquiries. A report by emolument noted that 71 percent of all those working in support-type jobs such as customer service are bored at work.

By offloading boring questions, an autonomous customer service solution allows human agents to spend time and energy on more complex, interesting questions that require empathy. In many cases, this leads to higher job satisfaction and less turnover.

Rapid, Efficient Implementation

One concern in today’s highly technological world is the cost and implementation time for new technologies. One key decision point is deciding whether to build vs buy an AI in customer service solution. Although building your own solution can give you control and the ability to customize features, the investment in hardware and expertise can be cost-prohibitive and the time to deployment may be months or years.

Since Replicant’s solution is an out-of-the-box solution, typical deployment takes as little as six to 12 weeks – depending on the number of call flows required. Already trained on millions of customer contact interactions, Replicant comes with unparalleled experience to serve your contact center immediately along with the ability to learn more starting from day one. The time and resources from your IT department will be little to none, generating significant returns with very little investment.

Our Autonomous Customer Service Solution

If you’re ready to try a proven autonomous customer service solution, reach out to Replicant today. Our experts would love to share our customer service automation demo with your team to show you how we can streamline and automate your contact center.

The post What is Autonomous Customer Service? appeared first on Replicant.

Understanding where and when call center automation can be most useful can help your organization make the best decisions about this technology moving forward. This article will discuss some of the best-in-class contact center automation use cases to help you get started.

What is contact center automation?

Contact center automation is software is designed to automatically handle Tier One customer calls quickly and efficiently. Based on machine learning technology, this software understands customer intent using natural language. It can completely resolve inquiries without human intervention. Omnichannel call center automation is able to automate responses from multiple channels including voice, text, and messaging.

How is AI used in a contact center?

AI (artificial intelligence) contact center solutions do not require that a customer press certain buttons or say certain words to get an answer to a question. Instead, AI understands natural speech and can resolve issues just like a live agent. In addition, AI can be used to continuously “learn” from new questions and calls for a particular company, making the call center technology even more useful over time.

How to determine what automation to use in your contact center

Automation in call centers should be designed to meet the needs of a particular business, industry, and market. Begin by learning what calls you should automate. Select those common questions that many customers have–and those that your live agents are simply tired of answering. Be sure you select a partner that can customize its solution to your particular use cases.

Customer service use cases perfect for automation

Automation in call centers should provide 24-hour customer support with consistency and accuracy, regardless of industry or market. According to McKinsey, “consistency is the secret ingredient to making customers happy…it’s exceptionally powerful, especially at a time when retail channels are proliferating and consumer choice and empowerment are increasing.”

Consider the following contact center automation use cases:

• Insurance – Companies can easily automate requests for proof of insurance, and customers should be able to make updates such as adding a car to a policy or changing an address or other contact information. An automated roadside assistance request can speed up the delivery of help when a difficult situation arises.
• Healthcare – The use of automation technology can make scheduling or changing an appointment, obtaining a prescription, or receiving policy information easier and faster.
• Travel & Hospitality – Many details in the travel and hospitality sector such as booking an airline flight, hotel room, or rental car can be automated. Changes, cancellations, and information requests are also prime for automation.
• Retail & E-Commerce – In this day and age when just about any product can be delivered to a customer’s doorstep within a day or two–or even hours–automation has a critical role to play in order status inquiries as well as return and billing processes.
• Consumer Services – Expectations for consumer services are rising, and an AI-powered contact center can help customers make appointments, obtain cost estimates, and file complaints more efficiently.
• Telecommunications – When it comes to telecommunications, call center automation solutions can facilitate reporting an outage, troubleshooting problems, or updating service.
• Finance – Customers who need to request tax forms or data or make a payment on an account can use automation to make the process easier.

Try Replicant

Request a demo and see call center automation at work. We have helped companies just like yours automate their contact centers, resulting in higher agent satisfaction, higher customer satisfaction, and greater ROI.

The post Contact Center Automation Use Cases appeared first on Replicant.

Cloud-based contact center solutions are less costly and easier to maintain. They can make it simpler to take advantage of new technologies. Centralized implementation means that distributed users can access new solutions faster than ever. 

What Are The Main Benefits Of Cloud Contact Centers?

Cloud contact centers can:

• facilitate remote work, 
• reduce capital costs 
• reduce maintenance costs for the business, 
• and seamlessly integrate with other key technologies. 

Significant return-on-investment is frequently realized, and cloud-based technologies are often more secure and lend themselves to central IT governance.

Features Of A Cloud-Based Call Center Solution

As you are choosing a cloud-based call center solution, it’s important to understand how it is set up and the features it delivers to the modern contact center. Here are key components:

• Internet-Based. Unlike many legacy systems, cloud-based call centers do not require on-premise servers, networking equipment, desktop computers, or other infrastructure. Instead, the entire system is internet-based, allowing customer service representatives to work from anywhere with an internet connection. 
• Application-Based. Applications are housed centrally so contact centers can simply download them and add live agents that require access to remain productive.
• Omnichannel Access. Cloud-based technology allows easy expansion from call centers to contact centers. Instead of being limited to only answering phone calls, organizations can now implement an omnichannel automation solution that fields requests from those channels that customers prefer including voice, text, and messaging. 
• Agility. Cloud-based centers can easily add new technologies or software with the centralization of upgrades. On-premise solutions are often more restricted by the limited data management, storage, or integration capability.
• Affordable. Outsourcing server upkeep of all contact center data means that contact centers save on staffing and resources for the long run. 

Key Advantages Of Cloud-Based Contact Centers

The best contact centers reside in the cloud. According to Gartner, “more than 85 percent of organizations will embrace a cloud-first principle by 2025 and will not be able to fully execute on their digital strategies without the use of cloud-native architectures and technologies.”

Benefits include:

• Facilitates Remote Work. In today’s distributed workforces, many employees including customer service representatives only require an internet connection to perform job duties. Cloud-based solutions can not only make this possible but easy and affordable.
• Reduces Infrastructure Needs. Cloud-based contact centers spend less on facilities and infrastructure when compared with call centers that are completely on-premises.
• Decreases Maintenance Costs. Along the same lines, contact centers in the cloud centralizes maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting tasks, reducing the workload and costs of busy IT staff.
• Integrates Seamlessly. Finally, these cloud-based solutions can easily adopt new contact center technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation. Integration for on-premises solutions is frequently difficult and time-consuming.
• Delivers Strong Returns. The bottom line is that the cloud based contact center ROI is significant, helping to position today’s companies against the competition for success.

Cloud-Based Solutions: Using Advanced Technologies

Cloud-based contact centers allow important systems like customer relationship management and contact center management to be easily integrated with advanced technologies.

Replicant’s contact center automation solution 

• reduces or completely eliminates wait times for customers, 
• eases common staffing challenges,
• reduces the need for recruitment in a tight market, 
• combats frequent turnover with live agents, 
• and can save a company millions of dollars in training and outsourcing costs. 

Calculate your future cloud based contact center ROI by implementing Replicant’s solution.

The post Why a Cloud-Based Contact Center is Best appeared first on Replicant.

“This recognition from Aragon Research validates that businesses are embracing Contact Center Automation and certifies our efforts to create scalable customer support that doesn’t compromise the customer experience,” said Gadi Shamia, co-founder and CEO of Replicant. 

“Our vision is to create an automation experience that is helpful, fast and pleasant to use that enterprises will want to continue to adopt, so we can change the state of customer service worldwide.”

As the leader in Contact Center Automation, this recognition is important to us for a few reasons:

1. Contact Centers Are in Crisis

Over the last year, we’ve heard story after story of contact centers struggling to hire enough agents, plan for unpredictable spikes in call volumes, and navigate economic uncertainty. 

These challenges have led to a customer service crisis that has put brands at risk and greatly reduced the level of service customers receive. We’ve made it a part of our mission to double down on Contact Center Automation to help companies automate their most common customer service calls while empowering agents to focus on more complex and nuanced customer challenges.

With Replicant, contact centers are able to automate common customer requests 24/7 at  unlimited scale. On average, customers go-live with Replicant in 8 to 12 weeks, see a decrease in cost per contact of 50%, and improve average handle time (AHT) and customer satisfaction (CSAT).  

2. Human-to-Machine Conversations Power Everything We Do

To accomplish true Contact Center Automation, we developed the first “Thinking Machine,” a conversation engine capable of having complex, multi-intent conversations with humans to resolve common customer service issues.

It is through this technology that contact centers can offer seamless, automated experiences in any language, while gaining access to rich insights into every customer interaction via auto-generated and fully transcribed conversations.

The engineers and conversation designers behind Replicant’s Thinking Machine ensure that every conversation is the most effective and natural human-to-machine interaction a customer will ever experience. Meanwhile, continuous learning ensures that conversations with the Thinking Machine are always improving:

“What makes Replicant hot is its ability to continuously learn from its conversations and other knowledge sources to autonomously improve future conversations without the need to retrain or redeploy manually,” said Jim Lundy, CEO and lead analyst of Aragon Research. “The Thinking Machine also leverages a shared intent library so deploying new automated conversation flows across channels or languages is fast and consistent with Replicant.”

3. We Care About Our Customers’ Customers

Our inclusion in the Hot Vendors category wouldn’t be possible without the deep partnerships we have with our customers. Replicant’s technology isn’t designed to simply deflect callers or route them more efficiently, but instead to completely transform the customer and agent experience.

By working with contact center innovators from some of the world’s most reputable brands, Replicant has been able to apply the Thinking Machine to diverse  customer bases across industries – from Travel & Hospitality, to Insurance, to Retail & eCommerce, and many more. 

These partnerships have proven that a customer-first approach to Contact Center Automation can return exceptionally high CSAT scores with personalized interactions and branded experiences built for the modern age. They have also shown the ability to transform the agent experience by completely offloading  tier 1 requests that typically fatigue agents and lead to greater employee attrition.

4. We’re Just Getting Started

Aragon’s “Hot Vendor” report highlights a few of the capabilities that define Replicant’s technology: 

• Completely automate the resolution of common customer service calls
• Provide a rich library of pre-built conversation components to streamline the design and deployment of conversation flows 
• Provide real-time visibility into conversations with rich analytics to uncover key trends and enhance the customer experience with self-service script editing

But beyond our core features, Replicant’s vision for Contact Center Automation continues to evolve. Just this year, we launched omnichannel support, giving contact center leaders the ability to deploy automation across channels faster with a single conversation engine. 

In addition, our recent $78 million Series B funding round will help us continue advancing Contact Center Automation for enterprise customers and generate even more value for contact centers – even as economic uncertainty persists. 

Replicant thanks Aragon Research for this recognition, as well as our customers, partners and amazing team for all their continued support.

Read the full press release here.

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The American economy is officially in a recession. With today’s report from the Bureau of Economic Activity showing a second straight quarter of GDP contraction, there’s now clear evidence that most companies will face a challenging climate for the foreseeable future.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Some savvy brands might even prosper during a broad economic downturn. Replicant’s Harry Chang has been exploring the impact of a recession on contact centers in a series of reports, providing insight into how customer service operations can withstand periods of economic uncertainty. 

Recession resources include strategies from contact center leaders – many of whom have prepared for uncertainty by deploying Contact Center Automation in some capacity.

 “If there was to be an economic downturn and budgets happened to be cut, we are prepared for them and would still be able to fulfill our responsibilities to our customers partly due to the ROI we’ve already seen from implementing Replicant.”

Lisa Rivier, Senior Director of Operations and Strategy, AAA

Replicant has also produced a definitive guide on how customer service can thrive in an unpredictable economy and will be hosting a webinar on August 24 featuring industry leaders speaking about challenges – and opportunities – related to the recession. 

How Leaders Can Prepare for an Economic Slowdown

While the pandemic, “Great Resignation” and supply chain disruptions presented new challenges for businesses, there’s precedent leaders can learn from regarding the economic instability of a recession. By understanding and responding to these trends, contact center leaders can still position their operations for success and even growth.

While consumer spending will continue to slow during the downturn, Chang presents data from the 2009 recession showing how loyalty created by successful customer experience practices can drive resilience. Past recession cycles have also shown how companies scrutinize investments more as budgets tighten, but innovative leaders have often used prolonged periods of economic unease to seek creative solutions – including automation, which has become a viable mainstream tool to drive savings and enhance the customer service experience.

Contact Center Automation: Built to Withstand

So how does contact center automation aid in future-proofing an operation faced with uncertain economic conditions? 

When an organization relies on automation to reduce mundane and repetitive calls, agent retention actually increases. Employees become empowered to focus on more satisfying work addressing customers’ complex and nuanced requests. By reducing agent churn, costs are dramatically reduced associated with hiring and training new staffers.

Beyond ensuring agent capacity, investing in new scalable efficiency opportunities like automation can also be vital for navigating significant shifts in customer demand. By taking steps to assure customers that their needs remain a priority, organizations can sustain customer loyalty and satisfaction by providing reliable service during unreliable times.

Brands Can Thrive – Even Amid Economic Uncertainty

The Great Recession of 2009 forced many companies to make changes just to survive. But some innovative brands were able to maintain growth and even prosper during the last extended period of a tumultuous economy, providing lessons that can help businesses navigate this latest period of uncertainty. 

This piece focuses on keys to a recession-proof brand. Chang identifies five essential priorities that every company should consider to sustain growth despite a bleak economic forecast. 

Technological innovation and leaning on data to understand how recession forces impact a business are important aspects of this conversation, Chang writes, and automation provides “flexibility and agility built for today’s world.” But emphasizing customer satisfaction and developing brand loyalty are also crucial for companies to consider during a recession. 

How Customer Service Leaders Prepare for Economic Uncertainty

While the length and severity of a recession is speculative, customer service leaders can take multiple proactive steps to protect against economic uncertainty and help their brands secure future success. 

In his analysis, Chang examines data and insight from customer service professionals to present tips for companies to consider. With a mix of customer-focused initiatives, business prioritization and opportunities where technology can improve operations, Chang highlights 10 best practices for recession-proofing customer service enterprises. 

Replicant has also compiled these valuable tips into a handy checklist for contact center leaders to consider as they prepare for an extended period of challenging economic factors. 

How Replicant Protects Contact Centers from Economic Uncertainty

Contact centers are still reeling from unpredictable customer demand and hiring challenges that arose during the pandemic. Now, a recession is set to add yet another level of uncertainty. 

Replicant’s contact center automation solution helps companies automate common customer service requests, freeing up human agents to focus on more complicated calls. As a result, contact centers become more resilient in times of unpredictability.

Using a series of case studies, customer success stories and insights, Replicant has produced a guide showing the value of adopting its industry-leading approach to contact center automation.

“Having implemented Replicant, we are prepared for whatever may come. Whether it’s an economic downturn or a spike in call volume tomorrow, we will be able to answer calls because of the automation we already have in place.”

Steve Bennett, Supervisor of Member Care at the Canadian Automobile Association.

Definitive Guide: How Customer Service Can Thrive During an Economic Downturn

Replicant has compiled this essential resource full of tips, research and analysis to help customer service leaders prepare for the recession. 

Topics covered in this guide include:

• How a Recession Can Impact Contact Centers
• How to Prepare Your Contact Center for a Recession
• 10 Steps To A Recession-Proof Contact Center
• How Contact Center Automation Can Future-Proof Your Contact Center

Webinar: How to Recession-Proof Your Contact Center

Replicant will host a live panel featuring three customer service leaders discussing how they’re approaching the recession in their respective industries.

These executives will discuss: 

• The critical role of contact centers in maintaining customer loyalty and revenue during turbulent times
• The KPIs that matter most when navigating market uncertainty
• How to approach scaling contact centers without increasing costs
• The value of a strategic contact center function and how technology can help

This timely conversation is free and will be held on August 24 at 3:00 pm ET. 

Please click here to register.

About Replicant

As a leader in Contact Center Automation, Replicant helps companies automate their most common customer service calls while empowering agents to focus on more complex and nuanced customer challenges. Replicant’s AI platform allows consumers to engage in natural conversations across voice, messaging and other digital channels to resolve their customer support issues, without the wait, 24/7. Replicant scales up or down instantly, can be implemented in weeks and handles millions of customer support interactions a month.

For more information, please visit: www.replicant.ai
Connect with Replicant on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/replicant
Follow Replicant on Twitter: @Replicant_AI

The post The US Is in a Recession: Here’s What Contact Centers Need to Know appeared first on Replicant.

What is Automated Customer Service?

Customer support automation is the technology and associated processes that allow incoming customer inquiries to be managed automatically regardless of channel. Calls, texts, or chats are answered immediately by an AI-powered system that can resolve customer questions and problems cost-effectively and without human interaction.

How Does Automation Help Customer Service?

Automating customer service helps deliver an excellent customer experience (CX) by eliminating hold times and resolving common questions and problems quickly and efficiently. Besides these benefits for the consumer, customer service automation also results in increased productivity of live agents who are now able to focus on more complex inquiries that require creativity and human empathy.

How Does Customer Service Automation Save Money?

Although automation technology will require an initial investment as well as some ongoing expenses, the bottom line is that a company must generate a good return on investment (ROI) within a reasonable amount of time. For example, it is easy and fast to implement Replicant’s technology as it can be totally integrated with most call center solutions. There is little to no need for IT support. Finding such a simple and affordable solution can make the overall decision easier.

Once the investment is made, automating your contact center can save money on an ongoing basis in three specific ways: 

• Reduce direct and indirect labor costs.

According to CXToday, both labor expenses and operational expenses result in a cost per call between $2.70 and $5.60. By using a customer service automation solution such as Replicant, contact centers have been able to reduce these costs by up to 55 percent when compared with optimized live agent business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions.

• Decrease handle times and eliminate hold periods.

Call center technology can also be measured by average handle times (AHT). These can vary by channel and industry, but automation can lower cost per interaction significantly because inquiries can be addressed simultaneously, at an unlimited scale, and around the clock.

• Pay for only what you use.

Unlike BPO solutions that require the training and retention of a set number of live agents regardless of actual usage, automated support allows contact centers to pay for only what they use. 

Expensive Alternatives

Unfortunately, today’s alternatives to customer service automation can be costly. If an organization chooses to simply hire additional live agents to deliver 24-hour customer support, it will not only need to pay live agent wages but also incur indirect costs such as employee benefits and ongoing training.

With the tight labor market and the high turnover rates in the customer service industry, these costs are even higher as contact centers struggle to retain live agents and invest in ongoing recruitment and training expenses.

Third-party BPO solution providers, many of them offshore, have traditionally helped contact centers pick up the slack. However, many of these third-party organizations are struggling with the same labor issues as those contact centers hiring directly. As their costs rise, they must pass along those costs to contact centers, which are now under contract to pay regardless of the actual support needed or used.

Replicant’s Solution

Download our Definitive Guide to Contact Center Automation solution now. Learn how our AI technology offers value and long-term ROI that can save millions of dollars while improving customer retention rates, upselling/cross-selling opportunities, and reducing hiring and training costs.

The post 3 Ways Customer Service Automation Saves Money appeared first on Replicant.

Now, contact centers must do a whole lot more. For example, if a complex call needs to be escalated to a live agent, the solution should be able to collect all relevant information and customer data. Then, it should forward a complete conversation to the agent so that the human representative can only deal with the portions of the call that require empathy, critical thinking, and the human touch.

Data from every channel should be seamlessly integrated into the correct customer files. This way, future communications are even more targeted and personal. The call center software should provide regular analytic information so that the contact center can constantly improve its scripts and performance.

Characteristics of the best contact center solutions

The best contact center solutions ideally resolve common, repetitive Tier One customer inquiries and questions with zero wait time and no human interactions. Complex inquiries should be seamlessly forwarded to live agents with a complete record so the customer does not need to repeat any information already provided. Data and analytics should facilitate continuous improvement in the best customer service automation solutions.

What are the benefits of call center software?

Contact center software solutions should benefit both the business operating the call center, the customer representatives working there, and, most importantly, the customers seeking assistance.

Call center software is more effective and efficient than other solutions such as offshore outsourcing or interactive voice response (IVR) systems. Automation is much less expensive than hiring and training additional live agents. 

The best contact center solutions should also manage all mundane, repetitive inquiries such as account balances, appointment scheduling, or order tracking. This removes a significant workload from live agents who can become discouraged at answering the same questions over and over again. Instead, representatives can apply their skills and expertise to resolve complex problems that require human interaction.

Providing outstanding customer assistance is a significant issue for call centers.  According to Emolument, customer support is the third most boring vocation, with 71 percent of staff reporting they feel bored at work. Another study by CV-Library found that customer service workers are bored because they do the same tedious thing every day.

Using automated technology, customers receive answers to their questions more quickly and efficiently, usually with no wait time, multiple transfers, or requests to repeat basic contact information. This leads to a better customer experience, greater loyalty, and more revenue for the business itself.

The best contact center solutions in action

Companies that use Replicant’s Thinking Machine, one of the best contact center solutions on the market today, reap the benefits of contact center AI solutions.  Here’s how it works:

• A customer calls, texts, or chats with a business about a question or problem.
• The Thinking Machine picks up the call immediately and determines whether it can resolve the issue within seconds.
• If the call is complex, the software collects relevant customer information and seamlessly hands off the request to the correct live agent with a full set of conversational notes.
• For Tier One requests, the necessary information is collected through the customer’s preferred channel and provides an accurate answer or satisfactory resolution.
• The Thinking Machine then requests customer feedback and automatically transcribes and inputs all the data into appropriate contact center systems for easier analysis and retrievability in the future.

Standing Above the Rest

Replicant’s Thinking Machine boasts a best-in-class conversational AI engine that can: 

• respond to customers in less than one second, 
• understand multiple languages, 
• automatically transcribe and search conversations, 
• and scale with customer demand in real-time.

Our contact center solutions can be easily integrated into every major call center system. Industry-standard security and privacy protocols are built in, needing little or no IT support. To learn more about customer service automation, request a demo now.

The post The Best Contact Center Solutions Explained appeared first on Replicant.

An artificial intelligence call center is designed to take customer service to a new level. While live agents are needed for complex questions and those issues requiring human empathy, a significant number of calls, texts or chat messages are often repetitive, simple inquiries that do not require human resources. 

Over the years, companies have offered a wide range of solutions including offshore outsourcing, interactive voice response (IVRs), or phone trees, all of which have disadvantages when it comes to providing a good customer experience.

What is Conversational AI?

Conversational AI is a technology that can understand multiple customer intents. In other words, a machine can listen to normal conversational speech and determine with accuracy what a customer needs. It uses natural language processing to handle Tier One customer calls, which are those repetitive mundane questions that live agents find boring in their day-to-day work. Get a customer service automation demo here.

How does AI work in a contact center?

AI for contact centers works as soon as a customer calls, picking up the call with zero wait time. This is critical in a market where, according to Bloomberg, wait times are tripling due to staff shortages and dissatisfaction.

The solution can quickly determine whether the question or inquiry is one that can be handled automatically. If so, it pulls relevant customer information and delivers the answer or solution. If not, it creates a complete set of notes, finds the correct live agent, and seamlessly transfers the call for resolution.

What is the difference between a chatbot and conversational AI?

Both chatbot and AI solutions are automated customer service systems. The difference is that chatbots are very limited in terms of the problems and inquiries they can handle. If a customer question falls outside of its repertoire of knowledge, it must redirect the inquiry to an agent. Conversational AI not only has a broader scope but it continues to learn the longer it takes calls. 

Using AI offers serious benefits

Just about any company or industry can benefit from an artificial intelligence call center. The organization reduces costs associated with other less effective technologies or trying to recruit and hire more agents. Its customers get questions answered or issues resolved quickly.

For example, one subscription-based retail company offers healthcare products and leverages conversational AI to minimize wait times for its customers when they have questions or problems. Since deploying Replicant’s solution, this organization’s customers have responded well, finding the solution easy to use and convenient as it is available 24/7 and through any channel. 

The perfect hybrid solution

A machine learning call center doesn’t have to eliminate human customer service agents. In fact, artificial intelligence call center solutions work in tandem with live agents. Ideally, they are “members of the same team”, both dedicated to providing stellar customer service at an affordable cost and in an efficient manner.

While AI technology has an unlimited capacity, it is designed to handle repetitive Tier One calls including account status inquiries, order progress, or appointment changes. These make up the bulk of the incoming calls for many contact centers and having AI customer service actually relieves some of the workloads for live agents, freeing them to have more time to help customers with more complex problems.

This hybrid solution regularly returns a 55 percent cost savings when compared to outsourced live agents.

If you’re ready for a customer service automation demo, and want to understand more about conversational AI technology, get started now. We’d love to discuss your contact center needs.

The post Does Your Contact Center Use Conversational AI? It Should appeared first on Replicant.

While these contact center tools can alleviate some of the pressure, the best call center outsourcing solution includes conversational artificial intelligence (AI). This technology can recognize multiple caller intents and “understand” more like a human being. This ability allows it to successfully resolve common customer questions and problems without human interaction.

Call Center Automation Solutions – Then and Now

Early contact center automation solutions began with phone trees, which limited responses or resulted in lengthy mazes that often led to no resolution. Interactive voice response (IVR) followed, which provided additional options but still required structure to achieve a satisfactory result. 

Today, the best call outsourcing solution employs automation technology that includes conversational AI. This type of solution can understand multiple caller intents while allowing callers to speak naturally. 

What is the key differentiator between then and now?

Original human-to-machine technology solutions frequently required people to conform to robotic, structured patterns of speech, which became frustrating and inefficient. In contrast, today’s conversational AI uses 

• natural language processing, 
• machine learning, 
• and big data to enable computers and humans to “talk” with one another more naturally.

This technological advancement increases overall customer engagement and satisfaction. 

Replicant’s call center outsourcing solution

Replicant’s Thinking Machine is a conversational AI-driven call center outsourcing solution that can easily resolve common, Tier One customer requests with equal efficacy and at a lower cost than adding more live agents. It can

• scale according to demand, 
• handle an unlimited number of simultaneous calls during high-volume periods, and
• free up precious live agent time to focus on high-value requests that require human empathy and creativity. 

Contact centers that employ The Thinking Machine can add capacity, pay for only what they use, and save roughly 55% over other outsourcing solutions.

Conversational AI in action

According to Forbes, “Today’s customers want to solve their problems with the fewest number of steps possible. They value quick and ultra-personalized responses and the resolution of queries in their first interaction with a customer service channel or representative.”

Conversational AI technology can play a critical role in just about any industry that operates a customer contact center. For example, when a customer calls a hotel to book a room, Replicant’s Thinking Machine can identify the caller by phone number and address him or her by name. 

Understanding the steps required to book a hotel reservation, the Thinking Machine informs the customer it can help. Then, requests the number of nights required as well as the dates of the stay. If the customer has booked a reservation from the hotel in the past, the system then pulls up the customer’s purchase history from a CRM, suggesting the same type of room reserved in the past. After the customer confirms, the payment is collected, the reservation is finalized, and a confirmation email is sent. This process delivers superior customer service from beginning to end.

Learn More

Reach out to Replicant today for more information about call center outsourcing. Calculate the contact center automation ROI for your specific business. Let us look at your current investments, the integrations that would be required, and offer areas of cost savings and efficiency. 

The post The Best Call Center Outsourcing Solution Includes This appeared first on Replicant.

Customer experience automation solutions are bringing those benefits to contact centers today, and businesses are expressing high levels of satisfaction with these technologies. Let’s explore the reasons why companies prefer technology over live agents in some circumstances while appreciating how they work in tandem in others.

What is customer experience automation?

Customer experience automation is the process of using technology to handle Tier One customer inquiries over any channel. This customer service automation takes place with zero wait time, no live agent interaction, and simultaneously for an unlimited number of calls. If a live agent is required, the call is transferred efficiently with a full set of contact notes.

How does automation improve customer experience?

The right automation technology delivers what customers want: to have their questions or problems addressed correctly, immediately, and efficiently. Using solutions like conversational AI results in equal or higher customer satisfaction ratings when compared with service delivered by live agents. Read more about contact center automation and the improvements it makes.

How does customer service automation benefit the company?

Besides reducing costs of hiring and training live agents and unlimited scalability, customer experience automation can help make a company more competitive in today’s tight labor market.

In fact, Gartner reports that only one in three customer service representatives are engaged in their jobs. This can result in “poor customer outcomes and economic cost, especially as disengaged and neutral workers make up two-thirds of the workforce.”

Automation can help re-engage live agents, eliminating the need for them to answer the same questions over and over again. They can focus their energy on inquiries that are more complex and require empathy that only a human being can offer.

Automation technology at work

One of Replicant’s customers is a leading food delivery company that relied on an app and a manual process of placing orders that were driven by call centers. However, when live agents were at capacity, which occurred often during mealtimes, customer orders were often delayed or canceled.

Replicant’s conversational AI solution allowed them to put automation technology to work. They were able to rapidly fulfill customer orders during these spikes as quickly and efficiently as live agents. As a result, customers no longer had orders canceled or delayed, resulting in positive revenue and reviews for the company.

Which industries benefit most from automating the customer experience?

Companies that function in industries experiencing a high volume of customer service calls will benefit most from AI-driven customer experience automation. Contact centers are well-suited for automation when a large percentage of customer calls, texts, or chat messages are repetitive. 

Inquiries such as:

• appointment scheduling, 
• order status inquiries, 
• or account balance requests are easy to automate.

For example, 

• travel and hospitality businesses can automate reservation initiation and changes, 
• retail and eCommerce companies can manage order status requests, 
• financial services may automate balance or transaction inquiries,
• and healthcare companies can handle appointment scheduling and cancellations automatically. 

Try Replicant

If a high volume of repetitive calls comes into your company on a regular basis, your organization could benefit from customer experience automation. To learn more about Replicant’s conversational AI technology, request a demo now.

The post Customer Experience Automation – Why Companies Prefer Technology appeared first on Replicant.

Happy customers are the driving force behind every successful business. Let’s discuss how the latest AI technology can add value to your company by keeping your customers satisfied.

What is contact center outsourcing?

Contact center outsourcing is big business. When contact centers experience high call volumes or find their wait times are getting too long, they may turn to outsourcing as a solution. Typically, an organization will choose to use a third-party vendor to manage one or more customer service processes such as taking overflow incoming calls or handling a segment of outbound calls.

According to Forbes, “there are tens of thousands of call centers around the world involving millions of jobs. In India there are over 250,000 call center jobs in Bangalore alone; in the Philippines there are over 700,000 such jobs. In states like Florida, Arizona and Texas call centers are big employers; Texas alone has over 600 call centers with 250,000 employees.”

Ideally, this third-party company faithfully represents the brand and has well-trained representatives who can handle customer service inquiries and tasks as well as the company’s own internal agents. Outside vendors should follow the business’s specific guidelines and are typically paid on a per-call or per-seat basis.

What is customer experience automation?

Unlike outsourcing options, which typically add third-party managed live agents to the equation, customer service automation uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to augment contact center services.

This call center intelligent automation is excellent at managing rote tasks like 

• requesting proof of insurance, 
• handling frequently asked questions like ‘what is my account balance?’, 
• or solving Tier One customer inquiries such as canceling an order.

For the customer, this means 24/7 service and the elimination of wait times. Let’s face it, attention spans are shorter than ever. In fact, PRWeb reports, “In a unique study that surveyed more than 2,500 consumers, nearly 60 percent of respondents believe that one minute is too long to be on hold.”

For contact center agents, this call center intelligent automation means reducing or eliminating the mundane or repetitive aspects of their jobs, giving them more time to spend helping customers with more complex challenges. This can lead to higher job satisfaction and lower turnover rates.

How does automation affect the customer’s experience vs. a live agent?

In some cases, automation may result in a negative customer experience. For example, old-fashioned phone trees or interactive voice response (IVR) systems often leave customers frustrated with their interactions. Many people struggle to get out of such systems just to talk to a live agent. Then, that agent often needs to start the entire inquiry process from the beginning.

However, “contact center outsourcing” using conversational AI technology can be a very positive experience. In this case, Tier One inquiries are often handled efficiently with zero wait times or human interaction. In fact, these solutions can result in customer satisfaction scores that are equal to or better than live agents.

How is technology changing contact centers today?

One of the most significant changes in contact center technology is that all channels including voice, text, and chat can now be used by customers. Data from all these channels can be collected to provide the foundation for improvements and future planning.

The right level of question or inquiry is directed to the correct source–whether that is an automated system or a well-informed live agent. Customers are happier with faster resolution. Agents enjoy more challenging work. It’s a win-win.

Replicant’s Solution

If you are responsible for contact center outsourcing at your company, give Replicant’s solution a try. We have years of experience helping contact centers just like yours and would love the opportunity to share a demonstration of our product. Click to learn more about customer service automation now.

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Outsourcing tends to be expensive and time-consuming, as agents need to be trained and paid. Outsourcing companies must maintain equipment and buildings for their agents, adding to the cost. Whether you’re looking for a short-term or permanent solution, call center outsourcing rarely performs as well as contact center automation. 

What is Call Center Automation?

A study by McKinsey found that prioritizing automation is key to a successful business. This is especially true in the realm of customer experience. Call center automation is a new technology that improves customer experience. Unlike many other call center capabilities, like interactive voice response (IVR), customers don’t have to use keywords or press numbers to communicate with the system. 

Automation is an advanced call center technology that intelligently answers the vast majority of Tier One calls and escalates the others to the appropriate agents with little or no wait time. Because call center automation doesn’t require an agent, it can handle hundreds of calls simultaneously and scale up or down as needed. By evaluating and reporting analytics, technology-driven contact center automation is able to improve while, at the same time, providing agents with valuable data. 

High Training and Run Costs With Outsourcing

Contact centers typically outsource with temporary agents or through a business process outsourcing (BPO) provider. Either way, outsourcers need to purchase and maintain equipment, get trained for every job regardless of length, and be paid salaries for their work. This results in high costs and overall inefficiency. Additionally, outsourcing providers are often spread out over multiple time zones, causing communication difficulties. 

Why Choose Replicant Instead of Call Center Outsourcing?

Replicant uses the newest cloud-based conversational AI technology to handle large call volumes without needing additional agents. You’ll keep the team, equipment, and operations that you’re familiar with, but Replicant’s solutions can fully automate hundreds of Tier One requests. Thus, the need for traditional outsourcing – along with its related expenses and inconvenience – is eliminated.

Most contact center technologies focus on increasing agent productivity. But these technologies are useless for call centers that struggle with hiring or retaining the agents they need. And none of these solutions have decisively overcome the challenges of workforce management or contact center spikes. Replicant’s call center automation allows agents and AI to team up to provide the best customer experience possible. 

Benefits of Automation

The vast majority of customers have increasingly high expectations regarding customer experience, says an article by Forbes. Automation is an advanced call center technology that helps meet the need for quality customer service by reducing or eliminating wait times. This results in happier customers who aren’t forced to waste hours of their time waiting for a simple issue to be resolved. These customers are more likely to spend money on products and services, write positive reviews, and recommend your business to family and friends. 

At the same time, agents don’t have to spend valuable time answering the same Tier One questions over and over. Instead, they can engage in more enriching and meaningful work. As a result, agents may also experience greater satisfaction with their jobs. 

Finally, because automation and conversational AI technologies don’t rely on agents or equipment, Replicant provides call center capabilities like instant scalability. Contact center automation can serve as many customers as necessary at any time. 

Try Replicant’s Solution

Regardless of what your customer service looks like today, automation is the tool that will help your team continue to improve and your business stands out among competitors. If you’re considering a call center automation solution, request a customer service automation demo from Replicant today.

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Artificial intelligence in call centers makes this automation possible, understanding multiple customer intents and natural language, which means automatic resolution with no hold times or human interaction. This results in higher customer satisfaction scores and greater loyalty, which means that contact center automation ROI is high. 

What is call center automation?

Call center automation is a system that allows a contact center to answer Tier One customer questions and requests with no human intervention through any channel. By using natural language processing, the system can understand normal conversation and deliver answers with zero hold time.

How do you integrate automation in the call center?

Depending on the solution you choose, you should be able to integrate call center automation software into your modern call center seamlessly. Tier One calls can be resolved with no human interaction or wait time while more complex inquiries are expediently forwarded to the right agent with full conversation notes so that no information needs to be repeated.

What are the business advantages of call center automation?

The business advantages of implementing artificial intelligence in call center automation include providing better, faster customer service and resolution on first contact. In addition, automation allows a call center to easily scale when volumes increase while only charging you for what you use when call volumes are lower. Overall, automation has a higher return on investment when compared with outsourcing or hiring more representatives.

A key component of a successful contact center

Automation is a key component of today’s successful contact center. When customers can automate their most common questions and requests, they are not only meeting customer expectations but empowering their agents to focus more time and energy on complex and nuanced issues.

This hybrid approach delivers the right question to the right channel quickly and efficiently. Gartner defines “the enterprise conversational AI platform market as the market for software applications used to build, orchestrate and support the development of multiple use cases of conversational automation, while targeting multiple roles within the enterprise.”

Through this, Tier One calls are handled immediately with no hold times through customer-preferred channels including phone, text, or chat. This frees agents to spend their time helping customers with more difficult questions. If original calls come through the automated call center software, all initial information is passed along to the human agent so that the customer does not need to repeat any information, improving the overall user experience.

The Replicant Advantage

Replicant offers an innovative call center technology solution called The Thinking Machine, which can interact with customers using natural language. Although it’s clear that the caller is speaking with a machine, Replicant’s AI-powered call center automation software can effectively handle a wide range of common questions and problems with no human interaction. When a live agent is required, handoffs between computers and representatives are easier and more efficient.

To learn what this can mean for your organization, take a closer look at contact center automation ROI. Compare your investment to potential returns, and then reach out to Replicant today for more details.

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Artificial intelligence in contact centers currently takes on many forms, from simple automation to managing customer inquiries and answering questions with no human interaction whatsoever. Replicant’s solution handles the more sophisticated end of the spectrum.

What is the Thinking Machine?

The Thinking Machine is Replicant’s contact center technology that is a sophisticated conversational AI solution. Since AI cannot deliver empathy and compassion like human beings can, Replicant chose a product name that clearly describes its strength: the ability to intelligently process natural language, answer Tier One customer questions, and resolve common problems quickly and efficiently.

How does it work?

The Thinking Machine is a contact center automation solution that can understand multiple caller intents using natural language processing. It is pre-trained on dozens of customer service drivers and millions of hours of live interactions, and it continues to learn through every interaction. As a result, it can resolve Tier One customer inquiries with zero wait time and no human interaction.

How does contact center technology drive contact centers?

Contact center technology helps modern contact centers improve customer satisfaction and increase loyalty by eliminating wait times, resolving routine questions and inquiries immediately, and efficiently routing complex problems to the right live agent with a full set of contact notes so that no information needs to be repeated.

Customer service influencer Shep Hyken points out that callers often wonder “Why did she ask for my account or customer number? I just entered it into their system before I was transferred to her. This is a waste of valuable time for both the customer and the company.”

An article by Aberdeen Research & Strategy reports that “customers get frustrated when they observe conflicting or inconsistent messages from brands they work with. For example, if a customer changed the address on their account through the self-service portal, this information should be reflected to the agent in the customer’s next call for support.”

The best contact center technologies eliminate this repetition, recording the data from the beginning of the interaction and forwarding it appropriately.

How does Replicant’s Solution compare?

Our solution compares favorably with other advanced contact center technology solutions.

Many companies may still be using interactive voice response (IVR) solutions, which can be frustrating due to its limitations. According to How Stuff Works, “the greatest disadvantage of IVR systems is that many people simply dislike talking to machines. Older adults may have a hard time following telephone menus and lengthy instructions. And younger callers get frustrated with the slowness of multiple phone menus.”

Unlike other call center automation software such as Amazon Lex and Google Dialogue, the Thinking Machine aims to fully resolve customer issues, not simply route them to agents or deflect them to self-service options.

Deployment of Replicant’s solution is also unique, requiring little to no IT involvement. Because it comes pre-trained for call centers and was developed based on millions of real interactions, it can deploy in weeks. The Thinking Machine also works across channels so customers can reach out to you by voice, text, and chat in a streamlined and integrated system. The success rate is 90 percent in customer resolutions that do not require agent escalations.

Learn More and Try It Yourself

Contact center technology is changing the way businesses are handling their customers and improving the customer experience so you have to keep up. If you are responsible for managing a contact center, we understand the challenges you are facing. 

Learn more about how our conversational AI solution has been implemented by companies around the world. Then, let’s discuss the way we can help your business too.

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Every company relies on a group of loyal, happy customers to stay in business. In many cases, the main or sometimes only way a customer interacts with an organization is through a contact center. For years, this interaction was made by phone, but more recently, consumers prefer an omnichannel approach, giving them access to a business when and how they prefer. This demands sophisticated contact center technology to meet these customer expectations.

Today’s businesses need contact center technologies that will help answer customer questions, address complaints, and deliver what clients need quickly and efficiently. Long hold times, requests to repeat basic information, and multiple transfers are no longer acceptable.

What does contact center software do?

Contact center software is one variation of a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. This particular technology should enable contact centers to efficiently and effectively handle all customer interactions as well as create better agent experiences by resolving Tier One questions and problems automatically and escalating only those customer requests that require human intelligence and empathy to live representatives.

Will call centers become obsolete?

No, call centers will not vanish but instead evolve into full-service contact centers. Interacting with customers by phone will be one of many ways clients can reach businesses. These call or contact centers will continue to be a vital part of the customer experience. In fact, phone contact is still the preferred method of communication in urgent or complex customer inquiries.

How can contact center technology calm irate customers?

Unfortunately, many callers who contact a business through a customer service line may be angry or upset due to an order problem, long hold times, or other difficulties. According to a recent article in USA Today, 81 percent of call center workers say they have suffered verbal abuse from customers. 

While some antiquated technology solutions like the old-fashioned phone tree can add to customer frustration, the best contact center technologies are designed to mitigate further problems and even de-escalate customer anger.

For example, Replicant’s Thinking Machine offers conversational AI capabilities, making it easier than ever to either resolve issues faster or connect customers to informed contact center agents more efficiently.

In many cases, Replicant’s solutions can resolve Tier One questions or issues with zero hold time or human interaction. If customers call with an urgent question, are very upset, or simply want to talk with a live agent, the Thinking Machine offers automatic call distribution that connects customers to a service representative along with a full text of the automated conversation that has already taken place.

This means that any initial information like account verification, authentication, or problem definition does not need to be repeated by the frustrated customer multiple times, which will reduce overall handle times.

Can agents monitor automated calls in real-time?

Yes. In the case of Replicant’s solution, live agents can monitor a powerful dashboard reporting system that automatically publishes transcripts as conversations are taking place. This contact center technology allows a customer service representative to intercept the automated interaction immediately. 

What about multi-lingual contact center support?

Replicant’s technology understands that businesses are functioning in a global marketplace today. As a result, the Thinking Machine can “speak” more than 50 of the most popular languages and dialects, allowing a wide range of customers to obtain the customer service they need from your organization.

Can Replicant manage fluctuating call volumes?

One of the strengths of Replicant is its ability to deliver exactly what an organization requires in terms of contact center support, no more and no less. Companies can simply delegate a certain percentage of calls to Replicant, have it spring into action at a designated overflow point, turn over the entire contact center to the Thinking Machine, or place the solution behind interactive voice response systems to handle particular inquiries. Request a demo now to learn more about Replicant’s conversational AI technology.

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This series is dedicated to customer service innovators and leaders that have managed to turn their obstacles into opportunities, reinventing what it means to be a great leader and delivering exceptional customer service experiences despite today’s climate. From managing their teams through crisis, to pivoting tactics in record speed, to innovating with emerging technologies, these are the leaders transforming contacts centers in 2022.

Michelle Deese

Orkin Pest Control

OCCC Learning & Development Manager

LinkedIn

Can you share more about your background and how you got into the customer service industry?

I initially got my start working at a call center for a local cable company in college. I worked the third shift which is always an interesting one! After college, I worked as a paralegal for a bit and realized I had more interest in the customer service industry than law or politics. I decided to move to Orkin and started working as a sales agent on the phone in 2004 and have been in the industry ever since.

How has the contact center changed since you first entered it?

The biggest and more recent change is operating fully remote rather than going into a brick-and-mortar building. Our organization started working remotely about five years ago, but it was a hybrid model in which agents split their time between working in the building and at home. When the pandemic hit, we shifted to a 100% remote environment. What has not changed is the fact that customer service is just being a genuine human to people and helping them resolve whatever concerns they have. My perspective is that if you are kind to people and help them, no matter what changes happen within the industry you will be successful.

What are the biggest challenges facing contact center leaders today?

The biggest challenge that we are facing is engagement in a work-from-home setting. This impacts many things such as training, communication, and team building. Before, with in-class study, we were able to interact face to face and ensure everyone was up to speed and getting what they need.  Communication was abundant and human interaction between agents helped build a strong and creative culture. Virtually all of this is harder. Everything needs to be more intentional when keeping our team connected. We have conquered this challenge by live stream training with cameras, gamification, and competitions.  It took us about a year to figure out the right balance and rebuild a successful culture.  

“Customers want to choose how they interact with companies. That includes things like self-service options over the phone or on the website, chat, SMS, and well-trained human interaction when dealing with an emotional subject.”

What trends are you seeing today that you think will have a big impact on contact centers in the future?

Hands down, technology.  Customers want to choose how they interact with companies. That includes things like self-service options over the phone or on the website, chat, SMS, and well-trained human interaction when dealing with an emotional subject.  They simply want to use companies that are easy to do business with but also speak with them when needed. It is important for contact centers to have that self-service, but at the same time, customers want to know they will always have a human connection on the other side who will be empathetic and reassuring. 

What are some of the ways you are driving change and innovation within your business?

Our team’s approach is to understand that everything that “used to be” will and can change. Contact centers must evolve just like every other industry. Just because something worked in 2006 or even 2018, doesn’t mean it will work the same today.  Our contact center and our culture were completely rebuilt when the pandemic hit. We had to redesign all training materials, policies, metrics, and expectations to coincide with a work-from-home setting. The same goes for using technology. The technology that we used 3 years ago may not be the best technology today and it takes time to change technology.  This means you must think of next year’s goals and job expectations when implementing new software or systems.  Overall, leadership must be open to change, never discount new ideas, think 5 years ahead of where you are now, and most importantly learn from the failures.  

What are you most excited for in the customer service industry?

So much has changed in the last 20 years. With the generational gap and consumer knowledge growing we are asking our agents to be smarter, faster, flexible, and productive in ways that I would have never imagined.  I’m excited to see how we can use the needs of the business and technology to compliment the work our agents are doing and make that agent role successful and balanced.  It takes work to get an agent trained, it is important we do what we can to help and grow that investment for their lives and our business.  

Check out our previous spotlight and discover more Customer Service Innovators with Replicant’s 50 Leaders Transforming Contact Centers.

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As technology becomes more advanced, customers are quickly becoming less tolerant of poor customer service communication. As a result, keeping up with competitors in any industry requires top-notch call center solutions. 

In the past, companies avoided investing in customer service software, preferring to use cheap, low-quality solutions that caused significant customer frustration. However, with technology like Replicant’s contact center automation and conversational AI, you can increase ROI without spending a fortune on agent salaries, hardware, or outsourcing. 

What Are The Types of Call Centers?

If you’re looking to improve customer experience, you should have some general knowledge of the four most common types of call centers and their features. 

• Inbound: These centers exclusively handle inbound calls and are sometimes multichannel.
• Outbound: These centers exclusively handle outbound calls to customers/partners.
• Multichannel: These centers handle inbound and/or outbound calls across phone, chat, email, and SMS. 
• Omnichannel: These centers handle inbound and outbound calls across every common communication channel. The most advanced omnichannel contact center automation software can also handle customer inquiries and problems in any language.

Investing In Customer Service Operations

Operational budgets for call centers tend to vary widely across industries, seasons, and markets. However, some recommend spending 15 percent of revenue on customer service expenses like call center software. 

This may seem imprudent at first, but remember that companies profit from satisfied customers. In today’s competitive and fast-paced market, consumers are faced with a plethora of options. One poor customer service interaction could send them out your door. 

Replicant gives call center agents the tools they need to succeed. With call center software like automation and AI, agents can handle higher call volumes and solve more difficult issues in a timely manner. If you’re willing to invest in quality call center solutions, you’ll stand out from the crowd – and your customers will notice. 

Comparing Modern AI Technologies To Chatbots And IVRs

“Agility, resilience, and flexibility continue to be essential to long-term contact center strategies,” says an article by Forrester. The technologies most contact centers continue to use are just the opposite. Rudimentary chatbots and interactive voice response (IVR) often aren’t worth the investment; these are the automation technologies customers hate having to deal with. 

Replicant’s call center software is the opposite. It surpasses these old technologies in performance, efficiency, and costs. With a Thinking Machine that has the capacity for natural conversations, Replicant lowers AHTs, boosts CSAT, and saves thousands of dollars for your company. Contact center automation eliminates the need for Tier One agents and outsourcing solutions, thus cutting down on customer service costs without compromising the quality of your customer experience. 

How Do Call Centers Solve Problems?

Call centers are a necessity for businesses in a variety of industries. They exist to help customers with questions regarding a product, order, or service. Call center agents answer inbound calls and help customers update information, place orders, collect payments, dispatch service, troubleshoot, and more. They make it possible for customers to get in direct contact with someone who has answers. Contact centers are essential to great customer relationships – those call center agents are the voice of a company. 

Measuring And Increasing ROI

In the past, companies have seen contact center technology as a necessary cost to keep customers happy. However, with the right customer service software, call centers can return 100 percent of their costs. Benefits like rich analytics, upselling capabilities, order fulfillment, and scheduling drive revenue and add value to a business through customer insights. 

Forbes recommends measuring your customer service ROI by paying attention to repeat behaviors. If customers are consistently raving about your stellar customer service, you’re on the right track. However, if they’re voicing some of the same complaints, you may want to rethink your customer service strategies. 

Try Replicant’s Call Center Solutions

Calculate call center ROI to find out what Replicant could do for your customer service department. If you’re ready to make a difference in the way you handle customer service, request a demo today. 

The post Call Center Solutions To Increase ROI appeared first on Replicant.

Selecting the right call center software can be a dizzying task. Many point solutions, as well as enterprise-wide systems, are available, each promising a myriad of benefits. To make the best choice, it’s important to understand how solutions not only work individually but together. 

The call center software that any business chooses must seamlessly integrate with both their customer relationship management (CRM) solution and their call center platforms. Let’s explore a great option that top companies rely on.

CRM and Contact Center Automation

A CRM solution is important as it helps companies keep track of all kinds of customer data such as names, contact information, and interaction history. A CRM system helps customer service agents not only provide better service but also collect information that can be used for future marketing and sales efforts that can contribute to business growth. 

An accurate CRM record can also help representatives develop a personal rapport with each customer by personalizing future interactions. These interactions are key to assisting the agent with upselling or offering new or complementary products. Replicant’s contact center automation system seamlessly integrates with any CRM solution and call center platform to create personalized, automated responses, resolving customer issues over any channel.

Replicant vs. the Competition

Replicant’s solution has risen to the top time and again against the competition. Customers who have tried multiple solutions share why they prefer Replicant. In the end, it simply comes down to easier and faster implementation, increased resolution rates, and a decreased number of escalations.

Here are some common customer experiences after making the switch:

• From SmartAction. After a single month of moving to Replicant from SmartAction, customers report a 300 percent increase in a success rate increase. Clients cite Replicant’s sophisticated conversational design, extremely accurate customer intent extraction, and high CSAT scores that are on par with those earned by live agents as benefits.

• From Amazon Lex. As companies who choose Amazon Lex struggle through months or sometimes even years of implementation in order to launch an enterprise-ready solution, Replicant clients can deploy in weeks. This is due to its superior pre-built use cases that are designed to serve any industry and automatically resolve more than 80 percent of customer inquiries.
• From Interactions. Interactions, like any legacy platform, requires constant human intervention and manual updates from an overworked IT staff. Following a deployment that is 50 percent shorter, Replicant delivers a resolution rate that is three times greater than legacy systems. In addition, the number of calls that require escalation to live agents is cut in half. 

Our Call Center Software Solutions In Detail

Based on years of experience, Replicant offers a suite of cloud-based solutions designed to meet every business’s contact center needs. Here are the highlights:

• Thinking Machine. This solution leverages proprietary transcription, inference classification, and named entity recognition models. It also has a high-performance NLU engine that features built-in continuous learning abilities. As a result, Replicant delivers a word error rate that is 20 percent lower than Google’s and reaches an impressive 96 percent peak inference accuracy. It can extract rich context from unstructured inputs and delivers a near-instant 20-millisecond response time.
• Powers. This is an easy-to-use, out-of-the-box contact center automation feature that allows businesses in any industry to optimize call flow. Hundreds of pre-built components eliminate time-consuming and expensive IT development costs, allowing companies to easily scale the best conversational design principles across every use case.
• Omnichannel. Omnichannel capabilities mean that Tier One customer issues can be consistently, naturally, and automatically resolved. Leveraging a centralized AI “brain,” Replicant uses a shared intent library across languages and channels for faster resolution, regardless of channel. The solution offers seamless channel switching across voice, SMS, VIVR, and chat for common inquiries, escalating more complex questions to live agents without losing existing context.

Such capabilities will put adopting companies ahead of their competition. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2026, “organizations that develop trustworthy purpose-driven AI will see over 75 percent of AI innovations succeed, compared to 40 percent among those that don’t.”

The Importance of Integration

To optimize contact center automation, software solutions must integrate with one another to provide a seamless experience for both customers and agents. Replicant offers CRM integration with technology like Salesforce to ensure that customer records are updated after every interaction. 

This integration also means that agents can personalize each client experience. For example, if a representative can see a customer’s order history, that agent can suggest a complementary product that may be on sale this week. This personalization can make the customer feel known and understood.

Replicant can also seamlessly integrate with contact center software like Zendesk, which provides representatives with a comprehensive historic record of customer interactions. 

Data-Based Decision-Making

Although customer-rich, accurate, and comprehensive data are critical to each customer interaction, that data can provide the foundation for overall analytics as well. Management gains visibility into all customer support conversations across every channel in a single dashboard. Success rates, unsupported flows, CSAT scores and auto-captured dispositions are highlighted so that managers can make immediate improvements such as updating conversation scripts to be more effective.

Learn More

If you are responsible for finding the best call center software solution at your company, request a demo now. We’d love to learn more about your business and share our capabilities with you.

The post Which Call Center Software Do Businesses Use? appeared first on Replicant.

Today, more and more contact centers are adopting automation to offload customer service calls, chats and SMS requests as quickly as possible. Many are doing so to account for shortages in agent headcounts, plan for unpredictable request volumes, or to simply modernize their operations for the future.

In any case, the goal of Contact Center Automation is to ultimately improve customer experience (CX), increase operational efficiencies, and reduce costs.

The contact center is core to the success of any business, and it’s undergoing the transformation brought on by automation. In a recent session at the Gartner 2021 Application Innovation & Business Solutions Summit, Magnus Revang, a VP analyst at Gartner, discussed how to build a toolkit of technologies to succeed with automation.

There are three important considerations for any automation project:

• Deciding what to automate
• Picking the right tool for the job
• Sustaining automation

With conversational AI-powered automation, contact centers can quickly resolve tier 1 issues, eliminate hold times, and free human agents to focus on more complex issues.

Here’s what contact centers need to know about deploying their automation solution.

What should you automate?

There are two sets of concepts that are important to understand when determining what you should automate. The first is automation potential versus automation grade. According to Magnus Revang, automation potential is the “[a]mount of work that can be automated with available technology.” Automation grade is “[h]ow much of your automation potential have you realized.”

The next set of concepts is complexity versus sophistication. Complexity is the sheer amount of work and effort that goes into automating a particular piece of work. Sophistication is the level of capability that you need to do it. Are you automating something that’s highly complex, highly sophisticated, or both?

Revang says, “Tools add capabilities, but only increase your automation potential.” When you add more tools to your toolkit, you’re only increasing your automation potential to cover more and more sophisticated tasks, processes, interactions, and decisions. You’re actually not automating because automation is not necessarily automatic.

Which tool is right for the job?

There is a growing amount of automation tools available to contact centers. These categories of tools are all expanding and increasingly overlapping with one another. For example, Contact Center Automation platforms also touch AI and machine learning, RPA, AI knowledge management, and more categories. As a result, you may not need individual tools for each category. It is important to evaluate your current tools and whether their capabilities have been surpassed by emerging solutions over time.

With such a crowded landscape, “you have to determine what you’re automating, and the sustainability of the tool.” Are you automating a task, process, interaction, or decision? Each has different tools that are best suited for the job.

From there, it’s important to determine the level of skill and effort needed to realize the automation potential. For Contact Center Automation, the skill and effort levels required is extremely low – thanks to pre-trained solutions and repeatable use cases. Many of today’s Contact Center Automation providers bring plenty of their own expertise and resources to the table. APIs allow Contact Center Automation solutions to only require connection points to interact with necessary softwares. On the other hand, solutions like Google Dialogflow or Amazon Lex require high skill and effort, since you’re building your own AI with existing toolkits.

Many contact centers discover that while they may have the skills you have in their organization to build a solution themselves, the resources are better spent elsewhere given the availability of pre-trained solutions.

Is automation sustainable?

When deciding on the tools or solution you should invest in, the last thing to ask yourself is “How adaptable to changing conditions does your automation effort need to be?” Contact Center Automation projects often get stuck in the list of IT requests and aren’t acted on unless they’re the number one priority. The automation stays stagnant, despite everything else in your business changing. To avoid this, you need to consider how adaptable your tools need to be.

Think about how frequently your automation solution will need to change as well as the level of complexity and sophistication of these changes. This will determine whether you need a dedicated team to manage the automation and what that team will look like.

The field of AI is growing rapidly. In order to keep up with customers’ expectations and your competitors, your automation models need to be frequently updated and retrained. While changing what the AI says to a customer is a low skill and effort task, training the AI models isn’t. Do you already have a team to make these changes, or can you get a team to do so?

When deciding what type of Contact Center Automation tool to use, make sure you choose the sustainable option. If you’re a contact center that prefers to use few engineering resources, partnering with a proven partner will ensure the sustainability and adaptability of the solution with minimal effort on your team’s part. Building Contact Center Automation yourself means you’ll need to have a dedicated team to maintain it over time.

Contact Center Automation can deliver amazing results to enterprises and contact centers, and conversational AI is one of the main tools that’s powering it. If you’re ready to add conversational AI to your own automation roadmap, learn how Replicant can help you automate your most customer service requests without having to hire a single agent or engineer.

Try Replicant

If you are ready to automate your call center, reach out to Replicant today. Our team of experts has years of experience helping contact centers implement and integrate conversational AI platforms to improve their call center efficiency as well as customer and agent experience.

The post What You Need to Know About Conversational AI for Contact Center Automation appeared first on Replicant.

When the global pandemic of 2020 hit, the world had to quickly adapt, moving the vast majority of jobs into a virtual environment. Customer service responses had to adapt too. As a result of the labor shortages in the U.S., there is a greater need for autonomous customer service solutions. More and more businesses are using technologies like customer center automation and conversational AI. 

Now that it has been two years since the pandemic began, customer expectations remain high. Companies need to have stellar customer service to succeed, and automation remains the best way to improve the customer experience using the agent team you already have without increasing call center labor costs. 

What is Autonomous Customer Service?

Autonomous customer service uses conversational AI technology to resolve Tier One requests with absolutely no wait time. Because new AI software doesn’t need keywords to understand multi-faceted questions, the vast majority of customer requests are immediately resolved, thus freeing up agents for Tier Two requests. These more difficult calls are intelligently escalated to the appropriate agent, who also receives caller information so customers don’t have to repeat themselves. 

How Does Technology Reduce Customer Service Costs?

Call center costs are one of the biggest barriers to effective customer service. However, when you automate customer service calls, customer service improves drastically without the need for additional contact center staff or equipment. 

Automation technology lowers average handle times (AHT), so customers get issues resolved faster, often without any agent involvement. At the same time, the scalability of automation means brands have no need for expensive outsourcing. 

Looking Ahead Into 2023

According to Forrester, three trends are likely to shape the customer service industry in the coming year. These include future-proofing technology, using data currently hidden in silos, and focusing on the human side of customer experience. 

That’s why Replicant remains up-to-date on the trends customers expect. These include: 

• Natural conversations: Automation software uses a Natural Language Understanding (NLU) brain to accurately comprehend and converse in natural language. Customers don’t need to use keywords or press numbers to communicate; instead, they can speak as they normally would to an agent. 
• Omnichannel support: Replicant uses a variety of communication channels to resolve issues, including voice, SMS, VIVR, webchat, social, email, in-app, and business messaging. Customers can use any combination of these communication options without having to repeat personal information. 
• Conversation design: With a user-friendly design, companies can design, deploy, and update autonomous conversation scripts across use-cases. 
• Conversation analytics: Businesses get customizable analytics that provides insights into conversation performance, testing outcomes, and KPIs like call volume, average handle time, and common support issues. 

More Reasons To Employ Contact Center Automation

The customer experience has become increasingly important, and, in some cases, one poor experience could lose a customer for good. “Artificial intelligence and augmented reality…enable enterprises to reduce customer churn rates and improve customer loyalty and strengthen their brand presence,” says a recent article by Fortune Business Insights. 

Autonomous customer service is designed to work with agents. When an automated call must be handed off to a live person, the agent also receives all pertinent information including personal information, the current issue, or past customer history. 

Replicant’s solution also stores and tags conversation transcripts so they can be easily found, reviewed, and analyzed. Agents have access to automated after-call statistics and information to help them improve. 

Autonomous customer service software solutions like ours can easily integrate into whatever existing contact center you have. When you automate customer service calls this way, agents can continue to use the methods and processes that work best for them. We provide a secure and scalable infrastructure to handle millions of autonomous conversations at the same time, all with enterprise-grade security that is SOCII, GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI compliant.

Here’s something to think about. When Doordash implemented Replicant’s solution, it achieved a 94% success rate – almost 10% more than its benchmark. Autonomous customer service could do the same for your business. Request a customer service automation demo now.

The post Using Autonomous Customer Service Software 2022 appeared first on Replicant.

Cost reduction is the overall goal of every organization as inflation increases the price of many basic products and services. Contact center management teams face the same challenge, especially in light of rising wages, labor retention, and attrition difficulties. Contact center automation is a great way for businesses to effectively reduce those costs.

Calculating the true cost of an in-house call center system isn’t easy. According to a November 2020 article on Business.com, capital expenses, self-managed costs, cloud hosting costs, subscription fees, inbound and outbound calling fees, labor wages, and location fees can add up to a hefty amount just to keep customers satisfied. 

Contact center automation uses artificial-intelligence-powered technology to answer routine customer questions and inquiries with zero wait times for customers or no human interaction for the business. This reduces the amount of boring and mundane work for live agents, freeing them to handle more challenging and complex calls that require a human touch.

In addition, automation solutions can “learn” from each call, expanding its scripts and responses over time. This means that the automated system can handle more and more inquiries the longer it’s part of a call center. Regular reports allow management to pinpoint areas needed for improvement, which means long-term growth in efficiency and effectiveness for the call center as a whole.

How are call center costs calculated?

Call center costs are generally calculated by combining the cost of agents, outsourced staff, and supporting infrastructure and then dividing that by the average number of calls to determine cost per call. A business may also look at average handle times to add to the cost analysis.

What role does technology play in reducing customer service costs?

One way technology can reduce costs is by lowering handle times by providing all needed information and data at the fingertips of agents. Advanced solutions like contact center automation can replace limited temporary and offshore staff. Instead, an unlimited number of Tier One calls can be automated.

How does automation reduce costs?

Contact center automation can reduce costs by allowing a company to pay for only what it needs to use. In a traditional call center, a business may hire agents or use offshore staff in anticipation of increased volumes. Training costs can be high, especially with increased customer service representative labor market attrition. However, if those volumes don’t materialize, the organization is paying for unneeded resources.

Automation technology allows a business to pay only when calls are answered, allowing it to infinitely scale up or down as call volume changes.

For example, Replicant’s Thinking Machine helped a financial services company “take the seasonality out of the equation.” In this case, whether the business received one call or 10,000 calls, the Thinking Machine was able to handle all of them at the same time. For more complex and nuanced calls, Replicant forwarded complete notes to experienced agents.

This solution not only eliminated the costs that had been incurred to hire and train temporary employees but eliminated costly hold times leading to a better customer experience as well.

How difficult is contact center automation implementation?

A powerful, secure, easily integrated contact center solution can deploy in a matter of weeks. Since contact center automation uses a single AI engine, it can power both voice and messaging channels with a central conversation engine. This engine leverages a shared intent library to deploy and scale conversational AI use cases faster across both languages and channels.

As you are researching contact center automation, calculate your ROI (return on investment). Once you see the benefits of this technology, request a demo. Allow us to learn more about your business and share how we can help you reduce costs.

The post How Contact Center Automation Reduces Costs appeared first on Replicant.

This week, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) chose Replicant as the Best Artificial Intelligence Driven Technology Solution of 2022 during their annual CODiE Awards, which recognize companies producing the most innovative business technology products around the world. 

On the heels of our $78M Series B round in April, this honor is another welcomed validation point in our mission to pioneer Contact Center Automation solutions for customer service leaders across every industry.

“Replicant is honored to be recognized by SIIA as the leading native artificial intelligence solution in 2022,” said Gadi Shamia, CEO and Co-founder of Replicant. “The CODiE Awards have built a strong reputation as the top peer-recognized program in the business industry and this award serves as incredible market validation for our work as innovators in Contact Center Automation.”

Replicant was founded in 2017 to help companies automate their most common customer service calls while empowering agents to focus on more complex and nuanced customer challenges with Contact Center Automation.

Since we set out our journey five years ago, the need for proven customer service innovation has never been more pressing. Wait times for customer support have skyrocketed, ongoing pandemic challenges have upended the hiring market, and agents have never been more stressed. 

Replicant’s AI platform allows consumers to engage in natural conversations across voice, messaging and other digital channels to resolve their customer support issues, without the wait, 24/7.

“Even during these tumultuous times, business application, software, service and product providers continued the industry’s long tradition of developing and marketing innovative solutions to meet business needs,” said SIIA President Jeff Joseph. “We are proud to recognize this year’s class of CODiE Award winners. They truly represent the best of the best in a highly-competitive and ever-evolving market.”

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, announced the full slate of CODiE winners during an online winner announcement June 8 in the metaverse. 

Acknowledged as the premier awards program for the software and information industries for over 35 years, the SIIA CODiE Awards are produced by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software, education, media and digital content industries. 

Replicant was honored as one of 46 winners across the 45 business technology categories, including seven leadership categories recognizing outstanding companies, individuals and teams.

The SIIA CODiE Awards are the industry’s only peer-reviewed awards program. The first-round review of all nominees is conducted by software and business technology experts with considerable industry expertise, including analysts, media, bloggers, bankers and investors. 

The scores from the expert judge review determine the finalists. SIIA members then vote on the finalist products, and the scores from both rounds are tabulated to select the winners.

Forty-three awards were given this year for products and services deployed specifically for B2B software, information and media companies, including the Best Overall Business Technology Product, awarded to the product with the highest scores of both rounds of judging.

Read the full press release here.

More information about the awards is available at: siia.net/CODiE. Details about the winners are listed here.

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The benefits of Contact Center Automation are experienced more and more every day as customers engage with effective machines that offer far better experiences than the Interactive Voice Responders (IVRs) of the early 2000s. 

For contact centers, automation is changing the game when it comes to providing faster, more accurate, and more scalable service without having to add agents or contract with a business process outsourcing (BPO) provider. Contact Center Automation reduces total customer service costs while giving customers easy, fast, 24/7 access to customer service without having to wait on hold.

If you’re a contact center looking at adding Contact Center Automation to your roadmap, here’s a look at seven of the top benefits you can expect:

• Improved customer experience
• Automated scalability
• Reduced costs
• 24/7 accessibility
• Improved First Contact Resolution
• Increased agent engagement and productivity
• More powerful data 

Improved customer experience

The most significant benefit of Contact Center Automation is improved customer experience — a core goal of every contact center.

More and more brands are losing customers by simply making them wait. Almost two-thirds of surveyed consumers are only willing to wait two minutes or less before hanging up. By deploying Contact Center Automation, contact centers reduce or eliminate wait times. This creates an immediate uptick in how fast customers receive service and delivers an easy, convenient option to solve their issue without having to rely on agent availability.

For complex issues, Contact Center Automation can transfer customers to an agent — serving up a complete transcript of the conversation to the agent, so customers don’t need to repeat themselves.

Although we’ve gotten used to speaking in keywords or selecting from a limited menu when interacting with self-service options, it’s not a great experience. Just think of the last time you interacted with an IVR. Contact Center Automation enables customers to talk or write in natural language, rather than feel like they’re “talking to a robot.”

Contact Center Automation also integrates with any CRM, allowing it to deliver a more personalized experience from the moment it responds to the customer. With over 60% of consumers saying they’ll likely become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience, personalization can help contact centers turn into revenue generators.

Automated scalability

Contact Center Automation gives leaders an unlimited capacity, which adds the ability to scale customer service up or down based on customer demand. This reduces contact centers’ need to add staff, increase shifts, or outsource — all expensive or slow ways of scaling.

Contact Center Automation responds to every customer immediately, no matter how many customer requests there are. Contact centers are afforded the ability to handle both anticipated and unpredictable spikes in customer demand. This elasticity is central to the modern contact center’s ability to respond in an unpredictable world and is a key component to business continuity.

Reduced costs

Another key benefit that contact centers get from Contact Center Automation is the ability to serve more customers than ever, while also lowering costs — an unprecedented opportunity in the customer service industry. Most Contact Center Automation solutions cost significantly less than outsourcing or adding staff. In fact, Contact Center Automation can cost just 45% of a highly optimized BPO provider. Additionally, you only pay for the service you use. When request volumes are slow, you don’t have to pay employee wages or BPO fees for unused agent capacity.

Contact Center Automation also has minimal training costs. And if you choose a Contact Center Automation provider that continuously improves its AI, you’ll be assured that your solution will evolve as the field of AI does too — further extending your ROI.

24/7 accessibility

Customers want to be able to contact brands when and where they choose, but staffing agents 24/7 is expensive. Contact Center Automation enables you to offer around-the-clock service globally, without needing to expand shifts or staff.

Because Contact Center Automation is capable of resolving over 90% of tier 1 issues (repetitive, common requests like “where is my order?”), it reduces the amount of issues that require an agent call-back. With Contact Center Automation, customers are able to resolve issues immediately over any channel and in any language, no matter what time of day or night the need arises.

Improved First Contact Resolution

First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a key metric that’s used to determine how well businesses are meeting customer needs. Many contact centers use FCR as their primary performance indicator or track it as part of their customer experience metrics, and they’re constantly trying to improve their FCR.

Customers want their issues resolved in as few interactions as possible. If you can resolve a customer’s issue the first time they contact you, they’re more likely to feel positive about the experience. Contact Center Automation can increase your FCR since it fully resolves common issues and doesn’t deflect customers to an agent or another service channel like FAQ pages.

Increased agent engagement and productivity

Agents often handle the same call type hundreds of times per shift. Routine, transactional issues take up the majority of their time and, frankly, zap their enthusiasm for the job. In fact, repetitive work is one of the top three reasons for agent attrition. Contact Center Automation frees agents from the routine work and gives them more time to draw on their empathy, creativity, and problem-solving skills to address more complex issues.

Additionally, contact centers can refocus and retrain agents to perform higher-value activities. This includes upselling, cross-selling, and performing high-touch outbound proactive service, such as calling customers about late payments or notifying them of special discounts. Repositioning agents to perform higher value work can make their jobs more fulfilling, open them to better development opportunities, and improve retention.

More accurate data collection

Contact Center Automation can capture data more accurately and comprehensively than humans. By automatically tagging conversations and transcribing every word of voice and text conversations, Contact Center Automation unlocks an incredible amount of customer data and insights. Companies can use this data to identify trends and run targeted campaigns. Better data collection also translates to better customer experiences, as Contact Center Automation gives businesses the power to understand customer interactions in a deeper way.

The benefits of Contact Center Automation build a strong business case for why companies are rapidly adopting the solution in some capacity. The unique improvements in customer experience, first contact resolution, cost savings, and scalability can only be realized by adding Contact Center Automation to your contact center’s toolkit.

Try Replicant

If you are ready to automate your call center, reach out to Replicant today. Our team of experts has years of experience helping contact centers implement and integrate conversational AI platforms to improve their call center efficiency as well as customer and agent experience.

The post 7 Benefits of Contact Center Automation for Customer Service appeared first on Replicant.

When businesses are looking to elevate their customer service, it’s crucial to look at the technologies defining today’s market in order to maximize ROI. Among the foremost of these technologies is conversational artificial intelligence. With artificial intelligence, businesses can improve the customer experience while making service easier on their end.

Businesses have a wide variety of options to choose from when it comes to contact center solutions. Replicant’s Thinking Machine, a conversational AI platform, is a call center automation solution that is making huge differences across many industries.

What is an Example of Conversational AI?

The term “artificial intelligence” is thrown about a good deal as AI becomes more and more sophisticated. Manufacturers are “exploring new AI applications that span virtually every major industry,” according to an article by McKinsey.

However, let’s clarify exactly what AI is as it relates to the contact center industry. A conversational AI platform is able to fully resolve many customer requests without having to reroute calls to an agent. Conversations containing multiple questions don’t throw it off. This technology is able to increase agent efficiency, transcribe conversations, intelligently track success rates, and self-improve with each interaction.

AI has unlimited scalability. That means call center automation can handle increasing or decreasing volumes easily. No matter how much call traffic a company gets, the conversational AI platform can manage it without increasing wait times. Agents are more available to take on the few calls that can’t be resolved by the machine.

Contrasting a Conversational AI Platform with Traditional Solutions

There’s a night and day difference between AI and traditional routing solutions. Customers are tired of sentences like, “If you’d like to speak to X, press Y.” But, with call center automation, these interactions are replaced by a human-sounding voice that instantly understands the difference between a variety of intents and the relationships between them.

A conversational AI platform can authenticate callers, respond within seconds, and answer multi-intent questions with 96 percent accuracy. Seventy to ninety percent of calls can be resolved completely by AI. Just ten to thirty percent are intelligently escalated to agents who are able to access automatically generated call summaries so customers don’t have to repeat themselves.

Compare that to traditional keypad requests. In a recent article by Forbes, even some modern chatbots were confused “every time a customer initiated a conversation outside the scope of formulated conversations.” Traditional solutions simply can’t compare to AI technology and call center automation.

Improving Data Access With Conversational AI

A Conversational AI platform is contained within a central conversation engine. As a result, it drastically increases efficiency by leveraging all past data to scale across a variety of languages and communication channels. Since it can learn from and remember past interactions, it continues to get better at understanding customers and driving positive customer experiences.

This is why businesses need contact center automation like the Thinking Machine within their contact center. Management teams can get access to conversation summaries, post-conversation analytics, and auto-tagged conversations, helping to drive business goals. They can utilize Google-like search capabilities that make it possible to understand call drivers and gain actionable data.

Conversational AI platforms are game-changers for any contact center. Let us help you change the way you handle customer service. Get started by calculating your ROI and requesting a demo now.

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Technology has been part of call centers for decades beginning with telephony solutions that allowed simple tasks such as placing a customer on hold or transferring a caller to another agent. Over time, more advanced call center technology has surfaced, leading to today’s comprehensive contact center automation solutions based on artificial intelligence technologies.

According to Gartner in January 2022, customer service leaders should be using AI to “offer insights or predictions, improve user experiences, and optimize business process automation.” By doing so, businesses can improve how their contact centers operate, leading to higher customer service scores, more loyal clients, and increasing revenue.

In addition, customer contact centers are struggling to attract and retain employees. The COVID-19 pandemic began a mass exodus of employees in general with 3.5 million leaving positions voluntarily since January 2019 as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Turnover in this industry alone has averaged between 30 to 45 percent.

Advanced call center technology like the Thinking Machine can support human employees through contact center automation. These solutions resolve many of the routine calls that can lead to agent burnout, allowing representatives to instead take more complex calls that require human interaction and empathy.

What is call center technology?

Call center technology can include many different types of solutions, like

• interactive voice response (IVR),
• agent assist tools, or
• contact center automation.

The latter is driven by artificial intelligence technology, resolving Tier One customer inquiries immediately with no human interaction required.

What are the differences between basic and advanced call center technology?

Traditionally, basic call center tech has worked to solve only small pieces of a broader problem. For example, a call center may work to shorten hold times or accommodate unexpected staffing changes. IVR menus, agent assist tools, and chatbots work to make specific channels or processes faster but frequently fail to address the entire picture.

On the other hand, advanced call center technology solutions like contact center automation are designed to make a business’s entire contact center more efficient. AI agents handle routine inquiries without human interaction while appropriately routing more complex requests to live agents. At the same time, contact center automation technology continually “learns,” helping management continuously improve scripts and processes.

What is the best call center software?

The best call center software works seamlessly with live customer service agents. It handles Tier One questions and issues immediately with zero caller wait time. The system then forwards more complex inquiries to human agents with a complete transcript so no information needs to be repeated.

As a leader in contact center automation, Replicant software helps companies automate their most common customer service calls while empowering agents to focus on more complex and nuanced customer challenges.

Replicant’s platform allows callers to speak or communicate naturally across all channels while resolving customer service issues quickly. Contact center effectiveness is improved, customers are happier, and agents are more satisfied in their jobs.

Since this platform can be implemented in weeks and scales up or down instantly, call center efficiency is improved as well, handling millions of customer support interactions every month. Roughly 70 percent to 90 percent of calls can be resolved completely with the remainder escalated to agents with full call summaries.

Once calls are completed, conversations are automatically logged into a company’s CRM software system with full transcripts and summaries. Click to learn more about the advantages of Replicant’s call center technology and contact center automation works.

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This series is dedicated to customer service innovators and leaders that have managed to turn their obstacles into opportunities, reinventing what it means to be a great leader and delivering exceptional customer service experiences despite today’s climate. From managing their teams through crisis, to pivoting tactics in record speed, to innovating with emerging technologies, these are the leaders transforming contacts centers in 2022.

Tom Dietrich

Benefytt

Vice President, Contact Center Technology

LinkedIn

Can you share more about your background and how you got into the customer service industry?

I started in the contact center space about 15 years ago in the direct-to-consumer insurance industry. My background was in business systems logistics, and my master’s is in Decision Information Science, which is a cross between IT and business. I started as a business analyst and worked my way into project management and operations and built an operations team, which included technology process, improvement analytics in the contact center, and developing KPIs and metrics in the contact center. My role expanded over time into the marketing, sales and the service side in addition to managing personnel. In my previous role I was the first of 15 employees and we eventually grew to 500. More recently, I started with Benefytt Technologies, overseeing all of the contact center technology, simplifying the agent experience and improving the day to day interaction with our customers.

How has the contact center changed since you first entered it?

From the technology side, a lot has changed. There’s an almost overwhelming number of tools and tech out there to assist in the contact center. Everything’s getting smarter and more efficient. The representatives are also able to have access to information so much quicker than when I originally started. While technology has made things a lot better in many ways, it comes with challenges too. With so many different technologies out there, bringing them into one place and ensuring the agent is able to use them seamlessly can be challenging. Simplifying the technology experience and integrating as best we can is something I’m very focused on.

I think AI in the contact center is only going to continue to grow. Customers are now more comfortable speaking to a machine and interacting with technology.

What are the biggest challenges facing contact center leaders today?

Right now it’s finding and hiring enough agents. We’re looking to grow quickly which means we need to hire agents quickly, and that’s not easy. Getting agents trained and up to speed fast is a challenge, especially in the Medicare space. There is a lot of compliance that comes with it. It requires training and knowledge on products and benefits, and it takes time to learn those things. The speed at which you can hire someone, retain that employee, and ensure they’re happy and motivated to continue to bring value to the organization is the first step. Then, you need to work to make the agent proficient enough to be comfortable selling or servicing the product. A lot goes into those processes to get it right, so I see that being a challenge for a lot of contact centers today.

What trends are you seeing today that you think will have a big impact on contact centers in the future?

Going back to technology, I think AI in the contact center is only going to continue to grow. Customers are now more comfortable speaking to a machine and interacting with technology. We’re going to continue leveraging AI as an aid to bring answers and knowledge to the agent in real time. One thing we’re already doing that I see continuing to have an impact going forward, is using technology for repetitive tasks and creating unique customer experiences. For example, we can get more qualified buyers to our sales agents by using scoring where we can match the best customer to the right agent at the right time, and use AI to provide product recommendations that best suit the needs of the customer. I think overall AI is going to help us create the best kind of customer experiences. It’s pretty incredible.

What are some of the ways you are driving change and innovation within your business?

I’ve always had a focus on process improvement on a daily basis with the belief that small tweaks lead to large change over time. Whether it’s through evaluating the full business process, evaluating how the different departments interrelate and interact, or reviewing the customer experience from end to end and the different touchpoints with our representatives, technology and brand.  I’ve also largely been able to innovate applying technology to these business processes where needed. 

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in contact center operations?

I would say there are three things to really focus on. The first would be to stay open minded. There are a lot of different tools, people and resources in this industry and there is so much to learn from all of them, but you’ve got to be open to new things for that to happen. My next piece of advice would be to always start with the customer and think of their experience and what it’s like for them on the other end of things. And lastly, aim to improve 1% everyday. Small changes add up to large gains over time.

Check out our previous spotlight and discover more Customer Service Innovators with Replicant’s 50 Leaders Transforming Contact Centers.

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Recently, we were fortunate to be joined by Kelsey Holshouser, VP of Customer Experience at Because, for a webinar focused on Because’s Contact Center Automation journey.

Because, a marketplace for older adult wellness products, initially implemented Replicant over the phone to resolve high-volume, tier 1 calls with a 90% resolution rate to address their rapid customer growth.

Soon after, Replicant’s expanded omnichannel capabilities were able to help them recreate the benefits of their voice solution over SMS messaging and provide a more consistent customer experience.

The partnership has enabled Because to accelerate their CX goals and overcome the staffing challenges many of today’s contact centers are facing.

Highlights from the webinar, Overcome Agent Staffing Woes with Omnichannel Contact Center Automation, are below. You can watch the full webinar here.

Why Because partnered with Replicant

Because initially implemented Replicant within their voice channel to handle tier-1 calls that had long handle times and created extensive wait times for customers calling in. While Replicant was focused on their voice channel, Because was using another vendor for their text channel, but weren’t getting the results they wanted.

Most days, their backlog of texts from customers needing a response was upwards of 400 and response times could be as long as 12 hours from the initial inquiry from the customer. They needed a solution that would mirror the efficiency they already had within their voice channel.

An omnichannel expansion was an easy decision

After expanding Replicant’s Contact Center Automation to SMS, Because was able to reduce a growing backlog of customer text messages from 400 at a time to 0, relieving agents from resolving repetitive text requests.

Implementation Strategy

• Order inquiries
• Account and subscription changes
• Cancellation and trial retention
• Cross-selling

Transformational Impact:

• Texts waiting in the queue at the end of each day have gone from an average of 400 to 0
• Increased SLA attainment from 10% to 82%
• 4.74 / 5 SMS CSAT
• 88% flow level success from week 1
• Decreased initial response time from 12 hours
  to seconds

But the benefits didn’t stop there. Omnichannel automation allowed Because to focus less on keeping up with swelling customer demand, and more on developing highly-trained agents to be able to handle more complex requests.

Replicant contributes to better-trained agents

While contact centers have long been seen as simple cost centers, Contact Center Automation creates a world in which data, personalized service, and rapid improvement can lead to increased revenue generation and brand-boosting opportunities.

Replicant’s newest omnichannel features have given contact centers a solution that goes beyond IVRs, standalone chatbots, and agent assist technology to help reduce the strain high call volumes have on agents. 

Proactively Meeting Customers Where They Are

The benefits of Because’s partnership with Replicant have gone beyond transformational efficiency gains. While contact centers have long been seen as simple cost centers, Contact Center Automation creates a world in which data, personalized service, and rapid improvement can lead to increased revenue generation and brand-boosting opportunities.

Cross-selling leads to increased revenue generation

With Replicant, contact center leaders can use a single conversation engine to resolve issues across voice, messaging, and other digital channels, giving customers a consistent experience with seamless channel switching across every touchpoint.

They get visibility into omnichannel transcripts in one dashboard, and agents get seamless handoffs for sensitive issues without losing customer context.

Additional Resources

• Watch the full webinar here
• Replicant Omnichannel One-pager
• Replicant Omnichannel Guide

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It’s more important than ever for businesses to understand how AI technology can improve the call center experience to stay competitive. As more and more companies prioritize the customer experience, expectations for service have skyrocketed. 

In fact, according to a January 2022 article on Forbes.com, three-fourths of customers indicated that “they expected a response within 5 minutes.” The article goes on to point out that as more people become accustomed to living life online, their expectations for customer service increase. 

As a result, companies are turning to customer service solutions that include conversational AI. This allows the organization to automate those repetitive, mundane tasks that can be time-consuming as well as soul-crushing for live agents. Customers get a better experience and customer service representatives can focus their work on more engaging and/or challenging situations.

What technologies can improve the customer experience?

The Thinking Machine is a simple AI customer service technology that can improve the call center experience through contact center automation. Every channel of the customer experience is improved by providing AI-powered, no-wait resolutions to common requests. When customers call, text, or send a message, they get their problems resolved and get answers quickly and efficiently.

What makes a good call center experience?

Every call center experience should make customers feel heard, answer inquiries, and provide solutions. A good experience is one that is also fast and efficient. 

Consumers have also come to expect personalization. This should be provided in all channels, offering immediate resolution or answers. There should be no need for a person to repeat basic information upon inquiry escalation. Technology can easily facilitate this experience.

How difficult is AI technology to implement in a call center?

Using AI for customer service means a relatively simple implementation. For example, Replicant’s solution seamlessly integrates with popular SaaS and e-commerce platforms, CRMs, and other technologies including custom-built proprietary platforms.

How can AI really transform the customer experience?

AI is transforming the call center experience in a wide range of industries. For example, if a customer calls to make a hotel reservation, it could find a room, schedule the dates, and text a reservation confirmation in a matter of seconds. AI tools can also provide answers to frequently asked questions, personalize experiences based on past purchases or actions, and provide more than a 50 percent reduction in average handle time (AHT) compared to live agents.

Replicant’s solution vs. others

Our solution does not displace existing contact centers, software, or human agents. Rather, it complements live representatives by managing repetitive and mundane work, allowing human agents to respond to requests that require more empathy and creativity.

The Thinking Machine effectively collects knowledge from every customer conversation. By combining AI and customer experience, the central neural network becomes “smarter” over time so that customer conversations improve without deploying new scripts. In addition, Replicant’s experts regularly optimize and test new scripts as well as call flows, which means little effort for your IT team for continuous improvement.

If you are ready to upgrade the call center experience at your company, learn more about conversational AI now. Understand how it works, expected results, and tips on how to get started.

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With hiring challenges and unpredictable call volumes on the rise, contact center executives must find new solutions to resolve common, high-volume customer service requests more efficiently and effectively. Customer service automation software does this. It resolves simple, Tier One issues giving live agents the ability to focus on resolving more complex issues.

According to CMS Wire, contact centers that are not equipped with more advanced technology solutions to automatically route calls experience a 68 percent increase in escalations. As a result, hold times end up increasing by up to 34 percent. Those organizations that automate customer assistance requests can potentially reduce or eliminate wait times, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

What is an automated contact center?

This is when companies use AI (artificial intelligence) technology to provide customers with basic information and to resolve simple issues. Conversational AI can give answers to frequently asked questions, troubleshoot problems, or offer other natural-sounding responses. 

How can my business automate its customer service?

There are 2 ways to build an automated customer service system:

1. Create it internally – which can be an expensive, time-intensive process requiring a team of AI experts. 
2. Use existing software – where it’s easy to implement an existing solution from a purpose-built provider like Replicant’s Thinking Machine.

Most businesses choose to use existing software. 

What is customer service automation?

It is an alternative to business process outsourcing, which typically involves using an offshore call center to manage call volume overflow. Instead, it leverages customer service automation software that automatically handles Tier One customer requests, freeing agents up to concentrate on more high-value inquiries.

How much customer service is automated?

An article in TechJury states that 88 percent of businesses now prioritize customer experience in all of their contact centers. As a result, customer service automation services have been high on the priority list.

Up until now, contact center leaders have relied on interactive voice response (IVR), standalone chatbots, and agent-assist technology to help reduce the burden on agents. However, these solutions are no longer enough. They create frustrating and disjointed customer experiences that deflect, rather than resolve support issues.

At the same time, agents are still left resolving high-volume repetitive cases, while contact centers continue to face rising costs and customers are left on hold.

With customer service automation, contact center leaders can use one powerful conversation engine to resolve issues across their voice, messaging, and/or other digital Channels.

Replicant’s customer service automation software solution:

As a leader in customer service automation, Replicant helps companies automate their most common customer calls while empowering agents to focus on more complex and nuanced customer challenges. Our Thinking Machine allows consumers to engage in natural conversations across voice, messaging, and other digital channels to resolve their customer support issues, without the wait, 24/7. 

Automation using conversational AI technology can help any contact center – no matter its location, size, or use. It is flexible and customizable to offer a branded experience that matches any organization’s core values. Scale up or down instantly, implement in weeks, and easily handle millions of customer support interactions a month. Calculate your ROI using contact center automation.

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For years companies that required additional customer service support had one of two choices: hire more agents or outsource to a third-party vendor that could manage the overflow. This is called business process outsourcing (or BPO).

A BPO call center takes overflow calls from customers and functions as an extension of an organization’s call center. They may be located on-shore or off-shore. BPO call centers can manage a company’s contact center completely or simply step in to help with temporary overflows.

While this could solve some short-term issues in the past, today, many are facing the same labor and training issues that contact centers themselves are facing. As a result, the benefits are fewer and the costs are higher. According to a writer for CustomerServ.com, “in 2021, we witnessed the most dramatic price increases in the U.S. (onshore) BPO sector than I have personally seen in my 30+ years in the call center industry. Because labor costs comprise more than two-thirds of BPO operating expenses, the biggest impact was felt by brands that rely on third-party BPO services.”

Modern businesses seeking contact center assistance are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) technology that can automate more and more responses to customer questions and problems without human intervention.

What are some top practices for BPO call center outsourcing?

BPO call center solutions include employing live agents around the world where calls can be routed. This process is seamless for customers and issues can get resolved.  However, staffing shortages and high turnover have increased costs and challenges around the globe.

As a result, best practices now revolve around contact center automation using conversational AI. This technology can automate Tier One customer requests and frees agents up to focus on more high-value or complex requests.

What are the downsides of a traditional BPO Call Center?

Traditional call center BPOs are typically the most expensive way to add call center staff. Since these third parties must hire staff to serve as agents for their clients, they experience the same problems in terms of labor shortages, high turnover, and expensive training cycles. They must then pass along those costs to customers.

A BPO call center often has a long training cycle that can take weeks to months and requires rigid contracts that don’t take seasonality or agent off-time into account. This means that they cannot scale up or down rapidly, resulting in fixed costs for services. If customers do not require a high level of service, businesses waste money paying fixed costs.

In addition, A/B testing in a BPO environment is often not feasible and the ability to pivot when key metrics are lagging is extremely slow when compared to out-of-the-box conversational AI solutions. This modern contact center automation offers a long-term solution that completely transforms a contact center’s ability to handle customer requests and questions.

What is a better solution?

Technology is a better alternative to the traditional way of outsourcing customer service calls. Take a minute to calculate your ROI using contact center automation and you will see why. According to Gartner, “74 percent of respondents say creating a seamless customer journey across assisted and self-service channels is ‘important’ or ‘very important.’”

AI-powered technology can help create that seamless journey companies need from a BPO call center. AI-driven solutions cost less and can scale up or down according to customer demand. If you are responsible for the call center solutions at your company, request a demo now.

The post What Is a BPO Call Center? Learn More Now appeared first on Replicant.

A cloud-based contact center can handle all inbound and outbound communications on their server for a third-party client. Cloud computing and virtual machines have become increasingly common among a variety of technologies for good reason. A study by Gartner calls the cloud “the powerhouse that drives today’s digital organizations.”

The study predicts that worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services will grow 20.4 percent in 2022. With the rise of cloud-based technology, it’s not surprising that it’s migrated over into the world of call and contact centers. 

To understand whether or not cloud-based contact center solutions are right for your organization, it is important to understand just what “the cloud” is, how it works within a contact center and how technology like The Thinking Machine increases customer satisfaction. 

What is the Cloud?

Before we can understand what a cloud-based contact center is, it’s helpful to clarify just what the cloud is. We use the cloud on a regular basis; Netflix, Gmail, and Dropbox are all cloud-based solutions. Information that you can access is stored on servers that are located somewhere other than on your computer. These solutions make accessing this information easy and practical. 

“The cloud refers to web-connected servers and software that users can access and use over the internet,” explains an article by Forbes. “As a result, you don’t have to host and manage your own hardware and software. It also means that you can access these systems anywhere that you have access to the internet.” 

What Are Cloud-Based Contact Center Solutions?

By definition, cloud-based contact center solutions are simply software solutions that handle customer service for a company through the internet. Because the platform is hosted on the cloud instead of on-premises, cloud call center platforms save costs, make software updates faster and easier, and allow for greater flexibility. 

Advantages of Cloud Contact Centers

For successful call center management, contact centers must keep up-to-date with communication and IT technologies. This poses a problem for many traditional contact centers, which are typically very limited in terms of technology. Hardware updates aren’t easy and are usually expensive and time-consuming. As a result, live agents must pick up the slack from insufficient technology, and time gets wasted on basic customer requests and client management. 

The ability to employ conversational AI as part of the solution can increase a company’s bottom line. Check out our ROI calculator to see how basic Tier One automation can increase efficiency as well as the bottom line for your business. 

Cloud-based contact centers 

• make updates easy and relatively inexpensive, 
• allow companies to use the newest technologies, and 
• exceed customers’ expectations with continual improvements. 

When you move your contact center to the cloud, you’ll be able to 

• unite siloed solutions, 
• automate Tier One requests, 
• and drastically improve your customer service. 

The cloud also improves scalability within an intelligent contact center. Because everything is stored in the cloud, storage space is unlimited. The cloud can unite a variety of solutions, making training agents less time-consuming. It’s easy to add additional agents during busy seasons and get them access to the information they need.

Our Cloud-Based Contact Center Solution

Replicant’s cloud-based contact center solution offers the latest conversational AI technology that allows customers to have an intelligent contact center experience. Use our Thinking Machine to solve support issues quickly and naturally.

The post The Cloud-Based Contact Center Explained appeared first on Replicant.

An enterprise call center is an important part of a wide variety of businesses in many industries. They are often the first, and sometimes only, touchpoint between a company and its prospects and customers. As different channels have entered the business world, many enterprise call centers have morphed into more general contact centers, which handle phone calls as well as interactions through email, text, chat, and other channels.

In order to manage omnichannel communications, businesses should invest in enterprise call center technology. This may include solutions that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) in call centers to handle Tier One inquiries without live agent assistance and analytic solutions that can support management in making better decisions.

According to Intercom, 55 percent of support leaders are increasing their spend on call center automation technology to scale their efforts, deepening their investment in automation.

What is an enterprise contact center?

The “enterprise contact center” is a large-scale customer service department. It typically utilizes both live agents and software such as customer relationship management systems (CRMs) or contact center automation to resolve customer requests over any channel including voice, chat, text and other digital avenues.

What does enterprise call center software with AI do?

As a part of the enterprise contact center solution, enterprise call center software with AI provides a tool where intelligent virtual agents can:

• execute conversations,
• log notes,
• and leverage AI-driven insights to improve contact center performance.

Replicant’s Thinking Machine is an easy-to-train call center software that can fully handle Tier One questions and requests from customers, prospects, and other stakeholders without human involvement.

What should you look for in an effective call center solution?

An effective enterprise call center solution can:

• effectively address today’s most pressing challenges,
• remove many routine, repetitive tasks from live agents,
• fully automate Tier One requests from any channel,
• send complex inquiries with a full suite of notes and context to the correct live agent to handle.

The solution should also be able to provide robust, turnkey insights by automatically transcribing and tagging every conversation. Finally, be sure it can scale infinitely to respond to rising spikes in volume as well as scale down during off-peak periods.

Why use Replicant’s enterprise call center technology?

According to an article in Harvard Business Review, surveyed companies have increased net incremental revenue attributable to AI personalization initiatives of anywhere from 40 percent to 100 percent.

As a pioneer in enterprise call center automation, Replicant’s call center software automate simple customer service inquiries while empowering agents to focus on more complex and nuanced customer challenges. Replicant’s AI platform allows consumers to engage in natural conversations across voice, messaging and other digital channels to resolve their customer support issues. The platform scales up or down instantly, can be implemented in weeks, and handles millions of customer support interactions a month.

Our proprietary transcription, inference classification, and named entity recognition models are the drivers behind our stellar call center software performance. In addition, Replicant has a high-performance NLU engine with built-in continuous learning, which means a 20 percent lower Word Error Rate than Google and a 96 percent peak inference accuracy. Our solution can understand rich context from unstructured inputs and offers a 20-millisecond response time. Most importantly, Replicant delivers conversations that regularly return higher CSAT scores than even live agents.

Our AI-powered solution eliminates hold times, answers callers’ questions, and resolves problems quickly and efficiently. It’s one of the most important things to seek in a modern enterprise contact center today. Explore our enterprise call center solutions. Calculate your company’s ROI and learn how your company can increase its bottom line simply by switching to contact center automation.

The post Look for this in an Enterprise Call Center appeared first on Replicant.

Early on in our company history, Replicant made the decision to focus on building customer service automation that was purpose-built for the phone, or in other words, voice-first.

We wanted to address the fact that while 76% of customers still prefer placing a phone call to contact customer service, the phone remained the most frustrating automated customer experience out of every channel. Think of the clunky menus with Interactive Voice Response (IVRs) and you’ll know what we mean. 

Because of this gap, we focused on perfecting our AI platform to offer the most natural human-to-machine conversations ever crafted. In the last few years alone, Replicant’s Thinking Machine has automated over 30 million calls for some of the world’s largest and most beloved brands. Along the way, we’ve successfully matched or exceeded the CSAT scores and average handle times achieved by human agents for those calls.

But, we’ve always known that to create truly exceptional customer service experiences, offering the Thinking Machine on a single channel wouldn’t be enough.

That’s why we’ve launched omnichannel capabilities that apply that same great voice experience across channels for consistency and ease of deployment – with a single, integrated conversation engine that powers all channels.

Now, the same conversation engine that finally cracked the code on voice powers a unified Contact Center Automation platform  – one that can resolve issues across voice, messaging, and other digital channels.

With Replicant, customers get a consistent experience, with seamless channel switching, across every touchpoint. Contact center leaders get visibility into cross-channel transcripts, in one dashboard. And agents get seamless handoffs for sensitive issues, without losing context. 

Unifying Customer and Agent Experiences 

The customer experience benefits of “meeting customers where they are” by operating on multiple channels is, at this point, well-studied; the most appropriate channel will vary depending on what the customer is doing, the action they’re taking, or simply their personal preferences.

Contact center leaders know this, but to-date it’s been surprisingly difficult to execute on. We consistently hear from our customers and prospects that they leverage different partners and platforms to automate different pieces of the customer journey.

This disparate approach leads to frustrating customer experiences, tool fragmentation for agents, and high operational overhead for the call center and IT teams who tie it all together. It can also scatter valuable data, and lock conversational insights in a black box. 

So why do they do this? Simply put, contact center leaders have been unable to find a partner who can meet all of their needs. 

Key Benefits

With Contact Center Automation, contact center leaders can leverage a single conversation engine to both simplify and supercharge their automation journey. 

Shared Machine Learning Brain Replicant’s proprietary AI engine understands the unique nuances of written and verbal communication to support natural communication for each channel. A shared intent library makes it easy to scale learnings across channels without repeating efforts.

Consistent Cross-channel Customer Experience We’ve all had the experience of repeating ourselves multiple times as we’re passed between parties and departments. Replicant integrates deeply into your contact center ecosystem to know where the customer has been, and what they’ve done, improving customer experiences and reducing average handle times.

Omnichannel Visibility with a Single Dashboard Replicant eliminates the need to pull conversation data from multiple sources by unifying conversation transcripts for every customer interaction, across all channels, in a single dashboard.

Seamless Live Agent Handoff Replicant integrates seamlessly with live agent platforms to handoff complex issues that require human empathy without losing customer context. It gives agents the ability to quickly understand the request, while making sure customers who need a live agent can get to one.

Conclusion

Replicant’s Contact Center Automation platform gives leaders a comprehensive option for omnichannel service. 

It provides relief in a time where companies simply cannot hire or retain enough agents, and it protects against rising unpredictable spikes in customer demand. 

On the whole, it simplifies a complex web of standalone automation solutions that have frustrated customers, agents, and industry leaders for years. 

With Replicant, contact centers can free up their agents to focus on more complex and engaging requests, and offer customers an unparalleled automation experience.  

Read the full press release or download the guide for more information on our omnichannel features. 

The post Replicant Announces Expanded Support Across Messaging and Digital Channels appeared first on Replicant.

When companies consider a contact center outsourcing solution, they usually think about hiring a vendor that can provide the people-power to handle some aspect of their business. However, call center outsourcing is growing in popularity as rising attrition, higher wages, increased volumes, and the effects of The Great Resignation plague businesses around the country.

Unfortunately, business process outsourcing (BPO) vendors, a traditional solution of using offshore companies to handle contact center overflow, are struggling with many of the same human resource problems, which is increasing the cost of using such solutions. Instead, businesses must seek contact center outsourcing services that are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

What is the best way to outsource your contact center?

Today, the most effective way to outsource a contact center is by turning to contact

center automation. Replicant’s Contact Center Automation solution returns 55 percent more in cost savings when compared to a highly optimized BPO. When compared with human agents, the automated solution completes 5 percent more inquiries and operates at twice the speed.

How do Tier One requests benefit?

According to Forbes, “Most consumers hate interacting with customer service. They’ve been conditioned to dread the interactions. By prioritizing first touch resolution, organizations of all types and at all levels of customer service can push back against those preconceived notions.”

Replicant resolves customer issues consistently and naturally with a centralized AI brain, which leverages a shared intent library across languages and channels. This means faster resolutions to simple, Tier One questions and problems – regardless of the channel.

Whether your prospects or customers want to contact you by phone, text, messaging, email or visual interactive voice response (VIVR), your organization will be available. Replicant offers seamless channel switching across all channels, quickly and immediately resolving basic questions, inquiries and problems with no human interaction.

How do Tier Two requests benefit?

Contact center outsourcing though an AI-driven solution can benefit Tier Two and higher customer requests and inquiries as well.

One major pet peeve of customers is the need to repeat, retype, or rekey the same information over and over again. An article in Forbes reiterated the fact that when there is a problem, customers only want to “tell their story one time. Customers expect no repeats, one answer and multiple channels.”

With a solution such as Replicant, any question or inquiry that comes into the automated system is fully recorded. That means if Replicant cannot resolve the issue, escalations are routed to the appropriate agent with full notes and context so the human agent can pick up right where the automated system left off–not start all over again. The information is seamlessly integrated into the platforms agents are using, making it easier than ever to address customer and prospect questions and inquiries.

A foundation for continuous improvement

Contact center outsourcing solutions that use technology do much more than simply answer customer inquiries and questions.  AI and ML can actually do a little more heavy lifting. With Replicant, contact center leaders gain visibility into all customer support conversations across every channel in a single dashboard. Managers can easily monitor conversations and analyze insights from conversation data, including success rates, unsupported flows, customer satisfaction scores and auto-captured dispositions.

Outsourcing to a traditional BPO does not provide this ability to fully leverage the potential of a company’s rich customer data.

Try Replicant

Successful call center management is all about reducing or eliminating hold or wait times, answering customer or prospect questions, and resolving problems as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Contact center outsourcing solutions that use technology are the best way to deliver better, faster and more accurate resolutions. Check out Replicant’s contact center automation ROI calculator to see how much your business can save.

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Call center technology at its essence is all about making life easier and more efficient. Both of these benefits are certainly needed in today’s call centers.

According to TTEC, contact center industry trends are focused this year on creating efficiency and cost-savings while at the same time improving customer and employee experiences. To accomplish these goals, various technology innovations such as remote workforces, intelligent automation, and cloud infrastructure will be required.

An article by industry analyst Gartner noted that 54 percent of customer service and support leaders believe that growing the business is the top priority for 2022, compared to operational excellence and cost optimization. Technology innovations play a significant role in fueling that growth.

What call center technology do many companies use?

Call center technology is growing more sophisticated each day. In general, they may leverage Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), a telephony provider, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, and contact center automation offerings–or some combination of all these technologies–to improve customer service and agent experience.

Persistent and Growing Challenges

As an industry, contact centers have always faced difficult and unique challenges. The economics of contact centers have always been built on a delicate balance of employing enough agents to deliver quality service to customers without having so many unoccupied representatives that costs skyrocket.

This is a difficult balance to strike in a healthy and stable labor market. The current employee shortage, along with high agent turnover rates and unpredictable call volumes, has magnified this crisis. The result has been growing hold times and higher frustration levels for customers.

Call Center Technology That Can Help

Contact Center Automation is an emerging category in the industry that allows businesses to completely automate Tier One questions and inquiries. This, in turn, frees and empowers agents to focus on more complex and nuanced customer challenges and higher level client management tasks.

This hybrid approach to customer support solutions helps companies resolve as many customer service requests as possible through automation. It also adheres to the customer preferred channel of communication, whether that be voice, chat, text, or email. This not only increases engagement but also boosts customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Bottom Line Results

Call center technology can resolve thousands of concurrent customer requests. Studies show this can be done with lower average handle times (AHT) and higher customer satisfaction  (CSAT), even when compared with live agents.

Using customer support solutions such as Replicant’s Thinking Machine makes it easy for companies to design and test flows with low-code, drag-and-drop conversation components. In our solution, these are called Replicant Powers, which come pre-built and designed with best practices in mind.

Replicant integrations work out-of-the-box with any CRM, CCaaS, and telephony stack. Its enterprise-grade scalability provides a secure, high availability infrastructure that runs 24/7 with 99.95 percent uptime commitment, and redundancy. Replicant is also are HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI, and GDPR certified and compliant.

Replicant’s Call Center Technology

Call center technology is here to stay. Replicant can help you get your call center quickly set up with the latest AI tech. Learn how conversational AI can help you create a successful call center management program now.

The post The Call Center Technology Top Call Centers Use appeared first on Replicant.

This series is dedicated to customer service innovators and leaders that have managed to turn their obstacles into opportunities, reinventing what it means to be a great leader and delivering exceptional customer service experiences despite today’s climate. From managing their teams through crisis, to pivoting tactics in record speed, to innovating with emerging technologies, these are the leaders transforming contacts centers in 2022.

Vanessa Hardy-Bowen

Spirit Airlines

Director of Guest Care & Contact Centers

LinkedIn

Can you share more about your background and how you got into the customer service industry?

I actually started off in the education field and was working in the contact center as a side gig and ended up falling in love with it. I loved that no two days were ever the same – it’s an ever-changing and evolving environment. I’ve been in the industry for about 20 years now and started on the BPO side of things. I’ve had the opportunity to live in Panama and Jamaica running various programs within contact centers. I grew companies from incubator programs of 10 to some growing to more than 1000 employees, handling customer service, billing, data entry, collection calls to retention and welcome calls. I ultimately moved back to the states and have been with Spirit Airlines since 2018.

How has the contact center changed since you first entered it?

Technology evolutions and their impact on the scene has been the biggest change. I’ve seen that with repetitive, basic inquiry-like calls and processes, technology can scoop those up. Gone are the days of waiting for someone to help with basic call types and, to some degree, some complex issues as well. It also helps create consistency in the customer experience – customers know they’ll get the same consistent level of service every time. Another positive impact is that by peeling off those types of calls from the overall volume and letting technology handle some of it, you have the opportunity to reinvest resources back into agents. It’s really just created an avenue for consistency in many of your customer experiences and opened up a way to streamline your interactions in a way that’s a win for customers and for agents.

What are the biggest challenges facing contact center leaders today?

I’d say the biggest challenges tend to always be things we can’t plan for. Things like system outages, weather events, or, and most recently, the pandemic. This will generally result in five to ten times the call volume you would have normally – you just can’t plan for that.  I’m not going to have 10x the staff, that’s only going to be utilized maybe 2% of the time out of the whole year. So for me, going back to the impact of technology, being able to flex up or down using technology allows a smooth experience for the customers and helps to mitigate the impacts of the unpredictable.

What are some of the ways you are driving change and innovation within your business?

Where we are today in the industry, utilizing automation and various tools that allow you to be able to understand a broader scope of your customer base and their needs has really helped tremendously. Things like speech analytics or text analytics allow our teams to understand drivers and intent better. The more robust information available relating to the experiences or the struggles that customers are having is invaluable in making business decisions. You no longer have to rely on a slow, manual review of a tiny fraction of your business. Now you have the ability to have 100% of your volume scanned, reviewed and categorized, which allows us as a business to be able to dig into identifying pain points and potential fixes. We can quickly make improvements whether it’s from a policy or process standpoint or even a simple system fix that wasn’t identified before.  

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in contact center operations?

I would say always be open to change and always stay curious. It’s easy to get into a pattern of being hyper-focused on the day-to-day challenges, versus taking a step back and looking at new innovative ways to improve existing processes. It’s important to be open to learning about new tools and technology, because you may find something that isn’t even necessarily related to your industry at all, but it’s something that you can get an idea from to make an impact. To me, always being open to learning is key. There’s always an opportunity to do something a little bit better so try to always keep that in mind. It’s instrumental to making sure you and your business continue to evolve and improve.

Check out our previous spotlight and discover more Customer Service Innovators with Replicant’s 50 Leaders Transforming Contact Centers.

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The last two years have made a lot of things clear for contact center leaders:

• Sweeping changes can happen in the blink of an eye.
• Forecasting request volumes and staffing needs has become virtually impossible.
• Contact centers will never go “back to normal.”

On the whole, Covid-19 and its resulting challenges have made certain that in order for customer service to improve, contact centers will have to make some transformational changes. 

The issues that have plagued contact centers over the last two years are here to stay. The time when leaders could rely on strategies like outsourcing, deflection-oriented IVRs, and seasonal hiring is never going to return. 

And contact centers can no longer kick the can down the road. 

Today’s consumers have grown accustomed to meals being delivered at the touch of a finger and refunds being offered with no questions asked. They expect tremendous service from every brand they interact with and they’ll quickly hit “unsubscribe” until they get it.

Agents have rethought what they want out of a job and shifted the hiring curve downward as they seek more engaging work. And the customer service talent pool may never fully recover.

So amid all these changes, what does the new era of customer service look like?

Augmented Agent Experiences

The pandemic led customer service representatives to rethink what they want out of a job. It drove a mass exodus of talent away from contact centers as they sought more engaging work and less monotony. 

For agents still committed to providing excellent customer service and nurturing valuable relationships, their stress levels have never been higher. To retain and support them, a new agent experience must be offered.

Whereas agent assist solutions have long helped service reps execute their roles more efficiently, Contact Center Automation has risen in popularity due to its ability to transform agent responsibilities entirely. 

Contact Center Automation is the process of automating tier 1 customer service requests while empowering agents to focus on more complex and nuanced customer challenges.

It represents the next generation of customer service operations where agent time is maximized to focus on conversations that require high empathy and creativity. 

With automation, agents rely on intelligent machines to fully resolve high-volume requests like order updates and account authentication, as well as back-office work like data entry and conversation analysis. 

Contact Center Automation opens the door for customer service agents to learn new skills, earn higher wages, and find long-term engagement in their jobs.

It forgoes the strategy of imploring agents to answer more calls, chats and texts for the entirety of their shifts. Instead, Contact Center Automation relieves them from their most taxing tasks, so they can focus only on conversations that provide the most value to their brands.

Better Customer Experiences

What drives spikes in contact center demand? Traditionally, isolated events like seasonality, holidays, service outages, or product recalls result in outsized customer requests. But when we look at the trends of the last two years, we see a new culture-based customer service driver entering the fray. 

Customers have grown accustomed to a new marketplace where one-touch service is the expectation. When they pick up the phone, or open a chat, they look forward to an immediate response that begins solving their problem instantly. 

At the heart of Contact Center Automation is this new customer persona. Customers win with Contact Center Automation because it eliminates the causes that put “A Nation on Hold” in 2021. 

In fact, wait times become a thing of the past with automation, no matter what channel customers choose (important, as conventional technologies like the telephone and email will account for 81.5% of the total contact center inbound interactions despite the advent of new channels).

Simple customer requests are resolved immediately with Contact Center Automation by intelligent machines that can achieve the same – or better – customer satisfaction scores as human agents. Built on conversational AI, automation allows customers to naturally state any number of requests, and interact with a machine as they would with a human all the way through resolution.

Meanwhile, agents become more accessible for customers who truly need human assistance. Brands who adopt Contact Center Automation are already seeing the strategy pay dividends, as customers find their requests are being resolved by intelligent machines, and not trapping them in a web of deflection tactics. 

More Prepared Contact Centers

Unpredictability in the contact center isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s never been more prevalent between supply chain issues, ongoing pandemic challenges, and changing weather patterns. 

There’s no better way to address unpredictability – not agent assist tools, not expanded self-service resources, not Business Process Outsourcing – than to automate every single inbound or outbound tier 1 customer interaction, 24/7/365, at unlimited scale.

Contact Center Automation solutions can be deployed and begin answering phone calls and chat messages in weeks with integrations into virtually any CMS, CCaaS, or telephony system. Once implemented, it can provide accurate data and intelligent insights into what additional call flows it can automate. 

Contact centers essentially get a cost-effective, infinite supply of 5-star agents for tier 1 customer requests. Downstream, they can slash training and hiring costs, promise greater productivity and engagement to their agents, and focus on true long-term retention. 

And for the next decade-plus, as data becomes the ultimate resource, contact centers can lean on a library of auto-transcribed customer interactions that help surface insights and improve their automation via machine learning.

Companies already employing the strategy have seen that this is not a solution offering a 10% increase in productivity or cost efficiency. It is a complete transformation wherein customers, agents, and operations receive permanent relief to the demand, labor, and forecasting challenges of the last two years. 

Conclusion

The longer labor shortages persist in contact centers, the more choices operations and CX leaders will have to approach the problem. 

Contact centers will need to think long-term to decide whether incremental improvements in internal communications, agent assist features, and self service options are enough to get them back to stability, or if true transformation is needed to increase their competitiveness in a customer-first world lacking enough reliable agents. 

In either case, a new era of customer service is here. Brands who embrace Contact Center Automation first will be in the best position to capture the talent and customers who have long demanded it.

Get everything you need to know about Contact Center Automation and the new era of customer service it’s ushering in.

The post A New Era of Customer Service appeared first on Replicant.

Businesses in the United States have struggled for years to determine the best way to handle call center outsourcing. A decade ago, many companies looking for assistance in managing rising volumes turned to offshore centers in pursuit of lower labor costs. 

However, by 2018, this trend was reversing as businesses began seeing the downside of overseas call centers. According to Forbes, many organizations started seeing how frustrated customers were getting while dealing with non-native-speaking agents, which lowered customer satisfaction.

At the same time, analyst groups predict the ultimate personalization of customer service in the future. McKinsey coined the term “care of one” to describe the hyper personalization they expect to see by 2025. As businesses move toward this vision, it’s important to recognize the top things that leading call center providers have in common.

What are some top practices for call center outsourcing?

Top businesses no longer rely on offshore call center outsourcing companies as they are increasingly costly and inefficient. Instead, modern businesses leverage contact center automation, which automates Tier One customer requests, freeing agents to focus on those inquiries requiring human expertise and empathy.

Best Practice 1: True Transformation

The best call center outsourcing solutions don’t simply attempt to increase productivity and the number of calls handled; they transform the way customer service is done.

Using voice AI to automate your call center, you can automate Tier One requests, freeing up human resources. This type of transformative call center solution creates more engaged human agents who can now use their expertise for more complex calls instead of facing hours of mundane and repetitive questions. Conversations can happen over any channel, around the clock, and can infinitely scale call volumes as needed.

Partners focused on helping contact centers identify the right use cases to automate, which result in budget reductions while maintaining excellent customer experiences, facilitate true transformation.

Best Practice 2: Intelligent Insights

Besides streamlining how incoming calls are handled on a day-by-day basis, contact center innovation ideas should help businesses gather insights about questions, customer intent, common problems, and workflow issues that can be improved over time.

For example, Replicant leverages proprietary transcription, inference classification, and named entity recognition models as well as a high-performance NLU engine with built-in continuous learning. What does that mean for client management? Replicant’s intelligent contact center solutions has a 20 percent lower word error rate than Google, delivers 96 percent peak inference accuracy, collects rich context from unstructured inputs, and offers a 20-millisecond response time. It’s no wonder that Replicant delivers customer-satisifed conversations that regularly return higher CSAT scores than even live agents.

Best Practice 3: Pre-Built Components That Learn

The top call center outsourcing companies offer innovation ideas that combine ease-of-implementation and ease-of-use along with advanced machine learning that allows the system to learn over time. While Replicant has hundreds of pre-built components including dialogue management, the solution is infinitely scalable across multiple use cases and industries. 

Thoughtful, out-of-the-box features make contact center automation easy to design and result in optimal call flows without heavy IT involvement and resources. These features quickly lead to rapid deployments and a significant ROI.

At the same time, such a system learns the client company’s business over time, adding to the number of questions and problems it can respond to effectively. Customer intent and insights are continually added to the system’s data, enriching the insights that can lead to continuous improvement and smarter business decisions.

Replicant’s Solution

If you’re ready to learn more about the top call center outsourcing solutions, contact Replicant today. Our Thinking Machine provides advanced remote call center solutions for just about any use case and industry. See how this contact center automation technology leads to call center savings. 

Download the comprehensive guide to learn everything you need to know about Contact Center Automation.

The post 3 Things Top Call Center Outsourcing Companies Have | Replicant appeared first on Replicant.

Serving the needs of customers who call a business is an important way to build long-term, loyal clients who will keep coming back. US based call centers are a common way that many organizations handle customer inquiries, answer questions, and respond to problems. 

According to IBISWorld, more than 32,000 call centers exist in the United States. However, many businesses are turning to conversational AI as another way to manage customer service inquiries. Although both have similar goals, there are significant differences between the two solutions.

What is the difference between call centers and conversational AI?

Call centers – centralized or distributed offices where live representatives answer phone calls from customers who have questions, concerns, or problems. 

Conversational AI – modern technology used to automate contact center conversations over any channel.

How are the two solutions similar?

Contact centers along with conversational AI both are striving to do the same thing; to answer questions and handle inquiries from customers. Both solutions are important parts of any brand and are oftentimes the only interaction a customer has with a company. They are used by businesses that want to deliver excellent service to their customer and prospect audiences. In many cases, organizations may actually use a combination of these solutions to meet this common goal.

What are common US based call center challenges?

Call centers are in the midst of a crisis. Many simply cannot hire or retain enough agents and may try to turn to call center outsourcing options only to find they are having the same labor issues. Gartner reported that only one in three customer service reps are engaged, and disengaged reps are 84 percent more likely to look for a new job. This is a significant human resources problem.

As a result, US based call center solutions that only use live agents are struggling with high hold times and an inability to predict call volumes. As inflation and wages rise and training costs skyrocket, call centers are a growing liability for today’s businesses. In the end, these problems can result in poor customer service and unhappy clients. Bottlenecks in call center customer service have led to a new horizon of contact center innovation ideas, with technology at the forefront. 

How conversational AI can help

Successful call center management can incorporate conversational AI technology to drive contact center automation and dialogue management. Replicant’s Thinking Machine is purpose-built for customer service. This ground-breaking solution shares a single-intent library across every channel, which means customers get a consistent experience and managers gain visibility via a single dashboard.

Using conversational technology makes your US based call center more manageable than ever by resolving Tier One requests over any channel with zero wait times around the clock. It is infinitely scalable, helping to handle fluctuation call volumes effectively. Replicant’s Thinking Machine consistently returns lower average handle times (AHTs) and higher CSAT score than those of live agents.

This performance frees agents to be more available to focus on requests that require creativity and empathy, which increases employee satisfaction and retention rates.

The Most Cost Effective Solution

For the best return on investment, call center outsourcing using AI technology is the recommended solution for US based contact centers. Replicant’s Thinking Machine helps contact centers implement conversational technology as an effective solution to managing fluctuating call volumes as well as eliminating hold times, contributing to high customer satisfaction and increasing revenues. Request a demo to learn more.

The post US Based Call Center vs. Conversational AI appeared first on Replicant.

This series is dedicated to customer service innovators and leaders that have managed to turn their obstacles into opportunities, reinventing what it means to be a great leader and delivering exceptional customer service experiences despite today’s climate. From managing their teams through crisis, to pivoting tactics in record speed, to innovating with emerging technologies, these are the leaders transforming contacts centers in 2022.

Hannah Day

Paramount Hospitality Group

Director of Revenue Management & CRO Operations

LinkedIn

Can you share more about your background and how you got into the customer service industry?

I got my start in customer service in retail.  I did that for a few years, and then transitioned into the call center industry as a reservation agent for the company I actually work for now and have grown my career here since. I moved up through the reservations department, and then transitioned over into revenue management, but I am still very much focused on the customer service side of things in my current role.

How has the contact center changed since you first entered it?

In the last couple of years, because of the pandemic, the biggest change has been staffing shortages and balancing that with big variations in call volume. Before the pandemic, there was more predictability in call volume – we knew what our trends were, but now there’s just no way to forecast what it’ll be. Being in hospitality, when the pandemic first started, we had virtually no calls coming in. Then – like a lightswitch – the demand came back and the calls sky-rocketed. The unpredictability and lack of trends is definitely the biggest change I’ve seen in more recent years.

What are the biggest challenges facing contact center leaders today?

One of the biggest challenges is ensuring we continue to provide excellent customer service despite the changes we’re dealing with today. As I mentioned, call volumes can be very unpredictable and call centers are short-staffed, but customers still deserve a great experience with us. I am always looking for ways to better utilize the tools and resources I have to ensure that the customer isn’t impacted by challenges we have behind the scenes.

What are some of the trends you see today that you think will have a big impact on contact centers in the future?

I think technology is going to be something we lean on more and more. A few years ago we could manage staffing challenges and get by, but today there’s now massive call volumes to also deal with. I think the only way you can get through both is by leveraging technology. I also see integrating technology into the guest experience becoming more prevalent and making self-service more accessible. From making a reservation, to checking in at the hotel, I’ve seen that customers really like to have the option to self-service with technology. We’re never going to not have agents and we’ll always have customers who prefer to call, but it’s also important to provide options through technology for customers who prefer that, too. Technology allows us to meet the customer where they are.

What are some of the ways you are driving change and innovation within your business?

Always keeping a fresh perspective on things – whether it’s a process, a technology or the like. I try to regularly take a step back and re-evaluate things – just because that process made the most sense for us a few years ago, doesn’t mean it’s right for us today. Same goes for technology – some of our technology was implemented years ago, so it’s important to make sure we’re optimizing how we use them in today’s environment. I also like doing things that help bring the customer and agent experience to the forefront of my mind. Sometimes, I’ll do this by diving into agent-related tasks and hopping on the phone so I can stay up to speed on what it’s like and see if there are areas we can improve the experience – for the agents and the customer.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in contact center operations?

I started out as an agent, and I think the best advice I have is not to take everything at face value. What I mean by that is, just because you were taught a certain process, doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. If there’s something that’s plaguing you everyday, chances are the process and can be improved. Don’t be shy to raise it with your management. I always value input like that from my team. For those in management, my advice is to stay connected to your agents and jump in with them when you can. Not only will it help you improve the operational process by gaining another perspective, but it builds trust with your team members.

Looking ahead, what are you most excited about in the customer service industry?

I’m both curious and excited to see how things evolve. It’s such a big industry, and there are so many forward thinkers, I’m interested to see how we collectively increase the customer experience. Customer expectations are always changing and evolving, so I’m excited to see how we meet the customer where they are and evolve the contact center with those changing demands. 

Discover more Customer Service Innovators with Replicant’s 50 Leaders Transforming Contact Centers.

The post Customer Service Innovator Spotlight: Hannah Day  appeared first on Replicant.

Contact Center Automation has become mainstream for millions of customer service centers. One of the reasons is customers’ appreciation for sharp, human-to-machine voice conversations. 

Conversational AI – the technology that powers Contact Center Automation – is purpose-built for fully resolving customer service requests. This means solutions like Replicant’s Thinking Machine respond in less time, with higher accuracy, in any language than even modern voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa can. 

As conversational AI has matured to find a leading application in customer service, it has proliferated contact centers across every industry and revolutionized customer experience (CX). And while Contact Center Automation can use the same, accurate AI engine to power consistent conversations across every channel, voice is its crown jewel. 

The phone has long been the most frustrating automated customer experience, yet it remains 76% of customers’ preferred channel when contacting customer service. By cracking the code to voice automation, Contact Center Automation has proved why starting with voice is the path to great automation for customer service orgs. 

If it’s done right

As with any technology, the tech itself is not a promise of a better experience. Success lies in how humans choose to strategically use it. At the end of the day, no amount of customer containments or resolutions matter unless Contact Center Automation can serve customers the way they want to be served. How effectively can it extract intents from free-form, natural language? Does it allow customers to quickly rattle off a list of questions and address them all without needing the customer to repeat themselves? Does it understand positive and negative intents, even when it’s not a simple “yes” or “no?”

Replicant’s Thinking Machine excels at understanding human contexts for every conversation. Rather than repeating long menus or asking for keywords, it allows customers to state any number of requests and responds accurately in less than a second. With every turn in the conversation, Replicant’s Thinking Machine nudges customers closer to resolution, even when conversations are non-linear. It’s a big part of why the Thinking Machine regularly returns CSAT scores on par or better than those of human agents.

Contact Center Automation is a hot investment

In the last year, companies have spent nearly $2 billion on conversational AI technology for the contact center, and this number is expected to double in the next five years, reports Opus Research. Contact Center Automation is joining forces with human agents to improve CX by taking on tier 1 issues, improving first contact resolution, and freeing up agents for escalations that require an empathic human connection that builds trust with customers. 

The benefits of Contact Center Automation in customer service come at a time when contact centers are stretched thin by what is now unpredictable terrain — forecasting has become increasingly difficult if not impossible due to sudden spikes and surges in call volume and uncertainties of agent availability. 

Contact Center Automation solves today’s problems

Contact centers that have moved to the cloud have the advantage of an easy work-from-anywhere transition when needed, but the unpredictability still makes scheduling challenging. Customers have experienced longer hold times or failed to get a response — which leads to an increase in churn. It is reported that 91% of customers that are unhappy with a brand will just leave without complaining and 47% of consumers have switched to a different brand due to bad customer service. 

Contact Center Automation offers contact centers the boost of extra help as a first line of defense right when the technology has matured enough to be economical. And, with it, we’re seeing a multitude of contact centers start with voice to immediately augment their CX. From there, new use cases and channels can easily be added to quickly build greater ROI. Contact Center Automation is indeed the new king for improving CX, but voice is driving customer satisfaction and sustainable roadmaps.

Not all Contact Center Automation is equal

It may be tempting to implement Contact Center Automation as a quick fix for call deflection, cost cutting, and to guarantee every customer call is answered without the need for call backs. But without ensuring that the technology delivers an experience customers find positive, it can do more harm than good. 

For example, if a customer calls and a machine answers but is just a few seconds slower than a human in its speech, the customer will lose patience and find the experience negative. Yes, they may be getting their call answered and the issue may be resolved by the machine, but that lag in response time makes the interaction feel too slow and only reminds the customer that a human agent could have conversed quicker. Likewise, if a machine quickly understands intent but cannot decipher a more complex context (say the customer asks a question and follows up with a qualifier), the customer will feel they’re not understood, leading to negative sentiment. 

For Contact Center Automation to truly improve CX, it must be able to provide as nearly-human an engagement as possible — responding in an organic way to the full context and speaking at a speed that mimics human speech. If Contact Center Automation leaves customers wishing they should have just talked to a human agent, it’s failing to improve CX.

Choosing a Contact Center Automation solution that customers will love

There is no question that to stay competitive and differentiate on CX contact centers will continue to move quickly to implement Contact Center Automation. As they vet vendors, the following are CX questions should be asked: 

• Does the voice technology sound convincingly like a human? 
• Is there a lag in the machine’s response times when speaking? 
• Can the automation interpret and respond appropriately to complex contexts? 
• Does the AI require the customer to “learn” how to interact with it or does it elevate itself to the level of the human?

Aside from these CX criteria, Contact Center Automation should integrate easily into your core contact center and key systems. It should provide a scalable layer of service that allows your contact center to stretch up and down, scaling as needed 24/7 without having to add agents. It should fully resolve up to 90% of all tier 1 issues and free agents to focus on more complex resolutions. 

Contact Center Automation is the new King of CX for contact centers if it delivers voice and omnichannel experiences that feel easy, pleasant, and fast to customers.

The post Contact Center Automation: Why Voice is King for CX appeared first on Replicant.

Contact center AI is just one segment where artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly infiltrating our lives. While some leaders remain skeptical about its effectiveness, a study by Fortune indicates that businesses, by refusing to take advantage of this powerful tool, severely cripple themselves and impair future growth and success.

“The sooner business leaders across all industries understand and take advantage of what AI and data have to offer, the quicker they will reap the rewards,” the article concludes. 

But what does this mean for successful call center management? While AI provides numerous benefits in many areas of business, artificial intelligence in call centers is particularly effective. When AI assists customer service, results are incredible. 

AI Versus Traditional Bots

Traditional, rule-based bots are based on pre-programmed responses and can’t understand context or intent. On the other hand, intelligent virtual agents (IVA) use AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to interact with customers, answer questions, and resolve issues. IVAs solve the customer service problems bots used to run into by using vast amounts of data to provide personalized service. 

Customer support solutions like Replicant’s are now just as productive as live agents. Contact center AI uses automation to manage conversations without hold times. Instead of being forced to use a keypad or keywords to communicate, customers are able to speak normally. Finally, IVAs constantly collect information, “learning” from past conversations to improve client management in the future. 

Effects of Introducing AI

“The AI market remains in an evolutionary state,” states an article by Gartner. This may be one of the reasons some companies are hesitant about implementing AI-based customer support solutions. As a result, it’s beneficial to look at exactly how implementing AI has impacted real businesses and customers. 

Adding AI to existing call center solutions has been shown to decrease operational costs by 59 percent. Additionally, 75 percent of consumers spend more money on companies that use AI. Juniper Research predicts that AI is expected to save businesses up to $8 billion per year.

When call centers start using contact center AI, agents will be able to hand over their more mundane tasks to automation, and efficiency and profits will increase. At the same time, customer satisfaction will skyrocket. By augmenting live agents with AI-based automation, companies will see faster service times, reduced costs, and improved client management.

Does AI Customer Support Really Work?

In short, yes. With minimal training data, contact center AI is able to ramp from zero to 30,000 conversations per day in six weeks. It regularly achieves a 90 percent success rate in resolutions without escalations. Even in situations where conversations need to be handed over to a live agent, AI saves time by gathering information and making it accessible to the agent. 

AI allows companies to offer the efficient and responsive support their customers are looking for, with quick, accurate help and eliminated hold times. Customer service teams also appreciate the increased efficiency, accuracy, and satisfaction AI brings. 

Replicant’s Contact Center AI Solution

If you’d like to see for yourself, Replicant’s solution and our  intelligent virtual agent autonomously resolves customer issues with zero hold time. We’d love to show you how contact center AI and can improve your business and increase your ROI. Request a demo now.

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The phone has long been customers’ preferred method for communicating with companies, and it continues to be so. By far, phone or voice is the customer service channel that consumers across multiple generations and countries prefer. 

But historically, voice has also been the most expensive channel for contact centers. Staffing agents to answer phone calls incurs heavy labor costs and limits the number of customers that contact centers can serve at one time. 

Scalability and cost have been and currently still are major challenges for contact centers today. As contact centers digitally transformed over the past decade, many have lowered their costs by adopting Contact Center Automation. Most notably, interactive voice response (IVR) systems have helped contact centers operate more efficiently. 

IVRs have frustrated customers, though. More than 60% of consumers feel “IVR technology makes for a poor customer experience” because they feel forced to choose from inflexible menus and can’t reach a live agent.

As AI and automation have advanced in the last few years, companies now have a way to give customers the flexible and intuitive voice experience they want and at 50% of the cost of an offshore call center. Contact Center Automation also brings the same, natural experience to every channel, allowing companies to reimagine customer service.

But what’s the difference between Contact Center Automation and IVRs? Let’s break down the difference at a high level.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

IVR is a technology that allows humans to interact with an automated phone system by using their voice or dial pad. The IVR presents customers with a menu of options to choose from. Customers select an option by saying a keyword, a number, or touching a button on their phone. IVRs can route customers to a live agent, present self-service options, walk customers through troubleshooting, and authenticate customers.

Although contact centers can reduce their costs and increase first contact resolution with IVRs, these benefits come at the expense of customer satisfaction. Customers may have to wait through the whole list of menu items before choosing. Predetermined “this or that” options mean IVRs don’t always offer the right option for a customer’s situation or the caller won’t know which option is best for them.

They also make customers feel like they’re being deflected, or re-routed, rather than making progress on their request at first touch.

Customers have to speak in the IVR’s language, since IVRs aren’t built with natural language understanding (NLU). As a result, they aren’t able to understand how humans naturally speak. They also don’t recognize multiple intents, like “I want to update my payment information and return an item.”

With all these limitations, it’s not surprising that 64% of survey respondents had negative feelings, such as frustration, stress, and anger, when presented with an IVR. So are IVRs really helping contact centers, or are they hurting brands instead?

Contact Center Automation

Contact Center Automation is an emerging category in which companies automate tier 1 customer service while empowering agents to focus on more complex and nuanced customer challenges. It’s a hybrid approach that helps companies resolve as many customer service requests as possible through automation, by whatever channel the customer prefers- voice, chat or SMS.  This allows human agents to focus on the more complex customer support challenges.

It uses a combination of conversational AI, machine learning, NLU, NLP (natural language processing), and other technologies that enable humanlike interactions between humans and machines. Unlike IVRs, Contact Center Automation enables machines to understand how humans naturally speak or write.

When Contact Center Automation is applied to voice, customers can call and ask questions as they normally would and switch between topics. Instead of being asked to “press one,” customers can simply say, “I didn’t receive my package.” The AI will understand the customer’s intent, which is they want to get an update on their shipping status. Customers can even resolve multiple issues in a single conversation, since AI understands multiple intents.

Contact Center Automation leverages a shared intent library, meaning every channel provides a consistent experience, and solutions come purpose-built and ready to deploy for the contact center space.

Which is Right for Your Contact Center?

It’s important to first understand this isn’t an either-or situation. You don’t need to choose between using an IVR or Contact Center Automation. Contact centers can leverage both by placing Contact Center Automation in front of or behind an IVR.

When Contact Center Automation is in front of an IVR, it will be the first interaction that customers have when they call. If the AI isn’t able to resolve the customer’s issue, the customer is routed to a live agent with an intelligent, time-saving escalation. When Contact Center Automation works behind an IVR, customers will need to first select a menu option before being put in touch with the AI. Many contact centers, however, find the ROI and effectiveness of Contact Center Automation to far outweigh their IVR, and eventually replace the legacy system with automation as a whole.

Both IVRs and Contact Center Automation help contact centers serve customers more efficiently, reduce their costs, and automate the resolution of tier 1 issues. If you do need to choose one, the answer depends on the way you want to run your contact center and the experience you want to give customers. Since Contact Center Automation understands how humans speak, can process multiple intents, gets smarter over time, and doesn’t lock customers into a phone tree, customers enjoy an easier and smoother resolution to their issues.

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They say “you get what you pay for”. So how does IVR pricing stack up when it comes to customer service? Well, for decades customers have complained about traditional interactive voice response (IVR) systems. According to Forbes, customers say they have “wasted their time and too rarely got them the information they sought.” 

Many customers are sick and tired of dialogue management done through IVR. They try to bypass difficult IVR interactions, trying to get a live agent on the line by repeatedly pressing “0” or repeating “speak to agent”. 

However, once AI is implemented, contact centers become much more effective for both customers and businesses. “AI-enabled conversational assistants aren’t just getting customers basic info they need; behind the scenes, they’re also feeding human agents intelligent data and analysis to deliver better, faster outcomes, without customers ever being aware,” the Forbes article explained.

What Are IVR systems?

As an automated phone system technology, IVR uses pre-recorded messages to allow customers to ask questions or access information. It typically uses keypad selection or keywords that route callers to the information and answers they need. 

How Expensive Is IVR Pricing?

IVR pricing tends to be relatively low, but you usually pay in the long run. In the past, many companies ran contact centers as inexpensively as possible. Though IVR seemed like the answer, it ended up frustrating customers and undermining their trust. 

Most interactive voice response solutions don’t work; they fail to eliminate wait times or resolve requests. Customers respond to IVR by simply trying to get out of “bot land”. Because customers want to talk to live agents, IVR doesn’t do much to reduce agents’ workloads. Even when customers get a live agent, they typically have to repeat personal information and questions before anything can be resolved. In the end, though it may be cheaper than other contact center solutions, most IVR systems waste hours of time for customers and call center agents. 

Looking at an IVR’s Value

Many businesses have noticed decreased customer satisfaction resulting from poor interactive voice response systems. Yet, IVR solutions continue to be popular. The global market is projected to reach $6.7 billion by 2026 according to a report by BusinessWire. 

The problem is, IVR pricing should be measured in more than dollars. Poor IVR customer service irritates customers and makes them more likely to leave a brand entirely. Agents’ jobs are harder as they must deal with annoyed customers who have already wasted precious time talking to a bot. 

But there’s hope. Just because interactive voice response solutions haven’t worked well in the past doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re completely useless. When paired with contact center automation and conversational AI technology, IVR can become what it was meant to be. 

Automation and AI add much more value to a business by answering requests with no wait times over a variety of communication channels. Together with IVR, they accumulate millions in savings every year.

Where Does AI Come In?

With AI reinforced IVR, the software can begin resolving requests the instant customers pick up the phone. AI eliminates the need for keywords, allowing customers to speak naturally and have a more enjoyable and effective experience. 

AI also knows its limits – when it can’t handle a question, it hands the conversation over to an agent before frustrated customers start forcing their way through to a live staff member. When agents take up conversations, they have access to notes, auto-generated summaries, and other information so that customers don’t have to repeat themselves every step of the way. This is just one of the types of conversational AI integrations that can bolster existing call center operations. 

Try Replicant’s Conversational IVR Solution

To sum it up, while standard IVR pricing can be relatively low and attractive, it can also be a frustrating solution for customers. To really enhance your customers’ experience, you need solutions that also include conversational IVR. 

Understand what Replicant could do for your business. Calculate the ROI you could achieve and request a live demo.

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Today’s customer experience automation should always include conversational AI, and here’s why. Although customer satisfaction has been a mainstay of business for years, focusing on the entirety of the customer experience is relatively new. According to an article in Forbes, brands are now competing in this area and see stellar customer experience as a competitive advantage. People will pay more for great customer service experiences, and technology offers many ways to facilitate those experiences. 

“Research has found that as little as one bad interaction with a company is enough to stop many of us from giving them our business ever again,” the study continues. To reduce the risk of delivering a poor experience, many businesses have started to rely on advanced AI technologies as part of their suite of call center solutions. 

“Automated call handling systems were initially introduced to tackle some of these issues but unfortunately didn’t always have the desired effect,” the article says. “Businesses are counting on their ability to augment these systems with AI.”

What Are the Different Elements of Customer Experience Automation?

Customer experience automation may include many elements including interactive voice response, automated email response, chat messaging, and/or conversational AI. Some of these efforts in automating customer experience performed poorly and failed to contribute to successful call center management. 

However, customer experience solutions like Replicant that use conversational AI to drive natural conversations are much more effective. They allow customers to find answers to their questions and resolutions to their problems immediately without needing to talk with a live agent. 

How Do Customers See Conversational AI?

As investments in customer experience automation increase, it’s crucial to look at the customer’s perspective of successful call center management. Customers have struggled for years with contact centers, facing terrible customer service, uninformed agents, and long hold times. They’ve been forced to explain their situations over and over to automated bots and multiple staff members who are unable to offer the help they need. 

Conversational AI helps provide stellar service to every customer. It allows customers to speak naturally at any time over any channel. When customers are frustrated, annoyed, or stressed, it eliminates the need to repeat themselves and helps de-escalate difficult situations. 

At the same time, the right conversational AI technology is constantly gathering information about customer interactions. It continually “learns” from customer inquiries and adapts the system to make conversations more efficient and effective while broadening the scope of tasks it can handle.

Benefits of AI For Businesses

According to a study by Gartner, it is important that “leaders understand how customers interact with digital channels in order to contain customers within them, and improve their overall customer experience.”

As customer experience becomes an area of competition among businesses, more and more organizations will turn to customer support automation to give them the upper hand. AI, as part of contact center automation, takes care of Tier One customer service assignments so that trained agents can focus on more difficult questions. 

But customer experience automation isn’t the only benefit that conversational AI provides. It also generates analytics that help a contact center understand why customers are calling and what they’re looking for. Conversations can be transcribed, stored, and reviewed to provide further information about customers’ needs. This data in turn offers insights into the future of the business as a whole. 

Instead of seeing call and contact centers as cost centers, businesses can look at them as a way to create value through good customer support automation. Contact centers provide relevant information that helps your business improve. These centers are often the only way organizations communicate with customers, and a contact center that functions well increases customer retention rates and satisfaction. 

Staff satisfaction may increase as well. Once Tier One service tasks are automated, agents will have the time to focus on more interactive problems instead of answering the same questions over and over. 

Customer Experience Automation at Replicant

We’ve taken customer experience automation to the next level with our Thinking Machine. This conversational AI platform could transform your call center and significantly enhance the experience your customers have. Learn more, calculate your ROI, and request a demo now.

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As customer service and support organizations look to accelerate their digital transformations, there are many questions they’ll need to work through. 

At the beginning of 2021, Gartner identified that, “The customer service and support function will see radical changes in 2021 in an ongoing response to the effects of the pandemic. These changes will force service organizations to face multiple dilemmas around customers, strategy, organization and technology.”

“However, overcoming these dilemmas will prompt service to transform from a cost center to a relationship-oriented profit center.”

As the world’s leading Contact Center Automation solution, Replicant has helped customers design to, and meet, the evolving needs of contact centers throughout the pandemic and ensuing great resignation. 

Here’s how Replicant helps contact centers navigate 10 dilemmas so they can play a larger role in owning the customer relationship and driving business growth.

1. Human and machine customers

In the future, your customer may not always be human. The Internet of Things (IoT) has enabled devices to collect data and communicate with each other. Automated outbound conversations are already performing scheduling, ordering, and dispatch tasks for customers across many industries

Regardless of the type of customer you’re serving, Replicant’s Thinking Machine is able to communicate with both humans and machines. Via chat, SMS or voice, Replicant’s conversational AI acts as a universal language across humans and machines. If a device isn’t able to verbally communicate with the Thinking Machine, Replicant can easily integrate with other systems through APIs.

When both humans and machines are customers, contact centers also need to be prepared to handle an increase in customer requests. Using AI, Replicant enables contact centers to infinitely scale their customer service capacity alongside demand. Whether you’re receiving thousands or millions of calls a day, the Thinking Machine will respond to all of them immediately.

2. Service journey and/or life journey

Instead of focusing on just the customer service journey, organizations are starting to play a role in the customer’s entire journey. By connecting service, sales, and marketing, companies can become a part of a customer’s life. Companies that take this approach are positioned to create more revenue and customer loyalty by being there when customers need them, even after long pauses in engagement. 

There are many possibilities for how companies can leverage Contact Center Automation to engage with customers outside of the customer service interaction and make their lives easier. 

The Thinking Machine doesn’t just resolve inbound customer questions and issues. It can upsell and cross-sell, giving customers a personalized sales experience and enabling you to capture more of your customer’s business. 

The Thinking Machine can even execute outbound conversations, giving you the ability to proactively engage and share information with customers. Lastly, Replicant automatically transcribes and tags calls to turn unstructured conversation data into actionable insights. You can now understand what customers ask about most or have the greatest number of issues with and use that to shape your product or service.

3. Service channels and omnichannel experiences

Customers expect to be able to interact with a brand across physical and digital properties. Brands should remember them, know their customer history, and continue conversations across channels. This shift in how companies think about interacting with customers will result in a consistent customer experience across all modalities and devices and higher customer satisfaction.

Replicant gives you a head start with crafting an omnichannel experience. Aside from voice, you’ll also be able to service your customers through SMS, chat, and other digital channels. A customer interaction that starts on the phone can end over text and be just as accurate and effective. Having these different methods of engagement enables customers to seamlessly move from one modality or device to another.

4. Reactive and/or proactive service

Contact Center Automation enables companies to do more with the same or fewer amount of agents. By collecting and analyzing conversation data, companies can identify times when customers are likely to contact them and proactively reach out. When you’re anticipating customer needs and meeting them before they contact you, companies will be able to reduce contact volume and increase customers’ appreciation toward the brand.

Replicant automates outbound conversations, which makes it possible for companies to proactively communicate with customers at scale. You can easily and efficiently share updates and important information. For example, telecommunications providers can let customers know when service has been restored after an outage, or a product is back in stock.

5. Assisted service and/or self-service

Although companies have invested in self-service, customers continue to contact companies through live channels. This could be because it’s difficult to locate the self-service options, or customers find that the options in the knowledge library, for example, don’t meet their unique situation. There’s also still a long way for self-service channels to go in order to be truly effective.

“Migrating contact volume from assisted to self-service channels, upgrading legacy contact center technology and automating customer service processes — all of which fall under digital channels and capabilities were rated the top three most important priorities in 2021,” as surveyed by Gartner. 

As companies make this transition, it’s important to understand the types of interactions and customers that best fit each channel. This will help you strike a balance between these two types of channels and ensure they’re used effectively.

Voice remains a primary customer service channel, with 57% of customers ranking call support as their initial channel preference. Many companies use IVRs to offer self-service over the phone. Unfortunately, IVRs create a poor customer experience and even cause companies to lose business.

Replicant provides a self-service solution that uses conversational AI as the automation engine to fully resolve — not deflect — 100% of tier 1 issues without agent intervention. Unlike most automated service options, Replicant doesn’t require humans to learn how to use it or to respond in “robotic” ways. Customers truly get resolution on their own by speaking with the Thinking Machine as they normally would a human.

6. Service cost center and/or relationship profit center

In order to gain a competitive advantage as well as benefit businesses more, contact centers are starting to move from being a cost center to a profit center. With more customers moving to digital and self-service channels, customer growth and retention can increasingly be driven by customer service. 

Gartner anticipates that, “By 2025, 40% of customer service organizations will become profit centers by becoming de facto leaders in digital customer engagement.”

Promoting products, services, and upgrades no longer relies on a live agent. Replicant’s Thinking Machine can intelligently suggest related products and add-ons to customers. If customers aren’t interested, they can easily decline. But if customers are interested, you’ve just earned more revenue without lifting a finger.

7. Service department and customer teams

As more routine and transactional tasks are automated, agents are afforded more opportunities to level up their skills and expertise to execute more complicated tasks. To achieve this, customer service organizations need to restructure their teams for even greater efficiency. You’ll need to bring together cross-functional teams that work on customer well-being across different segments, like industry or product type.

You can accelerate your move toward all-encompassing customer teams by automating high-volume, repetitive customer conversations with Replicant. It takes just a few weeks to implement Replicant start automating tier 1 requests across every channel with the Thinking Machine.

8. Work from anywhere and distributed workforces

The pandemic forced companies to challenge the contact center model. Companies realized the benefits of remote work and proved customer service could still run smoothly without a physical office. Knowing contact centers no longer rely on agents coming into a physical office, customer service leaders need to consider whether they want to continue with a 100% work from anywhere model, a 100% contact center model, or a hybrid.

While it’s been proven that contact centers can successfully operate without a brick-and-mortar location, relying entirely on human agents still leaves contact centers susceptible to not having enough agent capacity. Agents might call out sick or quit suddenly, and there will always be unanticipated spikes in call volume.

When contact centers use both Replicant and live agents, they can flexibly adjust customer service capacity as demand increases or decreases. With the Thinking Machine acting as the first line of defense for all inbound requests, customers won’t experience a wait time — even when you don’t have enough agents or experience a surge in customer issues. Plus, harnessing the power of humans and AI enables contact centers to scale more efficiently and at lower costs.

9. Employee and/or freelance/flex

There’s more channels than ever for customers to receive help and find information. As more customers choose to self-assist, they’re turning to independent experts and channels. For example, customers might go to Google or YouTube first to get help, instead of your website. 

Gartner predicts that, “By 2025, customers will pay a freelance customer service expert to resolve 75% of their customer service issues.”

As more customers seek out help from independent experts and channels, you’ll receive fewer customer service inquiries. However, companies lose a customer touchpoint and control over their brand and customer experience.

With more employees wanting flexibility with when and where they work, companies also have to consider if and how they’ll support this.

Companies get the best of both worlds when leveraging Contact Center Automation. They can maintain control over the customer experience while decreasing the amount of inquiries agents have to handle. As more people use self-service to get help, you can ensure customers get the correct information about your products and accurate troubleshooting by deploying a Thinking Machine custom-built for your brand that can be activated through any channel.

10. Best-in-class customer service suite

Customer service organizations have been using disparate systems for years. This has created disjointed customer experiences, inconsistent data, and integration issues. Gartner recommends shifting to a suite of composable applications to create an integrated and personalized customer experience. Composable applications also enable organizations to quickly adapt and innovate.

Replicant is the leader in Contact Center Automation, powering millions of fast, natural, and contextual customer conversations each month for some of the world’s most trusted brands. 

While you get the best automation solution with Replicant, you also achieve a horizontal solution that integrates with any CCaaS platform, CRM, and custom internal systems to access and update data. This ensures you’ll create a seamless customer experience across voice and other channels.

To keep up with rapidly changing customer behaviors, it’s imperative that contact centers overcome these 10 challenges. It’s precisely why Replicant was created. By incorporating Replicant into your customer service strategy, you’ll set up your contact center to succeed well into the future. 

Learn more about Replicant’s Contact Center Automation solution and how it can fit into your roadmap and start returning value sooner than you think.

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Every year, artificial intelligence (AI) technology becomes more sophisticated – and it’s no surprise that it is becoming commonplace in the world of customer contact centers.

While many companies continue to use call center outsourcing services and assign contact center tasks to third-party organizations through business process outsourcing (BPO), conversational AI is a smarter, more cost-effective alternative.

“Companies of all stripes have invested heavily in tools and technologies to help them understand their customers more deeply and to gain the advantages of superior customer experience,” says a study by McKinsey. AI remains one of the central technologies that helps businesses understand customers and fulfill their needs and can now be tied closely with contact center activity.

What is Conversational AI?

Conversational AI for customer support solutions can be an important component of successful call center management, managing basic customer inquiries without human intervention. By automatically responding to common inquiries from multiple touchpoints, AI can completely resolve Tier One customer service requests without a live agent or hold time. For more complicated needs, the conversational AI system refers customers to experienced live agents.

What is the Difference Between BPO and Conversational AI?

When companies use call center outsourcing services to replace or temporarily assist their contact center, they pay a third-party workforce to manage customer service inquiries. However, high training costs and turnover as well as language and cultural barriers makes outsourcing services an expensive way to add additional staff.

As one of the most advanced contact center innovation ideas, conversational AI fully automates Tier One customer service interactions. Without additional staff and the associated training and technology expenses, AI decreases response time and rapidly resolves customer issues. It also scales infinitely, making it a more cost-effective alternative to call center outsourcing services.

Advantages of Conversational AI

The artificial intelligence (AI) market experienced a sudden popularity surge in 2020 due to the global pandemic, and it shows no signs of slowing down in coming years. An article by Fortune predicts that the AI market will grow to exceed $360 billion by 2028.

AI for customer support solutions provides a number of benefits:

• With technology continually improving, organizations can enjoy the benefits of AI without negatively affecting customer satisfaction. AI-backed automation can often resolve customer service issues with the same or better satisfaction scores as agents. It needs less time to solve problems and is available 24/7, which substantially shortens or completely eliminates wait time.
• Through conversational IVR, this solution completely removes Tier One tasks from agents’ workload. As a result, staff can handle more time-consuming requests that would otherwise go to outsourcing services.
• Conversational AI is the cheapest answer to a staff shortage because it simply reduces the need for outsourcing services staff.
• Contact center automation is extremely cost-effective, as contact centers only pay for what they use. They also don’t need to undertake the expenses of agent training, office space, or updated hardware.
• Contact center automation provides much-needed analytics that help your contact center understand customer needs and continually improve.

Replicant’s Call Center Outsourcing Solution

With advanced automation and AI technology, Replicant facilitates the best of both worlds and provides call center outsourcing services that are easily implemented and scaled. Intelligent conversational AI manages tier one requests, freeing your live agents to focus on complex inquiries that require empathy and a human touch. Learn more about Replicant’s contact center automation solutions for your business.

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With much of the world emerging from two years of pandemic-fueled restrictions, many are preparing for the most “normal” summer in years. 

This pent-up demand is exciting and daunting for nearly every industry. 

Live Nation, a global leader in live entertainment, expects an increase in event attendance this summer and “a blockbuster summer 2022,” as concerts and tours resume full force. 

STR and Tourism Economics recently upgraded their hotel occupancy forecast for 2022 to 63.8%, compared to a 57.6% forecast in 2021.

All signs point to a flood of travel, shopping and recreational activity for a busy season that’s already shaping up. 

And since these industries had to reduce staff in order to survive the pandemic, they’re now scrambling to hire to meet the increased demand – especially in their contact centers.

Hiring and training new agents is a slow process, however. The shift to remote work has expanded where contact centers recruit from and made it more competitive. 

Matt Magnuson, VP of Call Centers at Extended Stay America, says, “If you talk to most contact center leaders, they’re expanding their geos. Even folks that are staffing or recruiting domestic call centers where they might have just had a small geographical area, now that’s expanded.”

The result of short-staffed contact centers is long hold times that remind you of the early days of the pandemic.

Customer service leaders need to get ahead of this increasing customer demand and the continued unpredictability over the next year. 

Rather than hiring thousands of agents, increasing overtime, and outsourcing, the most savvy leaders are leaning heavily into Contact Center Automation and customer self-service during this time. 

To prevent their contact centers from getting flooded by calls, texts, and chats, they’re using automation to efficiently scale and achieve the elasticity that’s needed to easily conquer any surges in request volume, across any channel.

Contact Center Automation gives contact centers the power to quickly and efficiently scale up and down, no matter their agent headcount or inbound volume

It is the process of using artificial intelligence (AI) to scale customer service up and down based on customer demand, without ballooning costs, training new agents, offshoring, or planning for seasonal fluctuations.

Contact Center Automation answers every request immediately — no matter the time, channel or language. It eliminates wait times, engages in humanlike contextual conversations, and solves over 90% of tier 1 issues. 

This improves customer satisfaction and leaves human agents free to handle issues that require empathy or complex resolution.

You’ll be ready to handle any surge in request volume by just turning your automation on. There’s no need to give a heads up to the vendor. Contact Center Automation can automatically scale without any delay to help contact centers navigate unpredictability and unanticipated call spikes.

Contact Center Automation also gives you an additional “workforce” at a much lower cost than outsourcing or hiring, which is particularly helpful for contact centers that need to scale on a reduced budget. 

You only pay for what you use, creating elasticity and predictability in your costs. When call volumes are low, your automation capacity contracts to save you from paying for more agents than needed.

How automation can be applied to your call flows

For travel, hospitality, and insurance companies, all inbound requests from customers needing to verify or rebook their ticket, or file a claim or travel notice, could be handled by automation. 

There’s no need to loop in a human agent unless it’s a complicated situation or issue, in which case automation can intelligently escalate the request to an agent with guided tools that make the agents’ job even easier.

Hotels and airlines can leverage Contact Center Automation to resolve calls about reservations, ticketing, and FAQs that many customers will expect to be answered accurately and quickly. These types of high-volume, transactional issues can easily be handled by automation. 

A hybrid automation and agent customer service model gives contact centers a level of agility, flexibility, and scalability they’ve never had before. With the flood of travel and recreational demand that’s expected to happen in Summer 2022, and consumers that expect fast customer service, now is the time to adopt Contact Center Automation for your agents and customers.

Learn more about how Contact Center Automation can help your business navigate summer spikes.

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At first glance, business process outsourcing (BPO) can seem like the holy grail for an overwhelmed and overworked contact center. The idea of routing an overflow of customer calls to a third-party vendor to provide some relief and shorten initial hold times can be very appealing; however, there are some major customer satisfaction considerations to keep in mind when choosing a call center service provider.

A study by Forbes explains why organizations opt for BPO solutions. Reasons include perceived cost-effectiveness, improved follow-up, better monitoring capabilities, and flexibility. Business owners often feel that call center outsourcing companies are the only way to maintain great customer service, whether it’s due to financial difficulties, a lack of experience, or a shortage of employees.

However, when BPO contracts don’t fulfill the need for automation, the costs can quickly outweigh the benefits. In fact, according to Gartner, “Finance and accounting organizations will not renew 60% of their existing business process outsourcing contracts by 2025 because of outdated pricing models that do not drive digitization and process improvement.”

The Problem With BPOs

Although the idea of BPOs seems to be a good one, contact centers have faced many challenges with long-term implementation. Here are some of the common disadvantages:

• High Turnover. Like most contact centers, those third-party vendors who offer BPO services are struggling with high turnover rates. As a result, training needs to be nearly continuous for customer service representatives to have the knowledge to answer inquiries correctly and efficiently.
• Overseas Challenges. One way many BPOs reduce costs is by using overseas representatives who demand lower wages. Language and cultural barriers can add to customer frustration.
• Training Costs. Since BPOs are not going to have an intimate understanding of a company’s products and services, the ramp-up time to ensure that representatives are well-trained can be extensive.
• Increased Frustration. While well-trained third-party vendors can be an asset to an organization, those that are not could potentially add to customer frustration and reduce service levels, potentially harming your company’s brand and image.

Overcoming Issues With Call Center Automation

Instead of relying on BPO solutions, companies may want to explore automated call center solutions instead. Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) technology from Replicant can be a cost-effective and reliable way for contact centers to manage overflow to all aspects of their function. Reach out for more information.

Here are some benefits of successful call center management:

• Immediate Resolution of Tier One Requests. Simple customer inquiries can be automated through dialogue management, eliminating hold times.
• More Interesting Workload. By offloading routine questions to conversational AI, call center agents will be more available to take care of interactive, complex requests that make their jobs more interesting.
• Improved Customer Satisfaction. Studies show that conversational AI technology boosts customer satisfaction scores.
• Continuous Learning. Replicant’s AI intent recognition solution “learns” as it responds to customer inquiries, fine-tuning its ability to provide even better responses as time goes on.
• Better Analytics. Having an automated AI intent recognition system allows contact centers to collect more data about the types of calls, customers, and inquiries the center is receiving, leading to improved processes, products and services. Many call center outsourcing companies do not offer these types of analytics.

What Contact Center Automation is Not

With so much new technology available, it’s important to understand what contact center automation is, and what it is not. Contact center automation is NOT:

• Just a Chatbot. While chatbots are popular today, contact center automation covers multiple touchpoints including phone calls, text messages, and emails in addition to online chats.
• A CCaaS Replacement. Replicant’s solution is designed to integrate into existing platforms so that agents can continue to use the technology they’re accustomed to.
• A Rip and Replace Solution. Finally, contact center automation boosts any contact center’s service, regardless of its current technology.

Why Do Companies Choose Replicant For Call Center Outsourcing?

Whether your company is struggling with temporary or seasonal hiring or expenses associated with BPO, Replicant offers automated call center outsourcing. By automating Tier One requests, companies can provide customers with quick resolution at any time through whatever communication channel they prefer.

Alternatives to Call Center Outsourcing Companies

Replicant is a smart alternative to traditional call center outsourcing companies. Our solutions have been shown to drastically improve contact center performance. Learn more about Replicant’s contact center and CRM integrations today. Our team is ready to answer any questions you may have.

The post Call Center Outsourcing Companies: Why to Choose Replicant over BPOs appeared first on Replicant.

Successful contact center management or call center management is essential for any business or organization – and the quicker your customer service is, the better. However, according to a survey by Businesswire, most organizations lack the prompt response customers are looking for.

The average customer service wait time tends to be nearly 20 minutes; 62% of survey participants said they’d waited longer than 10 minutes and 23% had waited for a half-hour or longer. The article goes on to say that customers’ biggest fear is going back to the start. “Americans are frustrated by inefficient customer service that wastes time,” it reads. When asked to name their top three customer service frustrations, 68% selected “getting disconnected and having to start over”.

If you’re in charge of developing or improving your organization’s customer service, you’ll want to figure out which type of contact center fits your business best. But first, you’ll want to understand the differences.

What is the Difference Between Contact Centers and Call Centers?

Though the terms “contact center” and “call center” are sometimes used interchangeably, they’re actually not the same thing. They both handle customer interaction; however, call center solutions only communicate through phone calls while a contact center uses a variety of communication channels including messaging, texts, emails, and social media.

Contact Centers Key to Customer Relationships

According to an article in Forbes, a contact center is often the first and only interaction an organization has with a customer. “Rather than viewing the contact center as a cost center, brands need to start viewing it as an opportunity for technology investments that drive a more intimate relationship with customers and competitive differentiation,” the article continues.

By thinking of contact centers as a direct and ready connection to prospects and customers, companies will change their perception of this important function. Businesses that invest in automation technology can transform contact centers into effective tools for building better  customer relationships. Not only can problems and complaints be resolved more quickly, but companies can capitalize on new opportunities as well.

Benefits of Contact and Call Centers

Both contact and call centers have advantages and disadvantages.

Contact centers tend to be more technologically advanced than call alternatives. Because contact centers are more data-driven, they are able to generate more analytics and insights than a call center. Conversations can be transcribed so that managers can understand why customers are reaching out.

On the other hand, call centers focus on simple dialogue management, essentially executing phone calls as quickly as possible. Talking on the phone is currently one of the most preferred communication methods within customer service, and it may not make financial sense for your organization to use a contact center.

How to Decide Between a Contact Center vs. a Call Center

Businesses must examine their individual situations in order to determine whether a call center or a contact center is the best solution for them.

If call volumes are high, you may want to choose a call center. They are most effective if:

• Additional data and statistics won’t help your team.
• You’re currently unable to afford the additional technology a contact center requires.
• You’d prefer to focus on automating call center processes rather than branching out into other modes of communication.

However, contact centers certainly have their benefits. Consider a contact center if:

• Your organization is financially able to create one.
• Data is necessary for improvements.
• Your customers are dissatisfied with phone calls as the only method of communication.

Regardless of the communication center you choose to implement, automating processes should be a priority. Both call and contact center employees tend to have more work than they’re able to handle. Automating basic requests frees the customer service team up so that they can handle more complicated problems on a timely basis.

Replicant’s Contact Center Automation Solution

Replicant’s intelligent virtual agent resolves customer service issues autonomously, improving your organization’s call or contact center. Contact our team to develop contact center innovation ideas and discover how Replicant can change the customer service experience at your organization.

The post What is a Contact Center vs a Call Center? appeared first on Replicant.

Contact centers are constantly evolving, and with new technology appearing every year, keeping up with current contact center automation technology can be challenging. According to a study by McKinsey, the pandemic caused extreme digital acceleration for many businesses; five years of progress were made in about eight weeks.

“Digital laggards will be substantially disadvantaged during the recovery,” the article continues. Changing customer preferences and the abundant advantages of technology point to an ever-increasing level of automation. As a result, understanding contact center trends is always crucial to staying ahead of competitors and developing a top-notch contact center.

According to Fortune, the U.S. is facing an intense labor shortage; more than 38 million people quit their jobs during 2021. This shortage is a key driving factor for finding effective, reliable call center automation solutions that can help take up some of the resulting slack.

What is Contact Center Automation?

Contact center automation has been an emerging category that uses technology to automate Tier One customer service conversations, resolving them fully without human intervention. It recognizes natural language, “learns” from answering queries, and can route more complex questions to experienced live agents who can address nuanced customer challenges.

What is the Difference Between a Call Center and a Contact Center?

Contact centers and call centers essentially differ in versatility – contact centers may cover any number of communication channels, while call centers focus only on the phone. When customers communicate through a call center, they must do so by means of a phone call. On the other hand, a contact center accepts any channel customers choose, whether it’s an SMS text, web chat, phone call, or video meeting.

What are the Most Important Things to Know About Contact Center Automation?

The aim for contact center automation should not be to replace agents or avoid customer interaction. Rather, it uses a hybrid approach to resolve basic service requests using whatever communication channel the customer prefers. Agent time is thus primarily centered on those customer support conversations that require creativity and empathy.

Essentially, call automation technology offers a cost-effective and infinite supply of 5-star agents to answer simple and repetitive customer requests. Companies save on customer service outsourcing, employee training, and salaries while equipping agents with higher productivity and engagement, resulting in true long-term agent retention.

What Contact Center Automation is Not

With many automated contact choices available, it’s important to avoid confusing contact center automation with other solutions. It’s not merely an agent assistant tool; rather, it’s designed to entirely resolve Tier One requests. It’s also not a rip-and-replace solution – instead of requiring a company to completely revamp its computer systems, it is designed to function regardless of current technology. Customizable to any contact center model, contact center automation integrates into every existing CCaaS and UCaaS platform.

What are Benefits of Contact Center Automation?

Contact center automation trends and strategies will deliver a number of benefits to companies that take advantage of it. Among these are lower costs due to reduced hiring and training expenses and improved customer retention. Another advantage is the automation’s scalability – with an unlimited capacity, it handles spikes flawlessly and drastically reduces outages commonly experienced with customer service outsourcing.

For contact centers that struggle with temporary or seasonal hiring, contact center automation provides a reliable staffing solution that offers a consistent, personalized experience for customers.

Finally, contact center automation delivers analytics covering actionable insights, such as customer engagement.

Try Replicant’s Solution

You can learn more about call center automation trends by contacting our team here at Replicant. Discover more about our intelligent virtual agent and what it can do for your business now and in the future.

The post Contact Center Automation Trends in 2022 appeared first on Replicant.

As customer service call centers have struggled with handling labor shortages, automating customer experiences through phone trees and interactive voice response (IVR) technologies, and dealing with increased volume and customer expectations, it has become harder than ever to obtain exceptional customer service levels.

Many customers today dread customer service call centers for fear of long hold times, cumbersome computer systems, endless transfers, unanswered questions, and unresolved problems. Businesses ready to tackle this problem are looking for cost-efficient and, more importantly, highly effective ways to resolve these problems and improve each and every customer interaction.

One of the most cost-effective methods of combating customer dissatisfaction and staggering hold times is through automating customer experiences. According to Forrester, “customers just want an accurate, relevant, and complete answer to their question upon first contact so they can get back to what they were doing before the issue arose.” 

How do you boost call center customer service?

In order to boost call center operations, organizations need to reduce hold times ideally to zero and provide fast resolution to customer questions and requests. Companies must offer a seamless experience over any channel, and they must request contact information, background explanations, and questions only once, even if customers need to be transferred.

What are some of the most effective call center solutions in 2022?

Replicant’s Thinking Machine can fully resolve Tier One customer requests quickly and with zero hold times. Understanding natural language, the Thinking Machine efficiently responds over any channel. This solution allows live agents to spend time resolving Tier Two and above customer requests. 

How does the Thinking Machine address The Great Resignation?

The Great Resignation has presented some unique challenges to today’s contact centers. They face staffing shortages and are struggling to attract and retain skilled representatives. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), IVRs, self-service, and other traditional contact center strategies come with many expenses and limitations, including poor customer satisfaction (CSAT) ratings.

Those contact centers looking to into automating customer experiences solutions have found the Thinking Machine to be effectively scalable to call volumes, providing unlimited service to any number of Tier One requests. Contact center automation offers dialogue management and full resolution of Tier One inquiries while resulting in massive operational and budgetary advantages.

How is conversational AI different from existing solutions?

While IVRs cannot fully resolve customer inquiries alone, conversational AI solutions can. By working with a skilled partner such as Replicant, companies can implement an out-of-the-box solution quickly and effectively that integrates with any customer relationship management platform.

Current solutions often result in customer frustration and lower CSAT scores; the Thinking Machine performs as well or better than human agents in resolving Tier One calls and is well received.

Finally, the Thinking Machine can actually improve employee morale and loyalty as it offloads repetitive calls to the automated solution, freeing agents to handle higher level, more challenging requests and questions.

Our Call Center Solution

If you’re looking for ways to boost customer satisfaction within your call center operations, check out the Replicant Thinking Machine. Our conversational AI system understands natural language processing, improves and learns over time, and offers analytics and data for successful call center management.

The post How to Boost Customer Service in a Call Center appeared first on Replicant.

As the labor shortages continue throughout the business world, call center outsourcing is a big topic of discussion for many contact center executives today. Although some may choose to turn to traditional solutions such as business process outsourcing (BPO) or legacy technologies like interactive voice response (IVR), others may want to explore some contact center innovation ideas such as conversational AI.

Executives are looking for call center solutions that no longer depend on human agents as heavily, especially for Tier One questions and inquiries. They want solutions that can easily scale up and down with unpredictable volumes while providing added value at a cost-effective price.

Automation technologies such as machine learning, natural language understanding, and intelligent virtual agents are growing in popularity as customer service climbs to one of the top fields for high attrition rates. According to one recent study, 45 percent of surveyed customer service agents are considering quitting within a year.

What is call center outsourcing?

Call center outsourcing, also referred to as BPO, is the process of hiring a third-party vendor to provide supplemental staffing for contact centers. Many of these are offshore solutions and can be the most expensive method for adding talent as they have high training costs and attrition rates. They may lead to poor customer satisfaction and damage to a brand’s reputation.

What are some trends for call center innovation in 2022?

Due to the fact that many existing solutions such BPO, IVR, and other legacy-based systems have many shortcomings and weaknesses, contact center automation and conversational AI adoption are surfacing as successful call center management solutions in 2022. Machine-based learning and natural language processing systems can resolve Tier One requests faster with zero hold times.

What are common BPO disadvantages?

While contact center outsourcing providers add staff, they don’t have unlimited capacities. Often, high premiums are charged once a certain number of live agents are taking calls for a single customer. BPOs frequently require exorbitant training cycles that can take weeks to months, and they can require rigid contracts that don’t take into account seasonality or agent off-time.

A/B testing in a BPO environment is often not feasible, which limits the vendor’s ability to pivot quickly when key metrics are lagging. Compared with the agile capabilities of point-and-click AI solutions, BPO systems are slow to change. In addition, BPOs are also experiencing high attrition rates, as employees flock to gig economy jobs.

How can conversational AI solutions solve these problems?

Since conversational IVR solutions are driven by sophisticated machine learning technology, they can be trained once on a particular company’s call center protocols and product and service lines. Furthermore, as the AI-driven solution takes calls, it learns more about inquiries, customer intents, and brand details, making it more effective as time goes on. No knowledge is lost when someone decides to resign.

Because conversational AI can detect multiple customer intents, it is capable of sophisticated dialogue management, resolving Tier One inquiries immediately with no hold times. Any particularly complex questions can be intelligently routed to the correct live agent along with the information that has already been gathered to eliminate customers needing to repeat their requests.

Conversational AI provides a consistent customer experience that represents a company’s brand the same way every time and frequently improves customer satisfaction. For instance, Replicant’s Thinking Machine solution delivers average CSAT scores that are equal to or better than human agents.

What additional advantages does conversational AI solutions deliver?

Unfortunately, BPO solutions do not provide the data that contact centers need to improve performance. Conversational AI, on the other hand, delivers deep analytics that go beyond the traditional ones, providing contact center leaders with insight into new call flows to automate as well as more information about call types and patterns.

Our Solution

If you’re evaluating remote call center solutions, learn more about Replicant’s intelligent virtual agent offering. It was created with the latest machine learning technology and offers an efficient customer service solution. Our conversational AI system understands natural language processing, improves and learns over time, and offers analytics and data to help improve call center customer service.

The post Call Center Customer Service Outsourcing Defined appeared first on Replicant.

As businesses dive deeper into 2022, many may be re-evaluating call center operations and searching for customer service outsourcing options. The tight labor market appears to be an ongoing problem with The Great Resignation showing no signs of slowing down. 

Current solutions seem to be addressing only part of the problem while, at the same time, introducing additional challenges and higher costs into the equation. Organizations need to find a customer service solution that can not only address current difficulties but be nimble enough to adjust to future unpredictable call center volumes.

What is customer service outsourcing?

Customer service outsourcing is the process of using a third-party provider or solution to manage all or some designated portion of the customer service call volume. This often refers to handling overflow calls during peak periods and is frequently done by offshore providers to reduce costs.

What are some of the best remote call center solutions in 2022?

Although self-service, business process outsourcing, and offshore providers are traditional methods of customer service, they are not ideal. Contact center automation that uses conversational AI can fully resolves Tier One issues over any channel without human intervention, making it one of the most cost-effective call center solutions.

What are the shortfalls of current remote call center solutions?

While seasonal hiring and business process operations solutions are conventional solutions, they don’t always equate to lower handle and queue times or higher customer satisfaction scores. More often, they can result in cost overruns, wasted training efforts, and harm to a brand’s promise.

Businesses may rely on past key performance indicators that no longer hold to forecast immediate or future hiring needs, making it difficult to match service levels to current requirements. That can mean paying agents to only be available. Sunk training costs can be high if call center representatives leave within a year or two.

Those companies that still use legacy solutions such as interactive voice response, self-service deflections, and agent assist solutions are well aware of customer dissatisfaction. Rigid menus, lengthy hold times, never-ending transfers, and recurrent requests for the same information lead to frustration.

Why conversational AI solves these existing problems

Call center workforce management software using conversational AI immediately addresses both short- and long-term issues. Pandemic-related staffing and volume challenges continue to be unpredictable, but this is why conversational AI is so revolutionary– it can scale to virtually any level of demand, immediately easing call center stress. Hold times are eliminated and customer satisfaction is immediately improved.

Given that unpredictability is the only predictable scenario for the future, conversational AI solutions are the best safeguard against call center challenges of tomorrow.

A Better Customer Service Outsourcing Solution

Learn more about our customer service automation. We use the latest machine learning technology to build a conversational AI system that offers dialogue management, improves and learns over time, and offers analytics and data to help improve call center customer service.

The post Choosing the Best Customer Service Outsourcing in 2022 appeared first on Replicant.

As workers around the country re-evaluate what their work life should look like, the Great Resignation continues. According to Fortune, “the number of American workers quitting their jobs hit record highs in November [2022], with 4.5 million people walking off the job.” Remote call centers are feeling the effects as some studies indicated up to 40% of customer service representatives were expected to leave their jobs last year. 

These alarming statistics should prompt the exploration of solutions that will not only help handle the extra call volume but also improve the ability to address more complex inquiries without human interaction. Machine learning conversational AI is one answer as such technology can easily handle natural language inquiries and dialogue management.

How has the Great Resignation affected call center operations?

Remote call centers have struggled as employees reconsider the definition of meaningful work in their lives. This has caused new, unforeseen, and unplanned call center workforce management issues as well as made recruitment of new employees and retainment of existing ones even more difficult. According to Gartner, only one in three customer service representatives are engaged, with disengaged staff 84 percent more likely to look for a new job.

What are some of the most effective call center solutions in 2022?

Although self-service is one solution, it tends to try to deflect calls away from call centers and often does not resolve customer service issues completely. Machine learning conversational AI like Replicant’s Thinking Machine is the best solution, which fully resolves issues over any channel by using accurate, fast, and natural conversation.

Why are current solutions failing to address this problem?

By examining results associated with traditional solutions, it’s clear that they are not solving long-term staffing issues. Seasonal hiring and business process operations solutions don’t necessarily guarantee lower handle times or improved customer satisfaction and can lead to cost overruns, inefficient training, and damage to a brand’s reputation.

Legacy solutions such as interactive voice response, self-service deflections, and agent assist solutions often force customers to stay on rigid menus, deal with lengthy hold times only to be deflected elsewhere, and frequently repeat their requests at each change of system or agent. Around 56 percent of consumers report that automated telephone systems are the most frustrating part of the customer service experience.

How does automation solve these employee turnover problems?

Machine learning conversational AI not only solves short-term pandemic-related problems, but it immediately eases remote call center strain and stress. By eliminating hold times and improving customer satisfaction, conversational AI solutions safeguard against future unpredictability and protects the brand’s reputation. Out-of-the-box solutions like our Thinking Machine can help call centers automate quickly and realize return on investment in a very short period of time.

In addition, shifting Tier One level calls to a conversational AI solution means that the most monotonous calls and activities are no longer burdens for customer service representatives. Instead, these employees can be more challenged with higher level inquiries, making their jobs more fulfilling and rewarding.

Replicant’s Solution

If you are responsible for the remote call center at your business, learn more about Replicant’s conversational IVR solution now. It was created with the latest machine learning technology and offers an efficient customer service solution. Our conversational AI system understands natural language processing, improves and learns over time, and offers analytics and data to help improve call center customer service.

The post The Great Resignation – Remote Call Center Solutions in 2022 appeared first on Replicant.

Interactive voice response (IVR) is a common technology that has been used for more efficient customer service, dating back to the 1970s. According to the IBM Learning Center, IVR is “an automated telephone system that combines pre-recorded messages or text-to-speech technology with a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) interface to engage callers, allowing them to provide and access information without a live agent.”

If the system is not able to provide the right information, IVR can help route callers to a live agent for further assistance. When the technology was first introduced, it was a solid way to integrate computer and telephony technologies in order to begin streamlining the flow of calls, decrease caller wait times, and boost customer satisfaction.

However, as machine learning technologies became more advanced, IVR solutions tended to frustrate customers more than please them. Five years ago, an article in Forbes explored the role of IVR in the digital era. The article explained that IVR initially served as a barrier between customers and customer service representatives to reduce call center volume. “For a predigital enterprise, call centers are simply cost centers, and every second a call center representative is on the phone is money down the drain,” the article said. However, today, digital enterprises must use every interaction, including calls, to delight customers and make a positive impression. Conversational IVR the new solution.

What is call center outsourcing?

Call center outsourcing is a common strategy that is frequently used by contact centers that want efficient customer service. The idea is to leverage a third-party company to assist with customer service calls. These third-party organizations are often offshore and may be engaged to handle overflow or a specific type of customer service phone call. The idea is to create efficient customer service.

What are the pros and cons of old-school IVR?

Older IVR’s do provide operational benefits such as lowered call volumes and accurate call routing. However, they can negatively impact customer satisfaction and loyalty because they can be somewhat clunky, require the customer to repeat themselves, and cannot understand multiple  customer intents if they are said in the same sentence. Conversational IVR, on the other hand, can fully resolve issues while also having the ability to intelligently route or escalate calls that require an agent.

What are the benefits of new conversational IVR for efficient customer service?

Conversational IVR creates a more efficient customer service solution. New, machine learning technology like Replicant’s Thinking Machine gives call centers the ability to fully resolve customer service calls without staffing additional live agents. It is unlimitedly scalable, making it an excellent choice for call centers that have variable volumes. It is available 24/7 and delivers zero hold times, which contributes to delighted, long-term, loyal customers.

What’s the best first contact with a customer?

Today, customer expectations are extremely high. They want efficient customer service. They need their question answered and their problems solved as quickly as possible. Call centers that can deliver that level of customer service will make customers happy and foster long-term loyalty.

Customers expect their first touch in a service call to be productive. Old IVRs often cannot quickly authenticate customer accounts, answer questions completely, or speak naturally with a customer. Conversational AI, on the other hand, is less rigid and can be customized and edited by contact centers within seconds. Conversational AI goes beyond outdated IVRs, fully resolving customer calls with zero hold times, anytime and any day.

Replicant’s IVR Solution

Learn more about Replicant’s conversational IVR solution. It was created with machine learning technology and offers an efficient customer service solution. Our conversational AI system understands natural language processing, improves and learns over time, and offers analytics and data to help improve call center customer service.

The post IVR Made Customer Service Efficient – Machine Learning Is Next Level appeared first on Replicant.

Digital assistants are changing the future of customer service. Most people have encountered a basic digital assistant in a smartphone or desktop. Business-to-business applications are also beginning to adopt digital assistants that can sift through myriads of data to help companies make more relevant business decisions.

According to Gartner, this technology is expected to continue to develop in the next few years to become advanced virtual assistants that can “process human inputs to deliver predictions and decisions. They are powered by a combination of conversational user interface, natural language processing (NLP), and semantic and deep learning techniques such as deep neural networks (DNNs), prediction models, decision support and personalization.”

Although basic digital assistants have played a role in customer service for years, digital assistants using AI-powered conversational IVR  (interactive voice response) technology promise to change the future of customer service.

What is call center outsourcing?

Call centers throughout the world handle both inbound and outbound phone calls with customers and prospects. Call center outsourcing takes place when an organization decides to use an outside vendor, usually offshore, to manage some or all of these calls.

What are the benefits of conversational IVR for call centers?

Conversational IVR uses artificial intelligence to handle Tier One incoming customer service calls. One of the main benefits is that the service can be available around the clock with no hold times for the caller. Learning solutions like Replicant’s Thinking Machine can handle common inquiries and understand customer intent without involving live agents. 

What’s the difference between basic digital assistants and conversational AI solutions?

In customer service, basic digital assistants traditionally can help customers get to the self-service channel that can resolve a specific issue, which may be a webpage, app, or in-person assistance. Conversational AI holds an ongoing and unlimited conversation that can fully resolve the issues themselves, not just deflect or re-route the customer. Conversational AI is more powerful than basic digital assistants or outdated interactive voice response (IVR) technologies.

How does conversational IVR go beyond the typical digital assistant?

Not only can an advanced digital assistant use conversational AI technology to resolve Tier One customer service questions completely, it can route complex inquiries to the right experts within your organization. Quickly reveal unsupported flows in your contact center and instantly edit scripts to improve these flows.

Conversational IVR operates in any layer of your contact center, replacing the need to outsource or acting as a virtual digital assistant agent to resolve calls. When it needs to escalate complex questions, it will intelligently hand these calls off with auto-generated authentication and call summaries to help the live agents pick up where the conversational IVR solution left off, eliminating the need for callers to repeat their questions and information.

Although Replicant is custom-built for customer service and typically requires little customization for the most common use cases, machine learning means that the system gets smarter after every call and becomes a more valuable asset to your call center over time.

The future of customer service with Replicant

Replicant’s conversational IVR solution is the future of customer service. Our conversational AI technology learns and understands natural language processing. It was created to improve and learn over time, and can be the advanced digital assistant that can change your company’s future.

The post A Digital Assistant is the Future of Customer Service appeared first on Replicant.

The past two years have pushed both customers and contact centers to their limits. Plans have changed, services have been disrupted, supply chains have lagged, and frustration has never been higher. 

It’s no surprise why running a contact center has never been more difficult than it is today. Workforce management challenges have become the new norm, from hiring, training, and retaining call center agents, along with staffing against unpredictable call volumes. But the CX industry is no stranger to obstacles, and despite the introduction of new challenges there’s no shortage of leaders who have risen to the occasion.

Here is our first annual (unranked) list of 50 customer service innovators and leaders that have managed to turn their obstacles into opportunities, reinventing what it means to be a great leader and delivering exceptional customer experiences despite today’s climate. From managing their teams through crisis, to pivoting tactics in record speed, to innovating with emerging technologies, these are the leaders transforming contact centers to look out for in 2022.

Jill Accardo, Office Depot
Vice President Customer Service and Order Management | LinkedIn

Sam Azar, Charter Communications
Vice President – Strategic Program Management – Call Center Technology | LinkedIn

Mike Bowman, ECSI
Director, Servicing Operations | LinkedIn

Kim Brebner, UPS
Vice President of GBS Strategy and Transformation | LinkedIn

Sherry Comes, Deloitte Consulting
Managing Director, Conversational AI & Contact Center AI Leader | LinkedIn

Michael Coster, Xenial
Supervisor, CRM & Data Analytics | LinkedIn

Hannah Day, Paramount Hospitality
Director of Revenue Management & CRO Operations | LinkedIn

David Douglas, AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah
VP, Member Experience| LinkedIn

James Gallagher, Nordstrom
Vice President, Customer Care & Fraud | LinkedIn

Shelly Griessel, Overstock.com
Vice President, Customer Care | LinkedIn

Bill Hackett, The General
Vice President of Contact Centers Strategy & Operations | LinkedIn

Jennifer Hanson, Target
Senior Director, Target.com Guest Services & GiftCard | LinkedIn

Linsay Hohmann, CSAA
Senior Vice President, Service | LinkedIn

Will Holloway, Western Union
Group Leader, Self Service and Omni-Channel Strategy | LinkedIn

Bill Hutchinson, Chewy
Chief Customer Care Officer | LinkedIn

Michael Ilfeld, Wells Fargo
SVP, Contact Center Strategy & Implementation Executive | LinkedIn

Nancy Jamison, Frost & Sullivan
Industry Director, Digital Transformation Practice | LinkedIn

Kalpesh Joshi, A3Ventures
Vice President, Innovation Lab | LinkedIn

Dilhara Kal, Princess Cruises
VP of Global Contact Center Sales & Operations | LinkedIn

Mark Killick, Instacart
Vice President, Care | LinkedIn

Suneel Kodeboyina, Citi
Head NAM Conversional AI and Contact Center Technology, Consumer Banking | LinkedIn

Val Kugathasan, ADP
Director, Innovation, BPI & Analytics | LinkedIn

Sohail Lalani, Bank of America
Senior Vice President – Contact Center Technologies | LinkedIn

Donna Loffert, Frontier Communications
Vice President of Call Center Operations & Customer Experience | LinkedIn

Matt Magnuson, Extended Stay America
VP, Call Centers | LinkedIn

Klarissa Marenitch, Hippo Insurance
Chief Information Officer | LinkedIn

Marcos Martins de Souza, Ally
Executive Director – Head of AI and Advanced Analytics | LinkedIn

Brien Mikell, Love’s
Director of Customer Engagement and Contact Center Operations | LinkedIn

Ben Morgan, Hawaiian Telcom
VP, Customer Operations | LinkedIn

Donna Neale, Lowe’s
Vice President Contact Center Operations | LinkedIn

Stacie Parrish, Equifax
Vice President of Global Consumer Care | LinkedIn

Becky Ploeger, Hilton
Global Head of Hilton Reservations and Customer Care | LinkedIn

Lori Pon, The Auto Club Group
Director, Claim Contact Center and Claim Handling Unit | LinkedIn

Donald Rice, Wells Fargo
Leader of Call Center Call Management | LinkedIn

Lisa Rivier, AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah
Senior Director, Operations & Strategy | LinkedIn

Vincent Ruggiero, Kohl’s
BPO Director | LinkedIn

Mario Saraceno, Travelers
Vice President – Collaboration and Workspace Engineering / Contact Center Technology | LinkedIn

Jalal Shawwa, Ascension
Vice President of Contact Center Operations, Patient Access and Navigation | LinkedIn

Tim Stacey, LendingTree
Vice President, Contact Center Operations | LinkedIn

Herry Stallings, Best Buy Health
VP, Care Center Technology | LinkedIn

Alvin Stokes, SmileDirectClub
Chief Customer Contact Officer | LinkedIn

Brian Stout, MetLife
Senior Vice President, Head of Global Customer Care | LinkedIn

Dale Sturgill, Memorial Hermann Health System
Vice-President of Contact Center Strategy | LinkedIn

Craig Sultan, The Home Depot
Director, Product Management, Contact Center Capabilities | LinkedIn

Brian Syamken, USAA
VP – CTO Contact Center Technologies | LinkedIn

Tim Tarantello, Orkin
Managing Director, Orkin Customer Contact Centers | LinkedIn

Jayant Thomas, Change Healthcare
Senior Director AI/Machine Learning Engineering | LinkedIn

Jeffrey Walker, American Express
Vice President, Global Contact Center Technology | LinkedIn

Ron Wetzel, Sedgwick
Senior Vice President, National Contact Center Operations | LinkedIn

Ramie Word, Mr. Cooper
SVP Customer Care & Client Delivery | LinkedIn

Monterio Woodson, Cox Enterprises
Assistant Vice President, Intelligent Automation (IA) Shared Services | LinkedIn

View the press release here.

Congratulations to all of the exceptional leaders on this list. The next generation of customer service is being pioneered by bold leaders like these and we can’t wait to see what great innovations, strategies and tactics unfold in the coming year. 

It’s also noteworthy to extend an honorable mention to the frontline customer service agents and representatives that have kept this industry afloat by getting the hard work done day in and day out. All customer-facing professionals deserve a virtual round of applause. 

When it comes to continuous innovation, the venture is never over. There’s always a new technique or technology to identify, experiment, and implement as the modern customer continues to change. Check out our resources and blog pages for all things contact center optimization, and connect with us on LinkedIn or Twitter to stay up to date with Replicant. Until next year’s Customer Service Innovators 2023 list.

The Replicant Team

The post Customer Service Innovators 2022: 50 Leaders Transforming Contact Centers appeared first on Replicant.

As businesses look for call center outsourcing solutions, it’s easy to understand why call center customer service is a major concern for their organization. After all, when a customer calls with a question, complaint, or request, that’s an opportunity to fulfill a concrete need—or a chance to foster frustration.

According to Customer Contact Week Digital, three-fourths of all surveyed companies ranked first contact resolution and customer satisfaction as the most important metrics to their organization. The future of customer service will rest on how effectively and efficiently contact centers can resolve customer calls. Our Thinking Machine promises to play a role in helping businesses do just that.

What is call center outsourcing?

Call center outsourcing is a strategy used by a company’s contact center to manage some or all of its inbound customer service calls. Third-party vendors, often offshore, may handle a specific portion, a particular type, an allotted overflow, or even all incoming client calls.

What are the benefits of conversational AI vs. call center outsourcing?

Conversational AI (artificial intelligence) is the future of customer service. Instead of call center outsourcing, AI technology allows businesses to:

• Fully resolve common issues without having to staff live agents.
• Handle first-tier inquiries and questions with no human intervention.
• Easily scale up.
• Give customers 24/7 access to customer service agents with zero hold times.

Will AI technology satisfy customers?

When it comes to call center technology, the most important question is how customers perceive the solution. According to Hubspot, more than half of all people in all age groups still prefer to use the phone for customer service inquiries. Conversational AI solutions like Replicant’s Thinking Machine allow customers to use their preferred channel of communication to fully resolve issues without having to wait for a live agent or navigate frustrating, rigid interactive voice response (IVR) systems.

Conversational AI offers the most advanced human-to-machine conversations available today. Interactions are lightning fast, accurate and, most importantly, don’t require customers to repeat themselves.

In addition, the longer a conversational AI system works with your organization, the smarter they get. Using machine learning technology, conversational AI can begin to recognize customer intents, recognize patterns in queries, and even deliver analytics to help a company improve its products and services.

As a result, conversational AI has proven to drastically increase customer satisfaction scores while optimizing their call center operations as a whole.

Natural, free-flowing conversations.

The Thinking Machine begins by inviting free-flowing conversations with customers, similar to online chatbots. Over time, it can bring to the surface unsupported flows in your contact center’s processes as well as allow you to instantly edit scripts for improvement.

Conversational AI can sit in any layer of your contact center, replacing IVRs or acting as a virtual agent to resolve calls. It can also intelligently handoff escalations with auto-generated authentication and call summaries to help live agents resolve more complex questions or inquiries.

Finally, a solution like this allows contact centers to obtain deep, granular insights into their conversation data to fuel call center, product, and service improvements over time.

Replicant’s Call Center Outsourcing Solution

Replicant’s conversational AI solution offers natural language processing capabilities, allowing the system to detect multiple customer intents and help your business quickly answer questions and resolve issues. Learn more about how Replicant can serve the needs of your call center.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) and interactive voice response (IVR) is changing the way that businesses are approaching customer service. The best customer service AI solutions are answering calls faster, responding to requests quicker, and offering an enhanced customer experience.

Call center customer service is an invaluable part of a successful business. It is frequently one of the top ways customers evaluate the company’s performance. According to Forbes, “The customer support call is one of the most important customer and employee interactions in nearly all companies and yet it is one most often characterized by mutual distrust and dissatisfaction. This needs to change.”

In order to change, call centers must embrace new technologies that:

• reduce wait times, 
• scale more efficiently, 
• answer Tier One calls immediately, and 
• route complex inquiries in a manner that does not require the caller to repeat questions and information.

The future of customer service hinges on being able to deliver call resolution more quickly, correctly, and accurately than ever before. Conversational IVR is a great solution.

What is call center outsourcing?

A wide number of businesses run inbound or outbound call centers to connect with customers and prospects. Call center outsourcing is a strategy that leverages a third-party company to manage a specific group of calls. These are traditionally located offshore, but some are moving back to the U.S. This may include peak volumes, overflows, or even all inbound service inquiries.

What are the benefits of customer service AI for call centers?

Conversational customer service AI moves beyond typical interactive voice response, chatbots or robo-calling technologies by fully resolving customer service calls without the assistance of live agents, particularly with Tier One calls. Companies can quickly and easily scale conversational AI as needed, and service is provided around the clock with no wait times.

How does customer service AI reduce frustration for callers?

Customer service AI that uses conversational IVR is the only machine learning solution that speaks to customers naturally, quickly and aims to fully resolve issues–not just deflect or re-route customers to self-help resources. Callers no longer have to come up with the correct keywords to effectively communicate with an automated system. In addition, customers do not have to repeat themselves multiple times in order to get the answers and resolutions they need. All of these enhancements lead to positive call center customer service experiences. 

What happens after the call completion?

Customer service AI solutions from Replicant provide deep, granular insights into customer conversation data after every call. This means that the solution “learns” over time and can provide the contact center with the details that can help it improve its call flow and overall service. The more it learns, the better it works. It can even reveal unsupported flows in your contact center and allow you to instantly edit scripts to improve them. 

Replicant’s solution can also intelligently handoff escalations with auto-generated authentication and call summaries to help agents. Conversational AI gets smarter with every call and Replicant’s solution is custom-built for call center customer service, which means little customization is needed for the most common use cases.

Replicant’s Solution

Replicant has a conversational IVR solution that works. Our system understands natural language processing and customer intent, improves and learns over time, and can be a valuable addition to your organization. Get started now.

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When most people consider the future of customer service, they may imagine a combination of machine learning technologies that work with human agents. Although interactive voice response, robo-calling, and other existing technologies have made some inroads, the future lies in technology such as the Thinking Machine from Replicant, which is a conversational AI solution that can completely resolve Tier One customer calls and provide a higher level of sophisticated call center service.

According to Encyclopedia.com, the term “thinking machine” generically refers to computers that mimic human intelligence. The world relies on computers to process vast amounts of information and help us make a myriad of personal and professional decisions. “Every day millions of machines are fed with data, they learn new things, become better and smarter,” reported an article in Forbes.

What is Replicant’s Thinking Machine?

The Thinking Machine is the brain behind Replicant’s conversational AI solution. It works alongside customer service agents to answer incoming calls, make outbound calls, and handle Tier One issues without a human. It can also reveal customer information to agents and complete post-call tasks, like a digital assistant.

What is the future of customer service?

The future of customer service will be a combination of live agents working with conversational AI solutions. Tier One calls can be fully automated, providing immediate answers with zero hold times for a superior customer experience. More complex calls can then be directed to live agents for resolution, sent with a transcript of the conversation and account information so they know where to pick up.

What skills does the Thinking Machine have?

The Thinking Machine can understand multiple customer intents as well as requests to hold. It can be taught to understand accents, colloquialisms, and dozens of languages, and it can learn to sort through background noise. In addition, it can be fully trained to speak like your brand voice and use multiple models for higher accuracy. It’s trained specifically on customer service datasets and responds in less than one second between turns with a greater than 94 percent inference accuracy. Customer service departments that use this technology are able to scale up in weeks, not months or years, providing call centers the flexibility to easily handle peak seasons or extra volume when needed.

How does the Thinking Machine differ from other automation technologies?

This is not simply a robo-caller or a solution that only deflects calls to self-service options. Instead, it can fully resolve Tier One calls immediately, saving time for your customer and resources for your call center. When more complex calls come in, The Thinking Machine transfers those customers, with a transcript of the automated interaction, to a live agent.

It can work across multiple channels and integrates with all of the most common contact center software and customer relationships management systems. It accurately transcribes each conversation for agents and operational leaders to leverage in the future.

Try Replicant’s Solution

Our conversational AI system understands natural language processing and customer intent, improves and learns over time, and can be a valuable part of the future of customer service. Learn more about Replicant’s thinking machine now.

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Innovative customer service is what sets businesses apart. Every company strives for providing an excellent customer experience. As consumers, we all expect high levels of service in our world of immediate gratification.

However in reality, providing innovative customer service can be a significant challenge. Top customer service challenges include:

• the current labor shortage (with more than 65,000 call center jobs open),
• ebbs and flows in call center traffic, and
• the complexity of the organization itself.

Artificial intelligence technology has developed to a point where it can be leveraged as an innovative customer service solution. Using natural language processing, customers can ask a question as if they were talking to a human being. The best conversational AI solution will process the question and answer it correctly.

Replicant’s Thinking Machine can process different customer intents and questions more easily than other solutions. The longer it is a part of your call center, the more it “learns” what type of questions and requests come in. It teaches itself how to process questions better and respond to them in the best way.

What is excellent customer service?

The goal of excellent customer service is simple: eliminate hold times and resolve issues quickly. However, getting there can be a little more difficult. Conversational AI can help you move in the right direction and reduce handling times. Simple questions can be answered automatically, 24/7, while complex requests can be rapidly routed to the right person.

How does artificial intelligence improve customer service?

Artificial intelligence that uses natural language processing allows customers to speak naturally. It eliminates the need to repeat the same information. As the system “learns” typical caller requests, it will be able to answer more and more questions automatically, resolving customer service challenges with zero hold times.

The Importance of Data

Innovative customer service starts with data and, in the case of contact centers, that data comes from customer questions, requests, and conversations. Each customer conversation holds valuable information about what clients are most confused or concerned about, providing you with important nuggets of information to improve not only your call center but your entire product or service line.

Conversational AI can transcribe every conversation and automatically surface insights to show what your customers are asking, what trends are arising, and what your contact center must do to serve customers better.

The Importance of Time

Time is such a valued commodity for both your organization’s call center as well as for your customers who are reaching out. According to MarketWatch, the average American will spend  43 days on hold throughout their lifetime. 

AI technolgy is an innovative way to eliminate hold times. By automating all your Tier One requests, you can respond to common questions and inquiries quickly and efficiently, saving your customers and representatives valuable time. In addition, your agents will be free to focus their attention on more complex calls that will also be more interesting and challenging to address.

Some organizations falsely believe that the best way to find the right conversational AI solution is to create a customized one. However, this technology can be challenging to develop and maintain. Rely instead on a third-party partner who specializes in it.

Phone Calls Still Popular

Despite the growing popularity of text messaging, webchats, and other online communication methods, many people still prefer interacting by phone with customer service representatives. A recent report by FinancesOnline.com indicates that the majority of people still prefer voice contact for customer service requests.

AI technology is getting so human-like that it’s more and more difficult to decipher whether you are speaking with a computer or a person. Customers are willing to interact with a computerized system if that means reduced wait times and expedient answers.

Replicant’s Customer Service Solution

Replicant’sThinking Machine is a natural-language customer service solution. It was created to detect multiple customer intents and quickly resolve consumer issues. Businesses that employ this innovative customer service technology find it easy to scale up or down quickly. See how conversational AI can help your company grow.

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Utilizing the power of conversational AI is a better way to manage customer service interactions than traditional call center outsourcing. Managing a contact center effectively can be a significant challenge for businesses today. The customer experience is the most important thing to a successful company. The service customers get is a big influence on their experience.

As customer expectations are getting higher every moment, Conversational AI and machine learning are ways that companies can meet those rising expectations. Using technology is often much better than classic call center outsourcing solutions.

What is call center outsourcing?

Call center outsourcing is the process of hiring an outside, third-party company to either answer or place customer service calls. Such vendors are often located offshore to reduce costs and frequently serve multiple businesses. Many offer services in several languages. 

What are the benefits of conversational AI for call centers?

Conversational AI offers elasticity, which allows businesses to automatically scale usage up or down as needed on a day-to-day basis. Organizations no longer need to pay for services they don’t require all the time, resulting in a cost-effective way to manage a contact center. This digital chatbot workforce can be trained once with no turnover concerns. See how Replicant Voice works.

The Five Ways

Here are the top five ways that conversational AI works better than call center outsourcing:

1. Elastic Customer Service. Conversational AI allows customer service capacity to automatically scale up and down with demand, meeting needs during peak times while not overcharging during slower periods. Organizations are essentially only paying for what they require, no more and no less.
2. Faster, Better Resolutions. By reducing the average handle time of each call, first-contact resolution is improved, providing an improved customer experience that feels more natural and human-like. This means that basic questions and requests are addressed immediately while machine learning technology routes more difficult questions to the right level of expertise within the organization.
3. Lower Costs. Compared with hiring full-time agents or engaging an outsourced contact center, conversational AI is much less expensive. Once the system is established, it can continue to “learn” from questions and responses, improving its performance over time.
4. Multi-Language Service. With the global nature of today’s market, businesses will want an easy way to add customer service in multiple languages. A recent report shows there are five key languages that are most often used around the globe including English, Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, and French. Diversity in language is more easily offered by technology vs. call center outsourcing.
5. More Control. The average call center has human turnover rates at 30 percent and 45 percent, the highest of any industry. Since conversational AI is an automated solution, your organization only needs to “train” the system once. Your business can easily remain in control of your contact center while increasing efficiency and reducing costs. Easily eliminate the need for constant hiring and training of new representatives.

Replicant’s Solution

Replicant’s Thinking Machine features natural language processing so that it can detect multiple customer intents, helping your company quickly resolve customer issues. Learn more about our call center conversational AI technology and how we can serve the needs of your contact center. 

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If your business is used to an open source, build-it-from-the-ground-up approach, building conversational AI may feel like a natural fit. But unlike common software solutions that are relatively straightforward to design and deploy, conversational AI is highly complex and requires continual retraining and maintenance to be successful. 

There are pros and cons to each approach. Here are a few key factors to consider when deciding whether to build or buy conversational AI for your contact center. 

The build approach

Building conversational AI is a time and resource-intensive endeavor that requires experts devoted to building, maintaining, and continually improving AI models. Most companies choose to leverage API platforms like Google Dialogflow or Amazon Lex when building from scratch to give them a head start. These platforms provide the framework for conversational AI at large, but lack pre-built customer service AI models that are trained on common and high-volume customer use cases.

What are the advantages of building your own conversational AI?

Building conversational AI in house can give you control over conversational design, model training and maintenance, and deployment. If you have AI experts in house, you can potentially build conversational AI that integrates with your current processes and fits your specific use cases. If you are already heavily invested in building AI and have the bandwidth to dedicate to managing large scope projects, it may be a viable path forward. But, the question you’ll need to ask is whether the ROI you can expect from your deployment pays off given the time, resources, and ongoing focus needed to ensure your conversational AI delivers exceptional customer experiences.

What are the disadvantages of a DIY approach?

Aside from the heavy internal lift needed to build deeply specialized conversational AI, the commitment doesn’t stop post-deployment. You’ll need to train, deploy, and manage AI models on an ongoing basis to keep them performing effectively. And the initial deployment alone can take months to years to roll out. It’s also contingent on your organization having the expertise and resources to prioritize it amongst competing innovation goals.

You’ll also have to consider your company’s ability to integrate conversational AI into the end user experience. This requires a deep understanding of conversational AI, how to A/B test flows to determine the most effective ones, the ability to analyze results with analytics to make sense of unstructured caller data, and the ability to monitor and review calls for your power users. Today, most organizations are scrambling to deliver better, faster, more efficient customer service experiences in order to compete, which means time is of the essence. They’re also feeling the pressure to hire and retain agents given recent hiring shortages and need ways to quickly scale service without having to wait and put more customers on hold. 

The Buy Approach

Many conversational AI partners provide a managed service, where they’ll take on the heavy lifting of customization and maintenance for you. But not every conversational AI solution is of equal quality. You’ll want to do your homework on the partners you consider to ensure their product and viability in the marketplace is sound. Look for leaders who particularly focus on the actual customer experience, and not just cost savings or other contact center KPIs. 

What are the advantages of buying conversational AI?

Buying conversational AI enables you to deploy a solution quickly and leverage experts who have gone through the implementation process multiple times. In conversational AI, experience counts. The right partner should result in minimal resources required internally and provide a dedicated team responsible for your long-term success. You should be able to take advantage of conversational AI design experts who are dedicated full-time to developing and enhancing your call center-specific AI experience, giving you peace of mind that your solution will keep pace and evolve as your needs do. 

Because they’re purpose-built for contact centers, most purchased solutions come 80% ready to deploy right out of the box. The work needed thereafter is focused on customizing call flows and integrations to your business–not creating conversational AI from scratch. Other benefits include built-in telephony, turnkey CRM integrations, advanced analytics, dashboards, and more to ensure fast and successful deployments. 

The disadvantages of buying vs. building…

…Start with the fact that the effectiveness of conversational AI depends on the partner. Look for solutions with a track record of success, with a secure and reliable platform that is HIPAA, PCI, SOC 2, and GDPR compliant, and express a commitment to partnering with you fully. Additionally, look for a solution that can handle enterprise level scale. This means providing high availability infrastructure that runs 24/7 with efficient load balancing across thousands of concurrent calls so that you scale effortlessly.

So, to build or to buy? 

The decision on whether to build or buy conversational AI will vary by organization. Here are some helpful guidelines to give you a starting point for candid internal conversations.