{"id":1366,"date":"2020-05-14T03:34:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T03:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.replicant.ai\/call-center-next-norm\/"},"modified":"2023-01-31T18:34:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T18:34:18","slug":"call-center-next-norm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.replicant.com\/blog\/call-center-next-norm\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the \u201cNext Normal\u201d for the Call Center?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

The world of February 2020, before COVID-19 became a global pandemic, no longer exists. No one knows exactly what a \u201cnew normal\u201d will look like, but we can predict the next<\/em> normal for the call center based on how the most successful companies are responding.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

AI helps cut costs and improve capacity as call centers downsize<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

COVID-19 caught many call centers flat-footed, unprepared for a sudden flood of calls and unable to train new agents fast enough to meet demand. According to an April survey<\/a> of 250 business leaders, 64% of call centers reported downsizing their operations in response to COVID-19 \u2014\u00a0even as customer issues increased. Call centers who were <\/em>able to temporarily boost capacity now find themselves overstaffed as customer service calls have leveled off.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Companies with existing investments in Voice AI, however, found themselves in a prime position. Unlike human agents, Voice AI offers elastic capacity \u2014 the ability to ramp up quickly in response to demand and scale back just as fast. Replicant\u2019s Voice Responder<\/a> can quickly scale from answering 10 calls an hour to answering 1,000, a pure ROI impossible for human call centers. Pre-coronavirus, one company with voice AI reported an ROI of $39 million<\/a> and a 30% reduction in misrouted calls, which means even more savings as call volumes increase due to the crisis. Some of the world\u2019s largest call centers, including Vodafone, Verizon, and AT&T, were already using Voice AI to reduce costs.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Leaders know that traditional call center layouts, which often require agents to sit near each other in open-office floor plans, put people at high risk for coronavirus \u2014\u00a0 as shown in South Korea, where one employee infected 97 other<\/a> in a single-floor call center. Remote call center operations, meanwhile, have difficulties of their own, including customer privacy concerns and legacy technology that makes remote work difficult. As call centers face higher demand than ever, Voice AI can step in and bridge the gap.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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