i-Service Initiative Autumn Meeting in Hamburg: Automation Takes Center Stage

Are Costs Driving Automation?

Contact and service centers currently face a dilemma: the overdue minimum wage increase is making staff more expensive, and the resulting cost increases have to be passed on to clients just to stay economically viable. Additional cost drivers include soaring energy prices and rising living costs, which are also being felt in the contact center.

One possible solution is near- and offshoring - outsourcing customer service to other European countries or even further afield - and demand for this is growing. But experience with this outsourcing strategy has been decidedly mixed in the past: supposedly cheaper customer service often comes at the cost of a noticeable drop in quality, and customer satisfaction suffers as a result.

Automation Is No Bargain-Basement Fix

The cost pressure mentioned above is also driving demand for greater automation of customer service through chatbot and voicebot solutions - ideally fully AI-based, as conversational AI that resolves all customer requests end to end.

But beware: companies that take on such projects purely for cost reasons are on the wrong track and risk failure. There are plenty of examples of this.

It's therefore worth analyzing in detail, right from the start, which customer service processes are fundamentally suitable for automation - and whether these previously analog workflows have actually been thought through. Poor analog processes lead to even worse digital ones. Companies also need to determine exactly how customers phrase their requests (intents) over the phone. Real calls can be recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for this purpose. Ultimately, an AI has to learn which terms are used in which context and how to interpret them. The more material available for training the AI, the better the results - and the higher customer satisfaction.

Urgent Recommendation: Ask the Experts

It pays off for companies to consult experts early in project planning, before good intentions turn into a dead-end project that ends up simply burning money. So arrange a meeting today with our automation expert Stefan Riesel on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stefan-riesel/ or write to stefan.riesel@crealog.com

Also take a look at his blog posts and the recording of his recent webinar as part of i-CEM's 17th Customer Experience Week:

Webinar Recording

Digitalization and Self-Service for Utility Companies

Spring Cleaning for Your VoiceBot