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With all the advances in technology and with demands for better CX getting louder, 2020 will certainly be a pivotal year in the battle to end bad customer service. Customers are saying enough is enough. As we all know, with the advent of 2020 – Customer experience is the number 1 brand differentiator ahead of product and pricing, according to Walker Consulting. So, providing your customers a great experience is no longer a ‘good to have’, but it is critical to the survival of your brand.
In this battle for great CX, there are a few must-have tools: Conversational Artificial Intelligence and Automation. These are powerful tools in today’s digital era and are readily available to those who know how, when and why they can be leveraged. AI and automation are upending business verticals and changing the way we do business for good. What’s more, when you consider the continual reliance of voice as an interface, and combine that with AI and automation capabilities, you see how these factors can and will yield massive power to transform major industries.
There is virtually no industry sector today that is not being affected by the sweeping changes brought about by the Conversational AI and automation revolution underway. And the cry for support to address the challenges brought on by change is not subsiding. In fact, the need for new, platform-based approaches in order to solve challenges for both Enterprise support cost reduction and customer CX demands continues to grow. Let’s explore some of the industry verticals which are seeing these changes and at the same time share some common use cases.
Banking & Financial Services
Conversational AI and automation solutions can be implemented across retail banking, consumer credit, lending, and wealth management. Today technology-enabled, personalized financial apps are taking over the world of banking and financial services. AI-powered and automation-enabled solutions can help analyse customer conversations, provide customers with tailored products and services, understand customer grievances, create opportunities for upsell and cross-sell, and more. Further, Conversational Artificial Intelligence can help in wealth management, customer profile analysis, and automation of mundane and repetitive tasks. Conversational AI platform can also help in compliance and regulatory aspects of a financial organization. Fraud prevention is extremely important for financial institutions and again voice-based biometric solutions can come to the rescue.
Healthcare
Healthcare organizations around the world are automating repetitive agent tasks, introducing chatbots for customer interaction and augmenting agent capabilities thanks to Conversational AI and automation. It is possible to get enough context and background on any repeat customer calling, thanks to Conversational AI and automation working their magic. This is done by getting rid of silos and creating a comprehensive knowledge bank which contact center agents can access to offer a great customer experience. Conversational AI platforms are also helping healthcare companies in areas of claims processing and policy administration by analyzing conversations in real-time, enabling agents with real-time insights, and driving front office automation.
Insurance
The insurance industry has much to gain by deploying Conversational Artificial Intelligence and automation capabilities. The biggest differentiator between a good insurance company and a mediocre company is the level of service and personalization. A big portion of the query management in any insurance company can be automated using Conversational AI platform based chatbots. The claims handling time can also be drastically reduced thanks to AI and automation. Customer satisfaction can be improved by making it simpler for customers to understand confusing insurance terms. Conversational AI and automation can introduce virtual assistant apps with self-service capabilities. It can help improve the effectiveness of outbound calling for policy renewal and sales too.
Telecom
The telecom industry is another big beneficiary of the Conversational AI revolution. When you think about it, a real-time Conversational AI platform can help both with inbound and outbound calls. When it comes to outbound calls, AI can help in collections, sending various reminders to customers and delivering upsell opportunities. When it comes to inbound calls, it can help the telecom companies solve customer queries, familiarize customers with various plans, provide agents with vital inputs on customer real-intent, and even calculate ‘propensity to buy’ metrics in real-time to help in upselling. And of course, at the heart of all these increased opportunities is the opportunity to increase customer satisfaction and reinforce brand loyalty.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs)
The BPO industry often serves as the gateway or the front-end that customers connect with when they interact with a brand. That’s the reason the BPO industry holds such an important place in the customer service arena. Today, Conversational AI and automation solutions are making steady inroads into the BPO industry in order to understand the customer’s real-intent, analyze customer sentiment on the call, coach agents to better respond to customer queries and expectations and automate tasks to improve customer satisfaction. All this can help to understand the customers better and tailor-make customer experiences to every specific individual.
Retail and E-commerce
Retail and e-commerce continue to grow and expand rapidly, thanks to consumer’s penchant to buy from the comfort of their homes using digital technologies. AI powered chatbots have made a big difference to the e-commerce industry unlike any other industry. It can help consumers to go on a step by step journey of buying. The chatbots can introduce and lead consumers to various product lines, gauge customer hesitation/concerns, propensity to buy and know when exactly to hot transfer the call to a live agent. These chatbots can take consumers on a virtual tour of the product and provide a real-world shopping experience, thus making the contribution of Conversational AI to the domain of e-commerce unique.
Travel & Hospitality
Travel could be for business or pleasure and both have their unique set of needs. In both cases, it might mean multiple emails, visits to websites, communicating with the travel agents, airlines, hoteliers and lots more. Conversational AI and Automation can help bring all this onto a single platform to give consumers a unique experience. All the data can be assimilated from various consumer touchpoints, analytics can be deployed onto it to understand each customer’s unique needs. Based on this they can be given offers, discounts and unique travel experiences all thanks to the power of conversational AI and automation. Intelligent chatbots can interact with consumers, help them book travel tickets and hotel rooms, shorten the response times and provide real-time information.
These examples from a few verticals are only a small sample of what is possible. Likely, as you read the examples above, ideas came to mind about how Conversational AI and Automation can help you further your business. If now is the right time for you to take the lead in embracing Conversational AI and Automation to improve your customer service while reducing costs, reach out to us and we’ll engage to help.
Feel free to request a demo to learn how your brand can benefit from Conversational AI and Automation now.