Leading Telecommunications Company Slashes After-Call work and Average Handle Time to Streamline CX Operations

A woman is working at her computer with a wi-fi icon.

One of the world’s largest telecommunications providers needed to streamline their operations without compromising their focus on delivering superior CX. The goals were clear: reduce average handle time, number of repeat calls and time spent on repetitive manual tasks.

Uniphore’s U-Assist After-Call solution automated the call categorization and summary process that is typically required at the end of a call. This step alone was inflating average handle times (AHT) and artificially increasing staffing needs projections. By deploying Uniphore’s U-Assist After-Call solution, the company was able to dramatically increase operational efficiency,
creating consistency across all call summaries and reducing costs while simultaneously improving the agent and customer experience.

CHALLENGE

Call summarization was inconsistent, time-consuming and keeping agents off calls

The telecom leader operates multiple contact centers around the globe, staffed by approximately 40,000 agents who field millions of calls in hundreds of languages every year.

Despite having a sizeable and skilled staff, the company struggled with long average handle time, which often required additional agents to handle swollen call queues. After carefully reviewing its contact center processes, the company identified after-call work, specifically its call summarization process, as an opportunity for improvement. It found that its agents spent 50 seconds on average—nearly an entire minute—to write post-call summaries and categorize calls. To make matters worse, the summaries were often incomplete or inaccurate.

This lag in after-call work had a snowball effect: the more time agents spent completing after-call work, the less time they spent with customers. Even with thousands of agents available, average handle time was well above where it should be; and calling in reinforcements only added to rising staffing costs.

Conversational AI and Automation

Learn about a few of the top reasons why Uniphore is the best choice for AI-powered experiences

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SOLUTION

Automate summarization with conversational AI

The telecom leader realized that much of its aftercall work, including call summarization, could be automated. After considering several options, the company chose Uniphore’s U-Assist Aftercall solution due to the high accuracy of its conversational artificial intelligence (AI) engine; ease of integration with its existing software; and successful initial rollout.

With Uniphore, all call summaries are generated automatically. Instead of agents taking notes and completing post-call forms manually, U-Assist captures the relevant data during the call in real time and auto-populates forms with lightning-fast speed. Also, because it hears 100% of the conversation and doesn’t get distracted or confused, it’s less prone to making data entry errors than its human counterparts. In fact, in its initial rollout, Uniphore’s solution was able to achieve 80% call summary accuracy on 90% of calls.

Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) engine

Automated generation of call summaries

Real-time
analysis

Easy integration with the existing software

RESULTS

After-call work and average handle time slashed by double digits

In the initial rollout the telecom leader was able to reduce after-call work by an average of 15 seconds per agent, with future AHT projected to drop by 25 seconds. What’s more, the results were immediate: agents using the solution reaped the benefits of automation instantly and were able to return to the call queue faster than before.

0 %

reduction in after-call work

0 %+

call summary accuracy

By automating call summarization and backend data entry tasks, the solution reduced the need for agents to put repeat callers on hold in order to research prior calls. In fact, initial results
showed a 60-second reduction in average handle time. This faster speed of service not only met key customer satisfaction goals; it also allowed the company to better prioritize its staffing needs rather than simply overstaffing whenever call traffic surged.

Average of

0 seconds

cut from repeat calls

Additionally, with precision machines handling the notetaking and data entry tasks instead of
error-prone humans, the company saw its call summary accuracy improve by more than 80
percent. Together, with the reduction in after-call Work and average handle time, the company was able to save a significant amount of time, effort, and cost per call.

NEXT STEPS

Expand initial rollout and explore other areas for improvement

Based on the success of the initial rollout, the client is exploring other opportunities to improve
outcomes using U-Assist both during and after the call. Future considerations include:

“We were blown away by Uniphore’s advanced AI technology, which has allowed us to free up agent time and scale customer service. This gives our live agents the chance to focus on higher-touch interactions. With Uniphore, we estimate we’ll deflect 20% to 30% of calls to the contact center, making it easy to justify the investment.”

COMPANY

  • One of the largest telecommunication providers in the world by revenue
  • Fortune 20 company with a net worth of $213.13 billion
  • 40,000+ agents around the
    globe

USE CASE

After-Call Work (ACW) Automation and Summarization

GOALS

  • Cut call summary time and
    effort
  • Improve call summary
    accuracy and standardization
  • Reduce average handle time (AHT)
  • Provide consistent and
    concise summaries

SOLUTION

U-Assist After-Call

  • Call summary automation
  • Real-time speech transcription
  • After-call agent assistance

WHY UNIPHORE FOR CONVERSATIONAL AI AND AUTOMATION

Uniphore’s conversational AI and automation platform provides real-time guidance and actionable insights for customer-centric organizations. By combining conversational AI, knowledge AI, and emotion AI, Uniphore optimizes every conversation to deliver exceptional CX.

To learn more how Uniphore improves CX, drives agent productivity, and boosts operational efficiency, visit www.uniphore.com.

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