Improving first-contact resolution with AI and a closed loop approach

Resolving customer queries at first contact is a great brand differentiator, but hard to achieve. Simon Adnett at Enghouse Interactive describes how AI can be used to resolve customer queries while maximising problem resolution

 

The ability to deliver great customer service has become a real brand differentiator and a main driver behind customer loyalty. It’s simply no longer enough for businesses to offer a good product, as customers are increasingly demanding fast and effective interactions from every service they engage with.

 

The truth is poor customer service affects all aspects of a business. Long wait times, being constantly placed on hold, an automated system that makes it hard to reach a human agent and having to repeat information multiple times – all impact service quality and build up customer dissatisfaction.

 

This in turn can easily translate to an unhappy workforce, resulting in a high staff turnover and a negatively impacted bottom line.

 

In order to retain customers, and employees, organisations need to place a bigger focus on actively encouraging and listening to customer feedback and utilising the gathered insights during the decision-making processes.

 

On top of that, it’s time businesses find and implement robust and future-proofed solutions to help agents increase first-contact problem resolution. Here’s where adopting a closed loop approach and leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI) can help improve the customer experience (CX).

 

Elevating CX with a closed loop approach

A closed loop approach is a powerful tool for becoming a more customer-centric business and increasing first contact resolution (FCR). It is about thoroughly understanding why customers are feeling the way they are and then sharing this insight across the organisation so it can be integrated with action planning.

 

The principle behind a closed loop approach is to eliminate the need for customers to make multiple contacts to resolve their issues. Previous Enghouse Interactive research has highlighted a clear need for businesses to improve FCR: 58% of customers want their issues resolved quickly and efficiently.

 

Closing the loop offers a powerful strategy that can turn around negative opinions and boost customer satisfaction and retention as insight-sharing across the business clearly showcases an organisation values their customers’ time.

 

In addition, the approach increases team efficiency by reducing contact volumes and improving FCR which has proven links to gains in operational costs, churn and sales.

 

To realise the benefits of a closed loop approach, contact centre agents need training and support to help them understand why the customer is contacting them so they can deliver on their expectations. Agents should ensure they are listening and providing the right information to answer queries, thus offering a much more personalised service.

 

Leveraging AI for more actionable insights

On average, fewer than 5% of customer interactions are ever evaluated. With the vast majority of agent performances ignored, contact centres are missing out on valuable data and learning opportunities. Looking at how best to ensure insight-sharing across teams and developing actionable customer intelligence, organisations should inject their contact centres and CX teams with the right capabilities that will help them analyse the data from thousands of daily interactions across various channels.

 

Using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse customer calls enables organisations to feed information back into various touch points along the customer journey to facilitate future enquiries. For maximum benefit, AI implementation should focus on areas where it can add most value to the customer to resolve queries and also pre-empt them.

 

One key area where AI delivers as part of a closed loop approach is analysing email and digital conversations on contact centre platforms. This enables businesses to see why customers are happy or upset and use these learnings to improve aspects of their service. Another important application is to uncover new opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.

 

Closing the loop must apply across omnichannel interactions. From video calls and email to web chat and social media, today’s customers engage with brands in multiple ways, on multiple channels. A joined-up approach means there’s no need for them to repeat themselves when changing the channel.

 

With AI on hand to help, no interaction can slip through the cracks, saving teams a lot of time cross-referencing customer conversations.

 

Implementing AI doesn’t just help with the manual aspect of analytics and evaluations whereby it speeds up the detection of multiple themes and risks. It arms agents with valuable information on churn risk, emerging trends and opportunities that they can instantly use to deliver a positive outcome for a customer.

 

Higher FCR reduces customer frustrations and contributes to creating more engaged, efficient, empathetic advisors who can handle issues in a more decisive and timely manner.

 

The secret weapon

Closing the loop using AI-enabled tools is about having clear insight into feedback trends, taking action across the organisation and creating new opportunities for a first-class customer experience. Many customer issues span multiple teams but utilising collaborative tools to share the voice of the customer throughout the organisation can significantly help everyone understand, refine and improve customer experience.

 

By adopting a combination of customer service skills and new technologies, agents will be in a much better position to reduce call abandonment rates, successfully resolve issues the first time, and ultimately deepen customer loyalty.

 

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Simon Adnett is VP of Sales UK, Ireland & MEA at Enghouse Interactive

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com