We have entered the era of AI-powered contact centers where customer engagement is shaped by intelligent and human-centric interactions. There is a lot of growing focus on embedding AI and GenAI into contact center design to make technology feel more human and allow agents to focus on more critical interactions, thereby enhancing customer experience.
Amidst the focus on customer experience as the focal point, there are parallel conversations from organizations to help them develop a contact center environment that’s proactive, value-driven and revenue-generating. Businesses are facing a crucial stage. There is an ever-increasing influx of customer interactions through various channels and on the other side, there are high levels of employee attrition and talent shortages that businesses need to deal with. At HCLTech, we understand the changing customer demands, the challenges that organizations face and help them develop a contact center that’s truly Next-Gen enabled.
How have contact centers evolved? What is at stake now?
The evolution of contact centers has been gradual. It has never stopped and it is still ongoing. Tracing back to the time when automatic call distribution technology was invented, which is considered the foundation to call center; things have moved gradually over time. From limited channel communication to omnichannel. Customer journey tracking has become really important, and the presence of remote agents and cloud-based contact centers has provided a lot of flexibility.
The key for businesses is to realize the phase at which they are operating in terms of their contact center operations and ask themselves, “What is at stake now?” and “What may happen if they do not reinvent themselves?”
The value of customer retention and providing them with a positive experience has grown in importance multi-fold. Nearly as many as one in every three customers say that they will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience. Customers have also raised their expectations for customer service and now want a more precise, hassle-free and any-channel experience. What has now also changed at the business operations side is the introduction of key metrics such as first call resolution, average handle time, chat ratings, etc.
All these factors and many more are making AI come to the forefront of contact center design and deliver benefits
Architecting an ideal contact center design with AI/ GenAI
The structured approach that organizations should take now to streamline customers’ expectations is to focus on three large transformation areas: a) Generative AI, b) Digital customer service, c) Conversational user interfaces. According to a McKinsey Study, 57 Percent of customer care leaders expect call volumes to increase by as much as one-fifth over the next one or two years. The global management consulting organization also goes on to state that live phone calls remain one of the most preferred channels of reaching customer care across all age groups, indicating the near future will require a fine mix between AI components and traditional channels and not be a complete agentless contact center design.
For organizations to succeed, leap ahead and be ahead of competition, they need to adopt the right structure of AI/ GenAI-enabled capabilities in the form of Intelligent multilingual IVRs, chatbots, voice bots, GenAI-enabled agent assist systems, live sentiment analytics, advanced workforce management and advanced reporting capabilities.
The benefit quotient of these AI/GenAI capabilities also depends on how well they are architected from ground level, how well they are tested and designed to provide accurate recommendations, solutions and how well they are monitored to deliver an unparalleled experience.
This is where we come into the picture, not just providing organizations with the right AI/GenAI capabilities but also developing these models and capabilities from the ground level and monitoring them to offer a complete value-driven experience to end customers.
Bringing the right AI/GenAI capabilities into a contact center design can be overwhelming; Businesses need a strategic transformation partner
For organizations, bringing the right AI/GenAI capabilities into a contact center environment can be challenging and overwhelming as well. They need the right transformation partner.
The key to success is to have a very structured framework, breaking the transformation into key components to deliver measurable benefits: -
Why HCLTech?
HCLTech’s Fluid Contact Center practice, with its proven expertise in end-to-end contact center transformation, offers consulting, transformation and managed services. We can enable organizations to have the right mix of AI/GenAI capabilities in their contact center architecture, delivering outcome-driven business results. We bring together all the key components of a contact center to deliver Next Gen-enabled contact centers. Our unique differentiator is our ability to deliver proprietary GenAI frameworks along with the complete ability to architect, test and monitor key AI/GenAI components of a contact center infrastructure. We also offer comprehensive contact center monitoring and remote agent monitoring capabilities, to ensure always-on, high-CX contact centers.
For more information, write to us at contact.fluidcc@hcltech.com.
