{"id":28111,"date":"2019-08-12T10:27:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T09:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=28111"},"modified":"2019-08-16T10:51:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T09:51:18","slug":"ai-to-change-contact-centre-customer-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2019\/08\/12\/ai-to-change-contact-centre-customer-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"AI to change contact centre customer experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With investments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) related technologies expected to triple by 2020, local companies are looking at ways to integrate it into all aspects of their business. Karl Reed, Chief Solutions Officer at Elingo, says that it is especially true in the contact centre industry where it can be used to greatly enhance the customer experience (CX).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is not a new thing. It is already embedded in the technology around us from smartphones (for example route mapping and virtual assistants) and cars (telemetry used for insurance), to online purchases (product recommendations), entertainment (music and video recommendations), and AI and Machine Learning of a customer\u2019s buying outcomes on an ecommerce-based web site. AI has arrived in a big way whether cynics like it or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For companies\nlooking to enhance their contact centre environments, AI can be leveraged to\ndeliver more improved CX at unprecedented levels. But to do this, the correct\nplatform must be in place. After all, you are not going to build a dream house\nif the foundation is not properly done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engagement\nopportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to\nchoosing a platform, the resource-intensive nature of true AI means the\nbusiness must look towards cloud-based solutions. To run the sophisticated\nalgorithms that can extract meaningful insights from the data at hand requires\na technology platform that can leverage the power of cloud data centres. Very\nfew companies can afford to have the on-premise computing resources necessary to\nfully embrace AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a market like\nSouth Africa with its high unemployment rate, arguments that AI will replace\njobs are gathering momentum. Yet, AI can be used in a symbiotic manner to\nenhance the skills of people. For example, a contact centre agent that still\nengages with a customer but relies on AI to do data analysis and predictions\nbehind the scenes to more effectively help that person. This provides a\nbusiness with the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the contact centre environment, AI can be used for things as diverse as predictive engagements and routing of calls, converting prospects, and ecommerce-based tracking outcomes. It comes down to understanding what a customer really wants and empowering the agent and business to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An integrated\njourney<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once perceptions\nchange around AI, then companies can deliver more value to CX. This is as much\nan external education process as it is an internal one. People need to be made\naware AI is not about getting rid of the human factor but blending people with\ntechnology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many organisations are not against the technology as such but need to gain a better understanding of how best to integrate it into their existing contact centre environments. But when this happens, true customer engagement can occur whether that takes place through a phone call, social networking, the web, or instant communication such as WhatsApp, or any other social media platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mapping the\njourney to fully integrate AI is critically important. Organisations need to\nunderstand how they will link AI to how the customer engages with them. Again,\nthis is where the platform of delivery is crucial. This helps the\ndecision-maker build a map of the customer to better reflect the changing world\nof business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology has\ngiven us so much, but we must ensure it links to the correct environment and\nplatform to really enhance existing processes. Helping drive this is the cloud\nthat brings previously unimaginable features and sophistication to a CX\nplatform in the contact centre environment and beyond to all areas of a\nbusiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With investments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) related technologies expected to triple by 2020, local companies are looking at ways to integrate it into all aspects of their business. Karl Reed, Chief Solutions Officer at Elingo, says that it is especially true in the contact centre industry where it can be used to greatly enhance the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":28112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,134,843,6,399,262],"tags":[496,386,939,8296,1825,6238,392,168,453,10591,7028],"class_list":["post-28111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-blog","category-editors-choice","category-insights","category-more-news","category-used","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-customer-experience","tag-cx","tag-elingo","tag-karl-reed","tag-machine-learning","tag-smartphone","tag-south-africa","tag-telemetry","tag-virtual-assistant"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28111"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28297,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28111\/revisions\/28297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}