Call center automation has become a staple for enterprises. In today’s ultra-fast paced environment, companies have been looking for efficient ways to deliver high-quality service while simultaneously ensuring employee satisfaction. In addition to that, most companies will strive for improved revenue.
If it sounds impossible, that’s because it used to be quite difficult for businesses to figure out how to excel in all three areas at once. Trying to exceed customer satisfaction numbers, employee expectations, and revenue goals may sometimes result in sacrificing something in one area. Thanks to automation, a technology that has evolved over the years, businesses are able to meet demand and growth within their industries.
What is call center automation?
Automation is a process that executes workflows previously completed by humans. For example, in the past, a marketer may have had to send out and track 100 marketing emails for a specific campaign.
They’d then respond with a follow-up email for those who didn’t reply, and engage with those who did. Bounced emails would either go in the trash or be subject to further investigation to find the right email. This process was extremely time consuming, but automation has changed everything.
Now, automation programs can run email drip campaigns. Instead of manually following up with every email as they come in or waiting for a certain number of replies, marketers can create a workflow using automation software. This sends out pre-written emails automatically when someone replies.
Workflows in this capacity can also be configured to send out a follow-up email after no response after X number of days. This allows users to reach and follow up with thousands of leads simply by initiating a drip campaign through an automation platform.
How call centers benefit from automated workflows
There is a reason why Gartner predicts that 69% of routine managerial tasks will be fully automated by 2024. When executed properly, automated workflows bring significant, positive changes to businesses. Benefits include:
- lower costs,
- fewer errors,
- and greater speed and efficiency.
In order to fully appreciate the way that automation can bring about growth and higher revenue within the call center, let’s look at examples of how the above benefits can impact a center’s operations.
Lower costs
Automating repetitive tasks such as dialing out, research, account updates, or follow-ups can take up an agent’s entire day. These tasks can make it more difficult for them to bring value to the company on a consistent basis. Companies sometimes offset this by hiring less-experienced workers to handle the tedious tasks. They keep the seasoned employees to handle the more complex roles.
Using automated workflows to complete the more routine and repetitive tasks allows call centers to save significant amounts of money. In essence, the automated workflow replaces a full-time employee’s salary.
One example of an automated platform that removes the need for repetitive tasks is the NICE CRM Software. This unified CRM automatically pulls up a customer’s data from different sources when they call in, allowing agents to have all relevant information and history right in front of them. Agents don’t have to struggle finding a customer’s profile, allowing for improved customer satisfaction and more time to help other callers.
Fewer errors
Computers are a wondrous form of technology that is capable of perfectly performing a pre-programmed task over and over again with not a single error. When applied to the contact center, this ensures that customers are always taken care of. Every business eventually faces an unhappy customer triggered by employee error.
Automation significantly reduces the likelihood of a mistake occurring. As a result, the customer experience is improved. This is crucial when working with sensitive and critical data such as payments or refunds. When an error such as an incorrectly entered payment amount by an agent happens, the customer journey is negatively impacted. This can result in overpayment and overdraft fees from a customer’s banking institution. If a customer receives an incorrect refund amount, an already-existent problem could become exacerbated.
Greater speed and efficiency
Automation has allowed companies to complete entire workflows faster than ever before. One of the biggest risks of agents finishing tasks quickly increases the room for error. Now since platforms are designed to automate numerous heavy operations, the risk of error decreases. Accuracy is improved.
In a call center, one example is the automatic dialer. Predictive dialers are a type of automatic dialer. They can dial the maximum number of customers all at once depending on how many agents are available on the phones. This greatly improves speed and efficiency because agents do not have to manually dial out. When they make themselves available for a call, agents are quickly connected to the next customer who answers the dialer’s call.
