Voicebots will change the helpline and Call Center
Artificial Intelligence (AI) affords an opportunity for brands to build valuable and personal customer relationships that give insight into their preferences. It also offers a chance to replace current technologies that are not particularly well accepted by customers. Voicebots, or Voice Assistants, will in the next 2-3 years replace many Interactive Voice Responses (IVRs) in helplines.
Infolines are slowly losing to text communication (chats), but they are still familiar and functioning.
Telephone helplines, which up until a few years ago were the main means of contact with a company’s staff, are now slowly being replaced by chats and messaging. Consumers, especially young ones, prefer to send a question via Facebook or instant messenger rather than try to get an answer by phone. Although chat communication is becoming increasingly important, voice communication and helplines are still responsible for 50-60% of all contact between customers and the company.
Until now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) mainly supported the text channel – established Chatbots were used for automated texting. The new generation of AI-powered speech recognition technology, however, offers new possibilities – Voicebots (Voice Chatbots) go one step further – they recognize users’ voice commands and respond to inquiries using voice and text.
Both solutions are based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies and knowledge bases from predefined answers. The main difference is the communication channel – Chatbots use text, Voicebots use voice.
Writing and reading requires learning. Speaking is the most natural form of communication, and listening is the most effective way to collect information. The human body hears and understands faster than it can see something, taste or smell. Technological evolution towards voice guidance is also natural – and this is the next point in the list of AI-based interactions.
Voicebots are the new IVR for hotlines
The previously mentioned IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is an attempt to automate the Call Center, a solution commonly used by companies that handle a large number of calls in order to handle callers interactively. They were designed to help optimize indicators such as Hold Time or First Time Resolution (FTR). When calling the helpline, the customer must listen to the previously recorded message and use the keypad on his or her phone to select an appropriate item from the menu.
IVR systems have been supporting basic voice interactions for years, but they are cumbersome to manage and are therefore most often used in large Call Centers. They also allow you to save your company costs, but are often hated by the main users – customers. IVR is met with negative opinions from users, who have to wait through non-relevant options until their particular option, usually several times per call.
Until now, these systems did not have voice recognition functions, only pre-installed options for the caller to choose from. This meant they could not even choose to be switched to a consultant, unless such an option was eventually given. IVR uses static options that are detached from the actual information flow. And yet every company cares about efficient customer service, so that customers stay loyal and make another purchase of a product or other service.
Helpline with Voice Chatbot?
Someday, customers calling the helpline will no longer be sure whether they are talking to a consultant or a robot. Due to technological progress, especially in Speech Recognition or NLP, such a scenario will be a reality in the near future and for this reason companies should take a closer look at their capabilities. Voice Chatbots is an interesting channel for every Contact Center, especially where the phone is the main means of contact for users (services for older people or those who cannot write while working). And Voicebot functions will prove indispensable here.
Today’s advantages of Voice Assistants at the Call Center:
- High and constantly improving voice recognition quality – due to the machine learning technologies used.
*According to data from Google Inc., the voice recognition accuracy of their solutions exceeded 95%.
- Advanced IVR voice control.
- Still, the preferred contact method for more than 50% of customers.
- Communication personalisation.
- Wide range of applications: customer identification/services, authorization, confirmations, activation/deactivation of services, purchase, reservations, reports.
- Integration with existing systems in the company.
- Radical cost savings – especially in the era of increasing salaries for hotline consultants through increased efficiency.
How to test Voicebot in the company’s hotline – 3 steps
Nearly every aspect of customer service at a larger company can now run a voicebot. It can be used for:
- replacement of obsolete IVR with a user-friendly communication system,
- relieve consultants from answering recurring questions,
- drastically reduce the waiting time at the helpline.
Our experienced team can carry out a complete implementation of Voicebot on your helpline. We take a comprehensive approach to each project, focusing on how the company will benefit from this digital change:
Step 1: Analysis of the current helpline: understanding of the operation and technology of the current hotline – InteliWISE experts collect this information about the existing system.
Step 2: Determination of volumes and benefits: analysis of calls to the helpline – number of customers calling the helpline and their problems – the analysis shows whether it is worth launching Voicebot.
Step 3: Pilot: a test consisting in launching Voicebot on the current helpline within a selected problem/subject.
InteliWISE specialists can run through all the details with you. Just click here.
