The Impact of Virtual Assistant Solutions on Contact Centers Today

1. The Impact of Virtual Assistant Solutions on Contact Centers Today Virtual assistant solutions are a rage that is likely to transform several conventional roles across businesses. Among the several applications of virtual assistant solutions, automation of contact centers has gained popularity for the value it brings to enterprises. Like many modern technologies, there’s hysteria and anxiety linked to AI- inspired contact center solutions that go beyond replacing humans. Decision-makers must stay away from any misgivings with respect to outcomes and impractical expectations before taking the plunge. Today, companies have built virtual assistants that answer customer queries on the front end directly and offer agents with the data and resources they require on the back end. Comprehensive, end-to-end customer service has been built that has led to enhancements in loyalty and brand reputation to new sources of revenue. The route to AI assistance and real-time self-service in customer service creates enormous opportunities for forward-thinking companies. Here is a list of how virtual assistant solutions today are impacting call center solutions: • Ability to scale rapidly: Virtual assistant solutions empower companies to scale their customer service at an exceptional speed, even with restricted resources. Once a new product is launched, companies can publish interactive FAQs, which can settle millions of queries without any human intervention. Virtual assistant solutions enable companies to react immediately to a rise in inquiries, just by switching on another server. • Ability to take pre-emptive action: With a virtual assistant, companies can achieve a much higher level of responsiveness. These assistants will be able to anticipate what customers are looking for by identifying how they interact with a brand. If a virtual assistant knows who their customers are, it could deliver answers ahead of the customers knowing that they have questions. This could substantially slash abandonment rates, while at the same time lowering customer complaints and increasing satisfaction. • Achieve personalization: Companies gathering customer data can assimilate AI, machine learning and big data to offer an unparalleled level of personalization during the entire customer journey. It can considerably encourage consumer satisfaction, enhance customer service interaction, push repeat purchases, and raise conversion to purchase. Virtual assistants let agents get a perspective to understand with whom they are speaking. When companies have information like customers’ search preferences, order history and their experiences with the brand, they are better equipped to deliver the best possible customer experience, customized to customers’ needs. • Communicating through messaging apps: With an increasing number of people turning to messaging apps to communicate with brands, companies now have the chance to establish new sources of revenue using

2. real-time, tailored customer service bots within messaging apps. Such apps are already being used to book hotel rooms, obtain fashion advice, and buy airline tickets. Increasing instances of self-service: Millennials today do not believe that a conversation over the phone is an ideal way to resolve issues. They avoid settings that normally necessitate interaction with an agent and choose to opt for self-service that include forums, online chat or bot services and FAQs. Companies that do not blend in with the change could fail in sending the right message with the new generation of buyers which can adversely impact the customer journey and eventually the business’ bottom line. • • Training needs to be carried out only once: Virtual assistantsoffer cost and time savings. AI lets companies give agents all the resources they need to succeed, consequently lowering turnover. Instead of retraining the workforce, companies can just reconfigure the software. The customer service platforms can free up personnel from the mundane tier-1 support calls and enable them to focus on the more creative and interesting tasks that support customers’ complex needs. • Ability to offer a reliable service: Customer service fueled by AI delivers a degree of reliability that human counterparts cannot match. Virtual assistants do not have any biases that can adversely influence customer interaction. They can be built to not argue and get annoyed with a customer. They can be trained to raise calls to an executive if they fail to solve a customer query. All this enhance customer service interactions, which can have a bearing on repeat business. By handing over simple yet time-consuming tasks to virtual assistants, agents can focus on other more strategic activities that make them feel more emboldened and contented in their jobs.