5 Valuable Types of Automation in CCaaS Technology

Automation is one of the most exciting technologies in the world for 2022. Highlighted as a crucial tool for business transformation, automation isn’t just the act of replacing human tasks with robotic skills. Rather, with automation, we can augment modern teams and enhance business outcomes.

While there are various environments where automation can be extremely useful, one area where it’s growing particularly valuable is in the contact centre.

Contact centres are increasingly using automation not just as a tool for boosting efficiency, but also to improve customer experience, task accuracy, and more. For companies investing in new CCaaS solutions for digital transformation, it’s worth looking at the ways you can bring automation into your contact centre to drive the best results. Here are just some of the most valuable forms of automation in CCaaS technology today.

1. Automated (Intelligent) Routing

Routing has been one of the most valuable tools in the contact centre for a number of years now, helping to ensure the right customers get to the agents best-suited to their needs. Intelligent routing solutions can use AI and automation to assess a specific situation and determine how to distribute callers among members of staff.

For instance, an omnichannel routing system in a contact centre could examine the needs of customers in chat, video, and voice, by responding to the use of specific keywords. When a keyword is mentioned, the automated system can send the call to the agent with the right skills to address that specific issue.

Automated routing can also simplify the act of ensuring customers get their questions answered as quickly as possible. An automatic system can send a customer to the first member of staff available in the team, so they spend less time on hold.

2. Self Service Solutions

Often mentioned in the discussion of AI technology, self-service is one of the most important features in many contact centres today. The average customer in search of speed and convenience would much rather have the option to solve their own problems, rather than waiting for the guidance of a professional. With self-service technology, it’s possible to get instant, automated support.

For instance, IVR or Interactive Voice Response tools can now be infused with artificial intelligence and automation to help guide customers through various simple tasks, like renewing a subscription or making a purchase. These tools can respond to customers pressing a number on a keypad or even understand that client’s language through natural language processing.

Self-service solutions can also include chatbots on business websites which can automatically source information to respond to a customer’s question from an FAQ or knowledgebase. These solutions not only improve customer experience, but they also have a direct impact on employee experience too, by ensuring your team members don’t have as many repetitive questions to answer.

With self-service solutions handling a significant portion of your customer queries, your agents will have more time to focus on more complex matters.

3. Virtual Assistants

Self-service solutions with AI and automation built-in aren’t just valuable for your customers, they can also be an excellent resource for employees too. For instance, a chatbot or virtual assistant built into your CCaaS solution and integrated with your crucial business tools (like the CRM) can instantly surface information on a customer during a conversation. This allows employees to be more contextual and relevant in their service offering.

Similar systems can also collect information from things like knowledgebases and business documents, to help agents find solutions to problems faster. In today’s age of hybrid work, companies are even building automation and AI solutions into helpdesks to ensure people working in a remote and hybrid environment can find quick solutions to any issues they might be having.

In today’s landscape, distributed workforces don’t always have access to support from IT teams and professionals. As such, they need a way to fix problems themselves. A CCaaS solution with a virtual agent built in can help employees to troubleshoot and solve problems faster.

Workforce Optimization

Automation in the CCaaS space can optimize the workforce in a range of different ways. We’ve already mentioned how the right systems can ensure important tasks are handled by the right agent, at the correct time. It’s even possible to use automation to ensure agents prioritize certain VIP requirements and requests.

In the workforce management and optimization landscape, now appearing more often in discussions of CCaaS technology, automation can help with suggesting schedules and shift patterns for team members. There’s even the option for business leaders to set up automated reporting and data analytics to track everything from employee engagement to customer satisfaction in real-time.

Automation can further help with things like quality management, tracking crucial metrics in the workforce and sending important notifications to managers about crucial data. The right systems can also help with keeping team members on track, reminding them about upcoming deadlines, or letting staff know when to follow up on a discussion with a customer.

5. Data Analysis

Finally, perhaps the most obvious way to use automation in the CCaaS environment is for data analysis. The collection and use of data in today’s digital world is crucial to ensuring success. We use data to collect information about our customers and the journeys they take on the path to purchase. Data also helps with making better, more profitable business decisions.

Unfortunately, the average contact centre is collecting so much data on a daily basis, it would be impossible to understand and leverage this information manually. Instead, companies are beginning to use automation and AI to not only collect data, but process it more effectively, store it safely, and even discover patterns or trends in the workplace.

Bringing automation in to data analysis ensures you can collect as much information as possible from the right sources, without missing out on opportunities for growth. You may find you even drive better business outcomes with the use of more advanced data.

If you’re looking for a way to upgrade your CCaaS environment this year, finding a tool which enables automation is a great way to get started.