The Art of Implementing a Chatbot within Your Call Center

For some time now, Chatbots have become famous in contact centers. It is an artificial intelligence tool that can be described as a virtual agent. Indeed, it can interact with customers via instant messaging, and exchanges are based on predetermined scripts and scenarios. As a result, a Chatbot is presented as a real solution for improving customer experience in a call center. This is why it offers concrete answers to real problems for both agents and customers.

What are the stakes of this form of artificial intelligence and its assets? And what are the rules for implementing such technology?

How does a Chatbot Revolutionize Customer Experience?

Whether it is during a sale, in assistance, or after-sales service, a chatbot can meet all customer needs, at any time of day or night, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

Moreover, it allows for a finer and better-adapted personalization of customer exchanges. By creating a climate of trust and a context of dialogue between your platform and a customer or potential client, chatbots are an advantageous replacement for agents’ tasks. The answers are of course fully automated, but the customer and brand relationship is authentic and very real. This means that the impact in terms of customer experience can be potentially and exceptionally positive for your call center performance.

The adhesion to this virtual tool also comes from the fact that chatbots have, thanks to the work of inventive graphic designers and scriptwriters, more and more sympathetic, endearing aspects and sometimes with a sense of humor. Nevertheless implementing such a technology is not without risks. But it is essential to follow rules to benefit fully from this artificial intelligence.

The Rules of Implementing the Chatbot in a Call Center

Rule N° 1: Define your Framework

It is by no means about adopting a chatbot just because it is the trend in contact centers. As an Owner, you need to define and justify your choice by your business goals. First of all, it should address the issue of availability. Good service for the customer is a service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

On the other hand and for the sake of performance, you should integrate a virtual agent within your system. This allows your chatbot to quickly handle small tasks while reducing the cost of phone calls (For example managing call peaks, answering simple questions, etc.) This way, your agents will have more time to focus on high-value requests.

Finally, a virtual agent can improve the image of your customer service platform by streamlining your digital and omnichannel interactions. Whatever your reasons for integrating a chatbot within your call center. The most important thing to remember is to define your goals in advance.

Rule N° 2: Data is Everything!

The virtual agent is not a simple assistant; it is a machine that learns with time. In other words, as it interacts with your customers, this system will enrich its database and improve the answers it can give them.

But before all that, you still need to design your Chatbot, by having a database on which it will rely. In this sense, you must focus your efforts on the experience of your existing customers. For example, make an analysis of their current needs, their consumption habits, the most common queries, or their buying behaviors. It all depends on the nature of your campaign.

Of course, it doesn’t mean you need to have absolute and perfect knowledge of your customers from the get-go. Your database will be limited at the start, but over time you can improve your process and create more engaging conversations.

Rule No. 3: Testing and Training

There is no technology without testing. Even if you have the most powerful Chatbot on the planet. It is vital to put your new virtual agent to the test, looking for every possible twist and turning to questions and requests your customers might ask.

Once evaluated live, make the necessary adjustments so that your virtual agent doesn’t deceive your customers. Be proactive and always think about improving your technology.

Now that your virtual agent is up and running, plan the deployment in order to run within your contact center system. That is to say that the implementation must be progressive and must be integrated into your CRM, one element at a time.

Keep in mind that, a virtual agent deployed in a hurry can quickly affect the image of your teams and devastate the customer experience.

Rule No. 4: Your Customers’ Opinions Matter

Have you successfully integrated your virtual agent? Your mission is not done yet. You still need to ask for feedback from users and customers.

Simply, did they notice any bugs? Is the tool simple to use? Does it allow you to redirect urgent requests to your agents? Negative or positive feedback will allow you to improve your virtual agent.

Rule No. 5: Your Agents Still Matter

What makes great decision-makers and thinkers of tomorrow is the interest in blending perfectly human and artificial intelligence. Agent interaction remains more than ever vital to complete customer satisfaction.

Therefore, your agents should not be an endangered model of work, as it is sometimes feared. On the contrary, it would be a profession in the making, dedicated to increasing their skills to work perfectly with your artificial intelligence. This omnichannel policy allows you not only to provide a complete response to all your customers. But also to boost your key performance indicators.

Rule N° 6: Measure the Performance of your Virtual Agent

Key Performance Indicators are not exclusive to your agents. Indeed, thanks to your dashboards you can monitor the activity of your virtual agent and extract all the numbers you need.

Some of the most used KPIs for chatbots are for example:

• The number of calls handled,
• Lost calls,
• The level of users’ understanding,
• Average call processing time.

Of course, KPIs are not the same for all chatbots. You can determine the most relevant ones according to the nature of your activity and the goals of your campaigns.

Rule N° 7: Choose Wisely your Provider

Unfortunately, there are still vendors who claim to provide virtual agents that simply react based on keywords. A real chatbot is above all, a virtual intelligence and not a virtual assistant. Therefore it must understand, interpret and analyze the meaning of the customer’s request.

If the proposed virtual agent seems to be based on predefined programming and scripts or if it only provides automated answers, then be wary. It is imperative that your provider has the skills and proven experience in the field. Which includes expertise in natural language processing and comprehension, UX bot designers, bot trainers, etc.

At NobelBiz, we believe in real performance with a real omnichannel experience for our clients. And the best way to provide a positive experience for your customer is to offer them fast communication through the channels of their choice. This is the very essence of our Omni+ product.

What Does the Future Hold for Customer Services?

When it comes to customer service, clients are more and more demanding towards their brands. Chatbots present themselves as an essential solution for handling requests across all channels of communication, from websites to mobile applications, social media, and more.

This growth will be greatly driven by technological innovations, such as natural language processing and machine learning. It is estimated that by 2022, the number of customer interactions with human agents will represent only 15% of total interactions, of which 64% will be through self-care and 21% through Chatbots.