How can you take advantage of new technologies to offer a fluid and personalized customer relationship, directly on the phone channel?
Customer Relationship is nowadays at the heart of corporate strategy, and is proving to be a real differentiation factor. It is therefore more important than ever to offer a level of service that responds to the ever-increasing demands of Customers, at the risk of being preferred to a company more attentive to their needs.
Accessibility, responsiveness, personalization... how can we meet these expectations and build customer loyalty? For several years now, self service seems to provide an answer to these challenges.
However, although efforts have mainly focused on Digital, calls remain an important part of Customer contacts. So how can we work efficiently on these requests? Nearly 75% of companies have an IVR, proof that the desire to exploit self-service on the Voice channel is here. But now that AI is more and more present in contact centers, how can we take advantage of new technologies to offer a qualitative and fluid experience, and true customer autonomy directly... over the phone?
The advent of telephone self service for customer relationship
For several years now, self service has been a key element in the strategies of Customer Relationship Management to meet the challenges of accessibility.
A plethora of solutions are now available to promote customer autonomy. Chatbots, dynamic FAQs, mobile applications or customer spaces on the web, are all means that allow consumers to obtain information, or perform simple management acts, by themselves.
The benefits are multiple, both for the Customer and for the Company. From a Customer point of view, these new contact channels meet expectations in terms of instantaneity, availability and simplicity. They offer an alternative to over-solicited contact centres. For companies, it is also the hope of relieving congestion in historical channels such as the telephone, and a means of reducing the costs associated with processing simple, low value-added requests.
Digital is therefore at the heart of this self-service revolution. But what about the Voice channel? Are telephone flows really impacted downward by these new communication channels?
The Voice channel remains the Customer's preferred point of contact
If digital self service has wagered on a decline in telephone flows, the reality is quite different. Indeed, the Voice channel remains the preferred point of contact for customers. In fact, 85% of them use it to contact their Customer Service (according to SP2C/E&Y). Despite efforts to divert the flow, calls persist.
Rather than discouraging calls, it is therefore a question of finding a suitable solution on the telephone channel. True customer proximity must offer the Customer the possibility to use the channel of his choice, while finding the same quality of service. If the Customer's preferred channel remains the telephone, he must therefore be allowed to process his requests through this channel, and not be forced to use other media.
So why not rely on self service applied to Voice?
Voice agents: Customer autonomy at the end of the phone!
self service on the telephone channel is now possible, and has proven its worth! Through virtual voice agents, artificial intelligence makes it possible to handle level 1 calls end-to-end in natural language. An intelligent, voice-based virtual assistant can answer calls related to reimbursement follow-up, appointment scheduling or even claim reporting... without any queue time for the customer and over extended hours.
Optimising the management of telephone flows no longer has to rhyme with deterrence. It is now possible to offer a qualitative customer experience over the telephone channel, while reducing the costs of handling simple requests.
State-of-the-art technology allows for self service rates in excess of 80%. In concrete terms, this means that the vast majority of calls handled by a voice vital agent are fully automated. The company can thus provide simple answers to the customer immediately, thanks to technology - while freeing up the time of advisors on more complex, higher value-added interactions.
In conclusion... It seems that self service is now within reach of voice!
