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Not long ago, consumers looking to contact the companies they did business with had to contain their outreach to the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., between Monday and Friday. If they had an option other than the phone, such as email or chat, they likely had to provide their information anew on each channel. Companies tightly controlled where interactions between its agents and customers happened, and they frequently made it too difficult for consumers to get the level of help and service they needed, CX futurist Blake Morgan asserted in Forbes.

2020 was certainly a year unlike any other. A global pandemic of previously unimaginable extent has fundamentally changed the way we live, work and interact with each other, not only privately but also in a business environment. The use of digital channels has been on the rise for many years, both for how we communicate in our personal life, as well as for how we interact in a business environment. But in this past year, we have seen digital transformation adoption accelerate exponentially and, not surprisingly, we have seen this trend reflected in the contact center.

Answering routine questions, assisting contact center agents to handle calls, creating support tickets, checking statuses—conversational AI technologies have transformed all of these contact center tasks. And by doing so, this advanced call center technology has undoubtedly enabled enterprises to create a range of differentiated user experiences and increase productivity in specific workflows.

There’s a direct link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Happy employees equal happy customers. Unhappy employees lead to unhappy customers. It’s not quite as simple as that, but as a generalization it’s not too far off. Employees are the driving factor behind customer satisfaction. Employee interactions set the tone for a positive or negative customer experience. When employees aren’t happy at work, their interactions with customers can, and almost always will, suffer. Over the course of time, this can have serious repercussions for a business.

Call centers can be management-intensive, especially when they use outdated software. Antiquated call center technology can prevent you from meeting your CX goals, frustrate your agents, cause you to overrun your budget, and make the call center an internal punching bag. In short, it can really ruin your day!

As the main point of contact between your organization and its customers, the contact center offers a significant opportunity for competitive differentiation. Today’s customers demand an outstanding experience in exchange for their loyalty, and speech and text analytics play a key role in enabling your organization to deliver on those demands.

Technology is rapidly changing how companies of all types and sizes conduct business. This is true in the realm of customer service and support. Using artificial intelligence (AI) in the right ways can provide businesses with a range of benefits. One of the technologies that have helped to reshape the customer service experience is the AI chatbot. Before we get into the benefits of using an AI chatbot, let’s first get a better understanding of what this technology is and how it works.