Contact centers in the Philippines and across the world have long evolved beyond the mere answering of a phone call when that is needed. As the demand for support rises across many industries so do the available solutions. Contact centers are responsible for so much more now, oftentimes they have to handle multiple channels of communication and even deal with different markets simultaneously, which makes the need for automation all the more prevalent in this industry. "AI has many uses in the BPO industry, but with each passing year, there are more tools available that simplify all of the customer support processes that call centers can take on. These tools can simplify processes and allow for greater efficiency and accessibility," says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, a leading, mid-sized contact center in the Philippines.
The first step towards automation came with call-routing and interactive voice response (IVR). These systems allow callers to get immediately redirected to any person or department that will be best suited to answer their call. What's more important, though, is that they can get many of their simpler queries answered without ever reaching an agent. This reduces call waiting times and makes the overall process of calling customer support faster and easier.
We have long since evolved beyond those simple levels of automation. Contact center outsourcing providers in the Philippines are not just using automation to make it easier for customers to receive answers without talking to an agent. They are also using AI to empower their customer support teams. AI tools can collect data necessary for the customer support agent. These could include names, order numbers, phone numbers, and even general information about the type of query coming their way.
As most customer support operations in the Philippines have also integrated other AI or cloud tools with their services, they can keep a database of their customers and the recent issues they might have encountered. With each call, AI will know to direct its agents to previous cases, increasing the efficiency and speed of solving more complex issues. These automation tools can also help categorize or make sense of certain inquiries that customers do not clearly express. This can help both keep analytical records of each case and solve cases faster. AI is also frequently used to increase the accessibility of call centers in the Philippines. Text-to-speech and speech-to-text can allow people with disabilities access to the support they need without facing any discrimination.
“There are many benefits to the use of AI in contact centers in the Philippines for everyone involved. Agents are usually able to handle requests faster and without having to worry about potentially missing our key details. AI tools that gather the client's information before they are even connected to an agent allow agents to immediately go into trouble solving instead of having to spend the time gathering basic information,” says Ellspermann.
It is important to remember that the speed that automation allows in contact centers in the Philippines is useful to customers and is also important for businesses. Suppose your customer support team can handle a larger number of inquiries in a shorter amount of time. In that case, you will save money as you will not need to have as many people on the team, making this an extremely cost-effective solution.
Automation allows for more efficient and swift support, which is also something that clients have started demanding over time. The times of waiting on the phone line for an hour just to receive a short answer regarding an order or policy of the company are long gone. For basic inquiries, modern-day automation tools can handle them without even needing to pass the customer through to an agent. If a customer calls to ask where an order is, an AI tool would be able to access the company's cloud system or database and get instant updates for the customers. For more elaborate or advanced inquiries, they can immediately pass the person on to the right agent. This helps reduce holding times, and it helps reduce the transfers made between different departments for each inquiry.
“From cost-effectiveness to efficiency and speed, the positive effects of AI are felt by all those involved in the process. For that reason, industry-leading contact centers in the Philippines and across the world have started incorporating more and more of these tools in their activities.
It may seem that there are already many diverse AI tools used in call centers, yet the current levels of automation only relate to basic assistance for customers. But even the most elaborate AI tools are not yet able to directly take the necessary actions to resolve queries without any human involvement, especially for more complex issues,” explains Ellspermann.
Simple things like reshipping a lost order require a certain level of investigation that currently needs to be carried out by actual agents. In time, this is bound to change as more and more automation tools are going to make their way on the market. While that does not mean that customer care agents will become obsolete, it could mean that instead of just having AI to resolve simple queries, AI could also be used to resolve simple cases. Human involvement will always be necessary in advanced operations, but in time contact centers in the Philippines and across the world will start using the most powerful AI tools to automate their processes and provide more accessibility to their services.
AI in contact centers is not a replacement for human agents. Still, it can be powerful assistance that allows inquiries to be resolved faster, information to be gathered more efficiently, and data to be stored more accurately. All of these can have many positive effects on businesses that choose to utilize these tools. Still, as AI tools can be rather expensive, outsourcing to call centers in the Philippines could provide businesses access to all of those tools at a more reasonable cost. With outsourcing the most professional customer support teams can be accessed by businesses of all sizes, and more importantly, these teams can grow alongside your business. “This is why finding the right contact center in the Philippines is the key to incorporating all of these automation tools into your everyday business practices and to offering your customers a better customer experience overall,” concludes Ellspermann.