How to Boost First Contact Resolution With AI

Do your customers rage quit after contacting your company? Do calls turn into complaint fests? Does it take a marathon of contacts to get an issue resolved?

If so, your first contact resolution rate could be sabotaging your customer experience.

Every unresolved call or chat is a missed opportunity to create a customer evangelist. But too many companies treat enquiries like a game of hot potato, passing frustrated customers from pillar to post.

If you’re ready to break that cycle and empower your team to resolve issues quickly and completely the first time around, then first contact resolution (FCR) is the key to skyrocketing satisfaction.

This critical metric measures the percentage of enquiries resolved in that magical first interaction.

Boosting FCR pays dividends, resulting in:

• Increased revenue and productivity
• Reduced handling and operational costs
• Higher customer retention and satisfaction
• Decreased complaints and repeat contacts

Clearly, delivering excellent first contact resolution should be a top priority. But how?

The Benefits of AI Assistance in Contact Centres

Research by ContactBabel shows that 96% of UK and 87% of US contact centres agree that AI will be important for future operations.

AI is uniquely suited to help agents resolve customer issues quickly and accurately on that critical first contact.

AI systems can analyse past conversations and interactions to identify common questions, complaints, and resolutions.

With this knowledge, the AI can suggest proven solutions to agents in real-time during customer conversations.

Additionally, AI chatbots and virtual assistants can handle routine enquiries independently, freeing up human agents to focus on solving more complex issues.

Intelligent knowledge management platforms powered by AI can also provide agents with fast access to the precise information they need.

With these capabilities, AI augments human agents so they can resolve a higher percentage of enquiries on the first try.

Importantly, AI does this without replacing agents or dehumanising service. The research increasingly shows that AI will support and enhance employees – with the proportion of businesses believing that AI will replace contact centre employees having dropped from 60% in 2017 to just 26% in the US, and from 35% to 11% in the UK.

When thoughtfully implemented, AI reduces costs and improves CX without large investments or lengthy integration times.

The automated identification of repeat call drivers is especially impactful, helping companies address systemic issues proactively.

AI systems analyse omni-channel conversations at a rate impossible for humans alone. This allows for quick and consistent identification of coaching tips, potential business issues, and root causes of recurring customer problems.

However, AI does not diminish the expertise of skilled agents. For many organisations, combining AI efficiency with human judgement will produce the best results for customers and the business.

This blog post has been re-published by kind permission of EvaluAgent – View the Original Article

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Call Centre Helper is not responsible for the content of these guest blog posts. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Call Centre Helper.