Perfecting cognitive AI customer experience

Partnership in digital innovation

As one of the top quad-play providers in Chile, Entel offers IPTV, internet, telephony and mobile services backed by standout digital customer experience. At its core, the Genesys^® Engage™ application enables 1,200 agents across three contact centers to efficiently coordinate every customer journey via inbound, outbound, chat and WhatsApp.

“We’ve been working together on digital transformation for many years,” said Pablo Oyarzun, Customer Experience Divisional Manager at Entel. “We see Genesys as a trusted innovation partner and run our entire call center and service operation on their technology.”

Rapid, agile experimentation

That collaboration has seen Entel become one of the first companies worldwide to largely replace IVR with voicebots using Genesys artificial intelligence (AI) orchestration. The technology seamlessly manages native and third-party AI apps.

Riding on the Genesys application, the system integrates with Google Cloud speech-to-text capability to transcribe automated conversations. Genesys AI then sends the data to IBM Watson to determine the customer’s intent and deduce the next-best action.

Entel began by looking at how to apply self-service apps to reduce friction points, using the Genesys Intelligent Automation design tool to rapidly experiment and learn. “We piloted voicebots with customers, taking our pre-paid and roaming mobile services, which form around one-third of all inquiries,” said Oyarzun. “Building on this success, we rolled out bots to our contract holders and most valuable accounts.”

Prompt, precise service with higher sales conversions

Now, virtual assistants handle almost all queries previously automated through IVR. If the bot can’t resolve the customer’s issue, the call is instantly and accurately routed to a specialist with the most appropriate skillsets.

“We’ve become a cognitive contact center,” said Oyarzun. “When customers call, they get served promptly and don’t have to navigate long, complex IVR menus. And we’re able to provide high-quality, 24-hour service without excessively adding headcount and costs.”

The result is faster responses to customer queries and reduced load on Entel agents. High-precision routing has yielded further time and cost savings, including a significant reduction in abandonment rates, call transfers and callbacks. Taking automation a step further, Entel has included a bot link on its website and mobile app.

“As well as improving customer service, we wanted to see whether automation could increase sales success,” said Oyarzun. “When the client browses or shows interest in buying, the bot intervenes and makes an offer, executing on opportunities that might previously have been missed. This implies greater conversion and higher income.”

Annual targets firmly within reach in six months

The introduction of AI has enhanced career prospects at Entel. Job roles have changed. For example, fewer people perform call handling while freshly created teams teach bots and optimize self-service journeys.

As hyper-connectivity continues, Entel is well-paced to absorb the explosion of channels and volumes. “By replacing IVR with voicebots using Genesys AI, we’ve seen a 5% uplift in revenue and 10% rise in customer satisfaction, while our costs have dropped by 25% within the first six months,” concluded Oyarzun. “Without AI, bots and automation tied together using Genesys AI, we couldn’t deliver these kinds of results.”