Chatbots: why it’s too soon for another cog in the contact centre

Barely a week goes by without someone asking us about cognitive chatbot technology. With capabilities like visual recognition, natural language processing and machine learning, computers can make “sense” of massive volumes of unstructured data—anything from pictures to complex metaphors and even emojis. The idea is that pattern recognition and a deep understanding of user intent can help businesses anticipate the next twists and turns of the increasingly complex customer journey and, ultimately, automate decision-making.

It’s incredibly advanced technology, so it’s easy to see why innovations like chatbots are front of mind for industries such as telcos who are looking to tackle rising OPEX, inconsistent flows of information and a less than stellar customer experience. But it’s concerning that organisations may be rushing off in hot pursuit of failure, attempting to run with artificial intelligence before they can walk.

The first step on the pathway to the cognitive contact centre is to master robotic process automation (RPA). It effectively gives you a workforce that can be sized up or down in a matter of hours, near-zero error rates, and automatic compliance with regulatory and corporate rules.

RPA is non-invasive technology, so it can be deployed alongside existing platforms and can bridge legacy systems. It pays to develop a proof of concept by automating specific tasks, and gathering the ROI and learnings that can be applied to wider deployment. That’s what makes RPA such a useful stepping stone to more disruptive contact centre transformation.

RPA is not without its challenges: there’s no point in trying to automate fragmented or inconsistent processes, otherwise you’ll only create bigger transaction bottlenecks that will have to be sorted out using good old-fashioned manual service delivery. It’s also important to set out with a clear idea of your goal: are you aiming to improve customer service, or operational efficiency? They’re not mutually exclusive, but we’ve all experienced instances where it’s clear one has come at the expense of the other.

There have been many emotive headlines of late, doom-mongering about an army of tireless robots replacing humans in the workplace. Some retail processes are suited to full RPA—typically mundane, repetitive enquiries like store opening hours. But others still require human involvement to handle complex queries, soothe frustrations and maintain the personal touch. In these scenarios, the virtual workforce, comprised of automated processing agents, functions best when deployed alongside your living, breathing agents. At Genesys we call that Blended AI, giving you and your customers the best of both worlds.

Learn more about Blended AI for Customer Experience