How Virtual Assistance is Making Contact Center Executives Want to Come to Work Every Day

“The robots are here to take our jobs.”

We’ve all heard it, and some of us have even thought it–quietly, to ourselves. Given the bombardment of messaging around AI we’re all being barraged with, it sounds plausible. (I’m a huge golf fan, and during this year’s Masters coverage, there must have been 100 commercials for some AI service or other!)

But what the leaders at a number of progressive credit unions are starting to discover is that “the robots” aren’t here to get rid of people; they are actually here to make the business of managing your people and the thousands of interactions you have with your members way easier. 

It’s time to broaden your perspective and open your mind to what AI can be doing for YOU.

The world of non-nember facing AI

For a moment, stop thinking just about bots that communicate with members (either online or by phone), but take stock of how AI is now being applied to everyday jobs in the contact center–the reps who interact with customers, and the executives and managers who lead them.

Are you aware of the full range of AI tools designed to automate repetitive tasks and synthesize data? Many of the exact things that contact center leaders and frontline reps do day after day can now be made a lot more effortless, thanks to virtual assistance.

Organizations like Granite CU in Utah that are exploring the world of non-customer-facing AI are seeing results like an immediate 25% decrease in AHT, while also achieving an outstanding satisfaction rate of 4.7–that’s the sweet spot of lower costs and increased member experience.  

As credit unions start deploying these AI tools, they’re recognizing that this strategy is the least risky way to begin capitalizing on the efficiency gains now possible through AI, in ways that didn’t exist before.

AI for agents

Most frontline reps who have now been powered and empowered by the newest AI tools are saying their jobs have never been easier or more engaging. So many of the repetitive and laborious tasks agents used to have to plow through interaction after interaction are now being handled by bots. These bots are working in the background, setting live agents up for success.

Here are just two examples of many:

Interaction wrap-up produces a detailed summary at the end of every customer interaction. Each company can choose what to capture–issue type, time of interaction, what questions the customer asked, overall sentiment, first contact resolution–there’s no limit to how much data you want to put into the summary. The wrap-up screen is presented to the rep for their final input and approval, so the humans are still in total control. But the hassle factor of post-call work goes way down, and the value of the data being captured goes way up. Win-win.

Autocomplete anticipates what an agent is going to say next during a chat session, and gets it right with a very high degree of accuracy. Agents say it’s like the virtual assistant is reading their mind. And when the bot gets it wrong, it learns from how the agent corrects it. For repetitive interactions (the vast majority of customer issues fall into a narrow and predictable list of 15-20 issue types), it’s a time and effort saver. But it’s also far more consistent and accurate, even though the human rep is still in total control.

Any time you are making things easier for your frontline agents, you are inevitably also making things easier for your customers. They can tell when the agent they’re interacting with is being distracted by doing a bunch of needless keystroking, and the net effect is higher customer effort.

In a study of companies noted for creating exceptional customer experiences, their frontline employees were also most likely to agree with the statement: “My company is setting me up for success in my interactions with customers.” The suite of tools that fit into the category of AI for Agents are the newest way to make that statement true for your employees.

AI for leaders

The other big non-customer-facing area where virtual assistance is making a huge impact is a suite of AI functionality called Exec AI. These tools are like full-time analysts, ready to examine interaction data, make improvement suggestions, and create customized reports at a moment’s notice.

AI Analysts create a huge advantage for you and your leadership team by offering the insights you need to make critical operational decisions. If you could ask your data any question (and get an immediate answer) what would you ask? 

• Forecast Analyst GPT: Answers questions about critical areas like workforce planning, without requiring complex tools or specialized knowledge
• Quality Analyst GPT: Answers any question you can think of based on analyzing thousands of customer interactions to generate quality and performance management insights 
• Insights Analyst GPT: Enables you to search your interaction data using natural language to generate answers and reports, including visualizations in your preferred format that you can insert right into your executive presentations. You can also pin or save the reports you have generated for later, enabling you to build custom dashboards as easily as asking by using your own words.  

Can’t beat them, join them

Any time you are saving operating costs while also improving customer experience, you are doing the highest level of work on behalf of your organization. And that is the exact opposite of “robots taking your job,” because these always-on virtual assistants are making it much easier and more effortless for executives and leaders to be far more effective in their jobs.