- Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help manage the increase in customer inquiries during the holiday season, enabling contact centers to sustain service levels and innovate customer experience (CX) processes.
- AI offers 24/7 personalized service to customers, boosts agent performance, speeds up authentication processes, and reduces operational costs.
In the holiday season, businesses often struggle to manage the surge in customer inquiries. The situation worsens due to budget cuts and high turnover rates. The solution to dealing with the increased workload with the same or fewer resources lies in implementing AI technologies, which empower companies to maintain service levels and innovate customer experience (CX) processes.
AI opens the floodgates of customer support by offering personalized service around the clock. Whether customers want to start a chat session, converse with a virtual bot, or send a text message, AI ensures immediate, personalized assistance. Additionally, according to a LivePerson study conducted in 2023, 20% of customers would prefer an AI-led conversation over waiting on hold.
AI also significantly enhances agent performance. AI noise removal ensures clear communication, reducing distractions and requests for repetitions. This leads to faster conversations, shortened queue times, and improved customer satisfaction. Virtual agents not only help customers but also assist employees during escalated sessions. Intelligent routing optimizes customer-employee pairing for every call, speeding up service, and fostering customer-brand connections.
Furthermore, AI speeds up the authentication process and reduces operational costs. Digital verification of customers through a secure and encrypted process can save up to 90 seconds per call and as much as $3 per caller.
Businesses need flexible solutions that they can control as they integrate AI into their operations. Companies should work with providers that enable them to move at the pace that works best for them. While AI is transforming contact centers, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to its integration.