A Guide to Agent Assist in Contact Centres

Positive customer experiences are the cornerstone of a successful business. A significant reason many companies put contact centres in place is to engage better with customers and give them the positive interactions that mean repeat business. Contact centres are dedicated to helping customers get the answers they need and to deal with any problems. Without a contact centre, a business could suffer serious damage to its reputation and fail to provide the service that means satisfied customers and continued sales.

However, even with a contact centre in place, giving customers what they need may not always happen. Customers need more than just someone they can talk to. They need to know that the agents they’re connecting with can help them and that the help they’re receiving is fast and accurate.

There are a number of new technologies designed specifically to ensure this takes place and that contact centre workers are able to do their jobs at the highest level. Thinking that the agents themselves can handle everything doesn’t take into account the volume and complexity of the queries they need to handle. The workload can be overwhelming, leading to agent burnout and issues with productivity.

This is why Agent Assist in contact centres can be a huge advantage. This AI-powered solution is designed to support and empower contact centre agents, improving the way they handle customer interactions. Read on to find out more about Agent Assist and how it could benefit your contact centre and business.

Understanding Agent Assist and Its Role in Contact Centres

Before we can look at the benefits of Agent Assist in contact centres, it’s a good idea to have a thorough understanding of precisely what Agent Assist is. Agent Assist uses artificial intelligence, including natural language processing and machine learning, to provide real-time assistance to agents during customer interactions. By analysing customer enquiries, Agent Assist can offer relevant and timely information, suggest responses, and even guide agents through complex situations, ultimately improving efficiency and accuracy.

But Agent Assist is much more than simply a tool. It’s also a valuable asset to many contact centres, in the form of an intelligent assistant for agents to work with. Agent Assist complements the agents’ knowledge and skills, providing instant support so that customers can enjoy a seamless experience and get the answers they need. By automating mundane and repetitive tasks, agents can focus on building meaningful connections with customers and addressing the most complex customer issues that only a human can help with. Agent Assist can serve as a virtual coach, ensuring that agents can hone their skills and improve their performance, and helping to provide consistency in all customer interactions.

Streamlining Agent Training and the Onboarding Process

One of the big advantages of Agent Assist is its ability to streamline agent training and the onboarding process. Traditional training methods often require extensive time and resources, but with AI-powered assistance, new agents can be given the knowledge and tools they need faster. Agent Assist can provide real-time prompts and suggestions, ensuring consistent and accurate responses while agents learn the ropes, and by reducing how much training is needed, or at least how long it will take, contact centres can become more efficient, and decrease the time it takes for agents to become proficient.

Agent Assist transforms the training process by offering contextual information and step-by-step guidance. Through its machine learning capabilities, it leans from successful interactions and keeps improving its suggestions accordingly. This means new agents can quickly adapt to a variety of different situations and always deliver the best customer service. Plus, Agent Assist can help to spot knowledge gaps and recommend additional training (and even training resources) if need be.

Empowering Agents 

Jason Roos, CEO of Cirrus Response, is keen to ensure AI can empower agents, not cause them concern. He says: “AI-powered solutions like Agent Assist are essential for creating synergies between human expertise and technological advancements. AI is not here to replace agents. Instead, it serves as a powerful tool to enhance the customer journey.”

In other words, Agent Assist can act as a digital companion, providing agents with instant access to a wealth of knowledge and insights. By integrating with knowledge bases, FAQs, and relevant databases, Agent Assist can retrieve information on products, policies, and procedures, ensuring agents are equipped with accurate and up-to-date knowledge. This not only boosts agents’ confidence and improves customer interactions, but enhances first-call resolution rates and reduces the need for escalations.

This real-time knowledge provided by Agent Assist eliminates the need for agents to search through multiple systems or consult colleagues for information. This can significantly reduce customer waiting time. Whether it’s a product specification, troubleshooting guide, or policy clarification, agents can rely on Agent Assist to provide accurate and relevant information within moments.

Enhancing Customer Experience Through Personalisation 

Today’s customers expect a more personal experience no matter who they’re interacting with, and Agent Assist in contact centres delivers exactly that. By using AI algorithms, Agent Assist can analyse customer data, including previous interactions and purchase history, to provide agents with personalised recommendations and suggestions. This allows the agent to tailor their conversations to each individual customer, creating a more engaging and satisfying experience. With personalisation, contact centres can create stronger customer relationships, leading to more loyalty and customer retention.

How does this work? Agent Assist can search through customer data to understand their preferences, predict their needs, and offer proactive solutions. For example, if a customer has previously asked about a specific product, Agent Assist can proactively suggest accessories and other complementary offerings. This level of personalisation not only impresses customers but also demonstrates that the contact centre values their individual needs and preferences.

Final Thoughts 

No matter what your contact centre is there to do, the one thing all contact centres have in common is helping customers. The more effectively this can be done, the better your business will perform. Agent Assist could be exactly the tool to ensure agents can excel in their roles and feel empowered and confident to make decisions, while also maximising productivity and efficiency.

AI-powered contact centres are already here, and more and more customers will be expecting the additional level of support AI can supply. It may well be time to explore these options further and choose the ones that will support your success.

At Cirrus, we’re here to help you make the decisions that will assist your business to thrive. We can help you understand how AI-powered contact solutions can improve your contact centre operations. Get in touch today to find out more about what we can do for you.