Automation Insights
Where customer support and tech collide
September 2022
Welcome back to your monthly dose of insights into customer support automation from your friends at Ultimate!
In this month’s edition:
- Could staff shortages propel investment in conversational AI?
- Learn to build chatbot dialogues your customers will actually enjoy from the CEO of the Conversation Design Institute
- Stay on top of the 7 digital customer experience trends for the next 5 years
- Discover how good conversation design can actually make your customer support better
- Hit the books at the new Ultimate Customer Support Academy, where we’re going back to basics: you’re enrolled in Automation 101
Conversational AI Will Save Contact Centers $80 Billion in 2026
What’s a contact center to do in this inevitable recession? According to Gartner, invest in AI.
In the current economic climate, contact centers are being asked to cut back on labor expenses, so they’re turning to tech to automate their customer support.
Gartner forecasts that contact centers will spend $1.99 billion on conversational AI solutions in 2022 that will reduce labor costs by $80 billion in 2026. You gotta spend money to make save money.
Currently only about 1.6% of all contact center interactions are automated using AI, but Garner predicts that’ll jump to 10% in the next 4 years.
They do acknowledge that conversational AI technology is still maturing. Although a fragmented vendor landscape and the technical complexity of deploying conversational AI could limit AI adoption, Gartner maintains its lofty forecast. So where does your contact center stand? Try to weather the storm without AI assistance or invest now to hopefully emerge stronger than before?
How to Humanize Your Automated Support
Bots that actually sound like robots are so last decade. Nowadays, it’s all about creating automated experiences that feel like real conversations and keep your customers front and center.
Learn how to create engaging bot experiences from Hans van Dam, CEO of the Conversation Design Institute (whose non-profit Ultimate recently became a member of), and see how well-crafted dialogue flows can actually enable more humanized customer support.
The 7 Top Digital Customer Experience Trends For The Next 5 Years
Picture the landscape of technology five years ago. Back in 2017, people felt silly saying “Hey Siri”, it was novel that the latest Apple Watch could receive cell service, and customer service equalled waiting on hold for hours.
Today, you can say “Alexa I’m out of toilet paper” and it’ll arrive on your doorstep the next day, your smartwatch can go SCUBA diving with you or take an ECG that’s cardiologist-approved, and businesses are using AI, VR, AR, and more to elevate the customer experience.
Here’s how global CX expert Michael Hinshaw thinks things might pan out in the next five years. Spoiler alert, all types of technology will take center stage and yet keeping experiences human-centric will remain crucial.
Conversation Design Best Practices: What Is a Good Conversation Flow?
According to PSFK, 74% of customers today would rather use a chatbot to solve simple issues. But some companies are still concerned that automating their customer support will damage the customer experience. And they’re not wrong to be worried. We’ve all had bad bot experiences. That’s where conversation design comes in.
Learn how to design automated conversations that are empathic, on-brand, and flow naturally.
Customer Support Academy: Intro to Automated Customer Service
Last month, we launched our all-new, interactive learning hub, The Ultimate Customer Support Academy: your go-to resource for scaling and improving your customer service.
This month, we’re excited to present our next Customer Support Academy Module: a complete introduction to automated customer service. Forward this to anyone on your team who wants to dive into the basics of automation (or why not brush up on some key concepts yourself? — we won’t tell).
Stat of the month:
