The huge possibilities that chatbots offer a contact centre to achieve today's customers' need for immediacy is undeniable. Bots have opened up an avenue to answer questions fast and via any channel preferred by the customer. However, a bot's value is tied to it being suitably created to make a tangible difference to a company's worth.
In "The Business Case for Chatbots", Tobias Goebel, director for emerging technologies at our partner company, Aspect, looks at the following two facts:
* People hate to repeat themselves, hate to wait on hold - or just outright hate phoning businesses in the first place; and
* The most expensive cost factor in the contact centre is labour.
"By taking the conversation to a messaging channel (to complement IVR), you immediately benefit from an 'eternal thread' between you and the business, which you can build upon with every new conversation. Furthermore, you benefit from the asynchronous nature of the channel, so you can pace the dialogue at your convenience without any perceived 'on hold' times. You can also multi-task while chatting, while a phone call takes your entire attention," points out Goebel.
Regarding the second fact, he says: "Many agents are employed to do mundane, repetitive tasks, such as asking about the nature of the call (pre-qualification), or who the customer is (authentication). Oftentimes, they are also tasked with answering routine inquiries such as 'what is my balance'."
He explains that human performance deteriorates when confronted with boring repetition, yet thrives with engaging challenges. "Humans shouldn't spend their time doing mundane and non-creative work for long periods of time; in the same way, bots shouldn't be doing complex work, such as solving a complicated service issue, or providing a human touch to calm an angry customer. In the world of customer care and the contact centre, the human and the digital employee (aka bot) can co-exist peacefully and even enhance the performance of each other.
"Rather than port games or frequently needed utilities over to the world of conversational UIs (CUIs), why don't we leave those with mobile apps where they belong, and tackle an area in desperate need of improvement?" he asks.
So what would be the business case for bots in order for them to deliver value? The simple answer would be cost. If you multiplied the number of queries - such as those related to tracking and order - that are received and answered every day by a regular employee versus a chatbot, the savings shown are tremendous. A feasibility study in an organisation can show this.
In addition, states Goebel, "introducing convenience through messaging can positively impact your CSAT or NPS (Net Promoter Score). Just a few points up mean a lot to many organisations these days, as customer experience is increasingly becoming a distinguishing factor."
Those building a case to employ a chatbot should thus show the value it delivers.
As mentioned upfront though, bots should not be employed to do complex work.
According to Aberdeen Group, bots should be able to hand over a customer to a live agent if the conversation gets too complex. And a consumer survey by Aspect also illustrates this with 86% of people surveyed saying that if they use a chatbot for customer service they should always have an option to transfer to a live agent.
The case for chatbots is and should be clear and Ocular Technologies looks forward to helping you make the right business case.
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