Automation – A Trend or Ultimate Solution?

Technology served as a fundamental key to survival for many businesses during the pandemic, and accelerated the unstoppable speed of digital transformation to new levels. Experts at IDC predict that by 2025, spending on digital transformation strategies will reach $2.8 trillion globally – more than double the amount in 2020.

This advancement within the digital realm, which knows no limits, has caused a shift in the expectations of customers. There is a push for all interactions to be automated, seamless and delivered instantly, as today’s connected customer chooses digital experiences first and foremost. Businesses are now faced with an increased pressure to shape a future that truly puts their customers at its core – and to achieve this, they must digital transformation.

By Amit Vohra, Chief Technology Officer, Teleperformance India

All for Automation

To remain competitive, especially when large economies are facing headwinds, businesses must adopt a more agile approach which harnesses automation and places customer experience at the centre of its mission. By producing a digitally integrated customer experience, businesses act as a pioneer for digital transformation.

In a post-pandemic landscape, customers are far more concerned about experiences and services they receive from a company, which acts as a key differentiator in determining their loyalty. In fact, Microsoft revealed that 90% of people use customer service as a factor in deciding whether or not to do business with a company. The implementation of a digital-first strategy therefore has significant implications to both customer service agents and end customers, but ultimately serves both for the better.

Intelligent automation enables a consistently excellent experience for all customers, as it streamlines services which took significantly longer in the past. By offering digitally integrated business services that produce immediate solutions, a company will become far more competitive, whilst simultaneously cutting costs and speeding up processes internally. Automation allows customer service providers to spend more time and resources focusing on the more complex issues – without compromising customer experience.

These processes also produce masses of data on customer behaviours, which allow businesses to gain valuable insights. By tapping into this data and listening to their customers, businesses can strategize for the future and unlock revenue to further invest in digital transformation.

Accelerating into the Future

Many companies have adopted AI-powered chatbots to deal with customer queries, which enables them to offer around-the-clock support. The perfect ally for customer support agents, chatbots are built upon emotional recognition tools which measure distress signals and respond to queries accordingly. This produces the most appropriate outcome, whilst simultaneously streamlining the process and harnessing convenience for both customer and customer service provider. By utilising chatbots, companies can increase the amount of queries they deal with by 20%, whilst cutting costs by 30% per customer. With the reduction of handling times, and the increase in first call solutions – automation can help businesses unlock revenues trapped in inefficient processes.

The Future is also Human

Whilst customers demand quick and efficient digital services, they also value being able to speak to a human voice when they feel it’s necessary. Therefore, although digital transformation is booming, it remains vital that businesses maintain a human element within their services. A unique combination of technology and human touch creates a blended ‘High-Tech, High-Touch’ approach, and it is this critical pairing which will allow automation to accelerate businesses into the future and create differentiation between competitors.

Matching technological development with a warm and skilled human workforce is the key for businesses to succeed in a fiercely competitive market which puts customers at the forefront. Ultimately, as we aboard the unstoppable freight train that is automation, it is the humans on board that fuel it.

Amit Vohra is the Chief Technology Officer of Teleperformance India.