Call centers are the first port of call (yes, literally) for customers needing help with a product or service. Resolving issues with existing customers, developing upselling and cross-selling opportunities, is the day-to-day.
That’s why call center processes matter, now more than ever as companies struggle to hire and retain talent, and remote work, leaving associated call volume at an all-time high.
Productive call center agents can mean the difference between efficiently solving an issue, onboarding a customer – or losing them entirely. Agent efficiency is the key, and automation makes it happen. But not just any automation: RPA attended automation.
Attended vs. unattended automation
What is attended automation and how does it differ from its counterpart, unattended automation? For starters, both are a form of robotic process automation (RPA). RPA is software technology that, in principle, makes it easy to deploy and manage software robots (bots) to automate repetitive, manual and analytical tasks.
Think of attended automation as a desktop personal assistant. It guides employees through learning and tasks. In a call center, this can take the form of an attended bot that displays messages on screen when employees make mistakes or automatically completes a process for the employee like filling in customer details. The agent can call on a bot when needed to perform a task such as pulling up information from another system, or the bot can perform system and data tasks silently behind the scenes making the agent’s job easier. Usually, the employee can trigger the bot when needed.
Unattended automation, on the other hand, is more like a virtual workforce that works unobtrusively behind the scenes 24/7. It functions independently and doesn’t have the human-bot collaboration of attended automation. But it’s not viable for processes that require human intervention, which is why companies use attended and unattended automation.
Some processes require both attended and unattended automation, with bots helping both visibly and behind the scenes.
Keeps the calls coming with RPA attended automation
Here are some of the benefits that RPA attended automation can bring to your contact center:
- Train representatives quickly
A well-trained workforce performs to the best of its ability. At contact centers where turnover is high, it can be difficult to train and retain new employees and give them all the valuable and critical information they need to do their job.
You can move away from the standard (and boring) training videos and assign RPA bots to guide employees step-by-step through training while in live applications. This will increase the speed of learning and will be a more engaging, hands-on way to pick up key skills.
- Improve customer satisfaction
Solving a customer’s issues is what a call center is for. So why shouldn’t call center automation do that too? RPA can provide fast access to customer information and help improve data input accuracy, resulting in improved first-contact resolution and customer satisfaction.
After a call, robots can also record key details to organize and complete customer files. Overall, this empowers call center reps to decrease average handling time and offer a more personalized service.
- Shorten time to resolution
Behind the scenes, teams often need to use a number of legacy systems to perform their duties. When dealing with a series of impatient and expressive customers, jumping between applications prolongs solving problems.
When you bring contact center automation into the mix using RPA, you can fill this gap. RPA software integrates within and across different call center applications. It can seamlessly move between systems to help representatives resolve customer issues quickly and efficiently.
- Elevate employee morale
It’s no surprise that such a competitive environment can have high turnover rates. But there are call center processes that can be automated to boost morale and take some of the drudgery out of it.
Automating mundane, time-consuming, back-office tasks can free call center representatives to focus on the most important thing: handling customer requests. When your team solves issues and uplifts a customer, the joy rubs off on them too.
- Maximize sales revenue
To upsell and cross-sell, representatives require a pitch that’s bulletproof and gets to the heart of the matter. Contact center attended automation can help your sales team to close quicker.
For example, as sales reps are talking with customers, bots can automate onscreen tips, instructions, or even a full script, and pull details from customer files to assist. After a successful pitch, robots can streamline recording the sale, and ensure accurate, timely completion.
- Decrease operating expenses
Keeping costs low is a common challenge that call centers face. While call center automation isn’t going to switch the lights off for you, it can automate call center processes that mitigate the need to hire seasonal staff.
Before you start automating though, you need to identify and locate areas that are ripe for automation. Process discovery can help you do this.
Dial N for Nintex RPA
Nintex RPA attended automation, allows you to maximize call center processes and performance. We lead the industry with the most complete attended automation solution, which boasts a range of features that are ready to drive agent efficiency and productivity.
Guide Me Mode is there to smoothly navigate employees step-by-step through training modules and applications in real-time. Alongside this, Do It Mode performs actions for agents directly upon their request so they can focus on customer, while Sensor technology unobtrusively watches on-screen action to enforce business rules and offer guidance when needed.
Nintex RPA is only one part of the Nintex Platform that pioneers and develops end-to-end process excellence, workflow, and automation products that help organizations achieve digital transformation.
Are you ready to fix your broken call center processes? Schedule a demo now to see how Nintex RPA can streamline your processes end-to-end.
