Anyone who works in the customer service arena has witnessed an explosion in the hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP). Why is this the case? Popular AI tools like chatbots use NLP (or, the ability to understand human language) to interact with customers on a more sophisticated level than the IVRs of old. There is no doubt that these technologies will play an important role within the industry in the years and decades ahead. However, as the hype grows, and the bandwagon gets bigger, it’s easy to become confused.
For those with even one foot in the digital doorway, chances are you may have heard some breaking news around the watercooler at the beginning of 2018: A revival is being planned for a well-known social networking platform: LinkedIn Groups.
First, some perspective: No $20 billion industry changes quickly. Yes, a growing fraction of call center seats are switching to cloud-based offerings. But Avaya, Cisco, and Genesys are still going to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of on-premise call center equipment this quarter (and for many quarters after that). Heck, there are still 300,000 Nortel-era CS1000’s powering 40 million phones out there. So there’s a lot of momentum to overcome.![3 Takeaways from Our Live Discussion on How the Twilio / Amazon ‘Stack’ is Changing the Call Center [Video]](https://fonolo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/3-Takeaways-from-Our-Live-Discussion-on-How-the-Twilio-Amazon-‘Stack’-is-Changing-the-Call-Center-Video.png "3 Takeaways from Our Live Discussion on How the Twilio / Amazon ‘Stack’ is Changing the Call Center [Video]")
Last week, Fonolo hosted an insightful live discussion on how the new Twilio / Amazon “stack” will impact call center technology decisions moving forward. This expert panel discussed the unexpected power couple, the impact on call center innovation, and so much more! To save you some time, we’ve extracted video snippets showcasing highlights from the discussion.
10 months ago, Avaya filed for chapter 11 protection kicking off the largest bankruptcy event in the history of the call center industry. Avaya faced a tough challenge to reach a restructuring agreement with their many debt holders, and to have it done quickly in order to minimize the damage to the brand, and the slow bleed of customers to competitors. Most of the process happened out of the public view, but in the last month, three announcements have revealed the status.
Do you send customers to voicemail when there are not enough agents to handle calls? When hold times are too long? Or as an option regardless of hold times? If so, then thank goodness you’re here, because using voicemail in the contact center can have serious consequences that you might not be aware of. In fact, you’re better off leaving callers on hold!
Call centers are under a lot of pressure to deliver on consumer expectations while keeping costs contained. That central challenge was there even before social media, chat, and email showed up to complicate matters. Those alternate channels have taken some pressure off of voice calls, but the flip side of that is that the calls that do end up with an agent require more time and effort. As a result, many companies still have long wait times to speak to an agent. If you don’t have the budget to staff up, another option you should consider is call-backs.
