August 2023: The Community We're Building

The Community We're Building

Depending on who you talk to, the contact center industry is between 470,000 and 2.5 million strong.

That's not an insignificant number of people.

And the reason is simple.

Despite Gartner predicting bots will cut contact center agent costs by $80 billion by 2026, humans continue to prefer interacting with humans.

Whether it's for large or small customer service issues, the dominant majority of customers prefer working with a human service rep over a bot, according to a Hubspot poll.

That's not to say there's not a time and a place for each.

It's only to say that, despite the development of conversational AI tools and Generative AI solutions, the contact center continues to be inherently human.

"Customers are going to value authenticity more than anything else," said Santa Clara University Professor Kirthi Kalyanam . "If generating content is as easy as it has become with ChatGPT, consumers are going to see that a lot of this content is not real. Then the question is, where can you create authenticity? Where can you create emotion? Where can you create trust? These parameters are going to become very critical."

That authenticity, trust, and emotion, is going to come from the positive interactions between your agents and your customers.

Last month, we published an analysis of 65,000+ agent-customer conversations that showed when agents used personalization techniques, it led to higher CSAT and overall performance.

The person-to-person connection matters.

And it's exactly why we are continuing to build a platform to highlight the people who are transforming the contact center every day.

Earlier this month, we introduced Agents of Change, featuring an elite group of contact center leaders driving innovation within their organizations and achieving massive business results.

They were chosen for the work they've done and we'll be sharing their best practices with you in the near future.

Our LinkedIn Live series is bringing you regular conversations with industry experts discussing everything from recession-proofing your contact center to ethical AI to our upcoming deep dive into the data behind high performing agents.

Already, we're seeing a groundswell of interest and engagement as we continue building this platform to highlight the innovators and champions of our industry.

These are the conversations that can't be replicated by robots.

These are the insights that come from overcoming real-world challenges.

These are the people working tirelessly to shape the future of the contact center.

This is the community we're building together.

(Interested in being a guest on our LinkedIn Live series? Message Michael Lowe on LinkedIn or email us at michael.lowe@observe.ai)

Story of Transformation: Leading Insurance Company

This leading direct-to-consumer homeowners insurance technology company delivers fully digital homeowners insurance with an elegant user experience, accurate pricing, and fast, high-quality claims service.

The company wanted a platform that would provide a data-driven approach to training their insurance agents, while also ensuring compliance and offering a more efficient process that would deliver quota attainment improvements for sales.

After implementing Observe.AI, this leading insurance company was able to automatically identify top and bottom performers to prioritize coaching for insurance agents who needed the most guidance, gained a holistic view of the customer conversation while also being able to easily redact account, credit card, and social security details from calls and transcripts, and improved the onboarding program by listening to new hires on calls and immediately supporting them and helping them do better.

This company has improved their conversion and close rates by 10%, leveling up low performers, ensuring compliance, and boosting onboarding programs.

Interested in more on how they did it? Read the full story of transformation here.

Latest Webinar: Ethical AI in the Contact Center: Top Use Cases and Questions for Generative AI

We’ve officially entered the age of Generative AI.

To survive, contact centers must experiment fast, early, and responsibly. But what does it mean to experiment responsibly and how can you identify these opportunities? 

In this webinar, we join  Justin Robbins , Founder & Principal Analyst at Metric Sherpa, as he walks through what ethical AI in the contact center looks like and top use cases and questions surrounding Generative AI.

Upset that you missed it? Don't worry, you can watch the full webinar here.

Latest Contact Center Blogs:

• 5 Security Questions Contact Center Should Ask Before Using GPT and Generative AI
• 4 Tips for Personalizing the Customer Experience - and Boosting CSAT
• Q&A with Justin Robbins: Generative AI Can Transform Your Contact Center, But Where Do You Start?

Upcoming Contact Center Events

• 8/30 - 9/1 Contact.io Conference in Denver, CO
• 10/16 - 10/19 ICMI Contact Center Expo in Orlando, FL
• 10/22 - 10/23 Customer Contact West in Huntington Beach, CA