FIVE Excellent Use Cases for Real-Time Agent Guidance

Contact centres have a requirement to be at the forefront of innovation, to meet the growing demands of the businesses they support. But they also have to balance that commitment to progress with the pressures they face, including economic uncertainties, changing consumer behaviours, constrained budgets and underinvestment.

Their constant quest is to find innovative solutions that alleviate pressures and deliver operational efficiencies, must also enable the contact centre to deliver exceptional customer experiences.

For the contact centres willing to embrace the latest advancements in technology, those pressures can be reduced or removed. In particular, AI-powered Real-Time Agent Guidance (RTAG) is helping contact centres transform their operations by empowering agents to deliver exceptional customer interactions. This powerful technology provides agents with real-time, contextual guidance and support through every interaction.

In this article, we’ll explore five excellent use cases for Real-Time Agent Guidance that demonstrate the transformative potential for contact centres, no matter what industry they operate in.

What is Real-Time Agent Guidance?

Real-Time Agent Guidance is the process of guiding agents live through every interaction with customers.

It’s a combination of process-driven technologies (such as a unified desktop, automated workflows, and dynamic scripting) and AI-driven agent assistance (such as agent prompts, intent analysis, and call summarisation).

Let’s break the components of that formula down in more detail.

Process-driven agent guidance includes these elements:

• Unified desktop – Data is consolidated in a central point, with no more switching between applications and searching for information.
• Systems connectivity – Seamless integration with existing systems, enabling easy and fast access to the information the agent needs.
• Automated workflows – The most appropriate scripts based on the intelligent workflows are presented at the right time to deliver a seamless experience.
• Dynamic scripting – Guides agents through complex processes and regulatory information removing unnecessary hold times.
• Data capture & Writeback – As customer information is collected it can be moved to another system, such as a CRM.

AI-driven agent assistance includes these elements:

• Live agent prompts – Agents are coached during interactions, with suggestions and reminders to improve performance and customer experience.
• Intent analysis – Identifies customer intent and needs enabling potential issues to be monitored and proactively resolved.
• Entity mapping – Logging critical pieces of information such as a name or address without agents needing to key in information
• AI-powered assistance – Onerous tasks including call summarisation and knowledge base lookups are automated, freeing agents up to focus solely on the customer.

How does Real-Time Agent Guidance help the agent?

Contact centres who have deployed RTAG are empowering their agents to deliver exceptional customer service by making every interaction easier to deal with. Even with complex customer requests, agents are guided in real-time with the next best action increasing their confidence levels and eliminating the pressure of trying to navigate multiple systems and processes.

Here are the three big benefits for agents working with Real-Time Agent Guidance:

1. Saving time with automation

RTAG automates many tasks that agents typically have to manually perform during or after a call including information searches or finding customer details. The time saved on these types of tasks naturally increases the agent’s capacity to take more calls without any added pressure. The agent is free to focus on helping customers and delivering a great experience while RTAG takes care of the rest.

2. Proactive assistance

Real-Time Agent Guidance supports agents through the entire end-to-end process. Even with complex customer requests, they’re guided in real-time to the next best action so they feel confident in their ability to deal with every interaction. The added benefit is that agents only have to be trained on the software, rather than multiple systems and processes which means development time can be spent on more enjoyable soft-skill areas.

3. Guidance through emotionally charged interactions

At some point, all agents have experienced emotionally charged calls. Customers may be angry or upset with something that has happened and the agent often bears the brunt of those feelings. This can be overwhelming and stressful for any agent, but particularly for new hires. RTAG can help agents to de-escalate emotional conversations by providing prompts on how to manage the call. It can also flag where an agent may be struggling emotionally, enabling a leader to step in quickly and support them.

How does Real-Time Agent Guidance help the contact centre?

RTAG isn’t just a tool, it’s a way to truly transform the contact centre operation. The benefits for the business are far-reaching and can include cost reductions, faster updates when processes or regulations change and improved call handling performance.

Here are some of the benefits that are having the biggest impact on contact centres using Real-Time Agent Guidance.

1. Streamlined onboarding and reduced training costs

Our clients have reported saving 50%+ in time spent onboarding new agents because RTAG eliminates the need for extensive training on multiple platforms and processes. This not only expedites agent onboarding but also reduces training costs, enabling contact centres to reallocate resources towards other critical areas.

2. Improved agent retention and bottom line

Real-Time Agent Guidance can improve agent retention rates by 50%, reducing the amount spent on hiring and training new agents. Many agents leave their role because they feel stressed, overwhelmed and unsupported but RTAG can significantly improve the agent experience. When agents feel empowered and confident in their role, they are more engaged and productive, leading to improved retention, customer service and bottom line numbers.

3. Minimising errors and staying compliant

By providing step-by-step guidance and real-time prompts, RTAG prevents agents from making common errors associated with contact centre data entry tasks. Some of our clients have been able to remove an incredible 99% of some types of human error occurrences which has made a huge impact on their operational performance. With regulatory requirements constantly changing and expanding to new areas, Real-Time Agent Guidance also enables agents to stay compliant through every interaction, minimising the risk of breaches and fines.

4. Self-service updates to workflows, scripts and prompts

One of the biggest bottlenecks for contact centres is waiting for systems to be updated when processes or regulations change. With Real-Time Agent Guidance, contact centres have less reliance on their IT department as they can update the platform easily themselves. This agility enables contact centres to adapt quickly, keeping them at the forefront of customer service innovation.

5. Happier customers and improved business growth

When agents are supported and empowered to provide a better service, it not only improves their experience, but also drives up customer service levels. Customer experience is one of the biggest points of differentiation between companies, so a consistently positive reputation for exceptional customer service will help the business to attract and retain more customers.

FIVE excellent use cases for Real-Time Agent Guidance

1. Navigating complex interactions

Complex interactions, including technical support or insurance claims, often pose significant challenges for contact centres. Without a structured process, these interactions can become inconsistent, frustrating for customers and prone to errors.

Real-Time Agent Guidance solves this challenge by: providing agents with step-by-step guidance, so they follow the correct procedures, provide accurate information and resolve issues effectively every single time. This improves customer satisfaction and reduces the likelihood of complaint escalations.

2. Compliance adherence in regulated industries

Industries such as healthcare, finance and telecommunications are subject to stringent regulations, making compliance a critical aspect of contact centre operations. Failure to meet regulatory requirements can result in breaches and large fines.

Real-Time Agent Guidance solves this challenge by: providing real-time prompts, alerts, and guidance so that agents are giving the correct and compliant information. Compliance triggers can be set up that alert and notify managers when compliance is at risk or has been breached, enabling them to take swift action.

3. Providing multi-lingual interactions

With many companies serving customers globally, contact centres need to handle interactions with customers using non-native languages. Language barriers can often lead to misunderstandings and customer frustration which can result in losing them to a competitor.

Real-Time Agent Guidance solves this challenge by: integrating real-time translation capabilities into agent interactions. Contact centres don’t have to try and hire expensive multilingual agents as agents are able to communicate effectively, with customers receiving cutting-edge conversational translations which are more accurate and human.

4. Identify loyal customers and provide relevant offers

Losing customers to competitors is a big challenge for businesses across all industries and a contributing factor to that churn rate is price. Companies that can’t identify and address concerns about price risk losing loyal customers and revenue.

Real-Time Agent Guidance solves this challenge by: empowering agents to provide discounts and offers by analysing customer interactions and detecting the underlying sentiment. RTAG can quickly retrieve customer information, assess loyalty status and prompt the agent with appropriate discounts and offers.

5. Effective objection handling

Objections are an inevitable part of customer interactions but agents can find them difficult and overwhelming to deal with. If agents don’t feel confident on handling and overcoming objections, it can impact their ability to close sales, resolve issues and keep control of calls.

Real-Time Agent Guidance solves this challenge by: equipping agents with helpful prompts to confidently handle objections. When a frequently mentioned objection comes up like competitor mentions or service disruptions, RTAG provides real-time coaching, suggesting effective responses and strategies to overcome objections and maintain positive customer relationships.

Real-Time Agent Guidance from Awaken Intelligence

At Awaken Intelligence we’re pioneers of innovative and flexible software to help you see the complete picture for your contact centre.

Get in touch to arrange a free demo of our Real-Time Agent Guidance solution and see how we are improving the bottom line of 100s of businesses through contact centre optimisation.