Contact centre software is increasingly becoming a platform designed to centralise all communication channels for a company. Here we’re referring to phone calls, emails, social networks, etc. Solutions such as these help to adapt to customers’ preferences, offering them the smoothest possible experience. While the contact centre makes it easier for your staff to manage communication, there is a device that can be used in parallel for an optimal scenario resulting in a real reduction in costs: chatbots.
In order to understand how chatbots can help a company to reduce its annual costs, it is first essential to define how chatbots work.
Emerging with the advent of artificial intelligence, chatbots are tools capable of processing large amounts of data. For optimal time savings, they take over from contact centre agents, providing an automated response to a wide range of general queries. This alternative reduces the workload on your staff and provides an immediate response to your customers.
In short, chatbots offer a number of advantages for businesses, when correctly programmed:
How can chatbots reduce the number of contacts handled by call centres? It’s simple. They are formatted to respond to a large number of general queries that customers may have. This allows processing of these queries to be automated, thereby reducing the number of contacts and therefore the demands made on the teams.
Reducing the number of contacts means greater operational efficiency, freeing up staff time to focus on other, parallel tasks with greater added value. Such productivity inevitably leads to a reduction in costs; a cause and effect that we will explain in more detail below.
Chatbots are becoming increasingly powerful, and are now able to respond to a large number of customer queries, offering relevant and satisfactory solutions. In fact, in just a few minutes, and without having to call on your teams, the customer will have an answer to their question, ensuring a significant level of satisfaction. Such efficiency speeds up processing considerably. However, if the chatbot is unable to respond to the customer’s request, the customer will be redirected to an operator.
In most cases, people who use chatbots are satisfied with their interaction and do not feel the need to continue with an operator. In fact, research shows that 71% of customers want to be able to do online everything that they can do in person or over the phone (according to Salesforce’s State of the connected customer, 6th edition). Annual costs are falling thanks to a reduction in operating expenses, both in terms of staff and infrastructure.
