Like a great many of you, as soon as we had some sunny weather recently, I was all set to break out the barbecue. But my plans were soon scuppered when I realised I needed a new can of Calor gas. Undeterred, I checked for local stockists on Calor's website and got on the phone to check who had some available. On each occasion, no-one answered the phone.
So, after multiple failed attempts, I just got in the car and drove to every petrol station in the area until I found someone with Calor in stock. So, our barbecue did happen in the end, but my little adventure actually demonstrates a wider challenge that the retail and hospitality sectors (and others) are facing at the moment.
With retail and hospitality environments, most things have moved online (e.g. bookings, opening hours, or to check stock if click-and-collect is available), but there are still lots of scenarios where people still call up. For example:
"Sorry, I'm running 10 minutes late, but I want to keep my reservation."
"Are you dog friendly?"
"Are you open this bank holiday?"
The challenge here is that many businesses in retail and hospitality (pubs and restaurants, for example) are unlikely to be running dedicated call centres, and their staff are going to be on their feet all day, attending to guests rather waiting by the phone. If a customer can't find the information they're looking for online and isn't able to speak to a member of staff, then their options are to risk it and make a booking or order regardless, continue to wait on hold, or simply take their business elsewhere. None of these options make for a great customer experience.
So, how do we strike the right balance between operational efficiency and that all-important human touch? While it may seem contradictory at first glance, agentic AI potentially holds the answer.
AI agents have improved to the point where their voices are convincing enough to serve as the first point of contact over the phone, just as is now the case on many websites. This way, a caller is greeted straight away by a friendly voice rather than an automated menu or the dreaded on-hold music - an immediate improvement in the overall customer journey. But this is the clever part... Voice recognition and sentiment analysis enable AI agents to make the decision as to whether a call would be best handled by a human agent and, if so, direct the caller to the right person.
So, let's say a restaurant gets a call from someone who wants to make a reservation... The AI agent can automatically check which tables are available, set out the options, and make the booking without a human member of staff needing to get involved. On the other end of the spectrum, if a customer calls with a question that requires a specialist's input or wants to book a party for 100-plus people, these will be directed straight to the appropriate member of staff.
So, when it's applied strategically, with the ideal customer journey in mind, agentic AI offers rich opportunities to optimise customer
contact over the phone in the same way as many organisations are already doing across other channels, not only in terms of making sure someone is there to answer the phone, but also making sure their desired result is achieved as seamlessly as possible.
When AI agents manage customer interactions in the way describe above, they're not only capable of intelligently routing the conversation, but also transcribing it, pruning anything irrelevant (small talk, for example), and uploading the whole thing to the CRM system - something that would not be practical to do manually, even for dedicated contact centre teams. This can be combined with interactions across other channels to build deep customer profiles that can support personalised marketing, as well as practical things like automated reminders about reservations, or when a requested item has come back in stock.
This also opens up new ways to measure agent performance and wellbeing, ensuring everyone is delivering the expected quality of service, and customer satisfaction targets are consistently met. By analysing the data gathered throughout customer interactions across all channels, trends can be identified, successes built upon, and measures put in place to remedy any recurring problems, such as providing additional training or support where necessary.
There's understandably a lot of hype around AI platforms right now, but customer contact is one of the areas where it is most definitely proving truly transformative, ensuring that customers are always able to make contact through whichever channel they prefer, and enjoy seamless, stress-free resolutions. When we step back and take an objective look at the different points of contact with customers, we will get a clearer understanding of where agentic AI can add the greatest value, adapting to the technology to suit our customer service goals rather than the other way around.
Finally, some food for thought... Someone recently created an AI chatbot to call every pub in Ireland and enquire about the cost of a pint of Guiness, using this data to generate a price map of the whole country. How many of those interactions already involved bots talking to bots, and how likely is this to become a standard part of business' customer interactions? Interesting times for the entire sector for sure.
If you're interested in exploring potential opportunities to implement agentic AI, or any other aspect of your customer contact systems and processes, just get in touch (even by phone, if you prefer!).
Exponential-e & Retail
Our Retail brochure offers a comprehensive overview of how we draw on a deep understanding of the sector's singular challenges, an evolving technology ecosystem, and a highly consultative approach to offer bespoke solutions that help staff deliver their best for every customer - both online and in person.
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