Post Show: Exhibitor Report by Ozonetel
This blog was provided by Ozonetel
Innovations Driving the Future of Contact Centers
Every year, the Call & Contact Center Expo shines a spotlight on emerging trends and critical conversations around the importance of contact centers. This year, the discussion gained impetus. With two tough years of the pandemic behind us, technology has made rapid strides to meet escalating customer expectations, and companies have some out-of-the-box ideas and never-before challenges to share.
“Calls rated as ‘difficult’ by customer service reps increased by 100% during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Source: Harvard Business Review, 2020 
Today’s changed communication environment Have we ever been so connected with each other? Today the phone is far from being the only channel of communication. In fact, a mobile phone is a personal computer that people can carry anywhere. Today, almost everyone has access to this fast computing and unlimited bandwidth. These pocket computers offer us multiple options and channels for communicating with our friends, family, and the companies we do business with. As a result, brands have new customer touchpoints and a variety of channels to reach out to their customers. And, it doesn't end there. New social and digital channels keep emerging. This ever-increasing noise can be best addressed by AI-based solutions.
“AI is now, it’s happening!
It’s all about the noise. How do I filter through this noise? That’s where AI comes in.” Chaitanya Chokkareddy
Chief Product Officer, Ozonetel Communications
Innovations that are shaping the future of Contact Centers Our Chief Product Officer Chaitanya Chokkareddy, spoke at the Expo about innovations that are helping contact centers meet evolving customer expectations. He also spoke about the role of AI in helping contact centers unify interactions. 
Some of the key focus areas of his talk were: • “Parallel channels” where agents use voice and digital communication channels at the same time. • Unified intelligence where you create a hybrid approach that combines the power of bots with human agents. • Digital avatars and the emergence of the metaverse. • Smart replies and AI-based agent assistants. • New tools to manage at home agents such as screen barge-in recording • Conversational analytics or CA. Conversational Analytics: How CA can help bring the X factor into CX When it comes to customers and their experiences - with you, your brand, and your communication touchpoints – they are definitely talking. But the question is, are you listening? In an era that has all of us connected in some form or the other and a rapidly expanding digitally native customer base, the importance of robust and seamless CX cannot be underestimated. Contact centers are usually one of the defining experiences a customer has with a business. You may have the best product or service on the block, but if customer service is a pain point, all the goodwill is undone. While a seamless chain of communication at the contact center is vital in terms of say, wait times, resolution times, or connectivity, what can be even more valuable for your CX strategy and customer retention is the data you glean from the call center conversations. Let’s say a customer or a (probably even more important) potential customer dials into your contact center. Are you able to extract meaningful insights from these interactions or is it just another recording among the thousands of others that lie untapped? Because let’s face it, with more customers reaching out than ever before, agents are often overburdened, expectations are high and patience is low. Doing more with less - that’s the big challenge in front of contact centers as contact volumes continue to increase and customers’ problems tend to be more complex. Moreover, their expectations in terms of service are higher than ever.
Conversational Analytics - Let’s Talk!
This is where Conversational Analytics comes in. Simply put, Conversational Analytics is a process wherein all live customer conversations are monitored, gathered, and evaluated, often in real-time and ideally with actionable outcomes within the span of the interaction itself. In addition to providing a high-quality live voice or chat experience, newer technologies backed by AI and NLP, make the process more natural, more intuitive, and more efficient.
“Conversational AI bots and NLP can help businesses save up to $1million annually in customer service costs.”
Source: Venture Beat
How does Conversational Analytics provide business value?
Figuring out customer sentiment and intent
Conversational Analytics is so much more than monitoring, say, voice volume. It takes into account language, tone, keywords, etc. NLP and sentiment analysis algorithms can demonstrate to an agent (and to supervisors monitoring the call) where the customer is on the positive to negative emotion spectrum. And the shift from one end to the other as well. These insights enable the agent to take corrective action. It helps supervisors know when to chime in and redirect the conversation. It is also invaluable for gauging whether automated communication suffices or whether it’s time for a live agent to step in. And, timely course correction is a huge factor in reducing customer dissatisfaction. Here are some questions that Sentiment Analysis can answer: • Do longer calls indicate happier customers or customers who perceive your business negatively? • How is sentiment associated with specific agents, groups or teams that consistently deliver high or low customer satisfaction? • How do your customers feel about your most recent marketing campaigns? • How does customer sentiment differ based on the product line? • What are some of the most used phrases that come up consistently during calls reflecting positive sentiment or those with negative sentiment? • Is there a particular day of the week that tends to have the most positive or most negative sentiment? • Are there any shifts in customer sentiment levels? The answers to these questions can translate into high-impact action points. Can your company afford to miss out on them? Absolutely not! Sentiment analysis could actually turn contact centers into customer insights superstars.
Boosting efficiency
“Nearly 90% of respondents report that they have recorded measurable improvements in the speed of complaint resolution, and over 80% have noted enhanced call volume processing using AI.” Source: MIT Technology Review Data from the conversational analysis can bring efficiency to customer service. For instance, it could be used to figure out where problems lie, ease conflict resolution, and help agents get back on track (And, just as importantly, do more of what they are doing right). This could reduce resolution times and lead to healthier interactions that result from informed communication. Generating business
“According to recent research, organizations that leverage customer insights outperform peers by 85 percent in sales growth and by more than 25 percent in gross margin.”
Source: McKinsey It’s quite simple, happier customers mean stronger brand loyalty, higher rates of sales conversions, and far less customer churn. And which business wouldn’t want that! Getting insights that help to join the dots between customer service, your customer’s journey with you to actual conversations, and where the potholes lie is priceless.
Conversations that truly matter
When it comes to creating better customer experiences (and lowering customer churn), why miss out on the one of the most substantial sources of data? Their conversations. Get insights into what they are talking about and understand the when, how, how often, where all, and why. Diving deep into customer sentiment and intent and gathering actionable insights goes a long way to ensuring that businesses create more fruitful and positive experiences, delivering hyper-personalized customer journeys that set them apart from the competition.
“Insights without actions are absolutely useless. If there is no action to resolve customer concerns, then we are spinning our wheels to create shiny dashboards that capture and learn as much as possible, but if there is no action it is useless – no progress is being made in reality.”
Sean Cramer, Director of Voice of the Customer at Google Cloud
To learn more about Ozonetel and other companies like this make sure to attend next year's Call & Contact Center Expo!
Be on the lookout for more information about next year's show!