It’s a fair question, will chatbots eliminate call center jobs? After all, artificial intelligence is getting better and major technology companies from Google to Facebook to Microsoft are investing in ways for businesses to automatically respond to customer inquiries. By 2020, Gartner predicts that this type of intelligent automation will manage 85 percent of businesses’ customer relationships.
I tackled this question in a VentureBeat column last month, and wanted to take the opportunity in this forum to provide some additional data and context that couldn’t be squeezed into the column.
1. So why will chatbots have difficulty replacing phone calls?
First off, chatbots will replace some types of phone calls. Google and other publishers provide easy access to hours, directions and products such that consumers no longer need to call for these items.
It’s easy to imagine some of the places where chatbots can make additional inroads – such as “is this product in stock” or “how much does it cost” or “what colors does it come in”?
However, this is really just the tip of the iceberg for many types of purchase decisions. Take an auto repair, for example – here are the questions that tend to come up in nearly every call.
- I am having trouble with the ‘XYZ’ on my car? Here’s what it sounds like.
- I need help figuring out what’s wrong.
- Do you have a certain part in stock?
- Can you service my car if I provide parts?
- Do you service this make/model of car?
- How much does that cost?
- How long will it take to fix?
- Do you provide warranty on parts/labor?
- Do you have availability for appt?
- Do you have a loaner car?
There are other types of calls that are looking for advice. Imagine calling about a vacation package and seeking the advice of someone who has been there. These are the types of conversations that lead to sales for highly considered purchases.
2. Why are most businesses increasing their call center seats?
The data here comes from Forrester, who asked more than 1,000 contact center decision makers if they expect the number of seats to change in the next 12 months. Thirteen percent of respondents indicated that seats would increase by more than 10% and fifty-one percent indicated that seats would increase between 5% and 10%. Just six percent of respondents expected a decline.
But it begs the question “why”?
We’ve explored this topic before, when analyzing the reasons behind the US call center comeback.
When communication exchange is simple and easy to follow, customer experience is improved and the likelihood of making a sale increases. Marchex Call DNA uncovered that although the domestic call centers we studied had better conversion rates to sales, there was a statistically significant difference in agent speech time such that offshore agents required 40 seconds more to communicate the same product information to a consumer, t(7798)=8.84, p<.001. This suggests that domestic agents efficiently explained the products and services that they offer, making them easier to follow, and optimizing the caller’s experience.
Put another way, onshore staff can more easily communicate with US consumers than offshore staff, which has a measurable impact on sales. In addition, hold time is a negative drag on sales. Also from the article:
It is fairly obvious that when consumers are subject to long hold times they are more likely to be frustrated or hang-up the phone. Using Call DNA, we found that there was a statistically significant difference in hold time between domestic and offshore call centers in the same industry, such that the average offshore call center hold time was about 1 minute and 15 seconds longer than the average domestic call center hold time, t(8552)= 10.12, p<.001.
And ultimately, that’s the reason why businesses are investing. More, high-quality representatives that answer the phone quickly leads to higher sales. In fact, numerous studies have shown that improving over-the-phone sales efficiency increases sales by 10%-20%. We explored some of the simple steps businesses can take earlier this year.
3. What is the business impact of being friendly?
In the marketing community there is a ton of discussion around the human era or post-digital era. They both “point to an attitude that is more concerned with being human, then with being digital”. Put another way, creating an authentic, human connection with consumers is seen as critical to customer experience, loyalty, and ultimately revenue.
So… can a chatbot be friendly and authentic? I’ve leave that for you to decide, but we did an interesting study earlier this year where we compared the sales rate of phone calls where an agent answered the phone with a warm greeting with the sales rate of phone calls where an agent did not.
The results are pretty amazing – a warm greeting produced a much higher sales rate.