When economic headwinds arise and the future is uncertain, many brands quickly look to cut spending – and the contact center becomes the main target. Often viewed as a cost center, the contact center often seems like the easiest place to cut expenses – but that can be a costly mistake.
Customer experience (CX) suffers when handle times grow and resolution rates drop, so brands must consider: is it worth cutting costs in the cost center if it’s going to damage brand reputation, frustrate customers and associates alike, and increase churn?
It’s a tricky balance CX organizations must strike, especially when:
- Costs are rising, impacted by inflation and new economic variables
- Achieving great service quality with tighter budgets has never been harder
- Internal teams are stretched too thin, with limited bandwidth
- Supply chain issues and workforce gaps strain CX delivery
To navigate a challenging economy, companies must adapt quickly, improve efficiency, reduce costs, and maintain strong customer experience. With the right tools, people, and strategy, it’s possible to ride out economic headwinds without sacrificing CX.
Make smarter decisions with AI-driven insights
Few things are more costly than uncertainty. When brands aren’t sure where inefficiencies lie, what to do about them, or which tools can help, it costs them time, money, and a lot of headaches.
AI-powered insights can eliminate guesswork and gauge exactly how customers are feeling and how associates are performing, in real time.
Use conversational intelligence to listen to and analyze 100% of interactions. Traditional quality assurance tools capture less than 3% of customer interactions, so brands still relying on those are missing out on valuable insights. New AI-powered tools can listen to conversations, detect when customer sentiment shifts, and even prompt associates with best next steps.
The more brands can understand customers, what they’re looking to achieve, what delights them, and what frustrates them, the better they can meet customers’ needs quickly and improve satisfaction and loyalty. AI-enhanced insights should play a key role in any CX strategy.
Insights don’t just benefit customers; they can improve experience and performance for associates, too. Implement tools that give associates and team leads access to real-time performance data.
With the right AI-powered solutions, team leads get a clear view of where associates are succeeding and struggling, so successes can be replicated and training can be improved and customized as needed. AI also can give associates a holistic view, via real-time dashboards, of their performance compared to benchmarks, goals, and their peers. Having this visibility into their performance can incentivize associates and help them identify strengths and weaknesses.
Associate coaching becomes much more efficient when it’s guided by insights instead of trial and error. A major automaker made its coaching process 53% faster with AI-powered insights.
Take a fresh look at offshoring
Today’s outsourced CX markets are very different than the traditional call center of the past. Brands still clinging to an outdated view of offshoring should reconsider.
Offshore centers in the Philippines and India – along with emerging regions like South Africa, Rwanda, and Egypt – let companies tap into a highly skilled workforce while uncovering significant cost savings. With an educated labor pool and AI-powered tools, these sites offer the same quality CX as onshore centers, at a substantially lower cost.
Traditionally, many brands have struggled to find support in languages they need. The result? Many choose CX locations primarily for language, even if those sites don’t best fit their overall needs. But AI is helping to break down communication barriers.
Real-time accent softening and noise cancellation, for instance, help customers and associates communicate easily, regardless of where in the world they are located. And AI-powered voice translation has evolved to the point where it can serve dozens of languages in real time, translating conversations between associates and customers in less than a second.
These tools are opening the CX world up for brands, geographically and figuratively.
When a major U.S.-based retailer that sells home fitness equipment struggled to keep up with surges in demand around the holiday season, a team of 50 associates based in the Philippines generated 60% cost savings.
No matter where associates are based, harness the power of AI to put the information they need at their fingertips. AI-powered knowledgebases ensure they have quick and easy access to documents and answers they need for fast resolutions.
Give customers the tools to self-serve
In this economy, some brands are seeing an influx of inquiries to the contact center. Deflect the more simple, straightforward ones to chatbots, virtual IVRs, and other self-service tools.
Customers are increasingly comfortable interacting with AI agents and bots, as long as they can easily resolve issues, and self-service lets them find the answers they need on their own time.
According to research by Zendesk:
- Almost one-half of customers think AI agents can be empathetic during interactions
- 70% of CX leaders believe chatbots are becoming skilled architects of highly personalized customer journeys
- 69% of organizations believe generative AI can help humanize digital interactions
As AI agents and bots become more sophisticated and customers grow more comfortable interacting with them, it makes sense to delegate simple tasks to automation and free up associates to focus on nuanced interactions that require a human touch.
With the right automation, companies have cut cost-per-contact by 50% and reached near-perfect CSAT.
Turn change into a CX advantage
Navigating an uncertain economy can be daunting, especially when customer satisfaction and loyalty are on the line and financial pressures are mounting. It may be tempting to make quick decisions that seem like they’ll cut costs and boost efficiencies. But a more thoughtful strategy that prioritizes CX will pay off in the long run.
Tap into expert guidance to make the most of economic unpredictability. Working with a proven CX partner is an easy and cost-effective way to quickly gain access to the global workforce, cutting-edge AI tools, and proven best practices you need to thrive in any economy.
