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Upstream Works Looks To AI To Help Agents Help Customers


TTEC EMEA has been a partner of Upstream Works for many years. Upstream Works has spent the past 15 years innovating how contact centres function. Their software is known for being focused on real business problems and they take pride in the fact that two thirds of all the features in their current system were requested directly by customers of the software.

They recently published a major new announcement that I think is worth some attention. Upstream Works just announced a new suite of Artificial Intelligence (AI) application integration capabilities and cloud offerings.

The focus is on supporting agents in contact centres. Upstream Works calls it “Helping AI Help Agents” through AI application integrations that continue to break down the silos that inhibit efficient customer service.

The Upstream Works’ Virtual Agent Portal lets a business use AI applications to provide real-time guidance and boost agent and contact center performance. A new email API feature allows any email in queue to be preprocessed by a dedicated AI application to off-load low value responses and improve agent response times. Upstream Works Desktop 5.0 also provides streamlined upgrades, optimized system performance and enables remote agent access flexibility. Finally, Upstream Works is offering new omnichannel cloud SaaS solutions for Cisco UCCX and xCCE deployments, all available on Cisco SolutionsPlus.

This is all pretty exciting. It’s a complete suite of tools that can accelerate how agents work, offering support and immediate help to customers. The AI becomes like a virtual assistant - an extra pair of hands helping the agent before they help the customer in person.

In the office press release Rob McDougall, CEO of Upstream Works, said: “We strive to improve the agent experience and adding new AI capabilities can easily start back down the road to desktop complexity.” He added: “AI technology will play a significant role in customer care, and we are continuing to innovate and provide agents with the tools they need to simplify their workflows, increase first contact resolutions (FCR) and improve the overall customer experience.”

It’s proven that to deliver a superior customer experience you need agents that are engaged and interested in what they are doing. If they have these tools helping them perform better then that’s a recipe for improved employee and customer experience. Employees stuck with clunky systems, cutting and pasting from one database to another, and greeted by frustrated customers that have been left on hold is the exact scenario this technology should bypass.

The agent experience defines the customer experience so I believe that these advances from our partner, Upstream Works, will help our own team to deliver better solutions. Engaged and supported employees lead to satisfied customers.

Naturally all our present and future clients at TTEC EMEA can benefit from the advances being made by Upstream Works. Let me know what you think about this new update or just get in touch directly via my LinkedIn here.