How intelligent business communications platforms can free human intelligence

ONE of the most important considerations for businesses, as they strive to squeeze out efficiencies and become more competitive, is understanding that to be relevant and appealing, they need an intelligent business communication platform.

This implies the ability to adapt and react based on real-time insights.

At the heart of having an intelligent communication platform is making sure the customer journey throughout the business is easy and the touch-points are pleasant.

Everyone will have a host of positive and negative experiences. Let’s take a moment to think about the last time we were stuck in a seemingly endless contact-centre vortex as a customer, where every new agent had no idea who we were, what we needed or how to solve our problem.

Those days are ending, precisely because technology and innovation are allowing businesses to release human capacity to be deployed where it is most needed, leaving the mundane tasks to automation because, if we’re honest, machines are far better at that than we are. And so, as technology makes lives easier, human brains can be deployed to manage more complex, nuanced matters.

Where does an intelligent business communication platform start?

It begins with the identity of the person – you’d like to detect your customer’s identity as soon as they contact you, and greet them by name, accurately. This simple move changes the tone of the engagement.

Then, if you’ve had conversations with the user, you want to be able to have immediate access to the context to ensure you have all the insight you need to delight the customer.

Many customers prefer digital interactions in the first instance. One can reference findings from research across the world where people are happy to deal with self-help and bot assistance until they have a complex issue that needs addressing. Here, they want to be transferred to a human – immediately. There’s little use investing in FAQS and automated chatbots when a customer, who has a pressing and complex issue, must insert text and wait.

As time goes on, we will see more and more of this capability emerging. Some sectors, such as financial services, have made great strides in their self-service models, but few allow an instant transfer to a human agent.

This is due to a systems gap, and it requires a host of back-end investments, not least leveraging the capabilities of the cloud. The result is an automated process, with the option of human touch on demand, all by design. We will probably see several trends gaining traction and gathering even more momentum over the next few years.

Breaking down silos

Historically, various systems were handled in silos. Many customer relationship management (CRM) systems can deal with various channels elegantly, just not audio.

On the other hand, cloud-based PBX solutions can deal with all channels but need to communicate effectively with CRM solutions. This requires a balancing act. The thinking over the next few years is going to be around fusing the silos.

Until now, most business communication was over voice and email. Those days are gone.

To be relevant today, a business needs to have the capacity to handle voice and email, but also the highpaced environment of video and chat functionality on social media and the web. The channels all need to work in harmony.

Head in the cloud

The pandemic has accelerated cloud adoption.

This allows companies to leverage more of the applications available in the cloud, such as high-end analytics, including transcriptions and voice-sentiment analysis. The powerful capability immediately enhances a business’s intelligence.

Mobile-first

Another trend we are experiencing is the permanence of working from anywhere, where companies look at a full-time blended, or hybrid, working model. This means there is an increased reliance on mobile-first applications. As businesses seek to develop intelligent platforms, this thinking needs to be considered at the get-go, from the planning phase.

Automation

Automation, which is crucial for scale, could be self-help, easy-to-use applications, or bot-aided assistance for customers, and it may well be that a business needs to automate its business-to-business processes simultaneously. The key, though, is allowing the functionality – at any stage – to hand off to a real person when the user has a complex issue to solve.

Reduce contact centre reliance

Over the next few years, we will also see an increased reliance on operational support systems to enable a seamless digital journey for a customer. At the moment, the function is limited by historical and on-premise legacy architectures. A technological leapfrog needs to occur for businesses to unlock the power of these support systems.

The leap forward to embrace technology, specifically the cloud, will see high-end cloud-feature sets democratise the customer journey landscape and reduce reliance on premise-based contact centres. Cloud applications allow businesses to enjoy the types of features in general communications solutions that were the preserve of high-end contact centres.

Where to from here?

Fibre accessibility is not yet up to par. As remote working increased over the past 18 months, this challenge became apparent as many companies had to fall back on a mobile solution such as 4G, where data costs are exponentially higher. With high data usage, this is not scalable. To achieve the economic dispensation we desire, the population and businesses alike need access to fibre networks. This cannot be overemphasised.

Many companies rely on underlying operational systems that cannot support a digital journey. They either need to work with partners to modify and change the systems where possible or move to new solutions.

Only by making this bold – but necessary – move will they be able to offer self-help and automation and all the other joys of intelligent business systems.

When the decision is made to adopt services from the cloud, businesses must recognise from the outset that there will be a high requirement for interoperability of solutions and systems. Businesses will need access to data, the data will need to be useable across platforms, and it needs to be secure and compliant. From day one, interoperability should be a key attribute to thinking and planning.

A challenge that frustrates many C-suits is that the shift towards automated models is a start-stop process. One often finds that the first-generation iteration of systems can be clumsy. Instead of improving the customer experience, they work against it. The key here is quick regeneration – it is critical that the process is ongoing, so that, as systems evolve, the kinks become fewer and further between.

Finally, a digital transformation journey is just that – a journey. It is a long road, not a flip of a switch. Businesses must choose the right partner to take along for the ride.

Success is often not inherent in the tool itself but rather the service frameworks and service delivery to the organisation. Working through these with a partner that is likely to be around over the long-term is crucial for businesses to unlock the value they desire from intelligent communication platforms.