The battle lines are drawn. On one side, we have contact agents who provide real human experience. On the other, we have AI automation making things easier, faster, and more objective.
For contact agents, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) poses a clear and present threat to their job security and emotional well-being. Making matters worse, many companies don’t acknowledge their fears and figure it’s just how things are. The idea is - contact agents should just deal with reality and keep doing their job. A company that behaves like this hurts itself - right where it hurts most - the bottom line.
On the one hand, adopting AI-powered tools by businesses to increase efficiency and reduce costs is necessary if any business is to stay viable with the upcoming AI transformation. Most, if not every company understands this. On the other, if businesses aren't careful, they can experience serious blowback from adopting AI and treating contact agents like they should just get on with it. It starts with a loss of customers and can end in a bad reputation that could carry over for years.
Should your company be concerned?
Yes, with Contact agents who provide customers with lousy service. Not that they do it intentionally. Although they might. If contact agents feel scared and distressed about their situation, customers will sense this. Just as AI picks up on the tone of voice and intention – so does the human ear. You can monitor all the recordings and set all sorts of scripts and templates for situations. But if you don’t deal with the root cause, the problems will continue to seep in. Namely, maybe you don’t care about your contact agents, and because of that, your contact agents don’t care about your customers. Your customers will know. When contact agents see their coworkers and friends getting dismissed and replaced with AI, they feel nasty. They can’t help but ask, “Am I next?” They're not exactly going to be empathetic to your customer's needs, with the looming threat of machines replacing their jobs. Even if they want to be.
Your customers are going to feel that emotional undercurrent in the voice and it’ll drive them away. So, before this becomes a problem, you can take steps to not only prevent it but give your contact agents a reason to look forward to coming to work.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Identify tasks that can be done collaboratively with AI-powered tools.
Too often we look at AI and humans thinking they need to do 2 separate tasks. But in reality, they can work together to create a more efficient, happier, and healthier work environment.
- Ensure AI-powered tools are implemented to augment and support contact agents, not replace them.
It might get to the point where you need to replace human agents with AI. When the time comes you can address that. But right now, just deal with the tasks that humans don’t do well. Too often companies replace tasks that humans are good at with AI. And then the company leaves the automated tasks to people. That’s just dumb.
A perfect example of this is invoicing and chatbots. Invoicing is often an automated task that AI can excel in. Instead of having humans solve it, let AI handle it. And although chatbots might sound cool and be nice a way to lighten the customer service load, it’s often better to leave this to the human agents. Find weak points in repetitive tasks and use simple automation with AI to replace them.
Often agents know where they need and don't need help. In this way, AI can be of service and be part of the answer rather than a point of conflict.
- Offer additional training and certification opportunities to contact agents to become hybrid agents.
There are often low-code, no-code options for contact agents. Writing for chatbots and controlling the AI processes. Hybrid positions like these offer great opportunities for contact agents to become hybrid agents and realize they can do more.
- Provide resources and support for contact agents struggling with adapting to new workflows.
You might think it’s just your agents who are struggling with the new AI workflows. They aren’t the only ones. Throughout all industries, AI is causing disruptive changes. Contact agents need support and time to understand these new processes just like anyone else. It isn’t just about getting with the program. It’s about understanding the program and seeing how it fits into their work.
- Implement strategies for businesses to balance AI benefits with human contact.
This is long-term planning, but even Amazon (one of the pioneers of AI and automation) still uses contact agents in communicating with customers (I recently spoke with Audible, an Amazon company, about my subscription.)
- Encourage and prioritize meaningful and authentic interactions between customers and contact agents.
As businesses continue to adopt AI-powered tools, it's essential to recognize that AI can never replace the human touch that contact agents bring to the job. The value of human interaction in customer service cannot be overstated. Customers appreciate emotional connections they can form with their contact agents – make that as part of your strategy. Machines simply can’t do this. When you provide the necessary support, training, and resources, your business can help your employees become more valuable and adaptable to the changing demands of the industry as a whole.