Agent Assist: The Foundation of the Knowledge-Based Contact Centre

Published 29/05/24 under:

Timely support and automated wrap-up works put contact centre agents in a better position to succeed. No more searching and memorising information or note-taking distractions during conversations. Leaving more time to personalise service and delight customers. Get the inside track on the growing role of AI-enabled agent support solutions. 

The ceaseless information hunt 

Locating, assimilating, and using information during live customer interactions can be challenging and is rarely seamless. The following table shows the myriad of knowledge sources that agents typically must navigate. 

Source: ContactBabel, The Inner Circle Guide to AI-Enabled Agent Assistance, 2024.

Making it easier to find fast answers 

Operated from within the standard Genesys Cloud desktop, Agent Assist significantly reduces this cognitive load on agents working in increasingly difficult and time-constrained situations. For example, when supporting large diverse product and service offerings, or needing to relay detailed technical guidance. 

New easy-to-use capabilities introduced by Genesys Agent Assist include: 

• Surfacing helpful articles and FAQ content which agents can use to steer or copy and paste directly into emails or messages.  
• Automating post-interaction tasks and summarising conversations, releasing agents to concentrate on the customer rather than worry about note taking. 
• Improving performance of bots and other self-service tools through better creation and organisation of articles into an AI-powered knowledge base, 
• Capturing 100% of all agent feedback (rather than just a sample), making it easier to augment knowledge bases, while improving searchability and usability. 
• Identifying customers with persistent unsolved problems requiring extra attention and negatively affecting the customer experience. 

The win-win result sees agents empowered to resolve more customer issues first time, every time — on the phone and via digital channels including web messaging, SMS, Facebook, and WhatsApp conversations. 

Benefits mapping

Historically, CX insights and learning points have been restricted to post-call reviews. Agent Assist offers timely, effective support during live conversations, in a highly scalable and cost-effective way. At the same time, updating knowledge bases available to humans and self-service solutions using an automated feedback loop that’s constantly improving based on actual outcomes. 

CX Challenge	How Agent Assist helps
Excessive handling and time spent on post-work duties	Pulls up relevant information and suggests next-best action based on the customer’s history, sentiment, propensity towards offers, and style of conversation they may prefer.  Standardises wrap-up processes and automatically produces call summaries. These can be personalised by the agent and forwarded onto the customer to show understanding and action.   KPIs positively impacted: Average handling time (AHT); first contact resolution (FCR); queue time; call abandonment rates; cost-per-call; CSAT; NPS.
Too many repeat calls	Improves FCR by providing the right information at the right time (without having to navigate multiple screens), especially useful for inexperienced agents.  Ensures the agent has followed all the correct procedures – for example, reading out contract details and automating data entry – thereby reducing the risk of repeat calls due to human error.   KPIs positively impacted: AHT; FCR; queue time; call abandonment rates; cost-per-call; CSAT; NPS.
Costly and ineffective QA and coaching	Introduces scorecards based on 100% of calls and digital interactions, improving data accuracy and training and eLearning techniques.  KPIs positively impacted: call quality; coaching cost and lead time; compliance rates.
Lack of personalisation means opportunities are missed	Listens into live conversations to understand context and intent, then provides the agent with strategies and information relevant to the customer’s particular issue.  KPIs positively impacted: cross-sell/upsell success rates; CSAT; NPS.

Getting the best from Agent Assist 

Successful deployments share the same key traits as most AI-based strategies. The following steps should help avoid pitfalls: 

1. Vision: Clear goals aligned with business strategy and customer experience.
2. Foundation: High-quality data, robust infrastructure, and flexible architecture.
3. People: Focused on empowering and crafting seamless agent and customer experience.
4. Ethics: Responsible AI with transparency, fairness, and data privacy.
5. Growth: Continuous monitoring, feedback loops and agile iteration for lasting success.

In addition, Kerv specialists are on hand to help plan, execute and continuously improve ROI from Genesys investments. Interested in finding out more? Read the full independent Contact Babel report on AI-enabled Agent Assistance.