AI technology

22
Mar
Talkbot Basics  ·  Voice AI Technology
Transform your operations with voice AI technology
Jennifer Zhang

Jennifer Zhang

CEO & Co-Founder

Events in recent years have accelerated digital transformation across the globe. More than ever, businesses see the importance of leveraging digital technologies to stay competitive in today’s rapidly evolving landscape. These same businesses are embracing new digital tools to improve operational efficiency, enhance customer experiences, and drive growth.

One of the key technologies driving digital transformation is artificial intelligence (AI). With this technology, tasks that traditionally require human intelligence, such as recognizing speech, understanding natural language, and making decisions based on data, can now be – to some degree – outsourced to machines. From automating repetitive tasks to delivering personalized customer experiences, AI is transforming the way businesses operate and engage with their customers. In particular, voice AI has emerged as a powerful tool for improving customer experiences and optimizing business processes.

Here are some of the benefits of voice AI in three specific business areas – sales and marketing, customer service and support, and personalization and user experience.

Voice AI for sales and marketing

Adopting voice AI solutions can have significant impact in sales and marketing. Conversational AI can be used to power voice bots that can engage with customers through voice calls. In the case of WIZ Talkbots, these conversations can even be initiated in the user’s local language.

Voice AI-powered bots are especially useful in handling large volumes of outbound lead generation calls. Through automation, Talkbots can handle up to 10 million calls in an hour, exponentially growing a brand’s reach through telemarketing.

Businesses can also improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through voice AI adoption, thanks to the rich data which AI engines can extract from recorded calls. Analytics from voice data can help brands identify customer preferences and tailor product recommendations and marketing messages accordingly. This can, in turn, help businesses increase their conversion rates and generate more revenue.

Voice AI for customer service and support

AI-powered Talkbots can also be used to answer and triage inbound calls, providing customers with instant assistance and support. With voice AI, businesses can provide their customers with 24/7 support without the need for human intervention. Voice AI can handle a range of customer service tasks, from answering simple queries to helping customers troubleshoot technical issues. This can significantly reduce the response time for customer queries and complaints, leading to improved customer satisfaction. Furthermore, voice AI can handle a high volume of queries simultaneously, reducing the need for human agents to handle simple and repetitive queries.

Voice AI in customer service can also provide more personalized support. By analyzing customer data and behavior, voice AI can identify individual customer needs and preferences, and provide customized solutions. This level of personalization can help to build a strong relationship between the customer and the business, leading to improved customer loyalty and retention.

By providing round-the-clock support, personalized assistance, and quick response times, voice AI can help businesses to meet the evolving needs and expectations of their customers.

Voice AI for personalisation and user experience

The previous use cases have shown how voice AI technology can drive hyper-personalization. But there are other instances where personalization can come into play. Voice AI has the ability to adapt to different contexts and situations, providing more appropriate responses based on the user’s location, time of day, and other contextual factors. This helps build a more seamless and intuitive experience and a stronger connection between users and brands, leading to improved customer loyalty and retention.

In general, leveraging analytics from voice data can help businesses to create more engaging and intuitive interactions, leading to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Voice AI for general operations

Voice AI is not limited to the above scenarios, and can be used to optimize a lot of internal business processes. For example, it can be used to automate repetitive tasks such as call transcription, tagging, and data entry, freeing up employees to focus on more complex tasks. In almost all use cases, voice AI can help businesses to increase their revenue, improve customer satisfaction, and optimize their internal processes. By leveraging the power of voice AI to deliver personalized experiences and engaging interactions, businesses can stay ahead of the competition and meet the evolving needs and expectations of their customers.

Voice AI can be a key step in the digital transformation of your call operations. If you need more guidance, speak with one of our business executives today.
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10
Mar
Talkbot Basics  ·  Voice AI Technology
Voice AI: The future of proactive customer service
Jennifer Zhang

Jennifer Zhang

CEO & Co-Founder

In recent years, proactive customer service has emerged as a game-changer in the world of customer experience (CX). Instead of waiting for customers to report issues or complaints, businesses are taking a more proactive approach by reaching out to customers with relevant information, personalized recommendations, and real-time support. This shift towards proactive customer service is driven by changing customer expectations and the growing availability of AI-powered tools and technologies.

Benefits of proactive service

There are several benefits to adopting a proactive customer service approach. According to Statista, 70% of consumers have a more favorable view of brands that contact them with proactive customer service. This translates to a 5% increase in customer retention over a 12-month period, according to a report by Enkata. And it’s not just brand perception that gets a boost; companies that engage in proactive customer service have reported a reduction in customer service call volumes by up to 30 percent, which contributes to a 25 percent reduction in operating costs. Let’s look at these benefits one by one.

  1. Improved customer experience. Proactive customer service anticipates and addresses customer needs before they become problems. By providing relevant information, personalized recommendations, and real-time support, businesses can demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction and build stronger relationships with their customers.
  2. Reduced operational cost. Businesses save time and resources with proactive customer service by reducing the need for reactive support. Because issues are identified and resolved before they get escalated, businesses can minimize the number of support tickets or calls they receive, freeing up staff time for more high-value tasks. This leads to increased efficiency and productivity, as well as cost savings.
  3. Increased customer loyalty and retention. When customers feel that a business is proactively looking out for their best interests, they are more likely to stay loyal and recommend the business to others. Reports indicate that proactive service increases customer retention by up to 5% per year. This can lead to repeat purchases, and ultimately, business growth.
  4. More customer insights. Proactive customer service is a great opportunity to solicit feedback on products and services. It also presents opportunities to dig deeper into user motivations and preferences. Businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their customers and use that knowledge to deliver even more personalized and effective customer experiences.

Using AI to power proactive service

To reap maximum benefits from proactive customer service, businesses need a way to scale its outbound call operations. This is where voice artificial intelligence (AI) comes in. Businesses can leverage voice AI technology to provide automated, personalized, and context-aware customer interactions. Voice AI systems can also identify opportunities for proactive engagement and deliver targeted messages or offers, thanks to advanced analytics. Fed with rich data, businesses can proactively serve customers with relevant and timely information that improves user experience.

Call-based voice assistants could remind a customer about an upcoming appointment, suggest a new product based on their previous purchases, or offer personalized discounts. This not only improves customer experience but also increases the chances of repeat purchases and customer loyalty.

Personalizing interactions with analytics

In addition to automating customer outreach, voice AI technology can also use predictive analytics to anticipate customer needs and deliver proactive solutions. For example, if a customer frequently asks about a specific product feature, a voice assistant could proactively offer additional information or training on that feature. This not only improves customer experience but also reduces the need for reactive support, saving time and resources for both the customer and the business. 

Voice AI technology can also provide insights into customer sentiment and satisfaction. By analyzing tone, language, and other factors, voice AI systems can identify when a customer is experiencing frustration or dissatisfaction and take proactive steps to resolve the issue. For example, if a customer expresses frustration with a product or service, a voice assistant could offer to connect them with a customer support representative or escalate the issue to a higher priority. 

Voice AI technology can enable businesses to deliver proactive customer service at scale, tailored to individual needs and preferences. As voice AI technology continues to evolve, it is likely that we will see even more innovative and effective applications for proactive customer service.

Want to ramp up your proactive customer service? Book a call with one of our business executives.
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02
Mar
Talkbot Basics  ·  Voice AI Technology
Build richer customer profiles by unlocking hidden preferences with AI
Jennifer Zhang

Jennifer Zhang

CEO & Co-Founder

The surge of interest in artificial intelligence (AI) brought about by the launch of GPT-3 – the engine behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot – has gotten more businesses exploring possibilites in AI technology. One of the more obvious benefits of AI technology is its ability to analyze large amounts of data quickly and accurately. Voice AI pushes this boundary even further by converting unstructured voice data into structured datasets.

Voice AI can capture a wide range of data points, including the customer’s tone of voice, sentiment, and the specific words or phrases they use. This data can provide businesses with insights into customer preferences, needs, and behaviors, depending on how deep and well you dig into the information. One key ingredient in unlocking and enhancing customer interactions is what the AI training world calls intents.

Voicing out customer intents

Intents play a crucial role in AI technology, particularly in voice AI systems. Intents are essentially the goals or purposes of a user’s spoken or written input. They can be signalled by specific words or picked up contextually, and are used by AI engines to determine what action should be taken in response. In other words, intents help AI systems understand what a user wants or needs, allowing them to respond appropriately.

For example, if a user asks a voice assistant to play a song, the intent of their input is to request music playback. The voice assistant’s AI technology recognizes this intent and responds by playing the song that was mentioned. Similarly, if a user asks a bot for recommendations on a particular category of product, the intent of their input is to seek advice on product choices. The bot’s AI technology recognizes this intent and, taking cues from previous interactions, responds with personalized product recommendations.

Intents are typically defined using natural language understanding (NLU) models, which are trained on large datasets of human language to identify and classify intents accurately. NLU models use a combination of techniques, such as machine learning algorithms and semantic analysis, to interpret the meaning behind a user’s input and identify the intent accurately.

Getting intents right enables businesses to provide more accurate and personalized interactions between users and machines. By understanding users’ intentions, AI systems can provide more effective responses, improving the overall user experience and increasing user engagement.

Discovering what customers like

Voice AI can discover hidden customer preferences by picking nuances and taking note of them into customer profiles. These extra data points can help paint a more complete picture of customers, enabling businesses to better personalize customer journeys. Here are some ways voice AI engines can pick up hidden cues from call data.

  1. Tone of voice analysis – Just as human agents can sense a customer’s emotional state through their tone of voice, voice AI engines can also be trained to pick up these signals through changes in pitch or speed of talking. When a bot detects that a customer is agitated, it can switch to a more soothing or calming tone to reassure customers. If the customer shows a persistent pattern of getting agitated, this can signal a preference to speak with a human agent. Talkbots can use mellow speaking tones during initial interactions, then hand off the interaction to a human agent who has high empathy and emotional intelligence.
  2. Sentiment analysis – Voice AI technology can analyze the sentiment of customer interactions, categorizing them as positive and negative experiences based on how the customers respond. This information can provide businesses insights into areas where they need to improve, as well as how, when, and in which channels customers prefer to be spoken to.
  3. Natural language processing – By leveraging natural language processing, AI can attribute meaning to customer statements, even when they use colloquial language or non-standard grammar. As bots engage with customers, the AI engine begins to develop its understanding of certain expressions and can classify specific words or phrases as having positive or negative connotations. As the patterns are strengthened through various interactions with different customers, the bot can then refine its future interactions.
 

Building better customer profiles with data

All these tools enable AI assistants to collect data from every interaction. While humans may struggle to record, analyze, and interpret vast amounts of data from call recordings, voice AI engines can transcribe, process and analyze customer interactions in a matter of minutes. This analytic capacity enables businesses to identify patterns and trends in customer behavior that may not be picked up in a timely manner, or even altogether missed.

The ability of voice AI engines to collect data on customer interactions is proving to be more and more useful in building up robust customer profiles. helping build more robust customer profiles. This, in turn, helps create more personalized customer experiences and tailored marketing, which ideally improve customer satisfaction.

We are just starting to build our capabilities in AI technology. As large language models continue to become more sophisticated and AI neural engines more accurate, intent recognition will continue to improve. Ultimately, this will lead to even more seamless and personalized interactions between users and machines, creating experiences that customers will not just enjoy, but also remember.

Capture even more information from customer engagements with WIZ.AI Talkbots. To learn how our data analytics can help you understand your customers better, schedule a call with one of our consultants.
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22
Feb
Talkbot Basics  ·  Voice AI Technology
How AI technology can help call centers up their game
Jennifer Zhang

Jennifer Zhang

CEO & Co-Founder

Call centers play a critical role in shaping customer experiences – many, if not most, of customer queries get routed to a contact center. These business units are also often the ones who do a lot of customer outreach, promoting new offers or enlisting new customers. With so much customer interface, it makes sense to focus on amping up contact center operations.

Relieving call center pain points with AI

Unfortunately, these centers face a range of challenges that can impact customer experience, agent performance, and overall business outcomes. Many of these pain points are operational and demand more flexible, intelligent solutions. Here are some problems call centers encounter, and how solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can help reduce or solve them.

  1. High Call Volumes – Call centers don’t handle the same volume of calls day-in and day-out. Many contact centers experience high call volumes during periodic moments, or even unexpectedly – such as during a service outage. The problem comes when contact centers are not equipped or designed to handle these peak loads. Many call centers are resourced by humans, which have a finite capacity and can only answer a fixed number of calls a day. Because of this lack of resource elasticity, customers end up having long wait times during peak seasons. This degrades the customer experience and builds frustration instead of loyalty.
    To help with peak loads, AI-powered chatbots and voice assistants can handle basic customer queries. This frees up live agents, giving these agents the time and capacity to focus on the more complex calls. Customers, in turn, gain the attention and level of service that they need for their queries.
  2. Inconsistent Customer Service – One of the hardest things to get right in call centers is consistency in service quality. The goal is to provide excellent service to all customers all the time, but even your best agent will have bad days. And your workforce is made of different individuals with varying capacities, so the way these individuals provide customer service will vary, too. One way to overcome this inconsistency is to rely on machines. Voice AI can respond to customer queries in a standardized way, ensuring that every customer receives the same level of service. And the interactions don’t need to sound robotic – WIZ.AI can design voice AI bots that speak in your local language, putting your customers at ease.
  3. Agent Burnout – Call center agents often face the brunt of customer frustrations, fielding a large number of complaints or trying to help anxious customers address issues. They may also be fielding a high volume of repetitive calls that drain them, making them feel like they’re stuck in a negative loop. Human agents can be freed of tedious and repetitive tasks or queries through the help of AI-powered chatbots and voice bots. These machine-enabled agents can take care of routine customer queries, easing the workload and pressure off human agents. Using AI-powered bots also enables agents to focus on more complex issues and deliver higher-quality service to customers.
 

Getting further ahead with efficiency gains

Outside of the handling of calls, AI technology provides other benefits, too. Using AI bots reduces the time and resources needed for agent training and onboarding. Because AI agents are already programmed, adding one is just a matter of allocating additional computing resources – which can be done as quickly as one hour. What’s more, companies can leverage AI’s consistent delivery to train new human agents. AI engines can identify trainee errors and provide coaching to improve delivery. This system can even be extended into regular quality control checks to ensure consistency in service across teams.

Then there are the savings incurred. AI-powered agents are more cost-effective because these can handle more calls per hour compared to human agents. Redialling of uncontacted numbers is done automatically, and transcription is practically real-time. This saves businesses time and money, enabling contact centers to reassign human agents to higher-value tasks such as closing sales or providing VIP assistance.

Reaping the benefits of human-bot collaboration

Contrary to some fears, AI will not replace humans – no matter how well-programmed they are. Well-designed voice AI agents can actually help boost contact center performance, bringing the service of human agents to the next level. Voice AI solutions like WIZ Talkbots can help create better customer experiences and more efficient operations. Used in the right way, AI technology can help alleviate many of the pain points that contact centers face, thereby improving customer experience, reducing costs, and increasing efficiency.

WIZ.AI Talkbots can bring your contact center from good to great. Schedule a call with one of our consultants to see how your operations can benefit from voice AI technology.
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15
Feb
Talkbot Basics  ·  Voice AI Technology
Compete – and win – by delivering amazing customer experiences
Jennifer Zhang

Jennifer Zhang

CEO & Co-Founder

In today’s competitive landscape, customer experience has become a key differentiator for businesses. Customers now have access to more options than they had in all of history – and they’re mostly available at their fingertips. Companies must now work harder than ever to stand out, and part of that differentiation is through crafting a memorable customer experience.

Customer experience (CX) encompasses all interactions a customer has with a business, from researching products to post-purchase support. By providing a positive customer experience, businesses can increase customer loyalty and retention, improve their brand reputation, and drive revenue growth. On the other hand, a negative customer experience can lead to a loss of business and harm to a company’s reputation. In a PwC report, we read that 59% of consumers in the United States will walk away after several bad experiences, 17% after just one bad experience.

In addition, customer experience has become a key factor in purchasing decisions. The same PwC report indicates that 73% of consumers consider experience as the third most important factor in purchasing decisions, after price and quality. Multiple surveys in the past ten years have also shown that customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. That trend is unlikely to change course; in fact, it will only accelerate. Businesses that invest in creating a seamless, personalized, and consistent experience across all touchpoints are more likely to delight customers and keep them loyal. With customer experience becoming increasingly important, businesses need to focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences in order to stay ahead of the competition.

Creating better experiences with AI technology

One way to compete – and gain advantage – in the CX space is through the smart use of technology. AI-powered solutions have the potential to significantly improve customer experience in a number of different ways. Here are some of them.

  1. 24/7 support: Voice AI solutions can provide 24/7 support to customers, without the need for human intervention. This can help improve the customer experience by providing instant and efficient support, reducing wait times and improving response times. According to a report by Salesforce, 64% of customers expect companies to respond in real-time.
  2. Improved customer insights: AI-powered voice solutions can help businesses gather valuable customer insights, by analyzing voice interactions and identifying patterns and trends in customer behavior. This can help businesses improve their products and services, and tailor their marketing strategies to better meet customer needs.
  3. Personalized interactions: With deeper customer insights, brands can better provide personalized interactions based on unique customer preferences and behavior. A more tailored and relevant experience to each individual customer creates a sense of being valued, and increases appreciation for the brand.

As AI technology continues to advance, businesses that prioritize the use of AI in their customer experience strategies are likely to see increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue growth.

Investing in customer experience creates win-win scenarios

Focusing on CX can increase brand loyalty and customer retention. Customers who have a positive experience with a company are more likely to return and do business with that company again. By making the effort to provide a consistently positive experience at every touchpoint, businesses can build trust with their customers and foster long-term relationships that are crucial for sustained success.

Prioritizing customer experience can also improve a company’s brand reputation and generate customer advocacy. Happy customers are more likely to recommend a company to their friends and family, leading to an increase in word-of-mouth referrals and organic growth. A strong brand reputation and positive customer reviews help attract new customers and build trust in the marketplace.

The benefits of focusing on customer experience are clear. By prioritizing customer satisfaction and delivering a consistently positive experience at every touchpoint, businesses can build customer loyalty and retention, improve their brand reputation, and drive revenue growth. The investment in delivering a high-quality customer experience can pay dividends in the form of increased customer lifetime value and a stronger competitive position in the marketplace.

AI Talkbots can empower your enterprise to execute and reap the benefits of exceptional CX. Find out how we can help you achieve CX excellence by scheduling a call with one of our consultants
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09
Feb
Talkbot Basics  ·  Voice AI Technology
Elevate customer experience through smart design, not just technology

Last 08 February 2023, we concluded our successful webinar “Customer Engagement Strategies for APAC Leaders in 2023 and Beyond” – done in partnership with Microsoft and Whispir. Speakers Shuh Hun Tan (Commercial Business Lead at Microsoft) and Andrew Fry (Global Vice-President for Strategic Partnerships at Whispir) shared their insights on customer experience (CX) within the region, alongside our very own Allan Ong (Head of Business Development and Partnerships). Below is a summary of key points discussed during the event, as well as some additional insights around the topic of customer engagement.

The CX landscape is changing rapidly. While companies are benefitting from the growth of their customer base, the ratio of service agents to customers subsequently gets stretched. This means customers may not get the kind of service or attention that they need, when they need it. There’s also a growing mismatch between how customers want to be served and the channels that are available to these customers. This further adds to the frustration that customers feel when they are trying to resolve an issue.

Smarter use of technology for enhanced CX

The answers to these issues lie not simply in technology, but the smart application of relevant solutions at the right stages. The foundation of any CX strategy should be the customer journey map. A well-thought out map includes customer touchpoints and the channels that can best serve customers at those points. Only then should brands start thinking about how they can craft messages that are relevant and meaningful – interactions that will build brand strength and recall.

Critical to informing the design of customer conversations and interactions are the data collected from past interactions. Voice data is often difficult to leverage because in its raw form, it is unstructured and disparate. But voice AI technology can bridge that gap, enabling companies to draw insights from a wealth of data that was previously untapped. The new challenge is making sure that the right people get access to this data in a secure manner, so that customer communications can be refined and personalized.

Forces of Customer Experience (CX)

Status – make customers feel valued, respected, and worthy of special treatment
Certainty – design communication to be clear, transparent, and working as expected
Control – prompt response, help customers feel in control of the situation and feel they are in the driver’s seat
Localization – speak or communicate in the customers’ language; create a sense of familiarity through language and tone

The need for seamless, omni-channel communication

One key issue plaguing CX professionals these days is the fragmentation of customer journeys. This is often the result of siloed activities and a hard separation between channels. FAQs might be answered on the website or through chat or messaging apps; service or technical issues might be handled by a hotline or voice channel. A customer might come to your help site looking for assistance, only to be told that they need to call a helpline to address their issue.

What if, from the automated chat, the bot recognizes the need for a live agent and automatically connects the customer to a live agent via voice call? How delighted would that customer be? And yet customers today don’t expect that kind of seamless handoff and omni-channel communication, because companies have yet to offer that level of service. We need to be able to deliver connected conversations across channels and this starts from making sure our customer journeys are no longer fragmented. We need to join things up better with the help of smart tools.

Rising customer expectations

Fry also mentioned how expectations of customers are now higher than ever. Post-pandemic, after a boom in digital transactions, expectations of immediacy, personalization, first-time resolution, and respecting consent have risen to all-time highs.

Against this backdrop, customer engagement is now even trickier. There is so much more pressure for organizations to get things right – to respond in time, through the right channels, with targeted messaging and quick resolution while respecting the customers’ preferences in terms of being contacted.

This is where technology comes in. Technology can help businesses better understand their customers, empower their employees, and optimize their operations. Solutions like voice AI-powered automation can help enterprises reach individual customers with targeted, personalized messages at scale. AI technology can empower brands to answer specific needs more efficiently or offer relevant services in a way that is secure, respectful of consent, and regulatory-compliant.

Future-proofing your CX operations

Even as new solutions are introduced into the CX toolkit, the fundamentals remain the same. Brands need to develop content that resonates with their audience, independent of specific channels or touchpoints. Doing this enables companies to continue delivering personalized experiences to customers regardless of how devices or channels evolve.

Understanding how technological solutions interface with human workers is key to long-term success. As Ong points out, companies need to leverage human-machine collaboration to increase overall productivity. Identify what machines are good at, and what people can do better – creating a customer experience that is both efficient and human.

Whether you’re a cutting-edge fintech or a well-established traditional, AI solutions should be in your future-proofing arsenal. And adopting a pre-built solution is one of the easiest ways to get started on your AI journey.

Looking to optimise your CX operations using voice AI technology? Speak to one of our consultants today.
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26
Jan
Talkbot Basics  ·  Voice AI Technology
Creating authentic connections to engage customers in the digital age
Jennifer Zhang

Jennifer Zhang

CEO & Co-Founder

The rise of e-commerce and social media have given businesses new opportunities as well as challenges when it comes to connecting with their customer base. Brands are now able to reach and engage with customers in innovative ways through channels like Facebook, WhatsApp, and even TikTok – and customers expect them to. In the State of the Connected Customer report by Salesforce, 88% of customers surveyed expect companies to accelerate their digital initiatives. And in that same report, 80% of customers say experiences are as important as a company’s products and services. Customer engagement has become more important than ever.

With technology, it’s become increasingly easy to automate interactions and rely on machines rather than humans. This may lead to colder, more sterile communications. On the flip side, more data enables brands to create more personalized experiences, which can build brand loyalty. Businesses need to find a balance between using technology to enhance customer engagement and maintaining the human element that is essential for building authentic connections.

Using artificial intelligence to bring that personal touch

One of the key areas where technology can bridge technology with personal connections is through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI technology can be used to create personalized, authentic connections with customers through well-designed interactions. With conversational AI, these interactions – whether text-based or voice calls – enable customers to connect with business in real-time. Thanks to natural language processing and machine learning, AI bots can be the first point of contact for common customer queries, reducing the frustration of long waits. And when fed with localized data, AI-powered voice bots like the WIZ Talkbot can adopt local accents and expressions, creating a more human-like engagement.

AI technology can also be used to improve customer service by analyzing customer feedback and providing insights into customer sentiment. This can help businesses identify and resolve issues more efficiently. And when issues are spotted before they gain mass scale, brands can take a more proactive approach to problem resolution by sending updates even before a customer calls or sends a message. All these help build an excellent and memorable customer experience.

Another way AI can be used to improve customer engagement is through personalization. AI-powered algorithms can analyze customer data, such as browsing history and purchase history, to create personalized recommendations and offers. This not only improves the customer experience but also increases the chances of conversion and repeat business. By tailoring the customer experience to the individual, businesses can create a sense of relevance and value for the customer.

Connected omni-channel interactions to delight customers

Recently, Zendesk has coined a new term – immersive customer experience (CX). The concept is anchored on something many marketers already strive for, which is seamless omni-channel communications. When brands give customers a consistent experience even when they switch channels, that’s part of building an immersive experience. It’s about building a customer support environment that’s accessible, engaging, and connected – something that would make customers want to stay.

Part of creating that immersive experience is making interactions less rigid and more natural. Customers are now looking for more conversational brand communications across the entire journey – from marketing to support. This means customer touchpoints also need to be more integrated so that brands provide one consistent message, regardless of the channel or the topic. A solution like WIZ Engage enables brands to design fluid, connected interactions across voice and text, walking alongside the customer on their journey.

The quality of the experience matters; 73 percent of customers say they will leave for a competitor after multiple poor interactions. Even after just one bad experience, more than 50% of customers will consider another brand. The pressure is on companies to provide the kind of service that customers now expect – seamless, proactive, and personalized.

Moving beyond business as usual

In Forrester’s Predictions 2023: Customer Experience report, the research firm suggests that context – more than channels – will drive experience in the coming year. This means brands will have to think harder about how and when their customers engage with them. Businesses will need to know how best to meet customers where they are, regardless of channel.

Customer engagement is a vital aspect for any business. By prioritizing authenticity and personalization through the use of AI technology, businesses can build trust and loyalty with their customers, leading to long-term success.

Wondering how AI Talkbots can boost your customer engagement efforts? Schedule a call with one of our consultants to explore the possibilities
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19
Jan
Talkbot Basics  ·  Voice AI Technology
AI technology in finance: from concept to implementation
Jennifer Zhang

Jennifer Zhang

CEO & Co-Founder

In a world of increasing data volume, managing spreadsheets and numbers is becoming more and more complex. Today’s finance organization needs a new set of tools to keep up with this fast-paced development. Enter AI technology. 

In this blog post, we present insights taken from Gartner’s webinar on the AI-Forward Finance Organization

Overload of financial data

Analysts predict that data volume will double to 181 zettabytes by 2025, which is a staggering amount. But what makes going through the world’s trove of digital data more challenging is its complexity, rather than its volume. Gartner foresees that data complexity will increase 4x in three years, twice the increase in volume. At the end of the day, it’s not just how much data we will get – it’s how much harder it will be to make sense of it all.

Many organizations today rely on spreadsheets for its operations, including financial functions. While these tools were powerful in their time, spreadsheets – even macro-enabled ones – are continuously being strained by high data volumes and complex data interconnectivities. It’s not uncommon to find broken links within spreadsheet models, or calculations that fail to present expected results due to technological limitations. The increase in data volume and complexity needs a smarter, more flexible solution.

Artificial Intelligence in finance

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years has led to solutions that answer the data accessibility and navigability question. Enterprises are recognizing the power of AI and as of 2022, 59% of organizations surveyed by Gartner Research have started an AI initiative or adopted AI into their processes. And while this is a promising sign, it also speaks of risk to AI laggards. Businesses that fail to embrace AI technology to streamline processes will fall behind even faster in today’s accelerated market.

To embark on an AI journey, the key thing is to embrace change – to think differently and learn new things.

How to begin your AI journey as a finance organization

Start top-down – digital transformation, especially for finance-related activities, gets stronger buy-in when top management initiates the change
Understand that AI deployment is non-linear – adopt an agile working mindset and be willing to have more cyclical deployment patterns
Be open to experimentation – most organizations adopting AI take five iterations to get right things right or succeed

How to pitch a pivot to AI

Many leaders see the value of AI but need to get buy-in from upper management or other stakeholders. Here are some points that can help bring people into the fold and accelerate your company’s AI adoption.

Take the quick adoption route by buying software or subscribing to services. 
Position it as a proof-of-concept exercise where further adoption is dependent on results gained. Taking a packaged solution is one of the most frictionless ways for finance companies to dip their feet into the AI pond. For organizations that require debt collection or payment reminders, WIZ Talkbots are an easy way to introduce AI technology and quickly reap the benefits of AI-powered automation

Optimize human–machine collaboration.
Some of the pushback when it comes to AI stems from the fear of losing jobs. To overcome this, AI advocates should find ways where AI will complement human efforts. Best examples are process automations where humans are still needed for exception handling or complex cases. Remember, Humans are great at strategy and handling exceptions to rules, as well as seeing the big picture and drawing insights. Machines or AI are great at calculating, analyzing, executing processes, sending warnings at critical points, and enforcing rules or guidelines. Find the right balance between human and machine, and communicate how AI can empower humans to do more in less time or with less cost.

30% of businesses with advanced AI adoption report seeing better results than expected
– Faster implementation for new projects
– Greater business impact
– More process efficiencies
Significant AI adoption increased likelihood of financial benefit by 5x

Whether you’re a cutting-edge fintech or a well-established traditional, AI solutions should be in your future-proofing arsenal. And adopting a pre-built solution is one of the easiest ways to get started on your AI journey.

Looking to quickly deploy an AI solution into your debt collection operations? Our consultants would be happy to help
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13
Jan
Talkbot Basics  ·  Voice AI Technology
How to transform voice data into actionable insights

Many businesses, particularly in the financial services industry, have a treasure trove of data that’s just waiting to be uncovered. “Businesses which have high call centre demand typically store voice data in a system for seven years,” shares WIZ.AI Chairman and co-founder Jianfeng Lu, in an interview with Startup SG. “However, the data is unstructured and not stored in a uniformed way that allows for business, product, and customer improvement.”

Enter artificial intelligence (AI), specifically voice AI. By extracting information from call recordings, voice AI can help companies identify customer trends, detect customer sentiment and provide valuable insights into customer behavior.

Unlocking the power of voice AI

The first step in getting value out of voice data is in transcribing the calls into text. Once the calls are transcribed, the data can then be organized more intelligently. “Voice AI digitalises unstructured voice data by hashtagging and categorising calls,” Jianfieng explains. This newly structured data then becomes valuable to companies that have years of saved recordings.

One of the great advantages of AI is the speed with which machines can process data. Instead of having a human listen to hours of recordings and draw insights manually, companies can use an AI engine to transcribe, categorize, and extract useful data in just minutes. What’s more, AI can capitalize on the power of big data – having large volumes of information to draw meaningful conclusions from. These types of insights would be impossible to find with just a smaller data set, or when doing spot checks and listening to random recordings.

The automated data collection capabilities of AI-powered systems brings data analytics to the fore, allowing teams to leverage data-driven decisions for long-term success.

Continuous improvement from data analytics

With this vast computing power, voice AI can empower businesses to gain a deeper understanding of their target audience. By listening to conversations, voice AI can record how customers interact with a specific product or service. This information lends insight into customer priorities and preferences, which is valuable for future product development. 

Voice data can also provide deeper insights into the customer journey. Artificial intelligence can help businesses uncover customer preferences and behaviors. Machines can drill deeper into multiple customer conversations, picking up cues that may otherwise be overlooked. With voice AI, businesses can make better decisions that are in line with their customers’ needs, enabling them to provide more personalized and effective experiences.

Voice AI can also uncover trends in customer feedback, flagging a rising pattern in product or service issues and prompt a more proactive response. Businesses can use this data to avoid potential customer dissatisfaction by pushing out service messaging even before issues arise. Because voice AI can also detect customer sentiment, companies can use extracted data to optimize their customer experience. Leaders can quickly identify areas of improvement for customer experience management.

Data-driven decisions for personalized experiences

Voice AI analytics is a powerful tool for businesses to gain insights about their customers and make more informed decisions. By utilizing analytics on voice data, businesses can leverage customer data to better understand their customers, anticipate their needs, and personalize the customer experience. This technology can also be used to identify potential opportunities and areas for improvement, providing invaluable insights that can be used to create more relevant products and services.

Voice AI will grow to play an ever-important role in customer service, marketing, and other data-driven activities. Companies are already beginning to leverage voice AI to create more efficient processes, personalize customer experiences, and develop innovative solutions. Voice AI can be used to automate and monitor first-level customer interactions, understand customer sentiment, automatically classify data, and to generate automated reports. But ultimately, the access to data which companies already have is what makes voice AI extremely powerful. “I foresee a future where enterprises will have a rich data pool for each customer,” shares Jianfeng. “This will help businesses better serve their customers’ needs.”

Contact one of our specialists today to take that first step in harnessing the untapped insights in your voice data.
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05
Jan
Talkbot Basics  ·  Voice AI Technology
CX trends and how to make the most of them
Jennifer Zhang

Jennifer Zhang

CEO & Co-Founder

The customer experience space is changing rapidly. As new technologies emerge, customer behaviours shift – but sometimes not in the way businesses expect. Here are the top CX trends identified by Gartner research, and how brands can leverage these changes.

Proactive service prompts more engagement, not less

Outbound customer engagement is on the rise, and rightly so. In a world that competes for audience attention, proactive service helps keep brands top of mind. Gartner predicts that proactive customer engagement interactions will surpass reactive customer engagement interactions by as early as 2025.

Interestingly, customers continued to engage with a brand after proactive interactions. The nature of the additional interactions are also interesting to note – instead of opting to use self-service channels, customers gravitated towards assisted digital or voice channels after the initial outreach.

In general, proactive service improved customer satisfaction (CSAT) ratings. Brands can ride on this trend and build greater customer loyalty by designing smart proactive service.

How to capitalize on this trend

Now is a good time to revisit customer journey maps and update them based on gathered data. Try creating new prompts that push a customer further down the funnel or along the journey. Prompts to finish incomplete applications – say, for loans or credit cards – is a simple example. WIZ Talkbots have been deployed for this type of use case, helping customers complete application forms through assisted channels. The proactive service can start as a follow-up call regarding the open application, then continue with tips or guidance on how to complete more complex fields.

Customers fall back on familiar channels, even when resolution is slower

Humans are creatures of habit; customers tend to rely on previously used channels to resolve issues or raise concerns. Even when new, more efficient channels are presented, customers go back to the old methods. This is because customers underestimate the time it takes to resolve their case. Many times, this results in abandoned self-service operations.

32% of customers actively engage in a customer service phone call for more than 10 minutes

75% of customers who use the phone report the interaction taking longer than expected.

How to capitalize on this trend

To avoid abandoned calls or self-service tasks, brands can use AI to guide customers through self-service. This starts from the first point of interaction, which can be the company landing page. AI-powered interactions can then move customers down the funnel based on the steps taken, be it answers to FAQs or guided scripts for common transactions. Brands can make the most of previously collected interaction data to design scripts that address the most common queries. Over time, as more data is collected, businesses can refine scripts and update customer journeys.

Customers don’t mind switching channels to resolve issues if the experience is seamless


Omni-channel engagement is becoming more and more important in customer experience. All customer touchpoints now need to be interconnected and integrated so that handoffs become seamless and easy for customers. Success in omni-channel engagement hinges on customers expending the least amount of effort when moving from one channel to another. Then there is the issue of consistency – customers expect that each channel will have access to their data and history from the previous channel. Maintaining consistent experiences across channels will become the test of great customer engagement.

How to capitalize on this trend

Brands must ensure that data from one channel is completely transferrable to another, and that customer interactions are carefully interlinked. Customer histories and profiles should be kept updated, no matter which touchpoint was last used. Language and tone must also be kept consistent across all channels, to make customers feel that they’re only talking to one person or entity. Having a centralized omni-channel platform will help keep things sychronized and seamless.

“Value enhancing” service experiences drive retention and growth

Great service experiences only help to avoid attrition; good service has become the minimum expectation. To improve customer loyalty, service experiences should help customers get more value out of their purchase or subscription. A product or service is the reason why customers patronize a brand in the first place. Value enhancing services could come in the form of tips or guides, or even short testimonials on how other users are maximizing the product or service.
When customers experience a value-enhancing service experience, they have:

82% probability of being retained 
86% probability of spending more money 
97% probability of sharing positive word of mouth

How to capitalize on this trend

Understand how customers use your product or service, and help them get more out of it. This could be another area where proactive service comes into play. Quick prompts on how things have been so far can lead to a series of how-to articles or videos that guide users into a richer product or service experience. Value enhancing service can also bring about opportunities to upsell, once the desire for greater value has been established.

How does AI come into the picture?

These CX trends are closely linked to the possibilities presented by artificial intelligence and AI-powered automation in customer service. Forward-looking enterprises harness the power of AI technology to stay ahead of the curve and deliver delightful customer experiences – services that are seamless, personalized, and value-enhancing
To find out how AI can help power your customer experiences, contact one of our specialists today.
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