Demystifying Myths About Virtual Agents

Prior to contact center automation, customer support teams experienced a lack of customer engagement, low conversion rates, overworked agents, and a limited capacity to reach a larger number of customers quickly. However, with the advent of artificial intelligence in today’s digital age, millions of customers are now interacting with brands through AI-Powered contact centers. By automating resolution to customer queries at the required scale, delivering a uniform experience across multiple platforms, and removing repetitive duties for agents, virtual agents provide a high return on investment. Above all, customers aren’t only interacting with virtual agents; they’re putting their confidence in them to accomplish things like making purchases, authenticating paperwork, and so on.

Yet, there are several misconceptions concerning virtual agents that are impeding market acceptability and, as a result, harming businesses. The sooner we dispel these myths, the sooner customer support teams can leverage cutting-edge technologies to improve the customer experience and boost top-line profitability. So, let’s get started.

Myth 1 – Virtual Agents Lack Empathy

Virtual agents powered with emotion and sentiment analysis enable customers to have confidence and a sense of security when in need of instant assistance. The self-learning solution detects mood by picking up on the tone of speech, intonation, and so on. If the virtual agent detects customer churn signs or negative moods, it flags such encounters. Similarly, when sentiment is good, it creates up-sell or cross-sells opportunities. For example, if a customer calls with audible anger in his or her voice, the virtual assistant recognizes it immediately and transfers the customer to the appropriate agent in real-time.

Myth 2 – Virtual Agents Are Inaccurate

Advanced voice-enabled assistants can now accurately capture not only the customers’ intent but also the manner in which they say it and the context in which they ask questions. A virtual assistant can automate customer greetings, provide product or service details, schedule appointments, and much more without skipping a beat by combining technologies like natural language processing and automated speech recognition with custom-trained advanced models.

Myth 3 – Virtual Agents Lead To Customer Discontent

When routine queries are handled by virtual agents, customers receive an enhanced, consistent experience and resolution in a shorter time frame. A virtual agent can book an appointment in around three minutes, but a human takes about six minutes to perform a task. There are 3.25 billion voice-powered virtual assistants already in use globally and projected to reach 8 billion by 2024. We wouldn’t see this growth rate if the customer experience was unpleasant.  

Myth 4 – Integrating Virtual Agents Requires Changes In Existing Processes

Advanced virtual agents can be integrated seamlessly into any CRM with minimalistic changes to the existing infrastructure and drive automation for customer support. From data modeling to integrating backend APIs, the system can kickstart from local-to-global deployments within 1-4 weeks.

Businesses are embracing AI-Powered Contact Centers, the next wave of AI evolution, to pave the way for cultivating their brands and nurturing the types of customer relationships that can help create strategic business advantages. The rapid acceptance of voice-powered virtual agents demonstrates that the customers are not stepping back from adopting technology for assistance. We can deliver elevated customer experience while boosting revenue if we address these myths regarding AI-Powered virtual assistants as soon as possible. It’s time to heed the call of change.

Read this hashtag#LinkedInarticle that dispels the misconceptions concerning AI-Powered virtual agents impeding in the marketplace. The sooner we address these myths, the sooner businesses can pave their way to deliver elevated customer experience while boosting revenue. Visit our website at www.rezo.ai to learn more about how we enable AI-Powered Contact Center. Rashi Gupta (Ph.D) | Manish Gupta

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