Call Center Solutions with Artificial Intelligence and Voice Features

A review of AI Contact Center platforms

What is artificial intelligence (AI)?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) used to be something we thought of when watching sci-fi movies or thought of “light years ahead” in the future. However, AI is here, and it’s made our lives much easier. This is not only in personal regards, but also with our business functions, as well.

AI has opened up our world like never before. No longer does everything have to be manual. Sales and Support representatives can now use AI to assist with their day-to-day functions, both saving time and increasing accuracy. 

AI is improving by leaps and bounds. Salesforce is no stranger to this, and invests heavily in research and development on how to use AI better in the Salesforce platform. Gone are the days when you had to be put “on hold” while a representative dug up your account records, or had to correspond with someone to make sure they were providing you with the correct answer.

Salesforce now has the capabilities to suggest helpful articles, or to enable customers to find what they need, limiting cases for serious problems that require personal assistance. They have recently introduced Service Cloud Voice as another helpful tool that takes Customer Service to the next level.

Even with self-help options, companies are smart to continue to offer telephony solutions, since 93% of customers still rely on phones for assistance. Service Cloud Voice can take basic phone support and elevate the experience for both representatives and customers.

Let’s take a deeper look at Service Cloud Voice, along with other cloud based contact center solutions to see how they compare. 

What makes Service Cloud Voice so great?

Service Cloud Voice is a great tool that allows telephony and the Salesforce CRM to work together in the goal of providing excellent customer service. By making for easier navigation, and allowing representatives to focus more on the customer experience during the call, it can help drive positive customer satisfaction.

Customer Support can use Omni-Channel to take calls within the system, so all of the data can be both accessed and captured in one place. Just like a desktop telephone, agents can transfer, hold, mute, and end calls, all with the click of a mouse.  Also, within the Support Console, agents can see the issue the customer is calling about, as well as full customer details to be as prepared as possible when working through the call.

The Customer 360 platform itself also provides helpful data that pertains to the customer, such as billing information. The call is also transcribed in real-time, so the user does not have to worry about transcribing, and instead can focus on providing top notch assistance. Einstein articles are also suggested in a side menu, so the user can provide the most helpful and relevant information for the customer issue.

Step-by-step processes can be outlined, so agents no longer have to struggle with remembering processes in the heat of the moment; they simply follow the procedure as outlined on their screen. Once completed, the relevant information is stored in ways that provide true insight for managers to help their agents learn and grow as they analyze metrics to strive for perfection.

Now that we’ve seen what Salesforce Service Cloud Voice can do, let’s take a look to see how other call center solutions compare. Watch our video to learn more about what Salesforce Service Cloud Voice can do for you. 

Other Cloud Based Contact Center Solutions

While Salesforce Service Cloud Voice is a strong competitor, it is important to see how others stack up, and analyze different features to see which tool is right for you and your business. Let’s take a look at four options and what they offer for similar tools.

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Five9 Global Voice

Five9 has been around for close to 20 years and focuses heavily on solutions for cloud based contact center customers. Five9 understands that negative customer experiences can alter repeat business and lead those customers to provide negative reviews, as well. Their goal is to empower agents to provide great customer service.

Five9 also has a Global Voice tool that strives to make conversations easier, no matter where in the world your customer may be calling you for assistance. They can create a single virtual contact center, which makes it more accessible and enterprise friendly, matching the closest agent to the customer. Global Voice also has Omni-Channel routing, so you can determine the correct agent for the job. Five9 offers encrypted recordings, as well, so you can stay compliant around PCI, HIPAA, and GDPR regulations.

Genesys PureCloud/Voicebots

Genesys also has a solution to make Customer Service a better experience for all with Voicebots. They also use natural language and strive to assist customers before passing along to a working agent. Voicebots also seem admin friendly, as micro-apps are available for drag and drop functionality, making certain changes a cinch. 

Genesys Voicebots allow you to use your own AI, such as third-party options like Amazon Lex or Google Dialogflow, making this option very flexible. Genesys seems to also provide great support for it’s Voicebot customers, helping them through every step of the way.

NICE inContact CXone

NICE inContact provides the CXone Call Center Software that combines “Omni-channel routing, Customer Analytics, Workforce Engagement, Automation and AI” for a complete customer service center experience. Omni-channel Routing provides multiple channels for customers to connect with agents, whether it be through voice, SMS/Text, Social, or numerous other options. 

Agents have access to customer information through their CRM, so they spend less time searching for valuable data. There is also gamification, online coaching and collaborative evaluations to help with agent professional growth. CXone automation provides intelligence that limits time consuming tasks, as well.

Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE)

Although the size offerings vary within the other options, Cisco Unified Contact Center is really geared towards large companies. This option does offer Interactive Voice Response (IVR) like many of the previous options, but it also utilizes natural language processing. Cisco Unified Contact Center also provides surveys to gather useful feedback after interactions.

Omni-channel is also a part of the UCCE platform, and it includes both outbound and inbound voice. It also provides a portal to make the management of licenses much easier to handle. There is also supervisory control, which proves useful in contact centers, as well as the ability to record calls, to help address agent growth. 

Summary

In conclusion, there are a lot of options out there, and this is just a small sampling. While many of them offer overlapping technologies, some are better suited for your company’s needs than others. Focus on the pain points within your company, and find a solution that focuses on alleviating those issues, first. Make sure to assess future company growth, and whether the option you choose can grow just as much.