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Operationalizing Digital Messaging and Automation at Scale

Lawrence Solis

Vice President of Digital Sales

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Digital Messaging

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It wasn’t very long ago that we struggled to use first-generation Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems. They were clunky and struggled to understand our voice commands. However, over the past few years, they’ve really advanced to drive conversational AI. 

Fast-forward to the present day, and chatbots are to digital messaging what IVR’s are to voice. Initial chatbots weren’t very helpful, but with recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) coupled with conversational designers and chatbot tuners, they can now answer complex inquiries, drive a positive customer experience, and reduce operational costs. 

OutPLEX is a pioneer of digital messaging and automation, otherwise known as conversational intelligence or chatbots. Even today, we maintain our position as a leader of this ever-evolving industry.

Consumer Behaviors and Adoption Changed Everything

One of the biggest hurdles with digital messaging is the cost associated with the customer. In the beginning, users were charged by the message or by the word, encouraging them to be frugal. Unlimited messaging is today’s standard level of service. This posed a huge advantage for customers and service providers. With this change, consumers now prefer digital messaging over speaking with someone.

Resources in Digital Messaging and Automation

Technology advancements are a mere framework for digital messaging and automation. Ironically, neither can exist without the human touch, so let’s explore our human touch at OutPLEX.

It starts with identifying and sourcing the right kind of agents. These agents are comfortable messaging. They use it with interactions in their own lives. They have excellent writing skills and a keen ability to multitask. A digital messaging agent easily manages 5+ customer interactions simultaneously.

The majority of our messaging agents are located in Colombia and the Dominican Republic. OutPLEX chose these locations strategically for their nearshore advantages of modern infrastructure as well as the culture and communication of their citizens. Additionally, they have a great affinity for U.S. culture. They already follow the news, shows, pop culture, and music, so they can seamlessly incorporate that knowledge into their interactions with U.S. customers. English is a common second language in these nearshore locations, so interactions flow naturally. 

The next advantage is that these professionals are already proficient in messaging technology. This enables them to adapt easily to the service side of the interactions. 

The final advantage is that these locales have a very strong and performance-based culture. They like to perform and compete, two character traits that excel in a contact center environment.

Scaling Resources

With the expertise of the OutPLEX transition team, we can quickly scale and source agents for a client onboarding. Examples include:

  • For a large, regional telco company, we scaled 350 agents across three lines of business within two months.
  • For a national internet radio company, we scaled 400+ agents in only seven months.
Enter Conversational AI – An Extension of the Agent

Conversational AI is finely tuned by a team of professionals to reflect the culture and brand of the organization we serve. This goes beyond the English language. We can even set the tone that conversational AI uses. We tune our automation to define a level of assertion when needed for sharing information or influencing action.

Our conversation AI fine-tune and and treated as an extension of your brand. One of the things we’ve mastered at OutPLEX is building a specialized organization around superior digital messaging and automation.

The Goals of Automation

Conversational AI revolutionized customer interactions. While a live agent can multitask 3-5 customer interactions, automation can manage 1000+ interactions simultaneously. The gains in efficiency were quickly realized by the customer in reduced costs. At the same time, we still maintain two distinct goals, and those standards are unchanged with automation.

First, we strive to control the level of containment (not needing to be transferred to a live agent). This requires the depth and breadth of automation tuning to handle the customer’s needs and inquiries to the point of completion. At OutPLEX, we review when our bots transfer a customer to an agent and identify that as an opportunity for AI to learn.

In addition to containment, our automation will still deliver a great customer experience. CSAT or NPS Scores remain a high priority. We expect automation to provide as good or even a better score than the customer might have with a live agent.

The Perfect Automation Team

As a pioneer of conversational AI, OutPLEX has cultivated new positions and skill disciplines not only within our organization but expanded into this growing industry altogether.

For a new client, we start with data and transcripts to start crafting a series of common interactions. The team’s efforts don’t stop there. From that point, we continue evolving and improving interactions going forward. The variety of positions on the Automation team that create and construct bot interactions for clients include: 

1. Conversational Designers:  Conversational Designers design the intent and paths for each engagement to take. They seek out keywords and program the AI to know where to drive the conversation. They build the platform to what the chatbot understands and answers in that inquiry.

2. Conversational Analysts:  Conversational Analysts serve as quality assurance for automation and flag the issues they identify. They monitor the automation and analyze the responses to ensure the chatbots are responding in the correct ways. If it gets stuck, the Conversational Analysts see what’s happening in that interaction from intent to the response. They use their observations to make recommendations for continued improvements.

3. Conversational Tuners:  Conversational Tuners make adjustments to the platform based on feedback from the Conversational Analysts. They adjust the automation to better understand and improve customer interactions, from inquiry details to introduction of new keywords.

4. Conversational Managers:  Conversational Managers monitor the conversations in real-time to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction.

5. Developers:  While OutPLEX is not a technology provider, we cannot exist without it. Our Developers don’t create the software we use, but they make changes to it by developing different plugins and widgets to continue improving the technology.

Each of these positions on the team is constantly working together to continuously improve containment with our transactions and maintain an excellent customer experience.

What’s Next?

With conversational AI still in the early stages, we see more opportunities for continued evolution. We envision a customer having no idea if they are interacting with automation or a live agent as AI continues to take on more complex tasks. Whatever the future holds, you can believe that OutPLEX will be at the forefront. We’d love to discuss how digital messaging and automation can elevate CX operations for your brand. Contact our team for more information. 

To learn more about digital messaging and automation, be sure to read our blog: 

Conversational AI: Pioneering & Perfecting Digital Messaging