Can I Use AI if I Don't Have A Contact Centre?

YES, you can!

Not Just For Call Centres

The common understanding of chatbots and virtual assistants is of an interaction that is a first port of call before being passed off to a Customer Services call center. However, there are many instances where you can use virtual assistants and service automation that have nothing to do with call centers. This is where entire processes are automated without the need for any interaction with a human, meaning you can provide support without having a call centre. Of course, if there are any issues that the chatbot cannot solve they can capture a phone number or an email address to allow for the user to be contacted when a member of the department is available. Alternatively if you use a teamwork app such as Slack or Teams you can transfer the customer chat session into a team space for an advisor to respond.

Decisions, decisions

But it does not have to be just a case of providing information, adding AI into the mix enables these virtual assistants to be able to make decisions. A less known area of AI is Neural Networks, this area of AI doesn't just make make decisions, but they can learn from previous interactions to continually improve the service they are giving, and make decisions that aren't following flow logic. This makes it even more likely that they will be able to resolve the users query without need any human intervention.

The advantage of this is that unless there is an issue, users can have their queries answered 24/7 without having to have humans on call for that time, or at all! As a business you can decide to only respond via messaging platforms, email or SMS, negating the need for a call centre completely.
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There are many examples of industries and departments that use service automation and virtual assistants without the back up of a call centre:

• Healthcare – booking, changing and cancelling appointments
• Manufacturing/supply chain – tracking materials, process, orders and stock
• Training – scheduling and providing training and certification
• Facilities – report maintenance issues, track ongoing repairs and maintenance, book meeting rooms, provide health and safety documentation
• Marketing/Sales – providing supporting materials to end users, journalists, investors. Scheduling meetings and product demos.
• HR – screening job candidates, tracking applications process, processing standard HR requests.
• Customer Service - and of course many organizations have a customer service department that doesn't have a call center.  These departments can benefit from answering as many customer queries as possible through automation.
  

If you have any department that has a lot of repetitive questions and tasks, service automation could help free your staff for more meaningful projects.

To find out how you can increase productivity with service automation and virtual assistants contact us or call us on 0333 6000 360.