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The Rise of Customer Service Robotic Automation Whitepaper
The Rise of Customer Service Robotic Automation Whitepaper
The Rise of Customer Service Robotic Automation Whitepaper
CONTACT CENTER:
THE RISE OF
CUSTOMER
SERVICE ROBOTIC
AUTOMATION
By Nicolas De Kouchkovsky
October, 2018
1
THE EARLY 2010S SAW THE RAPID RISE OF THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (CX) AS A STRATEGIC
ISSUE FOR ENTERPRISES. WE LIVE IN THE AGE OF THE CUSTOMER. THE ABILITY TO DEFINE
AND DELIVER GREAT EXPERIENCES HAS BECOME AN ESSENTIAL DRIVER FOR ACQUIRING AND
RETAINING CUSTOMERS. DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS NOW MAKING CX CRITICAL TO BUILDING
A SUSTAINABLE DIFFERENTIATION OVER THE COMPETITION.
With customer service accounting for 75% of all interactions a In order to step up to this seemingly impossible challenge of
company has with its customers1, support organizations are on enabling deeper customer engagements, support organizations
the front line. Customer care must create better experiences are turning to automation. It expands self-service from responding
across an ever-increasing number of channels. It needs, in to questions to actually completing customer requests such as
particular, to better tackle the most important dimension of returning a product or changing a flight. Automation can also
good service, valuing customer time2. assist agents who deal with a common contact center problem
of having to juggle multiple systems and applications during
live customer interactions. Thankfully, robotic automation has
come of age. Let’s explore this critical technology and how it
THE ENGAGEMENT CHALLENGE can help customer service.
1
Gartner, 2012 https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1929014
2
Forrester, 2016 https://go.forrester.com/blogs/16-03-03-your_customers_dont_want_to_call_you_for_support/
2
AUTOMATION
INTRODUCING ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) uses software robots to mimic RPA Robots can be deployed on a desktop or in the cloud. They
humans interacting with applications and automate steps of the can run under the control of a person triggering its actions
process. The concept is not new. It started decades ago with (attended RPA) or with minimal human intervention (unattended
macros, scripts, and screen scraping. The underlying technology RPA). In the latter case, you can have a large number of robots
has completely changed. Today’s robotic automation interacts doing the redundant and repetitive back-office work. This scenario
directly with the operating system, a technique known as surface is sometimes referred to as a “digital workforce.” It requires
automation. It made the technology much more robust, ready to additional monitoring and control software to oversee the
be deployed at scale on a desktop, either physical or virtualized, work of the robots and manage exceptions. In an attended RPA
or in the cloud. scenario, the robot acts as a personal assistant to the agent,
coexisting on the same desktop.
3
CUSTOMER
ROBOTIC AUTOMATION IS BECOMING CRITICAL
FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE
Although robotic automation is still in the early stages of its Agents having to deal with numerous applications is a huge
adoption for customer service, its impact has been widely issue in contact centers. They need to switch from one to
acknowledged. First, it takes costs out of servicing customers. another, copying and pasting the same information between
Customer support organizations are not only expected to improve several systems. Jacada shared the example of a Mobile Virtual
the customer experience. They also must reduce their costs. Network Operator (MVNO) customer service representatives
Savings come from shorter handling time and automation of having to use 15 different applications because these were
after call work. These productivity improvements are similar to systems from different third-party providers. Integration was
screen-pop. The magnitude of the savings is higher, measured in not even an option. Using robotic automation, it was possible to
minutes per interaction instead of seconds. Robotic automation preload transparently the customer context, pulling its different
allowed one of Europe largest mobile network provider to elements from the various applications as needed.
repatriate its customer service operations. Assisted with robots,
local employees reached productivity levels that offset their
higher salary levels compared to workers in low-cost locations.
Robotic automation also improves process predictability. It By enabling expedited resolution and removing hold times
reduces errors and helps enforce compliance and adhere to while the agent is doing work, robotic automation improves the
regulations. Jacada reported the example of a leading US insurer customer satisfaction (CSat). One of the top-ten big-box retailers
needing to summarize every customer interaction and record in the USA was confronted with the issue of customers calling
policy changes. It uses robots to ensure all modifications are about an order without its reference. This actually happens
flawlessly recorded. It could also enforce additional levels of quite often. Agents had to find the order number using either
compliance by having robots perform checks in the background. a name, a phone number or an email address by checking 8
Robotic automation enables customer service representatives different systems. The automation of the lookup cut the process
to no longer put clients on hold or ask them to wait. It makes from 150 seconds to less than 30. Because time is a currency,
customer service more human, freeing agents from tedious tasks such reductions have an immediate effect on the customer
and having to juggle applications. One of the most important experience. By reducing lead times and chaining together
benefits of robotic automation besides cost reduction is that what used to be a series of discrete steps, robotic automation
agents get time back to take care of their customers. can provide the first step in the digital transformation of the
support experience.
4
Better Employee one another. Compounded by 200 different services, training
Experience associates on these small differences became a daunting
Companies are also finding that robotic automation helps meet task. With robotic automation, it became possible to have
the expectation of today’s workforce. Millennials and Generation these variants taken care of by robots. Robotic automation
Z employees care more about their working environments. Fully simplifies training and shortens onboarding. It helps rebalance
aware of the possibilities of technology, they have little tolerance the curriculum with less time spent memorizing the intricacies
for boring and repetitive tasks. They need to feel connected to of systems and processes and more spent learning how to
the mission of their company and get frustrated by anything that better serve customers
ASSISTED-SERVICE MODEL
Complex/
Inquiry
Routine/Simple Important
Deflection
SELF LIVE
SERVICE Escalations SERVICE
Off loading
5
SERVICE
CUSTOMER SERVICE ROBOTIC AUTOMATION
01 04
Growing adoption Application integration
Robotic Automation is not specific to customer service. Actually, In a customer support environment, the number of applications
it has been widely adopted in back-offices. If the underlying can be staggering. Moreover, the type of systems to integrate
technologies are the same, solutions for customer service with will range from web to mainframes through client-server
are quite different. There are several nuances that need to be applications using different clients, Java, .NET, or windows.
considered before deploying robotic automation for customer Customer Service Robotic Automation needs to support all
service and contact centers. these connectivity options.
02 05
A chaotic environment Orchestration
Customer Service Robotic Process Automation (CS RPA) needs The resolution of a customer service request often entails several
to not just work with a person but for a person. The software tasks running in parallel. Customer Service Robotic Automation
robots share the desktop environment. They must carry out needs to be able to orchestrate several activities to complete
their tasks without interfering with the work of the agent. A the customer service request.
customer service representative desktop can be quite chaotic.
Numerous applications are running in parallel and agents will
move them around and change the windows’ size. It is critical that
interaction technology is robust to handle such non-controlled
06
conditions. This is in a sharp contrast with Back-Office Robotic Agility
Process Automation (BO RPA) where robots enjoy dedicated Finally, Customer Service Robotic Automation needs to cope
and stable computing resources with the frequent changes happening in customer support.
Small modifications need to be carried out both quickly and
with little if any IT support. Back-Office Robotic Automation
6
POSSIBLE
THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE
01 04
THREE USE CASES AFTER CALL WORK
If most people know the use case of an agent being assisted by The automation of after call work is also an activity easy to
a robot, few are aware of the two other deployment scenarios of automate. It has been saving minutes of agent time for the
Customer Service Robotic Automation. Robots can be harnessed Insurance company we explored. After call work can include
to help a chatbot fulfill customer service requests and make the disposition of the interaction, pre-populating the summary
the chatbot transactional. After uncovering the intent of the notes with the information the agent already typed. It can also
customer, the chatbot can use automation to complete the include the automatic creation of a case in the CRM system or
request instead of having to pass the interaction to an agent. sending a confirmation message to the customer
Robots can also augment self-service by giving access to a wide
range of back-end applications and push the envelope of what
customers can do by themselves .
02 05
INFORMATION LOOKUP FEWER ERRORS, MORE SECURITY
Exploring the activities that can be handled by Customer Service This overview of the activities that can be automated shows that
Robotic Automation provides also an interesting angle to visualize Customer Service Robotic Automation does much more than
the art of the possible. A software robot can be used to look up just doing things on behalf of humans. It does things better. It
information and assemble the customer context. It not only saves can handle security in a safer way than having agents making
agent time but avoids the embarrassing “bear with me a second notes of their various credentials. It reduces errors, improves
while I access your information”. Any application integration can data quality, and enforces both consistency and compliance.
be handled by a robot. Because it is a “no-code” integration style, Robotic automation can reinforce process standardization and
the approach can be very compelling to organizations reluctant consistency across channels. With so many illegal activities using
or unable to modify existing applications human engineering to trick agents, robots can also provide a way
to secure certain interactions and reduce fraud. The breadth
of activities that can benefit from Customer Service Robotic
Automation makes orchestration capabilities essential.
03
ASSISTED SIGN-IN
Software robots can also be used as a proxy to sign-in into
multiple applications. Assisted sign-in has been a key benefit
of robotic automation for the financial service provider we
discussed earlier. The company needed to give its agents access
to numerous applications that belong to different companies.
Robots handle the sign in process using a password vault that
contains the encrypted agent credentials. The agent has to only
sign into their working environment once at the beginning of
their session.
7
GETTING STARTED MEASURING SUCCESS
8
THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF ROBOTIC AUTOMATION
Jacada Inc. helps enterprises to significantly reduce costs of their customer service
operations by deploying automation solutions and contextual bots. From guiding the
contact center agents and automating their manual tasks to fully automated self-
service solutions, Jacada automates interactions while improving customer experience.
Our 27 years of experience in automating customer service processes for global
enterprises, together with proven outcome-focused integration capabilities, enable worry-
free deployments with lower Total Cost of Ownership. Founded in 1990, Jacada operates
globally with offices in Atlanta, USA; London, England; Munich, Germany; and Herzliya, Israel.
www.jacada.com