How Does Robotic Process Automation Improve Call Centre Efficiency?

Yasmin Abdelfattah of IST Networks discusses the growing value of robotic process automation (RPA) within the contact centre industry.

Organizations have always looked for resources to improve their operational effectiveness. Gathering lines and packaging robots in industrial fields, automatic sewing machines in textile industries, automation of bank account creation process, etc. are all examples of process automation.

The internal processes of modern businesses are traditionally through IT architecture that saves us a lot of time and labour.

But most modern businesses now include great navigation through multiple systems and applications, and other operational tasks which have created a patchwork of inefficient business processes applications that rarely meet.

This has gone on to increase the workload and interruptions of meaningful output/insights.

This Is Where RPA Arises…

RPA or robotic process automation automates the routine, repetitive and operational tasks of an organization. This frees up the employees to concentrate on more serious work that needs human intelligence and decision-making.

RPA significantly improves operational efficiency by automating the rule-based tasks to be performed more accurately, quickly and tirelessly.

The call centre industry has always fought with many repetitive and dull tasks which are necessary but rarely require any decision-making.

The excessive scale of such rule-based functions in the call centres means that automation will have a significant impact, refining the overall experience both for call centre agents and customers. Let’s illustrate how…

Identifying the Customer in the System

When a customer reaches a contact centre agent, the agent needs to recognize them in the system to get the essential information like order status, order number, pending support tickets and shipment ID.

This involves the agent interacing with the customer and at the same time going from one system to another: the database/CRM which has the customer details and the other system with more information like order status, order number, etc.

The Challenges That Arise Are:

Multiple logins slowing down the agents
Silos related to different systems causing chaos
Agents scrambling to refer to notes/manuals
The detrimental effect on customer experience

How Can RPA in Call Centres Help?

RPA offers an intuitive approach to data addition and workflow. Loading a detailed customer profile from multiple systems by automating steps like application launch, mouse clicks, field entries, etc. removes the need to switch between numerous applications.

Installing RPA in call centres reduces the time required to identify the customer in the system and view all necessary details associated with them in one screen.

As a result, the customer doesn’t have to wait for the agent to load all the details, therefore refining customer service while lowering the typical call duration.

Updating Customer Information in the System

As the call progresses towards the solution of the problem, the agent is required to update the customer’s account data. For this, the agent needs to move through several applications to update information across multiple fields.

Entering data manually across multiple fields in different systems is a monotonous and error-prone task.

The Challenges That Arise Are:

Switching between multiple systems
Bringing information up to date manually
Tasks prone to error
Negative effect on data quality due to errors

How Does RPA Help in Solving These Difficulties?

RPA allows integration of data across various fields of related systems using a single entry by the call centre agent. RPA can establish template auto-fill, copy-pasting information, field-entries, and more with the least human intervention.

Integration with software or internal systems like CRMs and other third-party tools reduce the time spent on cross-application desktop activities.

This removes the need to struggle between countless systems. It also eases the danger of potential office errors.

As a result of call centre automation using RPA, the agent can assist the customer in a timely manner, and the customer does not need to wait for the agent to deal with data.

Repeat Calls

In many scenarios, depending on the nature of the customer’s problem, the call needs to pass through different agents, which often requires the customer to repeat the details of the issue to various agents.

The Challenges That Arise Are:

Repeating information to different agents
Customers getting frustrated
Customer relationship being hampered by repetitive questions
Increased turnaround time and average call duration

How Can RPA Help?

RPA permits the integration of different systems, which helps different agents keep track of the progress on a specific problem, without having to display all the applications.

Using RPA in call centres, the complete customer profile with details from the previous interactions can be loaded with a single click.

With this, agents do not need to ask for the same details repeatedly. This addresses the major negative feedback from customers concerning call centres – frequently being asked for the information they already provided. This way, implementing RPA in call centres improves customer service remarkably.