In the rush to embrace artificial intelligence, contact centres in Australia are hurtling towards an unexpected reality: AI will make them less efficient. Yes, you read that right – LESS efficient.
While the promise of AI streamlining operations and boosting productivity has been the promise teasing organisations into the digital age, the truth may be far more complex and, dare we say, inefficient.
Picture this: a contact centre where all the simple, straightforward calls have been siphoned off by chatbots and automated systems. Sounds like a dream, right? Well, hold onto your headsets, because this AI-driven utopia might just be a productivity nightmare in disguise.
Diving in
Let’s dive into the crux of the matter. With AI handling the lion’s share of routine inquiries, what’s left for human agents? The complex, the emotional, the downright tricky calls that no algorithm can untangle.
We’re talking about the customer who’s been bounced between departments for weeks, the irate client whose shipment has gone AWOL, or the confused pensioner trying to navigate a digital-only service for the first time.
These are the calls that require not just knowledge, but empathy, creativity, and often more than a good dose of patience. For some services, the calls will also involve highly emotionally charged situations (like someone threatening self-harm or worse).
They’re the calls that can’t be resolved with a quick script or a pre-programmed response. And here’s the kicker: they’re bloody exhausting.
Imagine spending your entire shift dealing with nothing but these high-stress, high-stakes interactions. It’s like running an emotional marathon every single day. The cognitive load on agents in this AI-augmented future is immense.
Where once your contact centre staff enjoyed a mix of 80% simple calls and 20% complex calls, allowing for mental breaks and a chance to catch their breath, now it’s all complex, all the time. Full concentration 100% of the time.
This relentless barrage of challenging calls isn’t just tiring; it’s potentially devastating for efficiency. Agents will need more frequent breaks to decompress and reset. They’ll require longer periods between calls to document the intricate solutions they’ve crafted (unless you have a smart AI assistant to do that).
The emotional toll could lead to increased absenteeism, higher turnover rates, and longer training periods for new hires who need to be prepared for this high-intensity environment from day one. Not exactly the AI dream we are all being sold today!
The good news is that this higher emotive and cognitive load will mean that Team Leaders will, more than ever, be called upon to be people managers and counsellors that simply subject matter experts on products and process.
But wait, there’s more!
The traditional metrics that contact centres have relied on for decades are about to become as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Let’s take ‘adherence to schedule’, that old chestnut beloved by workforce management teams everywhere. In a world where each call is a unique puzzle requiring varying degrees of time and effort to solve, sticking to a rigid schedule becomes not just challenging, but potentially detrimental to customer satisfaction.
Your frontline staff will require more short breaks and less of a structured day as they deal with the constant onslaught of complex issues. Worrying who is back from morning tea within 2 minutes of their schedule will simply not matter anymore.
And don’t get me started on Average Handling Time (AHT). I have to openly declare that I have never understood the need for this terrible measure. Always hated it.
In an AI empowered world, when every call is complex, when every interaction requires deep problem-solving and perhaps a dash of emotional support, measuring success by how quickly an agent can get off the phone becomes farcical at best, and downright harmful at worst. It’s like judging a gourmet chef by how quickly they can flip burgers.
The irony is palpable. In our quest for efficiency through AI, we may have inadvertently created a system that demands more from our human workforce than ever before. The very technology designed to make things easier could be setting us up for a future where contact centre work is more challenging, more stressful, and potentially less efficient than it is today.
Envision a brave new world
So, what’s the solution? Well, it’s not as simple as unplugging the AI and going back to the old ways. The genie is out of the bottle, and there’s no stuffing it back in. Instead, we need to radically rethink how we structure, manage, and measure success in contact centres.
Perhaps we need to embrace the complexity rather than fight it. This might mean smaller teams of highly skilled, well-compensated agents who are given the time and resources to truly solve problems. What if those teams were solve resolving units that had representatives from service, delivery, finance and more in each team?
This new world will involve throwing out the old metrics and developing new ways to measure success that prioritise customer satisfaction and problem resolution over speed and volume.
We might need to reimagine the very layout and workflow of contact centres. Gone might be the days of rows upon rows of agents in headsets. Instead, picture collaborative spaces where agents can consult with each other, take breathers in relaxation rooms, or step away from their desks to clear their heads without fear of missing their ‘adherence’ targets.
Training, too, will need an overhaul. Beyond product, policy and procedure, frontline staff will need intensive coaching in emotional intelligence, complex problem-solving, and stress management. They’ll need to be part therapist, part detective, and part magician, able to pull solutions out of thin air for problems they’ve never encountered before.
The way forward
The path forward isn’t clear, and it certainly isn’t easy. But one thing is certain: as AI continues to reshape the landscape of customer service, we need to be prepared for the possibility that our human agents may need more support, not less.
The future of contact centres might not be the streamlined, efficient utopia we imagined. Instead, it could be a place of intense human interaction, where the most valuable skills are the ones that make us uniquely human.
As we stand on the brink of this AI revolution, it’s time to ask ourselves: are we ready for a future where efficiency might just look a little less efficient?
It’s a paradox, to be sure, but in the world of AI and human interaction, paradoxes might just become our new normal.
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