The Major Impact of Big Data and Advanced Analytics on Call Centers

As artificial intelligence (AI) technology keeps evolving, we’ve started to see its effects on many different industries across the world. Call centers were expected to be among the main affected business models, and that’s so far turning out to be true. Many call centers around the world have started to ramp up their work significantly thanks to recent developments in the fields of big data, AI, and analytics, and we’re likely only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

It’s interesting to analyze the impact this technology has had on this particular industry, because it’s very likely that we’re going to see even more developments on that front in the near future. And of course, only those who’ve been keeping up with the trends will get to benefit from the new situation properly.

Easier to Process Large Workloads

Call centers are typically overloaded most of the time, especially those that provide services to multiple companies simultaneously. It can be challenging to organize this kind of heavy work, especially when resources are limited. But thanks to recent advances in AI and analytics, it’s becoming easier and more manageable to ensure that the entire call center is properly utilized, and all clients are serviced properly.

This can also allow call centers to function more efficiently on limited resources, and as a result, companies have now started to relax their attitude around their resource utilization to some extent. It would be interesting to see if this trend continues, and if more optimizations arrive to the scene that have a similar impact.

More Automation of Menial Tasks

Customer support typically involves lots of small, repetitive tasks that tend to take up a lot of a person’s time. With modern tech, many of these can be automated, leaving employees with more time to focus on the actually important points. This is something that’s already noticeable in multiple other industries, and it will likely have a sweeping effect across the call center market sooner or later.

Of course, not everything can be automated completely, and some tasks still require human intervention, even if just for verification. But we’re definitely moving forward in this regard, and the results are already noticeable.

Getting to the Point Faster

On that note, specialists are now also able to find solutions to customers’ problems more easily and in a more streamlined manner, thanks largely to advances in AI technology. Many queries can be simplified and broken down into their fundamental parts, allowing the system to reach the desired answer quickly and without much effort on the part of the operator.

And as a result, each individual worker is now able to process much larger volumes of requests, focusing on the actual problems within them, and guiding customers to their resolutions much more effectively.

Improved Hiring Capabilities

Call centers are traditionally an industry with a high turnover rate, and there are various reasons for that. But with the help of modern analytical technology and big data, the hiring process can be simplified significantly, allowing companies to bring in more valuable candidates at a faster rate.

At the same time, unfavorable ones can be weeded out more easily, improving the overall selection pool and narrowing down the choice to a few viable options. This alone has resulted in significant improvements across the board, and we’ve already seen many companies adopting the new solutions as a result.

Better Remote Cooperation

Another traditional issue with the operation of call centers lies in the fact that they are often a distributed organization with offices all over the place. Call center outsourcing to the Philippines is popular these days, as are several other countries. It’s part of the way of optimizing the company’s resources. But it can also create serious bottlenecks in terms of communication, and can prevent some departments from getting their workloads cleared quickly enough.

Thanks to AI, cooperation between different departments is easier and more straightforward, and communication issues can be resolved without too much arguing. We’re already seeing a noticeable improvement in how smoothly internal communications are handled at many companies that provide customer support services, and this is likely only the beginning. As this technology continues to take over the market by storm, more companies are going to adopt it and they’ll explore new ways of utilizing this tech to its full potential.

Big data is changing the world faster than anything we’ve seen in the past, and this is likely going to continue in the near future at even more rapid rates. It’s important to stay on top of these developments and follow them from a close perspective though. People who fall behind the times in this particular area are going to have significant problems on the job market not too long from now, and the situation is only going to get worse in this regard.