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How to Build ROI for Conversational AI
- 1. Confidential & Proprietary © SmartAction How to Build ROI for Conversational AI VP, CX Tiffany O’Malley VP, Sales and Solutions Phillip Fisher
- 2. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 2 What’s are experts saying about what’s happening in contact centers? Increased Agent Attrition Increased Operating Costs High Demand Customer Base Turnover averaging 30-45% Hiring bonuses + higher pay AHT from 3-6 mins to 10+
- 3. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 3 What’s the future hold? 71% have considered leaving job in last 6 months 69% want to leave customer service entirely Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 3
- 4. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 4 How can you solve the problems? • Training programs • Hiring bonus • Higher pay • Improve duties by reducing repetitive work • Increase time for fulfilling, high-value engagements • Remove demand burnout through instantly scalable workforce • Performance monitoring • Recognition programs Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 4
- 5. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 5 Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 5 Automation is the new way forward 66% 47% Reduction in errors Fewer menial tasks day-to-day 89% Feel more satisfied with their job 76% Feel more satisfied with stress levels Saves time while reducing errors Lowers stress and allows for high- value productivity
- 6. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 6 Symbiotic Relationship Between Virtual & Live Agent Slide 15 • Handle complex issues or unusual requests that require critical thinking • Diffuse and resolve emotional situations • Upsell or offer flexible, creative solutions • Greet and authenticate callers • Gather information as first line of support • Handle common, repetitive conversations or escalate issues and route accordingly Powered by the same knowledge base and enter information into the same CRM to keep information consistent and up-to-date
- 7. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 7 What can you really save? *Assumptions: • $14.42 per hour (unburdened) • +20% fully burdened (benefits, tax, SS, etc.) • +10% technology support • +10% management/training/supervision /QA • 80% capacity utilization (talk time) Live Agent AI Agent C O S T P E R M I N A V G . M I N C O S T P E R C A L L T O T A L C O S T F O R 4 0 , 0 0 0 C A L L S / M O N T H Annual Savings $921,600 $ 0 . 0 0 - $ 1 . 0 0 0 - 1 0 M I N . 0 - 1 0 M I N . $ 0 - $ 1 0 $ 0 - $ 1 0 $ 0 - $ 1 0 0 K $ 0 - $ 1 0 0 K $0.42* 6 $2.52 $100,800 $24,000 $.60 3 $ 0 . 0 0 - $ 1 . 0 0 $0.20
- 8. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 8 About SmartAction AI-Powered Virtual Agents for Omnichannel Self-Service What We Do Our Mission To make life less hard® for brands and their customers #1 Rated Solution on Gartner Peer Insights Achievements Founded as AI research firm & headquartered in Fort Worth, TX Company 100+ Customers across various industries
- 9. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 9 The results speak for themselves 0 "We’ve grown by 1.3 million customers but haven’t added a single headcount to our contact center.” VP Admin Services, Legal & General Kris Wong
- 10. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 10 The results speak for themselves "We've been amazed to find out that speaking to a SmartAction virtual agent is as good as speaking to a live agent…at 1/3rd the cost." 4.5/5 CSAT on par with live agents 66% Reduction in cost per call Director of Q&E, AAA National Patty Kleinfeldt
- 11. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 11 Where do you start? Slide 11 Ask Questions What convos are repetitive and high volume? What channels should have self- service option? How do live agents handle these now? How do we convert without sacrificing CX? What are the handling rules for each convo? What are the end goals for each convo? Is the data available to ensure the best experience?
- 12. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 12 Start Every Conversation with AI “Where’s the closest branch?” “I’d like to set up auto-pay.” “I need travel insurance.” “I have to reset my password.” How can I help you today? “Can I order the ramen?” “What’s my claim status? Natural Language Intent Recognition “I need to get proof of insurance.”
- 13. CALL SAMPLE Time to Route 0:19 0:43 1:32 Product Already Registered? Yes Yes No Data Sources Leveraged Call History Customer Records 411 Start with AI… then end with AI Product Registration Repeat Caller Registered Caller New Caller Youtube Page:
- 14. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 14 R E T A I L • Order Status & Tracking • Returns • Intent Recognition M A N U F A C T U R I N G • Product Registration • Warranty/Returns • Troubleshooting U T I L I T I E S • Start / Stop / Transfer Service • Report an Outage • Intent Recognition A U T O M O T I V E • Scheduling • Recalls • Emergency Roadside Assistance H E A L T H C A R E • HIPAA-Compliant Authentication • Scheduling • Refills & Reorders I N S U R A N C E • FNOL/File a Claim • Claim Status • Intent Recognition F I N A N C I A L • Intent Recognition • Authentication • Collections T R A V E L & H O S P I T A L I T Y • Reservations • Reservations Mgmt. • Intent Recognition S E R V I C E P R O V I D E R S • Scheduling • Authentication • Intent Recognition C O L L E C T I O N S • Payments • Outbound Reach • Arrangements S H I P P I N G & L O G I S T I C S • Scheduling • Status • Intent Recognition Killer Use Cases for Adoption
- 15. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 15 What are common pushback scenarios? Why can’t we just build our own self-service virtual agent in-house? We can just use the embedded DIY tool in our contact center platform… Let’s go with a company that builds the bot, but then lets us manage it completely.
- 16. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 16 How do you get buy-in? Slide 11 Technology Business Assure data will be secure Show it’s not a duplicate of another solution Limited resources needed on their end Show the custom customer experience Detail how much is it going to save
- 17. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 17 Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 17 IVA pre-emptively offers the provider from the last visit IVA authenticates caller with HIPAA- compliant authentication IVA: “The next appointment I have available is (offers date and time). Does that work for you?” CALLER: “No.” Outbound text received by caller Show a custom demo experience — Scheduling IVA offers appointment time next available IVA: “Hi [name], are you calling to schedule a new appointment, request a new appointment or cancel?” CALLER: “I’d like to schedule a new appointment.” IVA negotiates appointment slot with patient IVA confirms appointment slot agreed upon and inquires about outbound text with appointment information IVA sends outbound text to caller
- 18. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 18 Show the cost savings *Assumptions: • $23.00 per hour (unburdened) • +20% fully burdened (benefits, tax, SS, etc.) • +10% infrastructure support • +10% management/training/supervisio n/QA • 80% capacity utilization (talk time) Live Agent AI Agent C O S T P E R M I N A V G . M I N C O S T P E R C A L L T O T A L C O S T F O R 4 0 , 0 0 0 C A L L S / M O N T H Annual Savings 50% containment $868,800 $ 0 . 0 0 - $ 1 . 0 0 0 - 1 0 M I N . 0 - 1 0 M I N . $ 0 - $ 1 0 $ 0 - $ 1 0 $ 0 - $ 1 0 0 K $ 0 - $ 1 0 0 K $0.67* 6.5 $4.22 $168,800 $24,000 $.60 3 $ 0 . 0 0 - $ 1 . 0 0 $0.20
- 19. Confidential & Proprietary © SmartAction Next Steps info@smartaction.com o Identify: 1. Call/chat types perfect for automation 2. Expected completion rates 3. Expected call volume deflection o ROI Calculation Free AI–Readiness Assessment Request Demo or What You’ll Get
- 20. Confidential & Proprietary © SmartAction Confidential & Proprietary © SmartAction
- 21. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 21 What metrics determine success in AI implementation? Voice Chat • Total # of users • Chat volume • Goal completion rate • Bounce rate • Conversation duration • Interaction rate • Fallback rate • Retention rate • Containment rate • Fallback rate • Business rule transfer • Immediate hang up • Incomplete call hang up • Courtesy transfer • Immediate call transfer • Incomplete call transfer Both: satisfaction rate (CES, CSAT, NPS)
- 22. Confidential & Proprietary ©SmartAction | 22 Why Track Metrics Metrics help continual improvement after go- live as virtual agent interacts with customers more to learn what hasn’t yet been realized, enhancing their capabilities. Where problems exist Where they can happen Where virtual agent excels Where virtual agent needs improvement Overall efficiency and productivity
Editor's Notes
- Sofia Contact centers are looking for ways to reduce or eliminate agent attrition, cut costs, and meet the high demand of call or chat volume. Agent attrition has grown since the pandemic due to the Great Resignation and the worker shortage. For T-Mobile, its annualized attrition rate reached highs in July and August last year of 65% — up from around 20% before the pandemic. Across the board, turnover is averaging 30-45% for contact centers. When it comes to increasing operating costs, contact centers are having to compete in a worker’s economy. The average number of live job openings in call, contact and customer care centers advertised on Ziprecruiter.com in February of 2021 was more than double that of the average the year earlier before the pandemic and that’s just on one recruitment platform. Contact centers have had to compete through engaging incentives such as bonuses and higher pay. Then we have agent handle time increasing from an average of 3-6 minutes to closer to 10 plus for most contact centers, having a significant impact on their KPIs. – Look at increase online orders and include an example + people staying home Resources: https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-call-in-better-pay-and-perks-for-contact-center-workers-11640608201 https://www.gep.com/blog/mind/impact-of-covid-19-on-contact-centers-and-measures-taken
- Sofia 71% of customer service agents have considered leaving their jobs in the last 6 months with 69% of them wanting to leave customer service roles entirely. Contact center leaders have felt the impact. There’s been an increase in resignations in the customer service sector and the war for retaining and hiring isn’t going anywhere any time soon. It’s only going to get harder as more people leave. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2022/02/07/how-to-empathetically-improve-the-work-lives-of-customer-service-agents-as-71-are-considering-quitting/?sh=76f477fa7243
- Sofia What’s interesting are the usual approaches to solving these problems such as training programs, hiring incentives, higher pay, performance monitoring, recognition programs — they all depend on having the bandwidth to execute and the budget to provide these high-cost solutions. Also, when it comes to monitoring performance and recognizing your live agents, those solutions can’t be effective if the work environment isn’t just right. So we know the root to these problems. Monotonous work Lack of a challenge The high demand … they all create an exhausting work environment where agents can’t use their truest skills: high-value service. And in industries where live agents are paid more because they’re certified, like insurance for example, they’re spending their high-cost time on calls that aren’t worth the effort or their time. That we already know. But a different approach to solving these problems is available. You can reducing the repetitive work which in turn allows for more high-value engagements, and that burnout customer service reps have been experiencing from the high demand can be solved by giving them co-workers who can handle calls on their behalf at a moments notice. That instantly scalable workforce is the key to this all. Automation is the way to go.
- Sofia Automation gets a knee-jerk negative reaction from a lot of people. There’s been a myth perpetuated by misinformation that automation takes jobs from hard workers and is shrinking the workforce. But no, the workforce is naturally shrinking due to natural retirement among other factors. The US workforce is becoming more valuable through higher-value jobs. So lets hear from the employees who have automation implemented in their jobs. They realize that automation doesn’t mean they’ll be out of a job. No, instead, they realize automation is here to help and aid them so that they can do more fulfilling work. When it comes to the contact center, you’ll always have a natural attrition rate. Every job in every industry does. But with the use of automation, you won’t have to worry about scaling back up and filling those seats that have been vacated. You won’t have to worry about the lack of live agents you have to handle peak times during or after storms to deal with insurance claims or during the holidays when people are going gift happy and needing agents to see where their order is. In my own personal job, I use automation all the time. That’s how I’m able to focus on the things that matter in my job — like making content and increasing our brand awareness. Without automation, I’d be stuck in email marketing hell and wasting time on low-value work when my efforts are better suited elsewhere.
- Sofia So now you understand that virtual agents aren’t here to take, they’re here to give. Give live agents back the minutes they need to do the work they were truly hired to do. The relationship really is one that is mutually beneficial. Virtual agents are the first customer touch point. If they’re not handling those repetitive conversations, they can hand them off with grace. For example, we have a life insurance policy customer that uses virtual agents to authenticate the caller. But if the policy has lapsed or was terminated, it goes to a live agent who can appropriately handle the delicacy of the situation.
- Tiffany Stay more loose and generic, you’re posing the questions. This is how you should see the solution, what you’re looking at when thinking costs to your bottom line Focus more on the story – asking the questions rather than specific numbers So, automation is now in the picture. Cool! Let’s look at how much it can actually save a contact center. And to do this, we’re going to use the hourly wage of a call center employee in Atlanta because it’s the city with the most contact center agents in the us. So PayScale says the hourly rate of an agent is an average of $14.42 and that’s unburdened. We know now many contact centers are offering WFH solutions so we’re not using any office space consideration in our numbers. It’s purely payroll taxes & benefits, software and equipment costs, and then management, training, supervision, QA. Using our trusty formula, we’re able to calculate that the live agent is costing the contact center .42 cents a minute. So how much does a virtual agent cost? A SA virtual agent can cost anywhere from .10-.30 How long do your calls typically take? What is your AHT? In our example here, we’re saying a typical call lasts about 6 min With a virtual agent, you’re usually going to be able to complete a call faster for a few different reasons: You have less chit chat Virtual agents are able to do data dips into multiple sources at the same time to gather information while a live agent has to log in and look up a customer So we take the AHT x the cost per minute to get this next figure – that’s 2.52 to complete a call versus .60 – multiply that by 40,000 calls (or however many you have coming in and that is how you get to your ROI With automation, that cost is reduced significantly… And automation provides the most significant ROI when implemented for the conversations that are: High in volume Repetitive in nature
- Tiffany We deliver AI-powered virtual agents as a service. That means we deliver the full conversational AI technology stack. It’s turnkey. It’s omnichannel. All of our clients use our voice self-service module. Most clients coming to us today rely on us for more than voice but their digital channels as well over chat and text. We use an open platform that incorporates best-of-breed AI and machine learning tools from both Google and Microsoft to augment our proprietary tools and stitching, so we really do believe we are delivering the best experience in the marketplace. But what makes us a little different is that we’re not just trying to sell a software licenses or seats and throw them over the fence and wish you good luck on your journey. Conversations with machines are complex. It needs experts. So we bundle end-to-end CX services with our technology. And when I say end-to-end, that means everything – the design, the build, and even the ongoing operation after go-live because it requires care and feeding where a team needs to dedicated to training AI models, examining data and optimizing the experience. So at the end of the day, we’re really stepping in more as a partner instead of just a technology provider. That makes us responsible for delivering the CX that was promised and the ROI that was promised. We’d like to think that approach is working for us. We operate the AI-powered CX for more than 100 brands
- Sofia That life insurance customer I spoke about earlier was Legal & General and since they’ve grown by over a million customers and haven’t added a single agent to their contact center.
- Tiffany We like to show this slide because this is a typical outcome we see with our clients – CSAT and NPS scores usually rise once going live if only because the wait times are gone. Also, because we won’t commit to automating anything that we are not convinced that we can perform as good as or better than your best agent The 66% reduction in cost is also very standard – as you’ve seen already we usually come in at least half the price of a live agents, sometimes even ¼ or 1/5 depending on your volume
- Tiffany So then, where do you start? If we were having this conversation together, I’d Start by asking a few questions: What are the conversations happening that are high in volume – what are my top call drivers? What channels do we want to implement self-service? Do I want only offer voice self-service – do I want to give my customers the ability to do chat or send SMS? Then for each channel, ask: How does a live agent handle these today? (Talking point: Analyze calls) what is right for automation – some things are better left to a live agent How can we convert human-to-human conversations to human-to-AI convos without sacrificing the current experience? One of the great things about customer service type calls is that we typically know the reasons people are calling in so that allows us to be predictive – it also allows us to Narrow scope of what we’re listening for to be able to handle with super good accuracy Handling rules - determine which conversations can be handled as a team (live agent + virtual agent), which conversations can be fully automated through self-service What’s the end goal for every conversation you wish to automate Is the data available to ensure the best experience possible Data is king!! The more data you have available, the better the experience is going to be
- Tiffany Here is an option If hesitant to go fully into AI – start the conversation with AI - this front door option gives customers the opportunity to interact with the bot. this starts every conversation with ‘how can I help you today?” Starting every conversation with AI, at the very least, removes the need for the initial information gathering because the virtual agent handles that. If a call can’t be fully automated and requires a live agent, all information is passed along and saves time, eliminates repetition, and ensures accurate routing. But above that, and most importantly, it recognizes the intent for the conversation. By asking through an open-ended question: “How can I help you?” the virtual agent recognizes by the information provided why the person is contacting customer service. Add value by routing specific calls to specific agent – huge win – you only want specific agents to handle cancellation calls – great! You want your best sales people handling a call that requires upselling – routing can add huge value immediately So across different verticals, use cases, and customer interactions, there’s an opportunity to leverage AI in a whole new way. And this is open-ended intent recognition of “How can I help you?” is leaps and bounds beyond the traditional IVR experience that's very rigid and has to follow a structured path. From there, you can branch out depending on your business rules to automate other conversations:
- Tiffany Here’s a couple of examples of starting a call with AI With these Electrolux examples, you’ll be able to see how starting the conversation with AI allows for bot to leverage data sources to cut down on repetitive information they’d already have. No human has the ability to scan multiple data points to attain this information in the matter of seconds like AI does. Let’s start with Repeat Caller. This is using behavioral data to notice the caller has called in the previous 48 hrs. Now under registered caller, the customer calls in the and the system already recognizes they have registered a product, so see how the virtual agent handles that call [play call] Last, we have a conversation that not only starts with AI but ends with AI. The customer stays in self-service to register a product through the virtual agent, and the bot is able to leverage 411 to get information. Let’s hear “new caller” [play call]. That’s a top call driver for Electrolux that doesn’t require human jughement that we were able to completely take out of their call center with a virtual agent
- Tiffany So you just saw some of the use cases we are automating with Electrolux and may be wondering, what else are we doing in other industries. This slide showcases the industries we currently have applications live in – listed within these are what we like to call our ”killer applications” meaning this is the low hanging fruit that is ripe for automation. If you’re a retail company and you still have live agents tracking orders or returns – those are easy wins for automation – immediate savings Go through industries Pre-built AI models – already have millions of calls that have come through our applications – the training has already taken place – reap the benefits of what we’ve already done
- Tiffany Major objections you’ll face when you’re trying to make case for automation that you have to address from various stakeholders Someone’s going to think it can be done in-house Someone’s gonna mention the CCaaS has a built-in DIY tool Someone might say a company can make it and it can be managed in-house How you can handle all scenarios above For anything involving in-house: you’ll have to employ a staff to operate and continuously train, optimize, and monitor the solution. IT has technical expertise for systems, but they don’t understand how to build a conversation flow, how to supervise the machine learning, etc. Embedded DIY tools in contact center platforms lack the customization capabilities for complex, multi-turn conversations and you also have to manage and tune that on your own as well Or how about having someone else build it for you, then you manage None of these are bad ideas and we come against these scenarios nearly every day. The reason we offer our virtual agents as a service is because we know conversations with machines are complex, and you really do need a team dedicated to the optimization, care and feeding When you partner with smartaction, our team now becomes an extension of your team, and these are the roles you need/get: We have conversation designers dedicated to just that discipline A CSM team whose sole focus is Day 2 and beyond to tune and optimize. That’s all they do Other dedicated roles for data science and insights Telephony engineers who only do telephony Project managers whose sole focus is getting new applications live, align all resources and meet deadlines And of course, Developers. Conversational AI is not low code. While a portion of bot building and tuning is no code, there’s another portion that isn’t. There’s always tailoring work that has to be done While a lot of companies THINK this is the route they want to go, you need to be aware of the resources needed to make your application successful. Mayn times we have companies come to us who have tried one of these routes and ended up deciding that they would rather outsource this. Also, remember, a lot of departments are resource constrained now. We like to say that by the time you’ve added one to two bodies to manage your virtual agent, you’ve already priced yourself out of what you can get from smartaction
- Tiffany So, you want to go the virtual agent route – but you need to sell this internally and sometimes that can be a challenge because nearly everyone has had a bad experience with “automation” You have to get internal buy in and with that you have to know what is most important to your executive team What I hear most is – What is the customer experience? And how much money is it going to cost me and how much money is it going to save me? When you think about what is most valuable to an organization – it’s their customers. We understand that being trusted with the being first touch point to your customer is a huge responsibility and we don’t take that lightly. So, when you’re having a conversation with us, the first thing we’re going to do for you is create a custom demo experience – we want you to experience what your customer is going to I’m going to show you an example of that in a second, Next – let’s talk numbers – how much is it going to cost me and how much is it going to save me. So we’ll put something in front of you based on your volumes…
- Tiffany Here’s an example of a custom experience we put together for one of our healthcare clients, let’s give it a listen… 364-202-3762 Scheduling is a huge use case for us - and we do it for a lot of different industries: service appointments at auto dealerships, public transit rides, home repair, for scheduling house tours – and of course scheduling appointments in healthcare. So I’d like to showcase just how easy it is to schedule a doctor’s appointment and there are a few key items I’d like for you to listen for: Why I’m calling The day and time I’m asking for STEPS TO FOLLOW 1. “Hi Helena, are you calling to schedule a new appointment, change an existing appointment, or cancel?” Umm yeah, I'd like to schedule a new appointment. 2. IVA pre-emptively offers the provider(s) from last visit. Yes. 3. IVA authenticates caller (name, birthday, and zip code). 4. “Is this a new exam, follow-up, or something else?” It’s going to be a new exam. 5. In a few words, tell us why you are coming in. Yeah, so I have this persistent cough that won’t go away. I’ve had it for 3 weeks now and nothing I've been taking for it has been helping. 6. “The next appointment I have available is {xxx}. Does that work for you?” No. 7. “What day would you like to come in for your appointment?” Do you have something available for next Wednesday in the early afternoon?/Earliest times you have free this Friday morning? 8. I have an appointment available on {xxx}. Does that work for you? Yes, that’ll work! Point out that when I said "no" to the first time it offered, it asked for which day I want to come in. Instead of giving a day, I said the day AND time frame (afternoon) when I wanted to come in and it handled no problem. When I didn't like the time, it asked what day I'd like to come in. Instead of saying the day, I asked for the times it had on Wed and gave me the first available time. As you can see, the flows aren't strict and are able to react in natural language in much the same way a human conversation might go.
- Tiffany This is an example of an ROI calculation we did for one of our healthcare clients. They were getting swamped with “scheduling” call requests. Their call wait times were up to an hour and they were experiencing ‘no shows’ every day because people did not want to wait an hour to cancel an appt. (as you know, ‘no shows’ cost you money too!) Walk through example Assume we only take half of these calls (because you have automation resistance, biz rules, etc.) we’re still at nearly $1M ROI multiply that by 3 for term of our deal and that will get any CFO really excited
- Brian: Q and A Session? Seed Questions:
- Sofia Talking point Talk to: Bounce rate Comeback rate Completion rate Engaged users # of new users Number of bot sessions initiated Human interaction vs chatbot interaction
- Sofia Talking point Where there may be problems that currently exists Where you were you could have problems ahead of time (proactive vs. reactive) Where the virtual agent is excelling Where there could be methodical improvement Overall efficiency and productivity of virtual agent Improvement of live agent efficiency and productivity
- Sofia
- Tiffany