How Can Integrated Workflow Automation Maximize ROI?

The rise of agile technologies has transformed the face of customer expectations today. Customers have come to live in a world of instant gratification, expecting faster service delivery, to which contact centers are no exception. While meeting customer needs is essential to drive customer satisfaction and contact center profitability, this cannot be achieved if agents have to deal with manual, lengthy, and laboriously inefficient workflows. 

Obsolete technologies and disparate systems, thus, cannot keep apace with changing customer expectations and ensure business growth. Therefore, to stand firm amidst this ever-evolving business landscape, businesses ought to optimize their operations to meet customer expectations while driving ROI favorably. 

One way to achieve this is with integrated workflow automation, which can help organizations streamline their processes, rationalize costs, and easily ensure agent efficiency.

What are Streamlined Workflows?

Agents commonly use multiple applications to perform their daily tasks that are not well-integrated. This not only means work exhaustion due to job overload but also leads to customer frustration. Say, agents have to rummage through dozens of applications to respond to customer queries, due to data silos and application switching, customers would seek better and faster service elsewhere. To overcome these bottlenecks, it’s crucial to streamline processes to reduce the manual burden and boost efficiency. 

Integrated workflow refers to a set of coordinated processes and tasks designed to work seamlessly together to achieve a common goal or outcome. This can be achieved by integrating software applications, tools, and platforms that help in task automation, eliminating redundancies and reducing manual interventions. Thus, making it easier for data to move swiftly between applications, improving the efficiency of business processes, and saving agents’ time & effort.

NovelVox CEO Amit Gandhi says , “Seamless workflows can help lay the foundation of efficient contact center processes by reducing errors, standardizing call processes, and improving team collaboration. This can be critical to enhancing agent productivity and rationalizing operational costs while ensuring better CX.”

Business Agility and ROI with Automated Workflows

As the need for manual intervention and repetitive tasks decreases, so do the associated risks of human error. Further agents are freed from manual obligations to focus on strategic and high-touch matters, which is critical in retaining existing customers and driving more lead conversions. Allowing employees to focus on strategic initiatives can help businesses quickly adapt to changes in the market and respond to customer needs faster. 

Further, Automated workflows allow better cross-team collaboration and greater visibility into business operations, thereby equipping the management to make decisions and optimize processes based on real-time data. Informed choices and enhanced efficiency can ultimately lead to improved revenue returns.

Recent advancements in technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) have significantly enhanced the capabilities of workflow automation. These technologies can create intelligent workflows that can learn from past actions and adapt to changing customer needs. This allows businesses to improve their processes and optimize their operations for greater productivity and efficiency. 

“Cutting down workflow inefficiencies and streamlining processes can lead to faster turnaround times, better accuracy, and higher productivity, which can help ensure the loyalty of existing customers and attract newer ones,” Gandhi noted. 

Agile Technologies for Workflow Automation

As agile technologies become more prevalent in contact centers, implementing seamless workflows has become equally pertinent. A strategic approach to integrating the right contact center tools/technologies can help achieve workflow automation and ensure agent efficiency, reduce costs, enhance customer experience, and drive long-term ROI. 

One such tool is the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) which uses speech recognition and touch-tone technology to allow customers to self-serve via a menu of options. By automating simple queries such as balance inquiries, account updates, and basic support requests, it can reduce the workload for agents and frees up their time to focus on more complex issues. Secondly, it delivers a more streamlined experience to customers as they can easily and quickly access information without waiting in queues for agents. This efficiency can lead to lower operational costs and improve profitability by winning customer loyalty. Going beyond the traditional IVR, Visual IVR from NovelVox displays the IVR options on the screen improving visibility and chances for accurate responses. 

Another agile technology is Chatbot which uses NLP( Natural Language Processing) and ML (Machine Learning) to understand and respond to customer queries in real-time. Integrating chatbots with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools can provide personalized and contextual customer responses, thereby improving customer experience and reducing agent workload by automating routine tasks. NovelVox’s Conversational AI chatbots can proactively approach customers and offer solutions even before they ask for them. Further, they can direct the customer toward the required information or purchase process by pitching relevant and specialized messages. 

Another technology that can ensure workflow automation is an Agent Desktop. A case in point is the NovelVox Agent Accelerator can equip agents with 360-degree customer information helping them to provide personalized and efficient customer service. Further, a holistic review of the customer journey allows them to cross-sell and upsell products at the right time, adding to customer satisfaction. Improved customer retention rates help generate more revenue from repeat business.

Amit Gandhi says, “ As technologies continue to evolve, workflow automation becomes a necessity and not merely a “good-to-have” process. For businesses wanting to stay competitive, they ought to embrace agile technologies in their contact centers to be able to adapt to the new ways of working and thrive in an increasingly fast-paced environment.”