Let’s Talk Conversational Technology

CONVERSATIONAL TECHNOLOGY HAS EVOLVED

These technology solutions simultaneously represent some of the oldest technologies available (e.g., IVR and text bot) and some of the newest (e.g., IVA and Voice). Due to more recent innovations, many companies have outdated strategies for this entire category of technologies, resulting in missed opportunities to enhance customer success and satisfaction.

There are two specific trends driving increased interest in conversational technologies, both loosely related to the pandemic. First, the need – even demand – for contactless customer interactions drove companies to explore new channels for connecting with customers. Live chat and chatbot technologies rocketed from novel and new to extremely viable, relevant channels for real-time customer conversations. Second, because many contact centers experienced overrun during the pandemic, leading companies quickly recognized they had to improve their IVR experience and looked for ways to automate or shift call volume to other channels.

In 2020, we partnered with several retail clients to implement textbot capabilities for queuing applications and to utilize chat in retail purchase processes to increase sales conversions. However, the pandemic wasn’t the sole driver of the shift toward conversational technology innovation and optimization. Rather, it was an accelerator for trends we’ve been monitoring for several years.

As we’ve noted in other consumer trends throughout the pandemic, we expect many behaviors to stick. Consumers are building an affinity for these conversational interactions, which should sustain – and boost – adoption moving forward. We believe conversational technologies will continue to be leveraged well beyond retail pickup and delivery scenarios.

Key Value Levers

START TALKING AND KEEP REFINING

As with any technology, companies should adopt a product design mindset in deploying and maintaining new channels and platforms. This approach includes developing Minimum Viable Product (MVP) solutions and then continuously testing and iterating to enhance performance. Organizations shouldn’t feel pressured to roll out automation to handle 100 tasks right out of the gate. In fact, rushing a rollout often leads to mediocre bot or IVA experiences, frustrating customers instead of helping them.

Deploying automation that handles a few tasks well, then iteratively refining those tasks while introducing new ones, is a better approach. Again, testing and analytics are key, as is the mindset that these channels are works in progress – you’re always enhancing performance and function. And focusing on basic and transactional user takes can free up call center staff for more complex needs. 

Piloting deployments of technologies to gather learnings can assist with full-scale deployments. These are just a couple ways that test and learn strategies can increase a company’s chance of success in utilizing conversational technologies.

Many companies have had IVR systems in place for some period of time; however, the experiences aren’t commonly designed with the customer in mind so much as just simply deployed without consideration of end users. User testing of IVR logic trees and a thorough analysis of contact center metrics can reveal quick wins that enhance the customer experience over the channel. In our experience, testing IVR trees results in identifying targeted areas for improvement that can be deployed in a reasonably short amount of time to deliver measurable customer success gains.

CONVERSATIONAL TECH IN THE WILD

As you pay closer attention to conversational technologies, you will likely begin to notice interactions elegantly woven into thoughtful customer experiences. For example, the next time you check the status of a prescription, pay attention to well-designed IVR automations that allow you to complete this type of simple task.

Existing opportunities and applications exist for utilizing these technologies as part of thoughtfully- designed customer journeys. As you send your own conversational technology applications into the wild, remember these three key activities – conduct customer research, experiment and iterate, and view every use of these technologies as an opportunity to constantly improve and evolve the total customer experience.