PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST...Contact-Center-White-Paper-jf-071420 About Blue Prism Blue Prism’s vision...

WHITEPAPER

Blue Prism Contact Center Automation

BluePrism.com

PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

https://www.blueprism.com

Executive Summary

Automation has emerged as one of the hot topics for the contact center industry in 2020. Ironically, the contact center industry was in fact a pioneer in the use of automation in that the first call routing system, the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), was delivered to the industry in 1973. The ACD replaced manual call routing and automated the distribution of customer calls to call center agents in the early days of the industry.

Today, automation in the contact center has taken on a new meaning. Driven primarily by sophisticated applications that allow complex tasks to be completed quickly and with minimal effort by the user, automation has become a vital tool in optimizing both the customer experience and the employee experience.

The greatest driver of automation in the contact center in the decade ahead will likely be the workplace expectations and requirements of the new generation of workers. We refer here specifically to Millennials and Generation Z workers. These are tech savvy workers and, in the case of Generation Z, digitally native workers who have never lived in a world without the internet. Having grown up with smart devices and limitless access to information, the workplace and career aspirations of these generations align with their life experiences as they move into a position of dominance in the workforce.

Personnel turnover has been a contact center industry challenge for nearly as long as the industry itself has been in existence.

Automation, however, offers the potential to significantly alter this trend. According to recent research conducted by Saddletree Research in conjunction with the not-for-profit National Association of Call centers (NACC), only about 17 percent of the contact center industry is satisfied with the turnover rate of its agents in 2020. That leaves 83 percent of the industry seeking ways to improve their agent experience.

Automation has the potential to dramatically improve the agent experience by streamlining the customer service experience, automating routine and repetitive tasks that can make the agent job unappealing to new generation workers. Offering a more challenging and stimulating work environment will lead to greater overall agent job satisfaction and, by extension, a reduction in agent turnover.

In today’s highly competitive customer service environment, automation also greatly enhances the customer experience. The automation and elimination of routine and repetitive tasks often faced by customers, such as

repeating information to agents after it has been entered into an IVR system so the agent can gather customer information from various sources, can substantially improve the customer’s service experience. The use of digital agents, which gather information and present customer and other relevant information on the agent desktop, has the potential to cut average handle time (AHT) and improve the efficiency of customer contacts dramatically while offering the added benefit of cost containment to the contact center.

As today’s contact center evolves into more of an exception center, the role of automation is poised to grow exponentially. The long-term benefit of automation in the evolution of the contact center industry will be a reduction in agent turnover accompanied by an increase in overall job satisfaction, in addition to providing an efficient service experience for the customer.

Blue Prism Contact Center Automation | PUTTING PEOPLE FIRSTBlue Prism Contact Center Automation | PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

2 | BluePrism.com © 2020 Saddletree Research/Blue Prism



https://www.blueprism.com/gov


Introduction

Automation is a relatively new phenomenon to the contact center industry, but it is well-established in many other markets. By definition, automation is technology that enables a process or procedure to be executed with little or no human assistance. While it may sound highly complex, automation touches our everyday life in more ways than we may realize.

If, for example, you drive an automobile, you are already familiar with automation. Today’s auto is, in fact, a study in automation. From the moment you turn the key or push the ignition button and get a readout of the engine temperature and the outside temperature, to when you arrive at your destination courtesy of your GPS system, it is automation in motion. The various automations on today’s automobile allow the driver to focus his or her attention on the actual task of driving while automation ensures optimal performance of the vehicle.

In the contact center, automation is also complex, and it accomplishes the same purpose in terms of performing functions with little or no human assistance. This paper will explore the factors driving the accelerating adoption of automation in the contact center, the use cases of automation in the customer experience, and the approach that Blue Prism is taking in order to meet the automation needs of the contact center today and in the future.

Automation in the Contact CenterTechnically, automation has existed in the call center since the inception of the first true call center in 1973. That is the year the first Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) was delivered to Continental Airlines, the purpose of which was to automate the distribution of customer calls to the call center agents.

Blue Prism Contact Center Automation | PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

© 2020 Saddletree Research/Blue Prism BluePrism.com | 3




Since 2016, the definition of automation in the contact center has evolved and today is generally accepted as process automation that relies upon elements of artificial intelligence (AI) in order to accomplish tasks or processes that are primarily focused on increasing efficiency and convenience in the customer experience. Automation in the contact center today can also be described as robotic process automation (RPA) due to its focus on supplementing human effort, and its usefulness to both workers and customers.

Today, we find automation being increasingly deployed in both the contact center and the back office to automate routine, repetitive tasks; i.e., those tasks that can be accomplished without human intervention. Address

change entries, for example, is an easily automated contact center and back office task.

Beyond automating routine tasks, automation in the contact center has grown to encompass increasingly complex functions, acting as digital agents in support of both agents and customers. In the case of customer calls or inquiries, digital agents can retrieve information on behalf of the customer before the call goes to a live agent. This self-serve scenario automates routine information gathering for the customer, transferring calls to live agents only when human assistance is required.

Digital agents perform a similar task for agents, gathering information based upon agent desktop activity and presenting the information

to the agent desktop during a customer call. Rather than having a customer wait while an agent toggles between screens or accesses the contact center’s knowledge management system, digital agents work in real-time as the call progresses in order to smooth the customer service process.

Given the generally accepted definition of automation in the contact center today, Saddletree Research estimates that nine percent of the North American contact center market has deployed robotic process automation. Interest in RPA, henceforth referred to as “automation” for the purpose of this paper, is high and gaining momentum, as will be discussed in this document.

The Detail Behind the DataThis paper contains proprietary data sourced from the 2019 survey of contact center professionals conducted by Saddletree Research in conjunction with the not-for-profit, university-based National Association of Call Centers (NACC). Results are statistically valid at a 95 percent confidence level and a margin of error of 3.8 percent.

There were 166 respondents in the 2019 survey. Figure 1 below illustrates the titles of these respondents.

As the results indicate, over 76 percent of survey respondents are decision-makers or decision influencers.

FIGURE 1: Survey Respondents’ Titles

Source: Saddletree Research







Figure 2 details the size of the contact centers at which the survey respondents work. Due to the random nature of the survey, respondents tended to skew toward larger contact centers in 2019.

FIGURE 2: Survey Respondents’ Contact Center Size


Figure 3 shows the number of contact centers at each survey respondents’ company.

FIGURE 3: Number of Contact Centers at Respondents’ Companies







FIGURE 4: Research Participants’ Vertical Markets


The final demographic, illustrated in Figure 4, shows the vertical markets of the survey respondents. As in the contact center industry itself, financial services represent the dominant vertical market of the participants.

Factors Driving Contact Center AutomationBesides the availability of the AI capabilities necessary to support the adoption of automation in the contact center, there are other tangible and intangible factors that have driven automation to the forefront of consideration for implementation. Automation is now being deployed in order to address both longstanding and relatively recent contact center industry challenges.

Generational ExpectationsWe believe that the greatest driver of automation in the contact center for the next decade and more will be the workplace expectations and requirements of the new generations of workers; specifically, Millennials and Generation Z workers. Unlike workers of previous generations, the new generation workers are tech-savvy, having grown up with smart devices and information at their fingertips. Their workplace and career expectations align with their life experiences up to the point of entering the workforce.







Figure 5 illustrates current demographics of the U.S. workforce.

FIGURE 5: Generational Breakdown of U.S. Workforce

Source: Pew Research

While the majority of workers today, 58 percent, are represented by Generation X and Baby Boomers, this is rapidly changing, and the workplace is changing with it. According to the Social Security Administration, 10,000 Americans are turning 65 years old each day. As these workers retire and cycle out of the workforce, traditional workplace expectations will leave with them. The number of Generation X workers has been shrinking since 2017.

Millennials have represented a plurality of the workforce since 2016 and continue to exert influence in the way work is conducted daily. Generation Z currently represents about five percent of the workforce, but they will represent 20 percent of the workforce by year-end 2020.

Gen Z’ers are the first digitally native generation, meaning that they have never know a world without the internet and personal smart devices. Millennials have had a similar life experience and rely upon intelligent technology in their personal and professional lives. Both generations are ambitious and hard-working and expect their employers to have the types of technologies and tools that they grew up with.

Automation of routine and/or repetitive tasks will be expected by the new generation of workers. Contact centers that fail to recognize the need to automate tasks in the customer experience economy risk losing employees to more forward-thinking employers and even to alternative jobs such as gig work.

Automation and its Effect on Agent TurnoverAgent turnover has been the bane of the contact center industry for as long as the industry has existed. While compensation and working conditions for agents have improved exponentially in the past several years, customer service is still a high-pressure, high-stress job that has been known to take its toll on the workforce. Customer service managers and executives are constantly searching for ways to lessen agent turnover and the impact it has on contact center operations.






FIGURE 6: Agent Turnover in the Contact Center


Figure 6 illustrates the responses of our research participants when asked to characterize employee turnover in their contact center.

As delineated in Figure 6 above, only about 17 percent of the industry is satisfied with the turnover rate of its agents.

When looking at actual turnover rates of contact centers today, the numbers are much more revealing. Figure 7 illustrates turnover rates as reported by research participants.

FIGURE 7: Contact Center Annual Workforce Turnover








To put the information in Figure 7 in perspective, we also asked our survey respondents how their agent turnover rate in 2018 compared to previous years. The responses are illustrated in Figure 8.

FIGURE 8: 2018 Agent Turnover in Perspective


Despite what might best be described as a fairly recent focus on employee engagement and the employee experience, agent turnover has increased in over one-third of North American contact centers in the last year.

Saddletree Research believes the nature of contact center work has always been a major factor in the concern of the 83 percent of the market that is not entirely happy with their agent turnover rate, as shown in Figure 6. Compounding this challenge are the previously described generational issues that will make it increasingly difficult for contact centers to find workers willing to perform tasks that

workers do not find stimulating and challenging or offer workers some degree of job satisfaction.

Automation has the potential to streamline the customer service process and, by extension, improve the job satisfaction experienced by the contact center agent workforce. Beyond generational issues that are making routine, repetitive job tasks unappealing to the new generation worker, automation mitigates many of the aspects of the agent job that have traditionally contributed to the high rate of agent turnover in the industry.

Benefits of Automation in the Contact CenterAlso driving adoption of automation in the contact center is the ongoing need to improve processes for both competitive and cost-containment purposes. The uses of automation in the customer experience is truly a double-edged sword in the most positive of ways. Not only can automation smooth and speed service on the customer side, it can significantly improve the employee experience at several levels. Wherever it is functioning, automation positively impacts the speed and efficiency of the service experience, as described in the following sections.






The Performance FactorAutomation has the potential to positively impact performance metrics in the contact center, both traditional and emerging performance metrics. Since traditionally manual tasks are replaced with digital agents that automate the routine processes often associated with customer

service calls, these calls will naturally be shorter. Automating the human element in routine processes translates to shorter, more efficient customer calls, and a positive impact on the key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with it.

The use of standard KPIs such as Average Handle Time (AHT) and Average Speed of Answer (ASA) is ubiquitous in today’s contact center. However, as the contact center industry and the customer service profession continue to evolve, these metrics often run side-by-side with more contemporary KPIs.

As part of our 2019 research project, we were curious to determine which performance metrics were being used most often besides the standard AHT and ASA. We also wanted to explore the relatively new performance metrics that are driving customer service today. The top five responses and the percentage of respondents using these standard, emerging or alternative metrics are shown in Figure 9.

FIGURE 9: Top 5 Alternative/Emerging KPIs and Percent Industry Usage


While the top three responses are not a surprise, the bottom two are. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is an indicator of the strength of a firm’s customer relationships. It augments, and in some cases replaces, the CSAT score and is believed to be correlated to revenue growth. The Customer Effort Score (CES) is a KPI that measures customer loyalty as a result of the ease of the service experience with an organization. The CES is typically

attained by surveying customers and asking them to rate their service experience on a scale from “Very easy” to “Very difficult.”

As with more traditional KPIs, automation can provide a dramatically positive impact on both NPS and CES via the ease and speed of gathering information and providing that information expeditiously to both customers and contact center workers.

The Current State of Contact Center AutomationAutomation in the North American contact center is in its infancy, but there is a high degree of interest in this technology for improving performance, optimizing the customer experience and meeting the needs of the new generation of workers, which is critically important today and continuing to grow in importance in the years ahead.







Our research indicates high probability that the deployment of contact center deployment will see a growth spurt in the next three years based upon the responses of our research participants. Figure 10 illustrates responses to our question regarding the state of automation in the North American contact center industry.

Figure 10: Current State of Contact Center Automation


Approximately 11 percent of the industry has already deployed automation in their contact center. In real numbers, Saddletree Research estimates this represents approximately 8,300 contact centers. Before the end of 2020, the total number of contact centers deploying automation is expected to reach 22,140 in North America alone, representing growth of over 37 percent.

Looking beyond 2020, an additional 38 percent of the industry has indicated intention of deploying automation. We expect over 68 percent of the industry to deploy automation to some degree before 2025.

The Blue Prism Approach to AutomationThe basic principle behind the Blue Prism approach to automation is to provide maximum value while requiring minimum skill and effort. With Blue Prism, there is no coding necessary in order to successfully deploy Blue Prism automation capabilities. The Blue Prism strategy is to remove the difficulty of automation deployment without removing its potential to automate complex solutions. It is truly automation for the masses.

To be clear, coders and developers can build automation applications of any description with the Blue Prism platform. Business users, however, can build automation applications without using any code whatsoever. No special skills or qualifications are required to

create automation applications with Blue Prism, which gives it a unique simplicity in a field populated by solutions that require skilled, and usually expensive, specialists in order to build processes.

With Blue Prism automation, the relationship between the digital, or automated, agent and the live agent is not one-to-one. Blue Prism’s scalability enables a one-to-many relationship between a live agent and digital agents. As a result, any number of digital agents can be deployed in response to information needs by a single agent or, in a self-serve scenario, a single customer caller.

Blue Prism works with the contact center interactive voice response (IVR) system as well as with live agents. When a customer initiates contact with customer service






and enters his or her information through the center’s IVR solution, multiple digital agents are deployed to gather information to provide the customer, or to take along with the call if the customer opts to speak to a live agent. The information gathering process is typically cut from minutes to seconds and information retrieval is not limited to contact center systems. Any enterprise data can be accessed by digital agents in support of customer care.

Caller information can also be captured from the contact center’s computer-telephony integration (CTI) software or from information entered by the agent on his or her screen. Whatever the origin, Blue Prism digital agents can interpret data from different systems and

fields and present that data back to the agent. In typical deployments, digital agents cut the average handle time (AHT) of customer calls dramatically as manual information gathering is all but eliminated.

Through the Blue Prism platform Service Assist digital workers can leverage the limitless range of machine learning-driven AI that it has access to. In doing so the digital agents become smarter, continuing to improve performance for as long as they are deployed, increasing in value again and again over time.

The Security FactorBlue Prism also distinguishes itself in the manner in which security is applied to customer events. While other solutions typically require manual intervention and coding

skills to store logs in a different location – typically a PC - Blue Prism automatically logs events and stores them in a centralized and auditable secure location. Once again, Blue Prism is unique in its approach and storage strategy.

Automation and Job LossThere has been some recent discussion in the industry regarding the possibility of digital agents replacing live agents in the contact center. While it is understandable how these types of discussions may come about, it is highly unlikely that it will happen. Automation augments human labor in the contact center, as it does in other industries, but it has only replaced one occupation in the last 70 years.

FIGURE 11: Current Status of 270 Occupations Listed in the 1950 U.S. Census

Source: U.S. Census, James Bessen analysis

Harvard economist James Bessen is currently working on a paper that includes data from the U.S. Census Bureau that goes back to 1950. Professor Bessen looked at the current state of the 270 occupations listed in the 1950 U.S. census to see how many still exist today and how many have been lost to automation. The results are illustrated in Figure 11.







Most of the jobs that fell from the 1950 census were a result of a lack of demand; e.g., boardinghouse managers, and technological obsolescence, such as telegraph operator. The only job that was entirely replaced by automation was elevator operator.

Today’s contact center is evolving into more of an exception center. As automation replaces the manual gathering of data and automates repetitive, routine tasks, the live agent job is evolving into one of a more sophisticated problem solver. We expect the long-term benefit of this evolution, as enabled by automation, will be a significant reduction in agent turnover accompanied by an increase in overall job satisfaction.

ConclusionBlue Prism’s strategy in the contact center industry is to put people first. Whether those people are customers who are expecting an efficient self-service experience, or they are workers who are being relieved of the drudgery of routine, repetitive work, they are the motivating factors behind contact center automation. As AI and machine learning continue to be deployed in support of optimizing the customer experience along with the employee experience, automation will play an increasingly important role.

With its simplicity in deployment, ease of use, and user friendliness, Blue Prism represents a new generation of automation; i.e., automation for the masses. With an unprecedented degree of security and new levels of scalability, Blue Prism is in the right place at the right time. While Millennials and Generation Z represent the new generation of contact center customers and workers, Blue Prism represents the new generation of contact center automation – the generation that puts people first.

© 2020 Blue Prism Limited. “Blue Prism”, the “Blue Prism” logo and Prism device are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Blue Prism Limited and its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Contact-Center-White-Paper-jf-071420

About Blue PrismBlue Prism’s vision is to provide a Digital Workforce for Every Enterprise. The company’s purpose is to unleash the collaborative potential of humans, operating in harmony with a Digital Workforce, so every enterprise can exceed their business goals and drive meaningful growth, with unmatched speed and agility.

Fortune 500 and public-sector organizations, among customers across 70 commercial sectors, trust Blue Prism’s enterprise-grade connected-RPA platform, which has users in more than 170 countries. By strategically applying Intelligent Automation, these organizations are creating new opportunities and services, while unlocking massive efficiencies that return millions of hours of work back into their business.

Available on-premises, in the cloud, hybrid, or as an integrated SaaS solution, Blue Prism’s Digital Workforce automates ever more complex, end-to-end processes that drive a true digital transformation, collaboratively, at scale and across the entire enterprise. Visit www.blueprism.com.

About Saddletree ResearchFounded in 1999 and based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Saddletree Research is a veteran-owned business that provides leading-edge industry information and analysis of contact center market segments that are new, emerging, and/or have high growth potential. In order to conduct its research among contact center technology users and buyers, Saddletree Research works in close partnership with the National Association of Call Centers (NACC), a 503(c)(6) not-for-profit industry membership organization and end-user research function based at Middle Tennessee State University.






Date post:	04-Aug-2020
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	0 times
Download:	0 times

PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST...Contact-Center-White-Paper-jf-071420 About Blue Prism Blue Prism’s vision...

Documents