By Mithum Singh, Managing Director, CCI South Africa

The business process outsourcing (BPO) sector is booming in South Africa. A recent survey of local call centres showed rapid growth in the sector, while McKinsey estimates that the sector could grow to over 775,000 jobs by 2030. This is an exciting time to be working in the BPO sector, as we strive to find the balance between providing the human touch while technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) are increasingly being deployed in the industry.

The contact centre landscape has diversified significantly and now incorporates a number of different channels. AI gives us the ability to not only improve customer experience across these channels, but also across the entire value chain.

However, fears that AI will replace humans within the contact centre environment are unfounded. Just as books were widely forecast to disappear from our shelves, replaced by screens and e-readers, this has proven untrue and in fact book publishing is booming. This analogy holds true for the contact centre environment.

This is not to say that the contact centre function isn’t evolving. Just as it began as an environment where customers would complete a form to be processed by a back office and then became a call centre environment where customers engaged only via voice channels, so the contact centre is morning towards a multichannel approach where channels will include voice, email, web chat and other communication touchpoints.

In a multichannel environment, the modern agent needs exceptional verbal and written communication skills on top of the patience and empathy needed to work in any client facing position. Agents must be responsive and dynamic to manage the wide range of customer wants and needs spanning everything from voice calls to web chat. With an almost unlimited amount of information to digest and process, this is one of the key areas where technology is able to assist agents and improve the customer’s service and experience.

Embracing technology to streamline customer interactions

Much has been made of how technology such as AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) will take jobs away from the sector. However, the customer remains at the very heart of what we do, and the data indicates that when dealing with sensitive, heated or complex issues, the human touch remains a priority.

While AI is extremely useful for simple automated tasks, human beings need emotional connection, especially when experiencing heightened emotions, as is often the case when engaging with a contact centre. The emotional connection and human empathy that is possible when speaking to an agent is key to making clients comfortable, and therefore customer satisfaction and retention.

Where technology such as AI can prove valuable is in providing the intelligence needed to facilitate frictionless customer engagement. Customers’ data must be shared across channels and touchpoints so that the details and the context of their previous engagement with the brand to be retained across channels, so that even if they interacted with a brand on a different channel previously, there’s no need to repeat themselves.

AI has the power to improve customer turnaround times and customer experience, which in turn drives retention and revenue growth growing the entire value chain. In this instance, AI and RPA will not take jobs, it will simply enhance people’s ability to efficiently handle complex tasks, and free up human resources to handle these tasks by taking over mundane or routine queries.

It serves the BPO industry well, therefore, to embrace technology. However, more than 50% of organisations have not considered or started an AI journey or have any plans to do so in their next fiscal cycle. Furthermore, despite technology moving at an accelerating pace, many organisations are not investing in AI or some form of RPA.

Those who do not embrace and adopt new technologies do so at their peril and risk being left behind, whereas those leaders who lean into new technologies, and combine automated systems with human supervision and intervention face incredible opportunities to offer more and more sophisticated and frictionless customer experiences.

Data and analytics play an important role

Data and analytics are crucial to a seamless (and painless) brand experience. Data analytics and customer journey mapping play a vital role in understanding customers’ pain points and optimising processes. By analysing customer feedback and behaviours, contact centre organisations can identify opportunities for adaptation and innovation, creating a more personalised, empathetic and efficient customer service experience.

One of the key benefits of AI is its ability to streamline the production and analysis of business intelligence and analytics. This empowers decision makers, and managers lower down the organogram, to support the business decision making process. Quick decision making is crucial in the BPO industry, but this requires the right levels of intelligence and insight coming in at high speeds. AI can assist with data analysis at speeds that a human cannot match.

Upskilling and nurturing human capital is a key ingredient for success

What is inescapable is that despite the understandable fear about ‘robots replacing people’, the human element will always be critical to the success of a contact centre. New technologies will free up contact centre agents from mundane, repetitive tasks so that they can focus on the more complex queries and tasks required.

Nurturing a skilled and adaptable workforce is a key component of evolving the contact centre environment. One of the key reasons the BPO industry is an employment driver is that it’s a place where individuals with varied educational backgrounds and qualifications all have an opportunity to enter the workforce. Ongoing workplace training helps to equip this modern workforce to function efficiently in an omnichannel workplace and stay on top of changing technology.

As AI advances, rather than shy away from these trends, BPO companies should look to make use of and incorporate automated systems into their business models. Leaders who embrace innovative technologies and adopt customer-centric strategies can transform their contact centres into strategic assets, fostering long term client and customer loyalty, and business success.