A Coordinated Approach to Automation Technology for Enterprise CX

Transforming Service Delivery

The entire history of service delivery has been the quest for speed and scale in responding to customer inquiries. This mission has been accomplished. However, if an enterprise’s focus on implementing automation in service is solely on improving contact center efficiency, it misses the most valuable benefit: influencing customer behavior to drive desired outcomes.

The transition to digital interactions began the latest phase of this process. Now, advancements in AI and automation technologies allow businesses to transform their contact centers into the next phase of service delivery: enterprise customer experience (CX). Combining automation with personalization enables the identification of key moments in the interaction or life cycle where either an agent or an automated system can encourage shifts in customer behavior that add more value to the relationship.

Finding moments of influence to leverage is challenging for humans alone but easier for automated systems or collaborative hybrids. Once identified, these moments can be used to upsell with relevance, provide useful information to maximize customer usage or satisfaction, or preemptively address small issues that may unlock larger business opportunities with that customer.

The Strategic Rationale for Automation

Improvements in Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), First Contact Resolution (FCR), loyalty and lifetime value have repercussions in corporate growth and revenue. When deployed at strategic points within and between departments, automation can connect sales, marketing and service teams, linking them into processes that orchestrate desired interactions and outcomes. Through 2025, organizations will work to define and optimize automated workflows for customer experience. This will tie back- and front-office workers together and enhance the service experience. Instituting automated interactions and workflows allows the contact center to become more flexible and enables the enterprise to achieve faster Time to Value (TTV) and Return on Investment (ROI) from broader aspects of the platform. This approach spreads benefits across multiple departments and cost centers.

From Finding Use Cases to Deploying Solutions

Enterprises often begin automation by addressing specific, localized problems such as containment, consolidating multiple systems onto unified platforms, growth in digital interactions, hiring constraints and reducing manual processes like data entry. These initial projects open the door to conversations between contact center teams and IT, as well as others who interact with these processes through shared tools or data resources.

There comes a point when it becomes clear that piecemeal projects would be served better by a unified approach focusing on a common platform.

Enterprises face top-down pressure to adopt modern AI tools for competitive reasons and bottom-up pressure to streamline processes for cost control and improved experiences. There comes a point—after the initial use case deployments but before the widespread transformation of enterprise technology—when it becomes clear that piecemeal projects would be served better by a unified approach focusing on a common platform.

Finding the Path to Enterprise CX

Automation is often on the radar long before it becomes part of a coherent strategy because it is the go-to response to cost constraints and tight labor markets. The key is to transition it from a tactical response to a well-planned, staged strategy. The maturity of automation can be examined in four phases.

Phase 1: Exploration and Preparation

The exploration and preparation phase is characterized by an awareness of the benefits of process automation, but a reluctance to experiment with new technologies. Enterprises initially have a low tolerance for automation that could disrupt operations that are already fairly efficient. Automation projects in this phase focus on addressing specific gaps, such as improving routing outcomes to reduce transfers, coping with increasing volume without increasing headcount, and reducing manual data and text entry. Early efforts are largely localized to the contact center and related teams.

Phase 2: Awareness of Newer and Broader Options

This phase is characterized by executive mandates to implement AI and automation, but often lacks specific guidance on where and how to do so. Ideas focus on amplifying existing technologies, such as chatbots and virtual agents, to achieve faster interactions and better containment and deflection. Collaboration between contact center and IT teams begins to reflect the broader scope of current automation solutions. However, projects are often confined to the options available within traditional contact center platforms, limiting the ability to demonstrate outcomes that drive growth and revenue. The focus remains on efficiency within the contact center rather than on enterprise-wide goals, but there is a growing recognition of the importance of measuring outcomes that matter to teams beyond the center.

Phase 3: Expanding the Use Cases and Connecting Across the Enterprise

In this phase, efforts to expand the use cases and connections across the enterprise include integrating sales and marketing with service into comprehensive “life cycle” management. For instance, automating outbound sales efforts and incorporating CRM data for Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) outreach. By 2027, one-third of enterprises will have developed initiatives to map and manage customer journeys by integrating sales, service and marketing processes.

Automation efforts now focus on utilizing a unified platform to extend existing capabilities across a broader range of processes. Instead of approaching automation from the perspective of resolving specific problems, automation is now seen as a way to streamline and harmonize various processes, even ones that are not immediately identified as problems but can be used for other purposes. AI is utilized to boost human performance, not just for self-service, but for coaching and training, conducting automated evaluations, guidance and knowledge management and personalizing interactions.

Enterprise CX is increasingly recognized internally as a means of directly managing customer relationships. Structures are being created to orchestrate outcomes through the use of analytics and sentiment awareness. There are efforts underway to better measure the impact and outcomes of automated processes using metrics related to loyalty, growth and revenue.

Phase 4: Automation Maturity and Full Visibility

Automation characterized by complete awareness of a customer's status, including their sentiment, history and potential, and the ability to identify specific actions to encourage desired customer behavior is essential. This level of automation is driven through a central platform that coordinates between data sources, communication tools, analytics engines and enterprise applications.

Enterprises now have both the capability and the desire to understand which levers they can pull to orchestrate customer across the entire lifecycle, rather than just the moment customers make contact. The benefits of this approach are evident across the enterprise because the costly activities of the contact center can now be seen within the broader context of the value they bring to the Enterprise. As a result, the contact center becomes a proactive arm of outreach, rather than merely serving as a responder to unpredictable inbound inquiries.

Understanding Your Position on the Maturity Scale

We are still in the early stages of fully realizing the potential of automation. While contact centers have been "automated" for a long time, this automation has not provided the necessary connections and visibility across the entire enterprise. Different stakeholders have different priorities:

For contact center teams, their position on automation will depend on whether they can move beyond simple cost and efficiency considerations to focus on becoming revenue drivers. IT teams, on the other hand, will evaluate automation based on whether it causes disruptions, puts existing systems at risk or opens the door to security issues. Transitioning from simple use cases to more complex, interdepartmental ones is a challenging and time-consuming process. This requires collaboration, exploration of possibilities and identification of pain points, as well as associating these pain points with larger issues, goals or projects. Consider whether the automation in the contact center has implications elsewhere in the Enterprise, particularly in the back office. This is an opportunity to expand the scope of projects and, in doing so, future-proof the technology implementation.

Key Takeaways

• Progress is an iterative, incremental process. Start by addressing existing problems, particularly those that degrade the user experience, as opposed to the ones that simply elevate costs, and then gradually expand to more complex automations.
• Focus on measuring results in ways that demonstrate value. Metrics such as growth, revenue and customer loyalty are better indicators of successful automation than speed, volume or cost reduction.
• The purpose of automation is to give the enterprise more control and flexibility in making decisions that lead to desired outcomes, and to free up human resources to make smarter decisions or tackle more complex tasks. Automation unlocks the full potential of the enterprise.
• Enterprise CX takes the power of the contact center and extends it to those orchestrating customer behavior. Without enterprise automation, CX efforts remain isolated and may not work together to achieve the desired results.