Balancing Automation with Human Interaction with Melissa O’Brien, Research Leader at HFS Research

This episode features an interview with Melissa O’Brien, Research Leader at HFS Research. Melissa discusses simple ways to apply automation to both the customer and employee side to create an efficient and balanced customer experience.Quotes*”​​There's so much data, in particular in the contact center, that just gets overlooked. It's a treasure trove of information.  How can you understand your customer before they call in? Do you have kind of a golden record or repository of this customer's background, their buying habits and what their social media sentiment has been? I think one of the big things that you can use data for is to actually help an agent have context before a customer gets on the phone. And that you can really tackle by having the right kind of omni-channel and the right CRM integrations.”*”A lot of times, companies have a software license that comes with a chat bot, so they feel compelled to roll it out. And that has resulted in a lot of chat bot fatigue. Because it’s a poorly designed chat bot. They're just put out there with their FAQ's. You could get the same responses just searching the website. It's not just ineffective, it's also a detriment to the brand, because people are then having frustrating experiences on your site.”*”If you do it really well, you have this nice flow between an intelligent virtual assistant and an agent. If it needs to hand off for context, that's going to make or break an experience.”Time Stamps*[0:08] The Case of Balancing Automation with Human Interaction*[0:44] Introducing Melissa O’Brien, Research Leader at HFS Research*[4:59] Evidence #1: All processes are manual*[10:15] Evidence #2: Implementing automation seems too big a task*[14:09] Evidence #3: No visibility on data to pinpoint what to automate*[25:50] Debrief*[26:35] HGS PubBioMelissa O’Brien is Research Leader at HFS Research. Melissa leads HFS’ research initiatives for CX services including digital marketing and sales, contact center, and digital associates. Melissa brings over 13 years of both hands-on industry and analyst experience to her role at HFS. She previously led IDC’s Worldwide Customer Experience Management Services program, including in-depth analysis of evolving contact center business process delivery and consumer communication trends.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.Links:Connect with Melissa on LinkedInCheck out HFS ResearchConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS