Ripe for Disruption: Afiniti on Telcos Looking to Contact Center AI to Drive Better Customer Satisfaction

In the face of steep market competition and a challenging economy, companies are realizing the big impact that the customer experience has on their bottom line. In a recent survey, 49% of consumers said they have left a brand in the past 12 months due to a poor customer service experience.

Improving customer interactions can help telco providers stand out in a competitive industry — and they are turning to tech solutions for support. One key area for innovation is in the contact center, where companies like Afiniti are disrupting the market with an AI solution that measurably makes each contact center interaction more valuable, and thereby improves the customer experience.

Afiniti’s AI is built on the foundation that every individual is unique, and works by identifying patterns of success in the data companies hold on both customers and agents. This includes how agents have interacted with customers in the past and the problems they have handled particularly well. The AI then matches customers with the agents who are most likely to solve their problem — rather than simply routing customers to the first-available agent.

The result is more customer-agent pairings that foster a satisfying customer experience and increased revenue, while improving the performance of various operational metrics, such as average handling time and first call resolution. The business impact of this is significant, including improved retention rates, more cross-selling and upselling opportunities, and higher customer lifetime value.

Afiniti serves some of the biggest telco brands in the world, generating millions in incremental revenue for clients each year. Unlike other forms of AI, a key distinguishing feature of Afiniti’s technology is the ability to turn it on and off throughout the day to compare outcomes for clients. This benchmarking capability allows Afiniti to demonstrate how much value it has created, and at the same time identify and mitigate any potential bias the system may be exhibiting.

Organizations deploying this technology can do so without disrupting their existing contact center systems and tools. But one thing Afiniti does promise to disrupt is the industry standard of routing based on agent availability, which leaves the possibility of striking a good customer-agent “fit” to mere chance.

With the average telco giant handling tens of thousands of customer interactions each day — and those customers demanding more and more personalization — disruption of this kind makes good business sense.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes