The technology most communications companies rely on for service is an inefficient mess of systems, whether as a new company or a giant one. Historically, according to Grote, most company resources have gone into building networks, not so much into streamlining all systems across the organisation. This inefficiency is important to address, especially given the huge growth of customer expectations.

For most companies, focusing on building networks left the service side of the business fragmented and disconnected from a 360-degree view of both the customer and the rest of the business. Two things happen as a result: Customers get frustrated when service agents don’t recognise problems in a timely manner or give them the runaround, and, second, service agents’ time is wasted on manual tasks and “swivel chairing.” This leads to higher costs and unhappy customers. It’s also time that could be better optimised on higher-value work.

Attempting to optimise and customise each individual system costs companies money. Picking the best marketing solution, the best sales solution, the best technical solution, and then trying to stitch it all together into a customer service application is expensive and time-consuming. That’s true whether it’s building systems internally or going outside the company.

This is where service automation and AI come in: Together they form a cloud-based solution built on a single platform that lets service teams efficiently scale quality service at a lower cost. It means less time spent on tedious tasks and more time spent on improving customer satisfaction and optimising agents’ productivity.

• Process automation connects all systems of the business so they’re sharing information seamlessly through AI to optimise business processes. The goal is shifting as many interactions as possible to low touch or no touch.

• Service team automation employs artificial intelligence to assist agents with manual, time-consuming tasks to increase productivity and provide the flexibility to focus on personalised customer experience.

• Customer automation involves business processes across all aspects of an organisation, from simple no-touch, self-service actions to high-touch, complex incidents.

AI powers this by building processes on the back end through the Service Cloud platform. It can also be personalised so when customers log in, the company knows who they are, what type of service is needed, and what types of service or product upgrades they should be offered.

The second types of conversations are high touch, such as when a customer is interested in the new iPhone. That’s a personalised conversation you want a service agent to have to optimise value, such as upselling a customer on a better device with more features, data, and storage.

AI is at work even during personal conversations, arming agents with recommended knowledge articles, for example, or next best actions when they’re engaging with a customer live. That automation reduces your average handle time and increases first-call resolution. You’re able to get through more calls and resolve them the first time versus having to revisit an issue because it wasn’t resolved on the first go-around.

Automation is also at play in the field. Say a new customer needs an in-home installation. Automation helps schedule the installation through a self-service portal, which also sends reminders to the customer about the appointment to prevent no-shows.

Once the technician is onsite, the system makes sure the technician has all the customer’s information via a field service mobile app, eliminating time wasted searching for relevant data. Depending on the job, the system also gives the technician a checklist of materials and tools to complete the job on the first trip, preventing costly return visits.