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How LivePerson voice bot technology is solving the world’s worst customer experiences
Chris Radanovic
May 10, 2023 • 7 minutes
Miriam Libonati-Bitton
May 10, 2023 • 7 minutes
Voice has been a fundamental component of enterprise communication for decades. Despite the technological advancements in other channels, voice communication has remained a critical means of communication between customers and businesses. According to research, over 80% of all interactions between customers and businesses are on the phone. However, there are many challenges with voice resulting in poor consumer experiences, disconnected brand understanding of the consumer journey, and general dissatisfaction.
The good news? LivePerson’s voice bot technology can help overcome those top enterprise voice communications challenges.
Say goodbye to stale, synchronous communication
Traditional voice communication has been largely synchronous, meaning that both parties have to be available at the same time for communication to take place. This is a significant challenge in today’s world where customers demand flexibility in communication channels. Customers want to engage with businesses at their own convenience, not just when businesses are available. Synchronous communication is stale, outdated, and no longer effective. It leads to long wait times, missed calls, and frustrated customers.
LivePerson’s voice bots solve synchronous communication issues by providing a real-time, conversational experience to customers using natural language processing (NLP) technology, automatic speech recognition, and the power of large language models (LLMs). These tools allow customers to ask questions or make requests in their own words and…
- receive immediate responses from the bot
- transition to an asynchronous messaging conversation
- even seamlessly escalate to a human agent when that personal touch is needed.
Customers no longer have to wait on hold. Instead, they have options to connect the way they want and get answers at the cadence they prefer, with significantly reduced costs for the enterprise.
Key voice bot features that help
One key feature of LivePerson’s voice bots is their ability to seamlessly transfer customers to live agents when needed, empowering customer service teams to efficiently triage the tougher issues. For example, if a customer’s question is too complex for the bot to handle, or if the customer requests to speak to a human agent, the bot can easily transfer the customer to a live agent without disrupting the conversation or forcing the customer to repeat themselves.
LivePerson’s voice bots also have access to a wide range of customer data, such as past interactions and purchase history, which enables them to provide personalized and relevant responses. This reduces the need for customers to repeat information or provide additional context, further improving the customer experience.
In fact, LivePerson Voice AI solves the problem of synchronous voice communications being stale by providing a range of tools and capabilities that enable brands to quickly and easily optimize their voice automations, reduce implementation time, and provide a more dynamic, conversational experience for their customers.
Break free from the IVR trap
Another challenge facing enterprise voice communication is the interactive voice response (IVR) menu maze. IVR is an automated phone system that interacts with customers through pre-recorded voice prompts and voice recognition technology. Despite being widely used, IVR has been a source of frustration for many. The long wait times, irrelevant prompts, and complicated menu options are just a few of the issues customers face when using IVR.
LivePerson Voice AI solves the IVR Menu Maze by providing an easy-to-use IVR deflection use case. Instead of customers having to navigate through a complex IVR menu to reach the appropriate department or agent, they can simply be redirected to a voice bot that can quickly and accurately handle their request using natural language understanding, machine learning, speech-to-text, and end-to-end intent resolution.
Key voice bot features that help
The voice bot can call the C2M (Call to Messaging) deflection APIs on its own, so brands no longer need their IVR to call the APIs. This reduces implementation time from weeks or months down to a handful of days. Brands simply configure the IVR to transfer the user to the voice bot phone number. This makes it easier for customers to get the assistance they need, while reducing frustration and wait times associated with navigating a complicated IVR system.
Overall, LivePerson Voice AI simplifies the customer experience by providing a more natural and conversational interface that is easy to use and understand, while also providing faster and more accurate assistance.
Turn repetitive interactions into personalized experiences
One of the most frustrating aspects of traditional voice communication systems is the constant repetition of information. Whether it’s repeating account numbers, verifying personal information, or going through the same menu options over and over again, it can be a tedious and time-consuming process for both the customer and the agent.
But with the advancements in voice automation technology, businesses can reduce the need for customers to repeat information by integrating intelligent voice bots into their communication systems. These voice bots can recognize and remember customer information and preferences, allowing for more personalized and efficient interactions.
Key voice bot features that help
For example, a voice bot can recognize a customer’s phone number and pull up their account information, eliminating the need for the customer to go through multiple authentication steps. The voice bot can also remember previous interactions with the customer, including their preferences for products or services, and use that information to provide tailored recommendations or solutions. Generative AI summaries are provided to human voice agents when the bot has to transfer, saving time and effort for the agent, and removing the need for the consumer to repeat themselves.
By reducing this frustrating repetition, businesses can improve the overall customer experience and increase customer satisfaction. Additionally, it can save time for agents, allowing them to focus on more complex issues and provide more personalized assistance.
Avoid the soaring cost of outdated voice systems
Increasing costs can be a major problem for any business, and when it comes to voice communications, these costs can quickly get out of control. Traditional voice systems can be expensive to set up and maintain, with ongoing costs for hardware, software, maintenance, and, of course, labor. In addition, many companies still rely on outdated IVR systems, which require significant investment in both time and money to develop and maintain.
Key Voice AI and voice bot features that help
One main advantage of LivePerson’s Voice AI solution is that it can help reduce costs and improve efficiency. By automating many routine tasks, Voice AI can lighten the workload of human agents, freeing them up to focus on more complex tasks.
In addition, LivePerson’s Voice AI solution is designed to be highly scalable, allowing companies to quickly and easily add capacity as needed. This means that businesses can quickly and easily scale up their voice communications capabilities as they grow, without having to make significant investments in new hardware or software.
Another way that LivePerson’s Voice AI solution can help to reduce costs is by improving first-call resolution rates. By quickly and accurately identifying the reason for a customer’s call, Voice AI can help to ensure that the customer’s issue is resolved on the first call, reducing the need for repeat calls and improving customer satisfaction.
Finally, LivePerson’s Voice AI solution offers a number of advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to track the performance of their voice communications and identify areas for improvement using speech-to-text and machine learning. By leveraging these insights to optimize their voice communications strategies, businesses can further reduce costs and improve efficiency over time.
Connect the dots with voice automation and data integration
There’s a data disconnect when it comes to capturing and making sense of the vast amounts of data generated during voice interactions between consumers and businesses. Traditionally, businesses have relied on manual transcription and analysis to understand the content of phone calls, which can be time-consuming, expensive, and error-prone. Additionally, voice interactions often take place outside of traditional digital channels, making it difficult to integrate the data with other customer data sets to obtain a complete view.
Key Voice AI and voice bot features that help
LivePerson Voice AI helps solve the data disconnect by harnessing voice transcriptions to optimize automations. With the use of automatic speech recognition, machine learning, and industry-leading voice transcription and analysis tools, LivePerson can pull in call data for deep-rooted analysis to identify optimal voice automation strategies, delivering faster and more efficient customer engagement.
By leveraging key data across systems, brands can quickly and easily obtain accurate information specific to their consumers’ questions and concerns. They can also measure and improve performance using LivePerson’s next-gen reporting, which automatically delivers actionable insights that lead to tangible business outcomes.
Artificial intelligence + human interaction = better voice experiences
It’s important to note that voice bots should not replace human agents entirely. There will still be instances where customers require more personalized assistance, and in those cases, a human touch is necessary. Voice bots should be viewed as a complement to human agents, allowing them to work more efficiently and effectively to provide exceptional customer service.
LivePerson Voice AI is built into the Conversational Cloud and supported by the products our brands already know — like Conversation Builder, Intent Manager, MACS, and more. By enabling out-of-the-box voice automations, brands can unify their voice and messaging offerings and extend the full power of the LivePerson platform to meet their consumers wherever they are with improved agent productivity and more efficient, personalized customer experiences.