By Elias Kanaris, CEO of CCNNZ.
New Zealand’s contact centre industry is taking significant strides in using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the workplace, aiming to restore the industry’s reputation and create more jobs.
At the Future Contact Centre New Zealand Summit in Auckland this October, we’ll showcase the innovative work of some of the country’s top brands. Speakers from NZQA, Honda New Zealand, Mercury NZ, Kiwibank, and The Warehouse Group will be sharing their experiences.
As the CEO of the Customer Contact Network New Zealand (CCNNZ), I’ve seen first-hand how local companies are making great advances in contact centre technology.
For instance, it normally takes around five to six weeks to train a contact centre agent, but we can cut that time to just three weeks or less with the new technology we’re working on. These developments are already improving accuracy, speed, and overall customer satisfaction.
AI is making things easier for contact centre agents by listening to calls and retrieving relevant information and answers in the background. This frees up the agent to focus entirely on the customer. While humans can only remember a few things at once, AI can keep track of everything and even note the next steps or follow-ups needed, making things smoother for everyone involved.
Another big change AI will bring is an end to those frustrating phone menus where you have to press one, three, or five to get to the right place. AI can pick up on the caller’s emotions and act accordingly. For example, if someone has been scammed and is in a panic, AI can sense the urgency and connect them to a fraud specialist in just a few seconds.
This makes the whole experience better for both the customer and the agent, helping to reduce the stress and anxiety that often come with these interactions.
At the summit, we will highlight how AI is actually creating more jobs, not taking them away, while also improving the roles of frontline staff. AI isn’t about replacing people; it’s about making their work more efficient and interesting by taking care of repetitive tasks.
