In a time of Crisis Response, providing your customers and employees with access to timely and accurate information in a way that is scalable and allows you to allocate constrained Human Resources to the most urgent and high-skilled positions as possible is critical.

However, staffing a contact center during a public health crisis is a challenge. When call volume spikes or when there are not enough people to staff the call center, this will lead to long wait times for callers and high abandon rates. In these conditions, callers will not have access to the information they need or may become frustrated by having to wait so long to speak to an agent.

Cities, Counties and States across the world are opening contact centers to support people that have questions about Coronavirus, or COVID-19. Many of these contact centers are being staffed with public health officials or 311 agents that are trained to answer questions that range from travel advisories to symptom checking and where to get screened.

Additionally, unless there is an IVR that prompts callers for why they are calling, there is no way to prioritize people with urgent needs over those with more routine questions.

BCE Logistics’ Crisis Response team has developed a set of AI based tools and bots that can automate and scale communications across any digital touchpoint.

Our Coronavirus service automates the more common questions from callers, thus freeing-up your agents and team to handle more urgent needs.

The IVR is conversational so that callers may ask open-ended questions, such as "what are the symptoms?" or "where is it safe to travel?" The IVR connects directly to BCE’s knowledge base and always has the most current and accurate information.

The solution is cloud based and fully managed by our Crisis Response Team. It can even be tailored to include custom FAQs for your specific needs.

With the intelligent front door feature, we can prescreen callers based on urgency and their needs so they can be routed to the best agents based on why they are calling. This can allow for prioritizing of queues and ensure optimal allocation of trained staff.

In the world of call/contact centers, the landscape has shifted almost overnight, providing new challenges and some surprising opportunities.

The ways that contact centers (call centers) operate has been changing drastically in the face of COVID-19, accelerating several pre-existing trends. Not just the obvious–Work from Home (WFM)–but a new push for AI and automation and a preference for the cloud.

Yes, Chatbots and voicebots are becoming more popular, Because of the surges in contact volumes. And, as you mentioned, the move to the cloud for telephony and CRMs, has accelerated.

It can be tricky to sort out which of these are temporary in a crisis-specific way, and which may be gaining a real foothold. We have been advising our clients–in broad strokes–to not expect to go back to how things were before.

These trends predated the crisis, but this has been quite the accelerant. It was not a question of should you move your staff to work-from-home, or could you handle the security or management implications of working from home. It became an existential requirement if you were interested in staying operational. And, yes, now that that has become a norm, we understand that organizations are at a pivotal point in determining how to structure a system that will allow for continued optimal customer service. BCE Logistics is here to help you in this regard.

The adjustment, having to carry it out so quickly, presented some challenges, some of which are ongoing. And because your organization did this so quickly, there are loose ends that still need to be tied off, both technical updates and policies and procedures.

There are a lot of changes when we work from home, and it is best not to be improvisational about this. The way we supervise, coach, train are all different; the processes we have relied on for quality management and workforce management are not effective in the new normal.

With business futures seeming more tenuous than ever, some of BCE’s clients are eyeing the current landscape as an opportunity for cost reduction. We support them in that–we must support the bottom line, especially now. We understand that of first and foremost importance is maintaining and improving your essential connection with customers. BCE Logistics promotes cost reduction opportunities only when we see them as a win-win.

For instance, the move to messaging is so strongly embraced by customers, and it is lower cost compared to voice calls (because an agent can multi-task). It is looking like Work From Home may be a long-term cost reduction opportunity as well that is also a win for the quality of customer service, because of the improvement in employee morale and (it seems to date), agent retention. And bringing AI, ML, and automation into the mix has been a focus of my work recently–and making sure they are deployed sensitively.

A voice call is the most expensive channel, whereas a live chat can be effective in resolving the inquiry can cost much less. A second cost reduction strategy has been shifting to lower cost locations–and I can’t think of anywhere less expensive for a company than our agents living rooms–plus, for now and the visible future, social distancing means that we can expect to lose about 60% of the center’s capacity.

It has been estimated by Global Workplace Analytics that companies can save $11,000 per employee annually and the employees themselves can also save $2,000 to $4,000 per year in reduced costs to them personally. And, yes, BCE can reduce cost through automation and self-service; by employing chatbots or voicebots we can allow customers to self-serve and do more themselves. This can be as simple as searching FAQ’s, tracking a package, or verifying their identity.

Give your customers choice. Be in the channels that your customers wish to use, chat, SMS, messaging, Facebook etc. Implement self-service, AI and automation with the aim of delivering service without adversely impacting the customer experience or customer satisfaction. BCE will provide your organization with the tools necessary to remain successful. In this time of Covid19 remember that BCE Logistics is here to assist in meeting the needs of your company.

For all corporations needing an extension to meet the demands of your customer service, let us keep remembering that what we do is important. In these times of crisis, our value often goes beyond the text of the conversation–or the text of the text message, for that matter–to deeper opportunities to assist. We at BCE understand, that a call center is not just a cost center. We strive to exceed the expectations of our clients and their customers. Let us talk about filling the needs of your organization in the most efficient manner. BCE is here to tailor fit the demands of your company within a workable budget. Make your next call your best call. Contact BCE Logistics today because, tomorrow may be too late.