One of my favourite web series set in the late 1950’s Upper Eastside Manhattan, Marvellous Mrs. Maisel has aptly portrayed how consumerism grew rapidly in that era. Mrs. Maisel as she juggled between an emerging stand-up comedy career, separation from husband, and her typical protective Jewish parents, can be seen delivering phone answering services in a B. Altman store after being demoted from the makeup counter.

This was the time when consumer goods were more readily available and businesses were dealing with a frantic demand for not just goods but also services. Consumers were depending on the phone answering services to inquire about new products or complain about a faulty product that they bought. It was the 1950s and you couldn’t just slap the business with a criticizing online review or visit their website for any kind of information you wanted, phone calls were the only instant medium of communication.

A few decades later, in the 1980s, call centre culture grew rapidly and phone answering services were coveted by businesses from diverse verticals. These operations cost businesses quite a lot of money and even the customers had to pay the call charges as per the standard pricing model. As for businesses, the equipment price and the recruitment of agents was a costly affair, which is the reason why the need for business process outsourcing surfaced.

Phone Answering Services – The Foundation Of Outsourcing Industry

As competition roared in the business realm, the need for a dependable customer support became indispensable for enterprises of all sizes. Soon after businesses ventured into the international market and globalization connected the world, outsourcing became essential to survive. It aided businesses in substantially reducing the capital investment while improving focus on core competency and in multiplying profits tremendously. All this while ensuring that phone answering services rendered, keep the customer support properly functioning without any major glitch.

Artificial Intelligence & Phone Answering Service

Technology has become an intrinsic part of our routine and has invaded each and every aspect of our lives. When it comes to the outsourcing industry, the advancement in the field of robotic intelligence that is now popularly known as artificial intelligence has bought about a rampant change in the way businesses interact with their customers.

Today, if you call up a business premise you can’t expect to be connected directly to an agent. You will be most probably be connected to an AI-based IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system before a live agent is assigned to assist you. This is something that has reduced the need for human interaction, which is quite profitable for enterprises as it has reduced the need for capital investment for training and recruiting human resources.

Apart from this, the integration of AI in operations like phone answering is also helping businesses handle call volume spikes and various inconveniences that customers face while availing assistance for gaining assistance for issues and inquiries. Today, IVR is helping enterprises deliver customer services more efficiently and in handling huge call volumes with minimum downtime.

IVR is a technology that has turned out to be a boon for the outsourcing industry as it has made self-service possible. Customers can now conveniently navigate through various options available on the IVR menu for expeditious issue resolution; they can even request transfer to the relevant department and live agents without waiting on a call for long.

Is Customer Support Losing The Human Touch?

The growing contribution of technology in the customer service realm is the reason why a lot of people have a belief that it will take over human jobs in the coming years. Yes, innovations like AI can significantly reduce the requirement of live agents in many segments but little do people understand that this technology is meant to operate in sync with the human resource not replace it.

Operations like phone answering cannot be entirely automated and there will always be a scope for professionals in this domain. Machines, no matter how outstanding when it comes to intelligence is incapable of outclassing the human intellect and it cannot imitate human behavior entirely. It sure is capable of streamlining a lot of tasks but the human touch is what makes customer service successful, without it the robotic intelligence won’t function efficiently.

Error 404 – Empathy Not Found?

Technologies are meant to accomplish tasks that are monotonous and require a lot of physical and mental labor. You cannot expect innovations like AI to be empathic and showcase human-like emotions while interacting with the customers. This is where this technology becomes incapable of taking over human jobs.

The tonal qualities of our voice and the way we express emotions via it is hard to replicate for a machine. Machines are programmed while our intellect is shaped with our own experiences, right from the day we open our eyes in this world. Technology is just an assistant to us and while it can do a lot, replacing human resources entirely sure isn’t one of them.