3 ways to improve your organization’s customer experience with NLP

Amid health scares, lockdowns and a worldwide economic downturn, AI for CX continues to be front and center for organizations. Odigo commissioned UK analysts Davies Hickman to interview business executives across the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, to better understand their attitudes towards AI. The results indicate that 89% of European businesses are keen to adopt AI solutions to improve their customer experience. Furthermore, the research reveals that organizations across sectors are particularly interested in natural language processing (NLP), one of its subfields. This article explores the widespread appeal of NLP as a way of boosting customer service operations.

1. Organizations drive revenue through NLP 

The analytical capabilities of NLP give organizations enhanced capacity in managing customer interactions. In our research, 66% of respondents were planning to launch NLP projects in the next two years. As its abilities to understand, study and imitate human speech increase, NLP is helping to improve CX, which, as a result, drives revenue. How? Through ‘anywhere operations’, which enable customers to interact with a bot that knows their history and can provide personalized service rather than waiting for a human agent to be available. According to Gartner, ‘anywhere operations’ will be implemented by 40% of organizations by 2023, meaning the combination of virtual and physical customer-employee relationships will become increasingly important in shaping modern CX.

NLP improves organizations’ bottom lines through increased efficiency that saves time and resources. Our own research shows that the automatic qualification of customer interactions and smart routing are the top two NLP uses respondents in Europe are focusing on, with 65% and 61% respectively identifying these as areas of interest . The automation made possible by AI increases efficiency and drives growth, with contact center managers able to redirect agents to complex, high-level tasks while ensuring customers continue to receive personalized support through secure, 24/7 access. These agents, augmented with AI and automation, are thus able to provide enhanced, professional customer service. 

2. Organizations increase customer engagement through NLP

NLP is the engine that drives conversational agents, or bots (chat, call, or voice), and is increasingly becoming an integral part of customer self-service. NLP enables sophisticated AI with contextual understanding, so organizations can provide customers with the convenient and personalized service they expect. Organizations understand this, which is why, by 2024, Insider Intelligence predicts that consumer retail spend via chatbots worldwide will reach $142 billion – up from just $2.8 billion in 2019. Empowering customers with advanced self-service that offers data-driven, customized journeys keeps customer satisfaction (CSAT) and loyalty at enviable levels. 

While empathetic human agents are vital to good customer experience, AI-driven solutions are increasingly becoming capable of understanding customers’ emotions through sentiment analysis. By identifying and analyzing customer emotions, NLP-driven tools offer agents advice on next-best-actions. Not only will this make agents even more helpful to customers, but will make the experience more personalized.

3. Organizations enhance efficiency through NLP

NLP’s role in organizations is becoming ever more important, especially as regards data. Collecting vast amounts of customer data from multiple devices and across channels is possible, but operationalizing it can be arduous. AI software, with NLP capabilities, enables organizations to upgrade systems and makes data entry and searches more efficient and reliable.

Organizations are turning to AI to improve productivity and gain clearer insights into their customers, not as a means of replacing human agents. Research from Deloitte reveals that 60% of organizations use AI to assist workers, while only 12% aim to replace them. NLP, and more broadly AI, is rightly seen as a way to augment workers to perform at higher levels.

NLP presents organizations with tremendous opportunities. Forward-thinking organizations need agile contact centers, which is why successful brands are turning to Odigo, a global leader in Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions recognized for its AI innovations.

Interested in learning more about the current state of AI and its impact on CX? Check out the latest research by Davies Hickman, a leading UK-based analyst firm, to learn how organizations are using NLP and AI to improve CX, increase efficiency and drive revenue.