COGNITIVE TECHNOLOGY

AND ANALYTICS TO DRIVE

VALUE IN CALL CENTERS

Wolfgang Knupp

Senior Analytics Architect

IBM South Africa

wknupp@za.ibm.com

PREDICTION: IN THE NEXT 30 MINUTES YOU WILL HEAR ABOUT…

� enhanced customer insight through

matching social media data to enterprise customer data

� using real time analytics to propose the next best action

� using cognitive technology to drive better outcomes for both vendor & customer

� extended single view of customer to support & guide call centre client conversations

EXTENDED SINGLE VIEW OF CUSTOMER TO

SUPPORT & GUIDE & IMPROVE CALL

CENTRE CLIENT CONVERSATIONS

My name is Eric – I work in a call center for Travelers Insurance.

I get measured on successful call handling time, number of calls and customer satisfaction. My company wants to keep

average call handle time below 2 minutes.. I am about to complete authenticating my current caller as

customer Jane Robertson

EXTENDED SINGLE VIEW CONTINUED

EXTENDED SINGLE VIEW CONTINUED

EXTENDED SINGLE VIEW CONTINUED

ENHANCED CUSTOMER INSIGHT THROUGH

MATCHING SOCIAL MEDIA DATA TO

ENTERPRISE CUSTOMER DATA

� So you think you know your customer based on the internal system information you have available?

� What If : you could tell that the person you are speaking to has publicly complained about your service on Hello Peter / Twitter under a pseudonym ?

� What If : you could tell that the person you are speaking to is intending to purchase a competitive product ?

SOCIAL MDM MATCHING –OBJECTIVES AND CHALLENGES

External Social Data

Lead Generation Brand Management …

Enhanced Customer 360O View(internal + external)

CRM DataCRM Data

Contact Center DataContact Center Data

Web Analytics DataWeb Analytics Data

Enterprise Internal Data

Fraud AnalyticsCustomer Retention 8

SOCIAL MASTER DATA MATCHING -

GAINING INSIGHTS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

DATA

Location announcements

I'm at Woolies Sandton City http://4sq.com/fAeMRc

Personal Attributes• Identifiers: name, address,

gender, occupation…

• Life Cycle Status: marital,

parental

Relationships• Personal relationships: family,

friends,…

• Business relationships: occupation,

employer

Products Interests • Sentiment on products, services,

campaigns

• Personal preferences of products

• Product Purchase historySocial Media

extended

Customer

Profile

Life Events• Life-changing events: relocation,

having a baby, getting married,

getting divorced, buying a house…

All names and identifiers are fictitious

Intent to buy a car

The Toyota has finally seen the last of its days, crying at the fact I have to look for a new car

9

ENTITY RESOLUTION - RESOLVING IDENTITIES

ACROSS SOCIAL MEDIA AND CUSTOMER DATA

Example social media user profile, with sample activity:

Screen name: @kathyg

Name: Kathy Greene

Location: Somewhere in CA

I'm at HP Arena http://4sq.com/ZibpbUI'm at HP Arena http://4sq.com/ZibpbU

@banksupport What happened to the credit card payment I made last week?@banksupport What happened to the credit card payment I made last week?

I'm at Walmart (San Jose, CA) w/ 2 others http://4sq.com/1TL20yP I'm at Walmart (San Jose, CA) w/ 2 others http://4sq.com/1TL20yP

Great promo from @airline. Even more excited that they're flying PE to BLOEM soon!Great promo from @airline. Even more excited that they're flying PE to BLOEM soon!

Customer database

Is this social media user one of my customers?

If yes, which one?

10

USING REAL TIME ANALYTICS TO PROPOSE THE NEXT BEST ACTION

Derive and act on insights using real time analytics based on real time context in combination with more traditional attributes

� Should this call be automatically routed to a more senior agent?

� Is the time right to apologize and provide some complimentary offer ?

� Is there a short lived opportunity to upsell ?

� Is there an opportunity to warn the caller of a coming hail storm ?

� weather

SOME RECENT RESEARCH FINDINGS –REGARDING CALL ROUTING TECHNIQUES

SOME MORE RECENT RESEARCH FINDINGS

USING COGNITIVE TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE

BETTER OUTCOMES FOR BOTH VENDOR &

CUSTOMER Enter Chatbots & Intelligent Virtual Agents :

Better customer experience:

• reduce annoying menu navigation

• less misunderstandings due to accents • less affected by mood of agent

• better communication (less noise) • better cultural / demographic style

match between agent and customer• pace can be adjusted to suit each

customer• less risk of handing over PII information

to potentially untrustworthy people

Better vendor outcome:

• improved efficiency

• protects brand reputation• improved customer service keeps customers

returning• scales easily

• provides consistent service levels,• promotes and enhances self – service

• Improves by learning from interactions • easy to train with new products, processes

• elevates personnel job satisfaction to deal with more exceptional / complex issues

requiring human interactions• reduces need for large / low skilled workforce

FOR EXAMPLE…

USING COGNITIVE TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE

BETTER OUTCOMES FOR BOTH VENDOR &

CUSTOMER

Chatbots / Intelligent Virtual Agent Platform examples:

Echo - primarily designed for voice interaction in the home

virtual voice based personal assistance

Engagement Advisor / Watson Developercloud / Watson Virtual Agent

(Sept 2016)

Microsoft: LUIS / Cortana (Virtual Agent) and Bot framework

USING COGNITIVE TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE

BETTER OUTCOMES FOR BOTH VENDOR &

CUSTOMER

Building your Intelligent Agent example 1:

IBM Bluemix Watson Deverlopercloud …

API … Services: • AlchemyLanguage

• Speech to Text• Text to Speech

• Conversation• Language Translator

• Natural Language Classifier • Document Conversion

• Personality Insights• Retrieve and Rank

• Tradeoff Analytics• Tone Analyzer

Building your Intelligent Agent example 2:

Facebook Messenger Platform…

• SetupConfigure your Facebook App and Page for Messenger

• ConversationSend and Receive messages using

an API and webhooks

• Entry PointsLearn about how people can enter a conversation with your bot

• Payments (BETA)Enable your bot to take payments

• AnalyticsUse metrics to see how your bot is

performing

USING COGNITIVE TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE BETTER

OUTCOMES FOR BOTH VENDOR & CUSTOMER

The question is not if you should consider cognitive technology in your call center, but how best to do so to remain relevant.

Where to start on the journey to becoming a Cognitive Call Center…

Build

Ensure that your existing technology platform is open to integrate new

capabilities:• in-house development capabilities

or • a technology partner

• choose appropriate cognitive technology platform - SaaS

• simple chatbots can be built in minutes…

Buy

• Work with your existing Call Center Technology Platform provider to

see if and how they are planning to deliver new capabilities

• All the major Call Center Platform

Vendors have some roadmaps that include some cognitive capabilities

– ensure that yours is not leaving you behind the competition.

Q&A

Q&A

Should you

have further

questions

…you can

reach me via

the call

centre..

THANK YOU!!