How to Get the Maximum ROI from Voicebots?

Traditional IVR Solutions is currently being outgrown. Even at their best, the experience is a little worn out. In fact, we are now moving onto conversational IVRs where there is voice recognition. These conversational IVRs can automate conversations, reduce resolution time and improve your customer satisfaction score. I mean, let's look at our personal experiences. How often are we satisfied by legacy IVRs? Sometimes our preferred choice is not on the menu, sometimes the menu leads to nowhere. And the biggest red flag is when you do not reach the agent even after waiting for so long. The overall IVR experience becomes flawed as there is no way to expand the possibilities. This is why we need voicebots.

Voicebots are AI-driven solutions that allow the customer to experience the IVR (interactive voice response) using their voice. The voicebot uses natural language processing to understand the linguistics of the human language. Decoding the human language, the voicebot is able to hold a genuine conversation without making it mechanical. It is the same as speaking with any voice assistant such as Alexa or Siri. Furthermore, the voicebot keeps learning with training. It means whatever conversation it holds, it can be further trained from previous interactions and improve its conversational capability. This ensures that there is more room for personalization and better responses and becomes customer-centric. 

The voicebot is able to improve customer satisfaction because it is not limited. While in a traditional IVR Calling System, the options are limited and predefined. It is programmed only to route to an agent who can help with a specific issue. If I need assistance with payment and product, I need to start two different interactions via the IVR to reach my required solution: one with the finance team and one with product support. This creates unnecessary blockage and is not advisable for the current expectations of the customers. But a voicebot can work with some independence. It can help the customer to navigate through different options just by saying what they want. It is almost like speaking to an agent who can universally help with everything. 

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Now, how does voicebots reap more revenue? It can do so by bringing down your operational costs and improving your workforce efficiency. Think about it for a while, you reduce your agent headcount and simultaneously improve your containment rate on your voicebot channels. Not only do you improve your retention rate, you do not have to hire more employees for it. This goes for every AI-driven technology. They allow you to:
•    Improve employee productivity
•    Automate tasks and interactive processes that save essential resources.
•    Generate analytical data that can lead to better customer service
•    Sentiment analysis for improved customer experience
•    Maximize your business value by predicting and identifying different opportunities. 

All in all the purpose of Artificial Intelligence is to alleviate day-to-day struggles that bring hindrance in your process of growth. Why bother with little disturbances when they can be automated with no extra cost. When voicebots are deployed correctly and monitored, it can do wonders for your progress. 

Let me remind you though, that voicebots are not limited to inbound issues. It can also assist your team with your outgoing services including marketing-based campaigns. It can be tuned to send out automated payment reminders or debt collection. It can notify people about new products and services or if your brand is going through a makeover. It can also conduct effortless surveys to collect customer feedback. These voicebots can be trained to be multilingual and assist you with international customers as well. Not only does this make your life easier, but it doesn’t require you to spend extra to manage these tasks. This is how you can maximize your ROI on voicebots. 

One of the biggest issues of having a high incoming call or chat volume is that agents can only do so much. They cannot handle more than one conversation at a time and ensure the customer feels connected. With high inbound volume, your customer needs to wait or drop off.. Whereas, voicebots have no limitation whatsoever. They can personally engage and offer immediate responses because they have the computational power to simultaneously conduct multiple conversations. 

When a company is expected to offer 24/7 service, it is important to look for high-yielding alternatives such as voicebots. You cannot just offer service all day without hiring folks for all time zones and training them. This requires a lot of effort and resources like time and money. Voicebots will eradicate the need for spending on training agents. It can serve your customers 24/7, around the year without any holidays. You do not have to pay them a night shift allowance or offer them extra care. You can make a strategy where voicebots take on the majority of tickets when manpower is low. It can reduce your operating cost significantly without compromising your customer experience. 

Inbound Perspective - 

Let’s assume that your bot is able to handle and sort out 50% of your inbound request. So, for every 1,000 voice calls per day, 500 are managed by bots. If on average one agent can manage 10 calls an hour, the organization will require approx. 12 agents for inbound voice calls. With a well-trained voice bot, the organization can reduce say 40% (assuming there are peak loads) of staff, and can manage with 7 agents.

- Let's assume the fully loaded cost of an agent: $30/hr (data available from public source)
So, with the deployment of a voicebot,

=> $30/hr x 5 agents x 8 hr = $1200/day is saved

However, there is a recurring cost of the voicebot which can vary based on the interaction length. Now, if per voice interaction costs $0.5, so 500 interaction costs = $250

So, the overall saving is $1200 - $250 = $950/day

If we put simple math of ROI = Cost benefit/Investment (or spend)  

 
There is a one-time cost for bot deployment and if we amortize it over a period of 1 year, still there is a significant ROI, isn’t it?

We can do a similar computation for outbound voice bots or chatbots. You will find significant ROI in all the cases.

However, Let me share a secret... 
You can achieve the best ROI if your bots are well designed, scalable, and supports your customer language. With our experience, we have been able to realize a high level of ROI for us (as we use bots for our customer service) and definitely for our clients!

Often the misconception is that voicebots will prevent the human touch. That is absolutely not true! A smart consistency of live agents and AI can bring good things to the table. The agent can always barge into a call when he feels the voicebot is about to hit a wall. However, his presence might not always be necessary. This gives you the opportunity to diversify the roles of your agents. Hence, if you take the above suggestions into consideration, you can make the most of your voicebot investment. To learn more about voicebots, Contact our experts.