In a previous blog post, Rick Owens, Support Services Group’s Chief Global Technology Officer, talked about how AI is transforming BPO services.
In this article, Owens speaks about SSG’s own spin on AI as “actionable information,” how the company is choosing from the best technologies and vendors out there to serve customers better, and how embracing these innovative technologies is actually a way to invest in employees and help them grow their careers.
SSG’s Own Spin on AI
Traditionally, actionable information (perhaps the first well-known AI acronym in the business world) means having the necessary information immediately available, in order to deal with any situation at hand. In the call center space, this means having meaningful data that is useful to making a quick decision to solve a customer’s problem.
SSG’s own spin on actionable information merges it with the newer, and now more commonly known, AI acronym, Artificial Intelligence.
“Right now, people are using these large language models to be able to access data and make it actionable, so here at SSG we call it Actionable Information,” said Owens.
This means taking data and making that data actionable. Now, SSG is using these new technologies – which includes Artificial Intelligence, of course – and new vendors that focus on a specific area, whether it’s a chat or an audio interaction with a customer, to make the CX experience even better.
Choosing the Best Capabilities to Serve Customers Better
Owens said the company is currently looking at a large number of new technologies and vendors, to test-drive new capabilities in SSG’s own operation – whether for training or recruiting, or anything else in the back office as well.
But the most important thing, of course, is to improve the end customer’s direct communication support.
Investing in People, Developing Careers
SSG’s decision to invest in innovative technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence, is actually an investment in its people. The technology, according to Owens, will help the company’s employees – the agents, mostly – in their own career development.
Owens believes that it’s the agents who are doing better than some of the executives, especially in BPOs, when it comes to the AI side of things. This is because it’s actually the agents who are interacting with machine intelligence directly, so that they can deal with much more complex customer service situations that confront them.
With an AI-powered knowledge base, for example, agents are able to automatically have powerful information at their fingertips – they don’t have to worry about memorizing everything. Owens believes that as agents get familiar with the technology, they naturally get better at it.
“Our associates are pretty smart people. They come on board, they start interacting with the technology, and when they get over that first barrier, they quickly start adapting and making it part of their capabilities,” said Owens. “So I think it’s going to be a win-win situation for everyone, and that’s what we’re starting to experience as we’ve been rolling out these new capabilities.”
Embracing AI
Owens also believes that customer service agents should not be threatened by AI and that, on the contrary, they should embrace it.
“What’s great is our associates are starting to learn to work with these technologies and are now realizing that these aren’t things that should be threatening to them, and aren’t taking their jobs,” said Owens.
“They’re actually tools that agents are going to be able to use to improve their capabilities and also improve their careers. So that’s the beauty of what’s going on with technology at SSG – we are investing in technologies. Being the technology leader, it’s fun to be part of this company.”
