Every day, we're seeing the widespread impacts of the globe’s supply chain issues. Labor disruptions, inflation, and the continuing effects of COVID-19 combine with geopolitical issues affecting upstream suppliers and the retail supply chain is feeling the pain. Virtually every industry around the world has a story to tell. There are delays and shortages for seemingly everything from lumber to baby formula.

At the end of the day, these delays and shortages aren’t changing customer expectations. And that means that brands must prepare for whatever the future might hold by building in greater supply chain resiliency and mechanisms to manage ongoing disruptions. 

Taking Care of Customers

Effective supply chain planning is an essential part of adapting to disruption and sustaining your retail operations. But just as important will be the technologies and solutions you implement throughout the product journey, from the time an order is placed until it arrives in your customer’s hands. 

We know that the number one challenge for supply chains remains worker availability. Today, supply chain planning should extend beyond traditional considerations, encompassing technologies and strategies that let brands proactively address and communicate delays, offer remedies, and provide updates. Brands that have deployed automation and artificial intelligence (AI) in the contact center have uncovered new ways to overcome the worker availability challenge while also creating more positive customer experiences.

Let’s say, for example, that a brand’s flagship product is now on backorder with hundreds of outstanding orders awaiting fulfillment. What customers want most of all — even more than fast delivery — is frequent, proactive information. Not only must they be made aware of the delay, but the brand must also overcome another hurdle: salvaging those sales that might otherwise be lost. 

With an AI-powered virtual assistant for the contact center, this retailer can automate this customer support issue, and do so in ways that won’t further strain their already burdened workforce. A virtual assistant for the contact center can handle these communications with ease, notifying consumers of the fulfillment delay, confirming updated timelines, offering choices in how to resolve the issue, suggesting alternative products, and so on. 

Personalized Experiences

Another core aspect of Contact Center AI is its ability to identify each customer to create more personalized experiences. Historically, retailers have used an automatic number identification (ANI) database to identify who each caller is, but Contact Center AI takes this a step further and can interpret profiles for each customer; making decisions on how to engage with the consumer. When the retailer has complete understanding of the customer’s identity, order history, browsing history, branded app usage, and so on, they can not only personalize each customer’s experience, but they can also predict what they need or want to do next. All of this must be done, however, in ways that protect consumers’ data and privacy.

For example, a retailer can use an AI-powered prediction solution to intercept calls about order status in the IVR system, proactively asking the customer if they’re calling about their recent order. If the answer is yes, the caller can receive a status update immediately from the virtual assistant, increasing the IVR containment rate. 

Engaging customers in this way can significantly reduce contact center volumes, alleviating the burden from your workforce and pushing it onto the technology. At a time when the labor market remains disrupted, this shift is critical.

Contact Center Agent Effectiveness

For especially frustrated customers, high-ticket items, or those who require more complicated resolution, virtual assistants are adept at intelligently routing these customers to live agents who are well-equipped to serve the customer. This means handing off the customer to an available agent with the appropriate skills along with the full context of the conversation so that customers aren’t repeating themselves. Additionally, the agent needs all background information and resources at their fingertips to successfully resolve the customer’s issue. For example, the agent may need to rely on the customer’s order history, product recommendations, and suggested dialogs to quickly resolve a concern or convert a sale.

Of course, every interaction with a live agent costs time and money. It’s crucial that the AI is trained to assess the value and complexity of any given inquiry to know when and how to escalate, and to make the transition seamless for agent and customer alike.

This updated, hybrid workflow does more than take care of customers and their needs; it maximizes the contact center team’s productivity. Now the contact center team has the bandwidth to tackle the more complex interactions while the virtual assistant handles the routine aspects of customer service. In fact, many retailers who adopt this strategy find that they can reduce their average handle times, improve call deflection, and increase customer conversion rates. 

Contact center technologies, including virtual assistants, not only offer a competitive advantage in terms of agility and labor concerns, but they also provide insights into performance and quality assurance. In this way, retailers can easily evaluate every customer interaction to identify both best practices and areas where feedback, coaching, and training would create a continuous improvement loop so that agents and virtual assistants alike can perform at their best.

As retailers look ahead, they must prepare for future unknowns. Ultimately, investments in technology can offer immediate relief for today’s supply chain woes while positioning you for whatever the future may hold.

Tony Lorentzen is general manager and senior vice president of intelligent engagement at Nuance Communications.