November 30, 2023
On November 23, 2023, the 9th edition of theUtility Day, one of the most important events dedicated to companies operating in the utility sector. More than 130 utilities in attendance, over 800 participants and 120 speakers gathered to discuss and map the cultural, digital and technological transformation of Italian utilities.
It was an honor for us to have the opportunity to take the stage at the NH Congress Centre in Milan in front of such an audience and present the workshop entitled: "Smart Automation at the Service of Customer Care."
The talk was met with much enthusiasm among those in the field and enabled the companies present to appreciate, with a concrete case study, what benefits can be achieved throughCustomer Care solutionsenhanced by Generative AI.
Alessandra Sarri, Operations & Customer Success Manager at Increso, and Luisa Siccardi, Customer Operations Manager at Alegas - Iren Group, were the speakers who demonstrated what the real improvements in Alegas' customer service were that we will summarize below.
Alessandra Sarri and Luisa Siccardi on the Utility Day stage.
The need for Alegas
For Alegas, customer care has always been a critical success factor. The levers used to ensure their complete satisfaction are proactive management, omnichannel approach, adoption of innovative technologies, enhancement of Operations, and digital transformation.
Alegas was looking for a customer care solution that would be able to:
- Provide 24-hour assistance even to customers who call out of business hours;
- Introduce innovative contact channels to complement traditional channels;
- Increase automation levels to reduce overall service costs;
- Improving Customer Experience.
Increso, which has long assisted Alegas in improving Customer Service performance, was asked to propose a solution that would address these needs.
Increso's Smart Automation
Increso, in response to this challenge, used some components of our Inxide proprietary platform, in particular:
- The virtual assistant empowered by generative AI;
- The Workflow to Automate the Customer Journey.
The solution was implemented in just 2 weeks, thanks to a team of 4 resources: Luisa Siccardi mapped the Customer Journeys, while Alessandra Sarri and 2 other resources from Increso's Digital team enabled the set-up of the platform and the configuration of the AI engine - GPT 3.5 turbo and GPT4 from Open AI.
How has the virtual assistant replaced the telephone operator?
The following are the tasks assigned to the virtual assistant and the interactions with the customer requesting assistance outside business hours:
- The virtual assistant automatically understands the request expressed in natural language by the user while on the phone;
- The request is segmented according to the type of service (e.g., whether it is an electricity or gas request) and the reason for the call (e.g., turn-over, new activation, payment made, complaint);
- In real-time with the user on the phone, the virtual assistant provides in natural language the answer and the "next best action" to automatically resolve the expressed request;
- Also in real-time, the virtual assistant generates a contact sheet with the transcript of the phone call enriched with AI processing, making it available to the operator for possible further handling.
In addition, the Customer Journey mapped by Increso allowed the Workflow present in the platform to be configured to automate all possible actions arising from the need expressed by the Alegas customer in what-if logic.
Increso's Smart Automation: the project
Achievements of Alegas
The improvements achieved by Alegas were measured through constant tracking of 3 KPIs.
First of all, it was measured how many of the customers who call Alegas outside service hours decide to interact with the virtual assistant: 85 percent of the customers decided to interact by phone, agreeing to describe their need even without human support.
The effectiveness of the virtual assistant was measured by the correct classification of customer requests: 98% of the needs expressed in natural language by the customer were correctly classified and transcribed in the contact sheet.
The third indicator found that 75% of users do not call back after interaction with the virtual assistant because they are satisfied. The benefit of this is that we were able to transform possible inbound interactions (prior to the Smart Automation intervention, the customer was invited to call back during service hours) into automated or outbound interactions, scheduled after agreeing with the virtual assistant on the day and time of the callback.
In conclusion, the Smart Automation solution implemented by Increso for Alegas has significantly improved the customer experience and has reduced and simplified the activities of contact center operators.
The results obtained through our solution
A challenge for all organizations
At Increso, we strongly believe that Smart Automation is not just the preserve of Customer Care: all organizations in the enterprise can and should gain benefits from using Generative AI technologies.
Today, solutions can be realized that until recently were unimaginable except with major investments in technology.
But how to do to really harness the potential of generative AI?
Our view so that AI can truly be an asset comes from the experiences we have had, the challenges we have conducted with client companies, the experiments on new technologies in our digital HUB and from continuous sharing with partner companies. Here are the new challenges that companies will face:
- Towing resources to provide them with the skills needed to interact with AI;
- If necessary, search outside your own organization for the necessary expertise;
- Continuously experiment with AI technologies to stay abreast of their ongoing evolution.
Design with us the Smart Automation solution that best suits your company's needs: fill out the form below or write to us at marketing@increso.it.
