Automated Communication

How to Create Effective Communication with Automation

By

I recently read an article on speaking up at work. The article was all about how important it is to share your unique voice and that how you are perceived really depends on how effectively you communicate. 

That got me thinking. What I do at work is all about creating effective communication through  automation. So much of the advice out there for speaking up and demonstrating your value applies to creating great automation as well.

So let’s talk about how you can use your voice to create effective automated communications. Since businesses these days are expected to be available 24/7/365, and since phone lines are essential parts of that availability, automation is key. It’s not easy implementing successful automation, but it is important if you want to:

  • Retain customers while building loyalty.  
  • Prevent call center representatives from burning out with their day-to-day activities.  
  • Become cost efficient.

Here are some tips to help you use Plum Voice to perfect your voice:

  1. Be prepared. Make sure you understand the kind of calls you get and which calls lend themselves well to automation. You’d be pleasantly surprised at how much can be done via automation. It’s not just routing calls around. Know what data your callers want and create integrations to enable them to access that information on the phone.
  1. Be sure the time is right. Incoming calls are fluid. But if you want to be proactive in reaching out to your customers, think about the days they are likely to have time to take your call, think about what times they are most likely to be available, and think about different time zones.
  1. Watch your language. How you say things matters. If you offer callers the ability to transfer right after the welcome prompt, they probably will. Think about what you want to achieve and what you direct your callers to do. Also, make sure the voice talent or text to speech you are using is pleasant.
  1. Stick to the facts and keep it short. Stay focused on the task and be concise.
  1. Be consistent. I threw this in to remind you that there are some inherent benefits of automation. The consistency that automated voices provide is another plus.
  1. Be open to feedback. Feedback tells you people are paying attention. Take it and make changes based on it. Plum’s VoiceTrends gives you the data you need to analyze what your callers are doing.
  1. Listen actively to others. If it makes sense for your business and callers, leverage conversational AI and natural language processing (NLP) to allow for conversational dialogue.
  1. Stay calm. These aren’t people we’re talking about here. Your automated system will remain calm, polite and focused – no matter what your callers say.
  1. Know when enough is enough. – If your callers are having issues with your automated system, the right thing to do might be to build in a transfer option that allows them to speak to a representative. No need to worry about security. Plum Voice offers a virtual agent, Secure Assistant. SecureAssistant is a virtual agent that can be conferenced in and mask sensitive information while the caller and representative both stay on the line. 

Now, let’s say you are excited and ready to start building your modern-day automated phone experience. But wait, you don’t know a thing about coding. It’s okay. Plum Voice offers a no-coding tool, Plum FUSE. If you have the resources available and you know  how to code, then check out Plum DEV.