Logistics companies can create differentiated customer experience using AI-powered contact centres

The rising popularity of online shopping due to Covid-19 concerns, exciting rewards & discounts, and the festive shopping vibe, the combination implies that logistics companies have some busy days ahead. Therefore, the logistics companies are already doubling down on their effort to ramp up their workforce and deploy digital solutions that bring operational visibility and efficiency. Besides backend operations, an essential aspect for logistics companies to engage with customers before, during, and after their package is in transit, writes Dr Rashi Gupta of Rezo.ai

For example, they would want to know where exactly their consignment is when it is expected to reach them, are there any hurdles on the way, the possible reasons for unmet delivery promises, and so on.

To address these queries, concerns, and complaints, logistics companies typically rely on customer contact centres. These contact centres host a team of people who attend to customer calls, emails, messenger texts, and other forms of communications. Given the festive surge in delivery volumes, the inbound communication to these contact centres also grows multifold, rendering the logistics contact centre workforce incapable of providing the optimal customer experience. However, with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered solutions, logistics companies can effectively address this challenge. The AI and ML-powered contact centre solutions assimilate massive amounts of data about incoming calls, emails, messenger texts, and other forms of communication, learn from the response of human executives, and provide real-time, contextual solutions to customers. By doing so, a large part of contact centre operations gets automated. Below are some key benefits of AI and ML-powered contact centres for the logistics industry:-

Better speed of response
AI-based contact centre tools use contextual responses in multiple formats to take care of customers’ queries without much human intervention. As a result, the overall turnaround time for any issue comes down significantly. The speed becomes a key differentiator for customers who are keenly waiting for their package or want to understand where it is lost. If the issues are more complex, human agents can help the customers use their professional experience and human intelligence. The man-machine combination provides differentiated, above-par expertise to customers.

Accurate solutions
Humans can make errors in judgment, feel fatigued, demotivated, and experience many other issues that can lead to inaccurate query resolutions. Every such instance of failure brings the credibility of the logistics company under question. Automated, AI-based contact centres depend on deep data analytics and NLP engines to understand customer complaints, map the frequency, and provide a reliable solution. The systems also learn from the past usage patterns and continue to improve upon their responses. By doing so, essentially eliminates the potential human errors and improves the customer experience.

Personalized conversations
Through the journey of placing an order and receiving it, there are many data-driven engagement points between customers and logistics companies. AI-based tools can use these data streams to personalize every interaction with customers and make their experience more valuable. Some of these improvements are impactful greetings, language selection, tonality, and other cultural nuances.  Every such personalized brings customers closes to the company and connects on a personal level.

Given that logistics services are highly commoditized, companies need to showcase their value through a unique customer experience. This differentiation helps e-commerce, retail, lifestyle, and many other businesses choose their logistics partner as everyone gears up for the festive season.  AI-powered contact centres provide a measurable way to create the desired difference in customer experience. Thus, it is a rewarding proposition for logistics companies, their current and prospective clients, and the end customers.

Dr Rashi Gupta is the chief data scientist and co-founder of Rezo.ai.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Indian Transport & Logistics News.