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Question:

Our back-office operations utilize robotic process automation, but I’m not sure how we’d use it in the contact center. Is there a different application for contact centers?

Answer:

Robotic process automation (RPA) solutions most commonly used in back-office environments are unattended RPA applications. This type of RPA performs end-to-end automation of high-volume transaction-based activities and processes which are run on a dedicated workstation, server, mainframe or via the web. Unlike back offices, the form of RPA generally found in contact centers is attended RPA.

Attended RPA runs on the employee’s desktop and is invoked by a user via context-based screen triggers, an embedded screen button or hot key, etc. An attended RPA application “works” alongside agents. It provides employees with real-time process guidance and automates routine activities associated with the task in a faster and more accurate manner than humans could perform manually. Attended RPA can also be used in the background to help an agent find and access context-based content from a knowledge base regarding a policy or procedure, to help ensure proper handling of a customer inquiry.

Here are some additional use cases for attended RPA in contact centers:

  • Up-sell/cross-sell recommendations
  • Next-best-action guidance
  • Compliance and script adherence 
  • Fraud warning
  • Employee onboarding assistance
  • Launching and closing applications 
  • E-form completion
  • Processing or task management for multi-step and/or multi-department processes 
  • Single-sign-on activities