RPA or Robotic Process Automation has been a concept that has been prevalent for a while in the BPO sector. While some people are afraid of losing jobs to RPA, large client companies are looking to implement it in order to optimize their customer care competencies more easily.
What exactly is RPA?
Robotic Process Automation is a technology that depends on a software program or a robot to capture and interpret data. Often, complex systems can also help with data integration, response triggering, data manipulation, and even client transactions. This type of technology can be used to boost IT support processes, workflow, and back-office work in terms of time and money.
However, as with any other technological advance that can do the jobs people have been doing, employees in this sector also fear losing jobs. In such a scenario, it is important to see whether RPA is actually beneficial for BPOs and the industry in general, as such a decision can have massive ramifications for the labor force. We think that it can actually be good for everyone involved, and these are our reasons why:
1. It Saves Time and Money
RPA technology can process and analyze information in a matter of seconds, enabling companies to have access to almost real-time data analysis. This process is also accurate and involves quick cycle times, meaning that it ends up saving considerable amounts of time.
The individuals who benefit most from this accuracy and swiftness are the analysts who work with RPA processes. This is because they are able to devote time to other upper level analytical tasks while RPA processes carry out the basic work. With swiftness comes savings, as quicker decision making can help companies save money in the long term.
2. Better Customer Service
When used specifically for the customer service sector, it can drastically improve both customer satisfaction as well as the work atmosphere of the customer care center. One of the most difficult things to do when in a service call is to ask for the same information which the customer had already disclosed in a previous call. Moreover, the agent is forced to enter the data again, and another agent might have to do the same at the next call with the same customer.
RPA, when used properly, can help integrate all this data across different verticals and give agents the information they need by just entering an id number or some other form of customer identification. Not only does this help the customer, but also helps the agent as they can now focus solely on customers’ problems instead of data entry and other related tasks. Naturally, the optimization of the workflow in this manner helps produce better customer support services.
3. Optimized Workflow
Implementing RPAs in a call center can help with customer interaction workflows in the following ways:
- Increases efficiency
- Reduces customer effort
- Creates opportunities for personalized communication
- Increases First Resolution rates
- Increases accuracy
- Makes follow-ups easier and more streamlined
4. Desktop Automation
Implementing desktop automation allows BPOs and employees to get into legacy applications and systems, which in turn can help automation of employee tasks. Thereby, it enables specific employees to work quicker, smarter, and more accurately. This means that employees can become mostly decision makers, letting automated technology take over the work of filing, filling in information, and others. This automation also enables more real-time solutions to customer queries and claims, offering quicker services all around.
5. Quicker Data Movement
While RPAs come with the ability to process and manipulate data, their biggest value to BPOs and call centers is present in the way they make data movement much more efficient. Data movement involves tasks like processing sequences with exact data from multiple databases, filling in databases with required information, data migration from one application to another, and so on. Letting RPA take care of these processes frees up employees’ time to take care of secondary level decision making tasks. It also makes work less monotonous and tedious.
6. More Skills Based Training
RPAs require trained employees who can understand how to work in an automated workflow. This means that BPOs and call centers now have the incentive to offer more training to their employees and up their skill levels. Skill development in this manner increases employee engagement and retention, and ensures that there are no job losses due to automation.
Whether we want to admit it yet our not, RPAs are going to be commonplace across industries in the next few years, and the BPOs that work best with them will come out on top. It’s good to start thinking about RPA and your BPO model today to ensure that when automation does become a selling point, your organization is ready and waiting.
