If you belong to the customer support industry or team, you might be aware of the fact that customers don’t like to wait on hold. They don’t want to be greeted by a robotic IVR for so long. They don’t want to be stuck in the loop of music and endless transfers.
Research says, 76% of consumers still prefer phone support, but dislike the old-fashioned way of getting transferred from one agent to another.
In fact, if customer support is poor, 53% of customers are likely to abandon the brand entirely.
The solution? AI call routing technology!
It’s a smarter option for companies that want to improve their customer service. AI is a smarter, faster, and more personalized way to connect customers with the right help at the right time.
Let’s know more about what AI call routing is, and how it is better than traditional routing.
Businesses have been relying on time-based rules, IVR menus, or skill-based routing in managing customer calls over the years. Such systems were okay when the number of calls was consistent and problems were basic.
However, customers in modern times have many more expectations. The new callers are expecting to be treated as individuals with quick answers and no duplication. However, in traditional routing, they have to:
According to Harvard Business Review, a majority of customers come through the same pain points whenever they call customer support: more than half have to re-explain their issue, most of them are transferred unnecessarily, and approximately 60% say it takes moderate to high effort to resolve even a single query.
That is why the IVR software is so out of fashion, and 98% of callers attempt to avoid them.
That’s where AI call routing steps in.
AI-based call routing involves artificial intelligence to connect every incoming call to the most appropriate solution path, be it a voice AI agent, human specialist, or even a callback.
Unlike inflexible IVR menus, AI systems read and comprehend natural language, recognize context, and take real-time decisions. They draw from:
In other words, AI doesn’t just ask, Which department?; it also asks, What exactly does this person need, and who or what can solve it best right now?
AI is trained in such a way that these systems learn from every interaction and upgrade themselves with each call.
Verloop
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The process might seem sci-fi, but it is really simple:
Companies adopting AI-powered routing are already seeing striking improvements.
Studies report:
This efficiency not only helps customers, but it also changes the work environment of agents. They no longer have to sink into repetitive questions but are instead able to devote their attention to more complex, significant questions.
Deloitte even discovered that companies implementing AI are 35% less likely to experience overwhelmed agents. This is a massive retention boost in call centers that have high turnover rates.
Retell AI
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Here are a few places where AI-powered call routing is already making waves:
One of the most time-consuming problems in healthcare is scheduling appointments. Almost 88% of arrangements are carried out over the phone, but with outdated systems, this usually results in careless arrangements and missed appointments.
Smart routing helps patients get to the right department quickly with the help of AI voice agents. The use of conversational AI has allowed providers such as Medbelle to increase their successful scheduling by 60%.
Banks and insurers receive thousands of calls per day. By analyzing customer profiles, call history, and urgency, AI ensures that a customer disputing fraud doesn’t waste time in a generic queue. Predictive routing puts them in synch with the fraud experts right away, resulting in better first call resolutions and fewer call hang-ups.
In online retail, the questions shoppers ask are mostly the same- Where is my order? How do I exchange this? These can easily be addressed by Voice AI agents. The ones with more complicated refunds or complaints are sent to the human personnel. This decreases queue backlogs and can also help it scale support as the seasons change.
Agent burnout is a huge issue with staff turnover rates frequently above 30-40 per cent per year. AI call routing in contact centers ensures the distribution of work is equal, preventing duplication in assigned tasks.
Although speed is the most obvious advantage of AI call routing, there are more benefits that could count:
Synthflow
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Is your business still on the old school IVR menus? If yes, it is high time to change your call stream.
The shift to AI call routing consists of three major steps:
Providers such as Retell AI, Verloop.io, and Synthflow AI already provide such advanced features. These are dynamic routing prompts, context-oriented automation, and multi-language support. The trick is to get one that best suits your customer base and expansion objectives.
Final Thoughts
Every interaction matters for customer support, as they want to resolve the issue so that it doesn’t occur again. But customers don’t want to wait, and this leads to negative experiences.
A single negative experience will cost you half of your customer base, whereas a single good one could give you a lifetime of (loyal) customers.
AI call routing combines speed, personalization, and intelligence to make every customer feel heard and assisted with less effort.
And as we walk further into 2025, we can be sure that the brands that succeed are those whose phone lines not only don’t just ring but get heard.
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