Change Agents: CX Agents Making All the Difference in Complex Situations

by Mike McDaniel

Technology is expanding customer experience (CX) self-serve capabilities. However, well-trained agents are still an essential part of the CX mix, with nearly half of the calls handled by Conduent's agents being complex in nature. Advanced innovation like AI is well positioned to address many of the most common needs and frequent requests from customers, but not the complex issues and this is where agents bring humanity and expertise into the solution.

The right mix of technology and people

Conduent is a unique partner to CX clients because of our end-to-end capabilities. Conduent CX teams support an entire process that is comprised of interconnected actions, decisions and steps and powered by information about the customer.

Innovation that is strategically designed and deployed, alongside highly trained CX agents, makes the difference for complex issues, which can happen anywhere along the process.

Conduent's approach to CX entails deep understanding of a client's business, their processes and the role they play in a customer's life. Agents are supported with top-tier training, data analytics and AI tools empowering them to be advocates for our clients. An example of this approach is the end-to-end work Conduent does for one of the largest shipping companies, starting with data and document management all the way through to customer support.

The following examples demonstrate how CX agents provided urgent solutions because they were able to interpret the information provided by technology and leverage their training to find solutions that made a real difference.

1. The Conduent system flagged a delivery delay because of a mechanical delay on a flight. The package contained a specialized nutritional formal needed at a neonatal intensive care unit. The agent recognized the critical impact of delaying the time-sensitive delivery, so our agent intervened and was able to get the package of infant formula rerouted and delivered on time to the NICU caring for a critically ill premature infant.

1. A pharmacy shipped a plasma-derived therapy, which is critical, life-saving medicine, to a patient for infusion therapy scheduled for the next day. The pharmacy hadn't realized that the patient's location was not a guaranteed next-day delivery area. The Conduent CX agent understood the urgency and the need to deliver the therapy for the patient's appointment. The agent escalated the request, identified an alternative shipping option and ensured the patient's package was delivered in time for the infusion therapy.

Many medical shipments, including cell and gene therapies, require same-day delivery due to refrigeration requirements. A company shipped a therapy package same day, but the first delivery attempt failed. Standard process requires that the next delivery attempt occur on the following day, outside the refrigeration requirement. Once engaged, the CX agent was able to escalate the situation and work with multiple transportation service contacts to make a second delivery on the same day, within the refrigeration requirement.

Conduent has a holistic approach to how we solve a client's business problem. Whether adjudicating a claim in the healthcare space or managing a car loan in the automotive space, or ensuring customers get an urgent medical shipment, Conduent goes end-to-end in business processes, crossing from customer experience and customer communications to financial and accounting management. Conduent provides a unique set of BPO solutions that help clients run their business more efficiently and improve the processes that sit inside their operations.

Sitting at the center of all the work Conduent does is technology. As technology continues to evolve, we expect even greater achievements and benefits in efficiency, accuracy and cost savings. At the same time, we believe the secret sauce in CX is people. AI is certainly helping on the tech side but highly trained, engaged CX agents are still an essential part of delivering critical and in many cases urgent solutions.