In recent times, the terms Digital Human and Digital Employee have started being utilised more and more – even I have been guilty of using these terms.
So, what do these terms mean?
A Digital Human, in a business application is more than a pretty face – it is an omni-channel interface that uses AI and continual learning to emulate a live human experience. This is achieved through the simulation of human tone, expression and emotional intelligence to create an amazing experience between customer and AI.
So Then, What Is A Digital Employee?
It is a digital human that has been trained to perform a specific job role such as a concierge or 1st level support. The digital employee comes with base level competencies you would expect these roles to have in regards to conversational skills, language and access to systems and processes that allow them to complete their job function, exceptionally well.
The great thing about a digital employee is that the more of them out there performing their job role, the more experience they collectively have as subject matter experts and therefore the more accurate and successful they become within the scope of their job descriptions.
Recruiting A Digital Employee
If your organisation was to consider including digital employees into your workforce, would you know where to start?
I would suggest that you are better prepared than you may think. Your organisation most likely has very well-defined recruitment processes, job descriptions and candidate attributes required for entry level staff.
As an example; I did a quick scan of customer service job ads and came up with this typical list of requirements: The ideal candidate will have:
- Good communication skills and an upbeat personality
- Warm, energetic and engaging manner
- Ability to build rapport with customers
- Ability to build and maintain customer relationships
- Self-motivated to meet and exceed expectations
- Ability to actively engage customers in person or over the phone
As per a standard recruitment process, we receive CV’s and short-list for interview where we assess the candidates for:
- Emotional intelligence
- Ability to problem solve; and,
- Experience in similar roles
…Once we make our selection, employees are put through induction courses to train them on our company, technology, processes etc.
The engagement of a digital employee follows the same process – what personality do you want them to have to best represent your brand? What base skills do you expect them to have to perform the tasks where they can add the most value? What do they need to be trained on before they start interacting with your customers?
If you can answer those questions, you are ready.
Benefits Of Digital Employees
The main value propositions for engaging digital employees are:
- A customised personality, look and voice which is tailored to your company and consistent across every customer interaction and channel
- Available 24/7
- Can be replicated, 10’s, 100’s or 1000’s of times
- Available on your technology of choice (web, kiosk, mobile, phone)
- Works as a part of the existing customer care team to learn, teach and grow its capability
- Able to access a database of capabilities/courses to extend job functions across business units over time
Digital employee’s free up live agents to be more available to build relationships, be creative and solve problems with customers. This encourages longer, stronger relationships and better customer service, which translates to direct business value.
Get in touch with me to discuss how the FaceMe digital workforce can help your organisation transform its customer service offering.
Jeff Davies, FaceMe
