Credit: M1
Shaped by a desire to differentiate through customer experience -- and turbo-charged by a widespread digital transformation agenda -- M1 is making new strides in delivering omni-channel excellence through the launch of Maxine.
Operating as a voice bot for company hotlines, Maxine is built on Amazon Connect -- an omni-channel cloud-based contact centre service designed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) to improve contact centre agent productivity and end-user customer experiences.
Powered by AWS artificial intelligence (AI) technologies -- notably automatic speech recognition and natural language understanding -- Maxine can engage in more “lifelike conversations” with customers and is combined with M1’s session initiation protocol (SIP) trunk services for high quality digital voice communication.
In short, the Singapore-based telecommunications provider is moving ahead with plans to enhance end-user experience levels by engaging them in “open-ended conversations instead of menu-driven interfaces”.
“Customer experience has always been a top priority for M1,” said Stamford Low, director of Customer Experience and Retail, M1. “Since embarking on our digital transformation journey two years ago, we have doubled down on delivering exceptional experiences for our customers.”
Since rolling out Maxine during the fourth quarter of 2021, M1 has generated improved performance to the existing call system with the voice bot performing sophisticated functions such as authentication of callers with a one-time pin (OTP), or sharing the customer’s position in the call queue and estimated waiting time.
Compared with December 2020, the company's Net Promoter Score (NPS) reported a 40 per cent increase 12 months later, largely attributed to Maxine’s ability to capture callers’ intentions which then improves call agent productivity.
“We are committed to ensuring a seamless and engaging experience for our customers on all platforms, including our hotlines,” Low added. “With technology as our enabler, M1 will continue to train Maxine to improve its capabilities and add more value to our customers, through the development of a self-help service.”
The deployment of Maxine forms part of M1’s "continuous transformation journey" to become a digital platform. Operating as a cloud native solution, M1 is also able to "regularly develop and deploy" new and incremental features and capabilities that enhance Maxine’s services.
Currently, M1 has its 1627 (Bespoke), 1622 (Business) and 1800-843-8288 (Prepaid) hotlines operating on the Amazon Connect platform, which will be progressively rolled out to other hotlines in the near future. M1 is also supporting other members of the Keppel Group that are making the transition to adopt Maxine, starting with Keppel Electric.
“Customers, such as M1, rely on actionable data to provide faster and more holistic customer experiences, optimise agents’ time based on what matters most, and enable customer service managers to take action in real time,” added Dean Samuels, chief technologist of ASEAN at AWS.
“With Amazon Connect, M1 can provide superior customer service at a lower cost with an easy-to-use omni-channel cloud contact center. Embedded AI and machine learning with Amazon Connect makes it easy to automate interactions, understand customer sentiment, authenticate callers, and enable capabilities like interactive voice response and chatbots.”
