Handle With Care: How AI Can Support—Not Replace—Human Connection in Healthcare Contact Centers
In healthcare contact centers, AI should lighten the load—not replace human care. Learn how to automate with empathy and escalate when it matters most.
Manufacturing companies are under pressure to produce more, ship faster, and do it all while managing costs. But there’s another area ripe for optimization that often gets overlooked: the contact center.
High call volumes don’t just tie up your support staff—they signal friction in the customer experience. Whether it’s status updates, delivery delays, pricing requests, or repeat questions from internal teams and partners, too many calls usually mean something’s broken upstream.
Fortunately, AI is helping manufacturers reduce call volume while improving the quality of customer support.
Here’s how.
Not every inquiry is equal—and they definitely don’t all belong in the same queue.
AI-powered skills-based routing identifies caller intent and matches it with agent expertise, product line, language preferences, or location. In a manufacturing environment, this might mean that a procurement question is routed directly to the purchasing team, while a status update is sent to someone with logistics access.
This drastically reduces transfers and repeat calls, improves first-contact resolution, and results in faster answers overall.
Traditional IVR menus were designed to reduce call volume—but more often than not, they frustrate customers into hitting zero or calling back later.
Modern AI-enhanced IVR systems change that dynamic. Instead of forcing callers to navigate clunky menus, they allow for natural language interaction. A customer can say, “I need to check on an order I placed last week,” and be directed appropriately—or receive an immediate answer without needing an agent.
This takes care of high-frequency, low-complexity calls and frees up human resources for more valuable interactions.
In manufacturing, there’s often a pattern to inbound call volume. Delivery estimate questions spike after large orders ship. Product spec inquiries go up after new releases. Repeat questions indicate friction in the sales-to-delivery cycle.
AI analytics help you identify those patterns in real-time and take action—before the phone rings. That could mean:
When your contact center sees around corners, call volume becomes manageable—even during spikes.
Many manufacturers already use portals for distributors or repeat buyers. But adding AI-powered chatbots and guided workflows transforms those portals into true self-service engines.
Customers can:
The difference is in the experience—these bots feel more like conversations and less like search engines. And when customers can resolve issues themselves, they’re less likely to pick up the phone.
Even with automation, some issues need a live conversation. But AI can still lighten the load.
Real-time agent assist tools offer in-the-moment support during calls. They surface relevant documents, recommend next-best actions, and help agents avoid mistakes or delays.
That means:
And of course—fewer total calls in the long run.
When it comes to deploying AI to reduce call volume, look for tools that offer:
AI isn’t just about automation—it’s about making your contact center more responsive, efficient, and customer-friendly.
Xima’s customer contact center platform is purpose-built to help manufacturers modernize how they support customers, partners, and internal teams. With AI-powered features that reduce call volume, improve routing, and enhance the customer experience across voice and digital channels, Xima makes it easy to scale support without scaling your team.
Manufacturers use Xima to:
The result? Fewer calls, faster answers, and a support experience that keeps up with the pace of production.
In healthcare contact centers, AI should lighten the load—not replace human care. Learn how to automate with empathy and escalate when it matters most.
Retail’s perfect duet: Use automation for routine tasks and humans for high-value moments to create faster, more personal customer experiences.
© 2025 Xima Software
XIMA, Xima logos, and other Xima trademarks are registered or unregistered Xima trademarks in the US and elsewhere. Other names or brands are trademarks of their respective owners.
Join us for an exclusive webinar as we dive into our latest product releases for IVR, MMS Messaging, and our Social Media Integration.
Thursday, September 12, 2024 | 11:00AM ET