Optimizing Customer

Support with Machine

Intelligence
By applying learning algorithms, customer care
centers can arm agents with the ability to quickly
troubleshoot and proactively resolve customer
challenges.

Executive Summary
For most product/service companies, a major portion of their
maintenance expenses are typically directed at customer care, with
customer support agents playing a crucial role in continuously
improving customer experiences by supporting and troubleshooting
device and systems issues. At the same time, many customer care
organizations struggle to answer common issues, such as how to:
Reduce the time spent by customer care agents to resolve problems.
Improve the customer satisfaction index.
Expand the troubleshooting guide for new issues and symptoms.
Create a user-friendly system to ease problem resolution for
customers.
Reduce support center expenses without compromising quality.

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We believe machine learning will play a major role in addressing

these critical customer care support challenges. Specifically, machine
learning can automate the process of identifying problems and
recommending fixes, either with or without agent intervention, which
speeds problem resolution, improves customer satisfaction and
reduces costs. Machine learning-based solutions can create an expert
system for agents that continuously evolves, based on historical and
current troubleshooting data.
This white paper reveals how machine learning technologies can be
effectively applied to resolve many of the challenges that roil customer
care support centers. It also details how our machine learning solution,
code-named Cognizant ASIMOV, can help address customer care
troubleshooting challenges.

OPTIMIZING CUSTOMER SUPPORT WITH MACHINE THINKING

Customer Care Center Flow Challenges

In a typical customer care center, the workflow begins when the customer calls
a support agent, who collects symptoms of the problem, makes a diagnosis,
collects more clues, and refers to the knowledge base/troubleshooting guide for
solutions. The knowledge base/guide should contain detailed steps that the agent
can recommend to the customer. This is generally an iterative process, involving
multiple steps until the problem is resolved (see Figure 1).
In the archive, troubleshooting data is recorded in the form of log data that contains
information about the conversation. Generally, this content is neither structured
nor straightforward, making it difficult to summarize without human assistance.
The ensuing data complexities include:

Troubleshooting

data is represented in a chatty question-and-answer

pattern. The data is typically a dump that includes Q&A sessions between agents
and customers, diagnostics information, responses from devices, actions performed to resolve the issue, and the outcomes of those actions.

The troubleshooting flow differs for each product, based on the issue observed,
symptoms and line of business.

The overall volume of troubleshooting data that is collected for each interaction is typically very high.

The Virtuous Customer Care Cycle

Verify

Problem

Resolution
Diagnostics

Recommendation

Figure 1

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Human vs. Machine Customer Care

Understand the insights in unstructured
troubleshooting logs for a limited
volume of tickets.

SME

Support
Agent

Machine
Learning

Understand the insights in

unstructured troubleshooting logs
for a large volume of tickets.

Understand the current problem

of a customer and correlate it with
the limited learnings of the agent.

Recommend an effective solution

based on a large volume of
history tickets.
Figure 2

Applying Machine Learning to Customer Support

Using pattern recognitionandcomputational learning, machine learning involves
the construction ofalgorithmsto learnfrom and make predictions ondata.1 Machine
learning algorithms have existed for decades but were used only for limited scientific
purposes because of their cost and dependence on high levels of computing power.
In recent years, as per Moores Law, computing power has increased as provisioning costs decreased, and with the advent of big data ecosystems, organizations can
now process and analyze large volumes of data with machine learning algorithms.
Today, practical machine learning solutions have transcended high concept to
become near-term reality across multiple disciplines and industries.
With customer care, the primary focus of the machine learning solution is to equip
the system with:

Expert knowledge to understand the troubleshooting log.

The ability and skill of support agents to resolve customer problems.
In summary, machine learning helps gather the knowledge of hundreds of agents
and subject matter experts (SME), and feeds the knowledge to support agents
to accelerate time to resolution and effectively solve customer challenges (see
Figure 2).

Today, practical machine learning solutions

have transcended high concept to become
near-term reality across multiple disciplines
and industries.

OPTIMIZING CUSTOMER SUPPORT WITH MACHINE THINKING

ASIMOVs Foundation

ASIMOV generates machine intelligence by gathering and

applying agent and SME insights.

Figure 3

Introducing ASIMOV
ASIMOV is a machine-learning-based solution developed by Cognizants Global
Technology Office High Performance Computing Labs (HPC Labs). The system
contains software and processes to address common customer problems and
overcome customer care troubleshooting challenges (see Figure 3).
ASIMOVs machine learning software can help customer care organizations do the
following:

Extract insights from complex troubleshooting data.

Correlate various symptoms, problems, actions, fixes and resolutions in the troubleshooting logs.

Recommend fixes and solutions based on existing symptoms to quickly resolve

customer problems.

ASIMOV works by creating a mathematically-based predictive machine learning

model using the data gathered and analyzed by subject matter experts. Using a

Making Customer Care More Cerebral

Customer Support Troubleshooting Assistance

TROUBLESHOOTING
HISTORY DATA

SUPPORT AGENT

Figure 4

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December 2016

CLASSIFIER

DECISION TREE

RECOMMENDER

INSIGHTS

RECOMMENDATIONS

ASIMOVs Technological Anatomy

Customer
Support Solution
Prediction
Engine

Healthcare-Specific
Customer
Support Solution
Insight
Extractor

Retail-Specific
Customer
Support Solution
Recommendation
Engine

ASIMOV MACHINE LEARNING PLATFORM

Figure 5

large volume of troubleshooting historical logs, the system generates a more generalized machine learning model for predicting problem resolutions and recommendations to customer issues. When a support agent feeds the system with a clue
or looks up a current customer problem, ASIMOV quickly predicts and recommends
the best solutions based on what it has learned from previous customer challenges
and related fixes (see Figure 4, previous page).
This way, agents can access a solution that has proved effective for other agents, and
can navigate the recommended path to quickly resolve the issue. The result: Agents
can recommend solutions with more confidence and resolve issues more quickly.
ASIMOV is designed to work on top of a big data architecture, enabling it to efficiently handle large data volumes in a distributed manner (see Figure 5).

How ASIMOV Improves Customer Care

Troubleshooting
Consider the current experience of buying a product on a retail site. Many sites
typically highlight and recommend options based on prior customer interactions
and transactions to help customers choose the best product. In a similar manner,
a customer care agent with only minimal knowledge of a specific problem can be
assisted by ASIMOV to quickly choose the most accurate and specific resolution.
ASIMOV uses defined processes and algorithms, from data ingestion through data
extraction, modeling and validation. It also uses a recommendation engine interface
to guide agents for faster resolution.
Figure 6, next page, depicts a hypothetical use case for how ASIMOV uses recommendations to resolve a specific customer issue involving low-speed connectivity.
The system begins with broad recommendations using the initial symptoms
provided, and when more symptoms are injected into the system, it offers increasingly personalized recommendations, based on the history of continuous learning
it has with the ticket data.

OPTIMIZING CUSTOMER SUPPORT WITH MACHINE THINKING

Applying Clairvoyance to Solve Customer Challenges

CASE ILLUSTRATION:
Customer support for a wireless telecom provider
Complaint:
High-speed
wireless
connectivity is
not available

Customers

Send customer
symptoms and
diagnostics to
ASIMOV

ASMIOV provides
personalized
recommendation for
addressing the problem

Agent

RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON CONTINUOUS LEARNING

SY M P T OM S A NA LY SIS

1,900 customers had the same symptom in the

past 10 days within the same geographical area
SY M P T OM S-B A SE D ISSUE S

Type 1 : 1,000 issues were due to cell tower signal

booster failure
Type 2 : 700 issues due to OS update problem in
specific mobile platform
Type 3 : 200 customers had data cap limits exceeded as
per plan
ISSUE -B A SE D A C T IONS

ASIMOV

For Type 1 : 70% of the issues will be resolved by

scheduling repair on booster devices
For Type 2 : 90% of issues can be solved by sending
carrier settings update
For Type 3 : 100% of issue can be solved by
upgrading plans

G UIDE R E C OM M E N DA T ION

For Type 1 : Refer to guide <link> - 85% success ratio

For Type 2 : Refer to guide <link> - 78% success ratio
For Type 3 : Refer to guide <link> - 94% success ratio

Figure 6

Looking Forward
ASIMOVs machine learning solutions support big data ecosystems and cloud-based
environments to address a multiplicity of customer care challenges for call center
optimization. ASIMOV also provides accelerators to bring machine learning-based
solutions more quickly to market.
ASIMOV has been successfully piloted for a communication services provider, and
has produced numerous insights for resolving customer support challenges. This
has helped the company optimize customer complaint troubleshooting.
With its deep understanding of customer care support problems and customized
machine learning support software, ASIMOV can efficiently address critical business
goals that challenge customer support centers, including the following:

Make more intelligent decisions to reduce time spent on customer support

calls. ASIMOV can suggest solutions for resolution, based on the initial diagnosis
of troubleshooting. As a result, it can speed problem resolution for agents and
customers anywhere from five to 15 minutes, on average. Agent time is directly
proportional to support center expenses, and reducing resolution time across
millions of customer calls will save substantial spending in support.

Provide

recommendations on troubleshooting approaches and solutions.

ASIMOV creates a real-time social navigation system for agents to use when resolving issues. Agents can learn which solutions worked well for others and recommend those fixes when resolving similar issues.

Create smart agents backed by machine learning and increase agent effi-

ciency. With the decision-making intelligence of ASIMOV, customer care centers

can reduce the dependency on human intelligence and the impact of lost knowledge due to agent attrition.

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December 2016

 Automatically resolve customer issues through highly confident decisions

from machine learning solutions. ASIMOV can be used to automatically predict

solutions and provide resolutions through interactive voice response (IVR) interactions before redirecting customers to a human agent.

Note: All company names, trade names, trademarks, trade dress, designs/logos,
copyrights, images and products referenced in this white paper are the property of
their respective owners. No company referenced in this white paper sponsored this
white paper or the contents thereof.

Footnotes
1

Wikipedia page on machine learning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_

learning.

About the Authors

Aravindakumar Venugopalan is a Senior Architect in Cognizants HPC Labs and
is involved in a wide range of research and development activities in the areas of
data science, HPC, big data and cloud computing. In his 15 years of experience in
the IT industry, he has created assets that have been showcased in supercomputing seminars (SC12) and won Cognizant innovation awards. Aravindakumar holds a
masters of science in software engineering. He can be reached at Aravindakumar.
Venugopalan@cognizant.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/aravindakumar-venugopalan-95a23011.

Sivasubramaniam Renganathan is an Architect in Cognizants HPC Labs and has 11

years of experience in consulting and software development. He has worked on a
wide range of projects involving Microsoft.Net, HPC, cloud and big data technologies for various Fortune 500 clients. Sivasubramaniam holds a bachelors degree in
computer engineering from Anna University, and his prime areas of interest include
big data, machine learning and predictive analytics. He can be reached at Sivasubramaniam.Renganathan@cognizant.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivarenganathan.

Rajarajan Gandhi is a Manager in Cognizants QE&A business unit and has over 12
years of experience in the telecommunications domain. He has worked on multiple
networking, server management and OSS/BSS solutions, as well as Agile projects
for various telecommunications clients. Rajarajan holds a masters degree in
software engineering. He can be reached at Rajarajan.g@cognizant.com | https://
www.linkedin.com/in/rajarajan-gandhi-01848754.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the following associates for their contributions to
this paper: Senthil Ramaswamy Sankarasubramanian, Senior Director Technology,
HPC Labs, Cognizant, and Srinath Narayanan, Senior Manager Quality Engineering & Assurance, Cognizant.

OPTIMIZING CUSTOMER SUPPORT WITH MACHINE THINKING

10

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OPTIMIZING CUSTOMER SUPPORT WITH MACHINE THINKING

11

About Cognizant
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information
technology, consulting, and business process services, dedicated
to helping the worlds leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant
combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry and business process expertise, and a global,
collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work. With
over 100 development and delivery centers worldwide and approximately 255,800 employees as of September 30, 2016,
Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the
Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among
the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world.

Visit us online at www.cognizant.com or follow us on

Twitter: Cognizant.

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