crafting an unbeatable multichannel customer service strategy
DESCRIPTION
Customers today use a variety of channels to resolve issues and seek answers to their questions. Therefore, it’s important for companies to create an integrated multi- channel service environment that provides customers with consistent experiences in each channel.TRANSCRIPT
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Delivering a seamless cross-channel support experience can enrich satisfaction and loyalty while boosting business performance
Crafting an
UnbeatableMultichannelCustomer Service Strategy
InsideInContact.........................................................................4Moving at the Speed of Customers
IntelliResponse................................................................5Achieving Excellence in Multichannel Customer Service
Pegasystems...................................................................6A Requirement, Not an Option
TeleTech..........................................................................7Mobile: The Core of Integrated Support
VoltDelta..........................................................................8Multichannel Cloud Contact Center
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ustomers today use a variety of channels to resolve issues and seek answers to their questions. Therefore,
it’s important for companies to create an integrated multi-channel service environment that provides customers with consistent experiences in each channel.
Consider that 74 percent of customers now use three or more channels for their support interactions with companies, according to Ovum. This means that failure to deliver on cus-tomers’ heightened expectations for great service experiences can have serious business repercussions. Today’s customer can broadcast his experience – good or bad -- to thousands if not millions of other consumers. Consider musician Dave Carroll, whose video “United Breaks Guitars” has generated more than 13 million views on YouTube. Depending on the customer’s level of influence and the amount of exposure he receives, poor customer experiences like this can have a dra-matic effect on a company’s reputation and its business.
On the flip side, companies that can successfully deliver
consistent and exceptional support across all channels that customers use can also distinguish their brands from other rivals (think Amazon, The Ritz-Carlton, Apple). Research has shown that many customers are willing to spend more with companies that provide them with great service across channels.
“Customers who receive consistent service experiences are more highly satisfied, more likely to remain loyal, and expand their relationships with a company,” says Don Peppers, found-ing partner at Peppers & Rogers Group.
From data silo to bridgeOf course, creating fabulous multichannel customer service experiences isn’t easy. Many customers have disjointed expe-riences with companies as they try to move from one channel to the next. A hotel customer who encounters problems book-ing an online reservation should expect to reach a live agent when they click-to-chat and not be redirected to an IVR system
c
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Crafting an
UnbeatableMultichannelCustomer Service Strategy
that forces them to re-identify themselves and enter a series of prompts to find the answer they’re seeking.
These types of jumbled customer experiences are often the result of poor integration between the various channels companies use to support customers or poorly designed customer workflows
Various technologies are available that can help contact centers handle multichannel customer support interactions more fluidly. This includes a cloud-based contact center platform that can be used to unite disparate support channels (email, chat, social, mobile) under a hub-and-spoke type approach. This type of unified view can enable agents to assess each channel that customers have used in their journeys and draw on these insights to deliver a connected support experience that delights each customer.
Meanwhile, the use of a universal queue by agents can direct cus-tomers to agents based on their skills (including channel acumen), availability, and the priority for each contact. Let’s say an agent is responding to a customer inquiry via email while a priority customer has been sent to the agent’s voice queue with a billing question because of that agent’s ability to answer these types of questions effectively. The agent can postpone the email correspondence
with the first customer temporarily while supporting the priority customer over the phone. Once that customer’s billing issue has been resolved, the agent can then return to complete his email cor-respondence with the other customer. These types of capabilities enable agents to work more productively across various channels while satisfying the needs of high-value customers immediately.
Workforce optimization (WFO) tools and techniques can also be used to help contact center leaders predict customer demand in dif-ferent channels based on behavioral data regarding the channels used by various customer segments at various times.
Providing customers with exceptional support experiences across a multitude of channels can also enable contact centers to guide customers to less expensive channels to obtain support. Symantec Corp., a 2012 Gartner and1to1 Media CRM Excellence Award winner for customer service optimization, sought to decrease its call center volumes by providing customers with alternative ways to find the information they were looking for.
In 2011, Symantec embarked on an ambitious effort to improve customer support from its integrated channels. This included a redesign of the company’s online support portal along with a vari-ety of new support features that were introduced such as smarter virtual agents and intuitive online help forums. The strategy, aided by enhancement of the self-service capabilities of its online support portal, has been extremely successful and has led to a dra-matic increase in both customer satisfaction and transactional Net Promoter ScoresTM for its global live support. The initiative has also reduced incoming calls to the call center by nearly 30 percent.
Knowing how customers use various channels for different pur-poses is a big step toward designing and delivering the types of seamless multichannel support experiences they’ve come to expect. In the pages that follow, learn how developing a solid understand-ing of customers’ use of smartphones and tablets can be used to strengthen their multichannel support experiences. Discover best practices for achieving multichannel customer service success by leveraging a cloud contact center solution. Observe how benchmark-ing multichannel contact center performance can provide incredible insights that can be used to identify and act on the gap in each touchpoint with customers and build a business case for needed investments. Examine the accessibility, applicability, and satisfaction of online self-service tools to deliver a problem-free multichannel experience. Finally, find out how to eliminate the silos that prevent customers from receiving seamless omnichannel experiences. g
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“ Customers who receive consistent service experiences are more highly satisfied, more likely to remain loyal, and expand their relationships with a company.”
—Don Peppers, founding partner, Peppers & Rogers Group
Empowering Agents with Multichannel Customer Insights Drives ResultsCompanies that are able to provide agents with comprehensive multi-channel customer interaction data are able to achieve better business results than companies that don’t.
Source: “Aberdeen Group, November 2012. Base: 487 contact center executives.
Year
ove
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ar p
erce
nt
chan
ge,
n=4
87
8.9%
1.8%
6.2%
0.8%
6.1%
1.4%
Improvement (decrease) in
agent overtime costs
Improvement (decrease) in
average cost per customer contact
First contact resolution rate
9%
8%
7%
6%
5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
Companies providing agents with detailed multichannel customer dataAll others
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Moving at the Speed of CustomersAgility and flexibility in the cloud
Savvy contact center leaders recognize the importance of continually
improving the operational efficiency and productivity of their orga-
nizations. This includes identifying opportunities to optimize agents’
interactions with customers, as well as determining how to boost first
contact resolution (FCR) rates and other key performance indicators,
or KPIs.
But, without a yardstick to determine how well or how poorly differ-
ent areas of the contact center are performing relative to competitors
and best-in-class companies, it’s nearly impossible for decision
makers to identify those activities that need either fine-tuning or a
complete overhaul. This is a critical—yet widely overlooked—area
for contact centers that are striving to support the multichannel/
cross-channel customer.
Taking Action
Today’s digital customer uses a variety of channels to interact with
companies, including voice, chat, email, web, desktop, mobile video,
self-service, and social. To satisfy and delight customers and optimize
business performance, it’s imperative that companies identify the
strengths and gaps in each touchpoint in the multichannel customer
support experience.
To help organizational leaders gain the most from assessing contact
center activities, we offer some important tips for getting started:
1. Conduct a self-assessment. Before contact center leaders use
a third-party service to measure different aspects of contact center
performance, they should first conduct an internal assessment of
operations which allows them to review performance levels in dif-
ferent areas (IVR, agent behavior) and identify opportunities for
improvement. Quality monitoring tools (to determine whether agents
are hitting their KPIs), and voice of the customer (VOC) and other
types of surveys are extremely useful in determining which areas of
the contact center are meeting—or missing—customers’ needs.
2. Define the organization’s strategy. Before launching a bench-
marking initiative, organizational leaders must align the mission of
the study and efforts achieved with the goals of the company. For
instance, if a top goal is to improve customer satisfaction by five
points, assessing FCR performance first makes perfect sense.
3. Establish the metrics to be measured. Some KPIs have a greater
impact on your business performance than others, which makes
them more important to evaluate. For example, some high-volume,
cost-conscious organizations may value average handle time as a
critical KPI. Many customer-focused companies, however, may pri-
oritize FCR. Identify those metrics that matter most to your company,
and prioritize them in benchmarking tests.
About inContactinContact helps contact centers around the globe create prof-itable customer experiences through its powerful portfolio of cloud-based, contact center software solutions. The company’s services and solutions enable contact centers to operate more efficiently, optimize the cost and quality of every customer interaction, create new pathways to profit, and ensure ongoing customer-centric business improvement and growth.
For more information, please visit www.inContact.com
How Does Your Organization Rate?
Source: Voice of the Customer, Aberdeen Group, February 2013
4. Measure often. By measuring discrete areas of performance
regularly (daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on organizational
requirements), contact center leaders can both validate the data to be
used for benchmarking exercises and keep a closer eye on critical areas
of performance to quickly identify issues as they arise.
5. Ensure data integrity. Frequent measurement only adds value
if the data measured is accurate and complete. Companies should
regularly assess the integrity of their multichannel data and correct it
through appropriate technologies and processes such as, data encryp-
tion, access controls, or input validation tools.
Once benchmarking is in place, companies need to block out an
action plan to address areas that need work. While it’s important to
know how your contact center compares to others, the real value of
benchmarking lies in its ability to drive improvement. n
Ready to benchmark your multichannel contact center? Take the 5-minute assessment.
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Achieving Multichannel Service ExcellenceFive checkpoints to help you get there
Over the past three years, we’ve seen a huge increase in the number
of people interacting with companies via multiple channels.
The good news is that there are methodologies, technologies, and
best practices today that are proven to transform the quality of the
customer experience in this multichannel world.
But, delivering a problem-free multichannel customer experience
must first begin with getting online self-service right. If you’re among
the 92 percent of companies offering a less-than-stellar customer
experience, odds are the problem lies with your online customer
interaction channels, and THIS is where you need to focus your
improvement efforts.
But how do you get there?To help you achieve excellence in multichannel customer service
integration, start with these five checkpoints:
Checkpoint #1—Accessibility and Availability (It all starts online)
Visit your customer-facing website, mobile, and social media channels
and ask yourself this honest question:
How EASY is it to find your company’s self-service channel?
Is it easily missed, buried behind a single-word “Help” or “FAQ”
menu link, or reduced to a non-descript and generic-looking “site
search” field?
Answering these questions will help you assess whether or not
the average customer, visiting these online customer interaction
channels for the first time, would be able to spot the self-service
mechanism instantly.
Checkpoint #2—Findability (of Searched-for Content)
When customers use your online search tool, can they easily find the
information they’re looking for?
The primary job of any self-service tool is to effectively deliver the
right answer. This is where most organizations fall short.
Customers don’t want hundreds of possible answers, or even two
possible answers. They want the one right answer.
Checkpoint #3—Relevancy
In cases where customers do manage to find the correct answers,
what happens next? Is the customer presented with other context-
ually-relevant information—such as answers to the next most-likely
follow-up questions?
Contextually-relevant content is key to creating an automated
online conversation with customers that results in high satisfaction
or purchase decisions.
Yet, for most companies, the online channel conversation never
actually gets going. Instead, it comes to an abrupt end on a non-
useful FAQ page, or in the face of hundreds of search results that
customers simply choose to abandon.
About Intelliresponse Systems
IntelliResponse provides virtual agent technology solu-tions for the enterprise. We create profitable online conversations for our private and public sector customers around the world, via engaging virtual agent technology that delivers highly accurate answers, captures key voice of the customer insights, and delivers relevant offers that improve conversion.
To learn more about taking online self-service to the next level for your customers, visit www.IntelliResponse.com.
Checkpoint #4—Escalation
When engaged in the online self-service experience, can customers
easily escalate their question to email, live chat, or a contact center
rep seamlessly? Initially, most customers will attempt to self-service
online, but during those circumstances when the answer is not readily
apparent or accessible, the ability to escalate the question should be
apparent and intuitive. Proper escalation is an important element help-
ing to bridge online self-service channels with live support.
Checkpoint #5—Feedback
Is an easy-to-use customer feedback mechanism integrated into your
overall multichannel customer experience?
For online channels, the mechanism can be as simple as a Yes/
No question such as, “Did this answer your question?” A similar rat-
ing system or short customer survey can also be implemented in the
agent channel, perhaps after the phone call, as long as all data from an
organization’s multiple service channels can be accessed, monitored,
and acted upon.
Next Steps: Begin Achieving Excellence in Multichannel Customer Service Today
The five checkpoints above give you an understanding of what’s
required to get on the path toward delivering “excellence” in multichan-
nel customer service. Adhering to these five checkpoints will lead you
along the path to ensure you’re meeting the expectations of today’s
consumers who wish to connect with a company whenever and how-
ever they choose. n
Contact IntelliResponse to schedule a no-obligation 30-minute assessment of your website’s self-service capabilities.
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Don’t Be Fooled
Social applications and smart mobile devices have fueled staggering
innovation, and while that innovation will continue at a breakneck
pace, it is time to accept the fact that social and mobile are a core part
of the customer service ecosystem. They can no longer be ignored, or
developed and maintained as independent and isolated capabilities.
Businesses must leverage an omni-channel engagement hub
that can blend social and
mobile interactions with
contacts from traditional
channels such as the Web,
email, phone and even
mail. Don’t be fooled into
thinking that today’s tech-
savvy and ‘impatient’
consumers will ditch tra-
ditional customer service
channels – phone, email,
mail…in favor of the lat-
est and greatest social,
Web, mobile and chat….
Rather, most consumers
are simply expanding
their channel use, sometimes 3 or 4 at a time for one request, in an
attempt to satisfy their demand for real-time, convenient resolutions.
Effortless Transitions
According to a recent Ovum study of 8,000 consumers from across
the globe, more than 70 percent use three or more channels. Says
Forrester Research, Inc., analyst Kate Leggett in a March 2013
report titled, Understand Communication Channel Needs To Craft
Your Customer Service Strategy, “Customers want an accurate,
relevant, and complete answer to their question upon first contact
with a company, and they want effortless transitions across multiple
touchpoints (Web, tablet, in-person, etc.) from the channel of their
choice (e.g., voice, chat, email, or social) without having to repeat
themselves. “Siloed and disjointed implementations for different
customer service channels simply don’t cut it anymore.”
Much of the blame falls on the CRM applications that have not risen
to the omni-channel task, in fact these apps are often directly respon-
sible for disconnected channel strategies. These solutions require
organizations to recreate content in multiple repositories and require
each channel to have their own self-contained processes, resulting in
high costs of labor, and a slow rate of channel and device adoption.
A Requirement, Not an OptionSuccessfully implementing omni-channel customer service
Eliminating Silos
At Pegasystems, we are helping a number of global businesses
on their journey to omni-channel service. They have shifted their
approach, and their technology is enabling them to build a service
process once and re-deploy it in any channel – Web, social, mobile…
eliminating the silos and rework created by typical organizational and
system constraints. Their chosen technology puts tools in the hands
of the business teams
allowing them to design a
customer-centric process
that captures and dynami-
cally reacts to the nuances
of each channel.
Businesses gain massive
amounts of reuse capa-
bility that allows them to
easily and quickly adapt as
new channel opportunities
arise. Customers benefit
as well - with the ability to
choose the most convenient
channel and transition to
other channels as the con-
versation dictates, without losing context and taking advantage of
channel-specific features such as, cameras and locational services.
The world’s leading organizations are deploying the #1 customer
service solution for the enterprise. Pega solutions can help you trans-
form your service delivery so that you can optimize the outcome of
every interaction for your customer and your business.n
About Pegasystems
Pegasystems revolutionizes how leading organizations opti-mize the customer experience and automate operations. Our patented Build for Change® technology empowers business people to create and evolve their critical business systems. Pegasystems is the recognized leader in business process management (BPM) and is also ranked as a leader in customer relationship management (CRM) software by leading industry analysts.
For more information, visit www.pega.com
Omni-Channel Engagement Hub
Inquiry
Resolution
Goals &Objectives
Best Practice Service Processes
Feedback &Reports
Omni-Channel Engagement Hub
Offers &Recommendations
Decisions
Process
Data
Analytics
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Mobile: The Core of Integrated SupportUnderstanding customers’ use of smartphones and tablets can strengthen the multichannel experience
Consumer behavior has changed dramatically in recent years thanks
to the variety of channels available to customers. Because custom-
ers often use two or more channels -- including voice, web, email,
chat, mobile, and social -- to research products and brands, make
purchases, and reach out for support, it’s critical for companies to
provide customers with consistent experiences across all of the
channels they use. In fact, an Ovum study of 8,000 consumers across
the world finds that 74 percent of consumers use three or more chan-
nels when interacting with a company for customer-related issues.
Mobile: At the Heart of the Multichannel Customer Journey
As part of their multichannel journeys, consumers make extensive
use of their mobile devices in different ways. For instance, a wire-
less customer who wants to use her smartphone to pay a bill but is
having trouble completing her transaction may opt for a click-to-chat
session with an agent who can offer assistance.
Since mobile is at the heart of the multichannel customer expe-
rience, organizations need to integrate the various channels that
customers use and learn from these interactions. By doing so, they
can follow the thread of a customer’s journey from one channel to the
next and determine the touchpoints that may be problematic to them.
Gaining a 360-Degree View of Customers
Collecting and analyzing customer insights across the full spectrum of
touchpoints they use allows companies to fine-tune processes for pro-
viding customers exceptional support in the channels of their choice.
For instance, the use of behavioral analytics and other tools can help
bank leaders discover that a high percentage of high-value custom-
ers are interested in using self-service tools on the bank’s traditional
and mobile websites. By optimizing the self-service experiences for
this customer segment based on their needs and interests (e.g., view
investment performance via mobile), bank executives can measure the
impact of their customer experience improvements and how they affect
key performance indicators (KPIs) such as satisfaction and profitability.
Put Yourself in Your Customers’ Shoes
Delivering great customer experiences starts with understanding
how customers use various channels, along with the type of sup-
port and functionality they’re looking for. Because customers love
to share photos and videos using their mobile devices, companies
should offer these capabilities as support options. For example, a
customer who purchased a dishwasher that isn’t operating properly
can send a picture or a video of the machine to an agent that dem-
onstrates how the machine is malfunctioning. The agent can then
visualize the nature of the issue and brainstorm with product techni-
cians, if need be, to find a solution to the problem quickly. n
About TeleTech
TeleTech, founded in 1982, is a leading global provider of data-driven, technology-enabled services that puts cus-tomer engagement at the core of business success. The Company offers an integrated platform that combines ana-lytics, strategy, process, systems integration, technology and operations to simplify the delivery of the customer experience for Global 1000 clients and their customers. This holistic multichannel approach improves customer satisfaction, increases customer loyalty and drives long-term profitability and growth. From strategic consulting to operational execution, TeleTech’s more than 39,000 employees deliver results for clients in the automotive, communications and media, financial services, govern-ment, healthcare, technology, transportation and retail industries. Through the TeleTech Community Foundation, the Company leverages its innovative leadership to ensure that students in underserved communities around the globe have access to the tools and support they need to maximize their educational outcomes.
For more information, please visit www.teletech.com
Simplify the Customer Experience
In light of heightened customer expectations for exceptional support, customer service leaders should consistently look for process improvements, tools, and technologies that make life easier for today’s digital customers. Here are a few suggested strategies:
Customer Journey Mapping:
Understanding the customer experience to
improve interactions.
Mobile App Customer Service:
In-app customer service solutions can satisfy the demands of mobile customers.
Self-Service Technologies:
Question-to-answer matching solutions
offer customers one right answer.Q
QA&A
Q
QA&A
Q
QA&A
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Multichannel Cloud Contact CenterTen requirements for success
Customers are becoming more demanding about how, when, and through which channels they want to communicate with companies. They expect to have a variety of access options, as well as flexible hours for interacting with the contact center for support. Many orga-nizations are struggling to meet these growing expectations and have turned to the cloud for a flexible, cost-effective solution. Following are requirements for multichannel cloud contact center success.
Agent and Supervisor Requirements
• Unified Desktop—Intuitive graphical desktop tools offered by cloud contact center vendors make it possible to access any channel from one media bar. These tools are flexible enough to deliver multichannel intelligence to dedicated teams or cross-trained agents. They allow agents to request a supervisor, transfer calls to another agent, and other features designed to improve caller satisfaction.
• Centralized Management—Web management capabilities make it easier to manage agent pools by grouping according to geog-raphy, skills, queue assignments, and many other properties. Top-level dashboards must be able to drill down to agent level performance. Managers need access to queue group assign-ments and real-time queue status.
• Cross-Channel Intelligence—Providing real-time information to an agent with recorded key word, or a phrase from the automation channel prior to receiving the call is an example of cross-channel intelligence. The benefit is that an agent does not have to ask for information that was already provided in the automation channel. Captured detail also allows agents to tailor their dialog with cus-tomers and handle the call more efficiently.
• Customer Journey Reporting—To obtain an accurate assess-ment of contact center performance, it is important to evaluate customer interactions across multiple channels as a unified expe-rience. For example, call recording must be captured as a single experience regardless of the number of transfers such as, IVR to agent, or even from one agent to the next.
Contact Center Platform Requirements
• Flexibility—The benefit of cloud contact centers is that it offers many deployment options that can change as your channels of communication expand. Ask about flexibility to add new chan-nels, agent seats, and your choice of carriers.
• Test Environment—It is important that a cloud vendor perform rigorous quality assurance testing prior to deploying an applica-tion. This means that there should be a dedicated test facility to mimic real-world conditions.
• Security—A “layers of defense” foundation is required in the cloud with people, process, and technology that persistently work to minimize risk and ensure confidentiality, data integrity, and availability of systems. Look for a PCI compliant and ISO 9001 certified infrastructure for all voice and data assets.
• Experience—Contact center cloud vendor expertise in telephony, network, IVR, and contact center technology is important for both implementation and ongoing support and optimization. Multiple experts in each of these areas should be part of the staff to ensure reliability.
• Financial Stability—Consolidation of the fragmented cloud con-tact center vendor industry leaves customers of these services in a vulnerable position when it comes to future investment and support of their cloud deployment. For this reason, it is impor-tant to investigate the financial stability of your prospective cloud vendor.
• Scalability/Reliability—The ability to instantly react to fluctuating call volumes and provide redundant hosting facilities for failover are critical to delivering a consistent customer experience.
Case Study —AccountNow
AccountNow, Inc., one of the nation’s largest prepaid debit card com-panies, wanted to upgrade its multichannel customer care platform to more quickly and effectively engage with customers. VoltDelta’s scalable agent and automation hosted infrastructure was a key driver in AccountNow’s customer care upgrade decision. VoltDelta provided
• A scalable infrastructure to answer every call which quadrupled during peak calling times.
• Integration of voice self service with the ACD channel that includes intelligent call routing features to support several remote agent locations, as well as provide agents with information on what transpired in the IVR. n
About VoltDeltaVoltDelta is a cloud-based contact center provider with 35 years of experience. We perform intelligent, data driven contact management to optimize your custom-er’s journey. VoltDelta rapidly tailors and integrates our multi-channel contact center solutions to enable you to increase revenue, boost retention and reduce operating costs with proven scalability and reliability.
For more information, please visit www.voltdelta.com
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R
Michael [email protected]
Dara [email protected]
For.information.on.upcoming.installments.of.the.1to1.In.Action.Series,.contact:
TeleTech 9197 South Peoria StreetEnglewood, Colorado 80112800.835.3832
www.teletech.com
Pegasystems Inc.One Rogers StreetCambridge, MA 02142617-374-9600
www.pega.com
inContact7730 S. Union Park Ave., Suite 500Salt Lake City, UT 84047866.965.7227
VoltDelta OnDemand1 Sentry Parkway, Suite 6000Blue Bell, PA 19422866-436-1169
IntelliResponse25 Adelaide Street East, 20th FloorToronto, ON M5C 3A1416.214.9337 | 866.454.0084
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