Seven Golden Rules for Architecting a Modern Contact Center
Jason AnderssonWorld Wide Analyst Contact Center
Infrastructure and Software
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Hello, I am happy to be able to virtually join you today and talk about what we as IDC see in the market of Contact centers as well as give you tangible advice as to your way forward. First let me mention that IDC or International Data Corporation is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,100 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company.
IDC has predicted and analyzed the industry's remarkable shift to the 3rd Platform built on four "pillars" Cloud architecture and business models Mobility as the consumption model of choice Big data and business analytics for better decision-making Social Business to support new ways of doing business. Now IDC predicts that virtually all of enterprises' new strategic IT investments through 2020 will be built on 3rd Platform technologies and solutions. Innovation in the IT industry runs in cycles of 20 to 25 years. The 3rd Platform is innovative in that it changes the architecture, business models, and application user experience from the 2nd and 1st Platforms. The 1st Platform was built on mainframe-class software technologies — there were few applications and these were specialized and purpose-built for each customer. The 2nd Platform benefited from distributed systems that enabled the era of packaged software applications. Customers would acquire software via a perpetual right-to-use license, install it themselves, and begin to use the product. Compared with mainframe-class software technologies, application software in the distributed era was low cost, broadly available, and easy to use, with little or no training required. This enabled the development of mass software markets. Unlike the 2nd Platform, 3rd Platform applications will be designed for the consumer and enhanced for the enterprise. Business model success will depend on users' ease of acquisition and access, as well as the simplicity and transparency of pricing models. In addition, consumer feedback on ease of use and interoperability will be used to enhance the offerings. With technology becoming the underpinning of Digital Transformation, new business models as well as products and services that seamlessly blend the digital and physical world will alter business and customer experiences and generate additional revenue streams - transforming industries in completely new ways. We have seen how technology has digitalized our way of living over time. Remember how we did mail order just a little time ago? We browsed catalogues, filled in forms in the back of the catalogue which we then mailed to the company. A few weeks later we received a slip in the mail saying we had a package to pick up…. Now we order on-line, or on a mobile device, get instant feedback that the order is being processed and then we get a mail or text message with a link saying we can follow or track our shipment. We sign the delivery on a mobile device when it arrives at our home and the company gets instant feedback that the shipment has been received. Customers are demanding a radical overhaul of business processes, intuitive interfaces, availability 24x7, personalized treatment, the same experience any time, anywhere and at a common cost, with zero errors. This world is what customers have become accustomed to and will increasingly expect more from businesses. In the near future, just a few years ahead we will continue on the digitalization journey with much more focus on personalizing the experiences as well as making it more real to us and our customers. We will see radical changes again that will stretch our imagination to the limit. Cognitive systems will make our software more intelligent and reactive. Robotics will make IT something we can interact with more easily. And already now we see 3D printing completely redefining how manufacturing is done.
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Innovation Accelerators Sit on 3rd Platform TechnologiesIndustry and Market Overview
The 3rd Platform will become the building base for "innovation accelerators." Innovation accelerators are disruptive technologies that drive new growth They are often driven by consumer giants (Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc.) The relevance of innovation accelerators varies greatly by vertical Early adopters will gain competitive advantage in 2020. Five key accelerators will have an impact on our industry as a whole. Internet of Things (IoT) Virtual/augmented reality 3D printing Wearables Robotics and cognitive computing PICK A FEW EXAMPLES Virtual/Augmented Reality Eye sets and related software ecosystems Allow immersive visual experience that removes or complements external visual input and follows the user's head movement Different types of input devices supported Strong link with social network activities Wearables Devices Can be worn by consumers all day Have computing capabilities Have a user interface Linked with cloud infrastructure Can be part of an IoT view 3D Printing Devices and services Enables the creation of objects and shapes Process material that is laid down successively upon itself Various print technologies (e.g., printhead and inkjet nozzle) Source is a digital model or file Cognitive Systems and Robotics Automated modeling of relationships between recorded/sensed data and outcomes/responses Used to automate decision making, discovery, and planning in software and hardware (robotics) includes artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, cognitive computing, and robotics Will improve apparent machine intelligence and autonomy as well as affect jobs and the economy Internet of Things A network of uniquely identifiable endpoints (or things) that communicate without human interaction using local or global IP connectivity Used for data capture, transport, and analysis as well as business processes/decision making. To make networked connections more relevant, it brings together people, processes, data, and things by turning information into actions Includes devices, connectivity, platforms, applications, as well as enabling services (security, implementation, etc.) and spans across some of the other innovation accelerators Hooks into analytics and social business Uses cloud computing and storage power
Notes: * = Examples of 3rd Platform technologies The IoT is transversal to some other innovation accelerators and spans across several use cases. The core pillars of the third platform, Mobility, cloud and cloud business models as well as big data and analytics are all entering main stream or early adopting stages. The new innovative accelerators that push the industry forward are early. Basically they can take one of three routes from here. One to mass market, a Sustainable Niche or market failure. We will see where these take us.
With this in mind, we see many changes in contact center strategies and technology usage. Customer service and contact center solutions have traditionally been focused on trying to meet the needs of the masses by adapting to the situation as it looks at the moment of contact. However, influences from the consumer market are causing fast changes in how end users prefer to interact and how they expect customer services to be provided. Furthermore, customers now expect consistent support and cross-channel knowledge of earlier interactions, irrespective of when they communicated, how they communicated, or even from where they chose to do so. This means that contact centers will have to be much more agile than ever before. CX is the sum of all experiences over the duration of the entire relationship a customer has with a company or organization. This can include the customer becoming aware of the organization, discovering its product or service, being attracted by it, interacting to find out more, making a purchase decision, using it, cultivating the relationship, and ultimately advocating its benefits or negative aspects. Service design involves planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communications, and other components of a service to improve its quality and the interaction between the service provider and customers. The purpose of service design methodologies is to design according to the needs of customers or participants, so that the service is user-friendly, competitive, and relevant. Customers are no longer only looking for access only. They are looking for a greater experience and expect more intimacy. Organizations need to understand the context in which customers use the service, especially when using a mobile device. Many times a new type of partnership with the vendor is required to enable mobile customer care solutions as the competencies needed such as mobile app life-cycle management, platform development, and database integrations are new to the existing partners. Customer service is a technology area in transition. The concept of customer experience is moving the bar higher and the goal is to surpass customer expectations. Big Data analytics help companies sort out which feedback to respond to and which to let go. By analyzing the data, the organization's staff can be notified of the extent of a conversation and what to say, not only to respond to customers but also to send the feedback to management for product and service improvements. This is crucial to be able to deliver efficient customer experience and constantly adapt to changes in customer behavior and needs. More and more organizations are realizing the need to look at social contacts as part of a larger context and leverage social media services to be integrated into the main contact center routing features. This would allow for responses, escalations, and service levels to be tracked against all touch points. One-call resolution has been the guiding principle in the contact center arena, in which the goal and promise is that customers will have all the answers to their questions in that one call. Some companies have implemented what can be defined as private social network solutions, where customers can interact with other customers or potential customers to find out more about a product, a problem, or a user issue without contacting the company's customer care directly. The purpose of these social sites is to have a no-call resolution opportunity for their customers, where they find the help they need either by readying other solutions or networking and discussing their challenges with other users. Business process automation (BPA) provides a foundation for improving customer-facing processes, including back-office tasks which can be combined with the contact center agents' daily tasks through the same call blending management solution. In the CCIS context, BPA solutions can be built using contact center functionality.
3rd Platform Impact on Business Environment
The line between physical and online economy vanishes as mobile payment systems are adopted and virtual currencies are accepted in physical stores.
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Presenter
Presentation Notes
The line between physical and online economy vanishes as mobile payment systems are adopted and virtual currencies are accepted in physical stores. This impacts how and when customers interact with organizations, and the use of digital media is expected to increase over time.
3rd Platform Impact on Monitoring CX
The IoT market will continue to evolve. IoT will make it possible to extend customer
experience (CX) monitoring with more intelligent use tied to Big Data analytics. Vertical solutions and health monitoring remain as big drivers.
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Presenter
Presentation Notes
The Internet of Things (IoT) will connect 2.7 things per person in 2017 beyond the screens. IoT is one of the hot topics in the ICT industry, and it is not difficult to see why. IDC forecasts there will be 212 billion devices or things connected to networks by 2020. To put this in context, there are approximately 750 million buildings connected to networks with fixed communications, and around 6 billion people today connect to networks using mobile technologies. IoT is capable of measuring and providing feedback to organizations providing customer care about usage of services and products. For the first time, an organization can get that feedback in real time to propose solutions to customers before they voice any dissatisfaction because they now receive information beyond the delivery and acceptance of the shipment.
IDC believes contact center infrastructure and software vendors must exhibit the characteristics to be most relevant to certification candidates when crafting a future strategy and leveraging existing capabilities to the best advantage. The factors were weighted because IDC believes that some factors are more critical than others in maximizing market opportunity and realizing market success. In addition to the success criteria having varying weights, IDC believes the aggregate criteria (offering, go-to-market, and business) should also be weighted.
Strategies Criteria Measurements
Offering Strategy Go-to-Market Strategy Business Strategy
The criteria IDC uses in their Contact Center MarketScape, the vendor assessment report include: (PICK A FEW EXAMPLES) Strategies criteria How well does the functionality or offering roadmap match your own customer service strategies and future plans for functionality. Does your company delivery preferences match the vendor and partner delivery model strategy. Compare your company growth plans, as well as geographic distribution with your selected products support for scalability Are you able to access, understand and evaluate the product release and revision strategy and its impact on your structure. Does the product pricing model match company preferences to buy? Does the company way of selling and managing partners as well as partner development match your own criteria What is the vendor customer service strategy and does it match your own needs. The vendor growth strategy is inline with your company’s plans for growth in terms of product, features and geographies Innovation strategy is key to ensure your own innovation is supported by the vendor strategy. How is the vendor funded today and does their model match your minimum criteria for a vendor partnership How is the vendor securing employee recruitment, replacement and retention in areas that are key for your organization.
The criteria IDC uses in their Contact Center MarketScape, the vendor assessment report include: (PICK A FEW EXAMPLES) Capabilities criteria The most commonly used criteria when choosing vendors is to analyze how well they meet your functionality needs right now. What is the current ability to support a solution that allow your organization to deploy a flexible architecture What options are available to choose from a portfolio of features. How is the vendor ecosystem delivered and what happens if you need custom development. How is that supported. Is it possible for you to move from one deployment model to another within the portfolio? Does the current partner provide you with the skills you need. Does the vendor brand position match your current goals with your solution. Will their brand support your brand and goal? What is the vendor's ability to support and service its end customers, Does the growth results match the vendor goals? Is there a discrepancy? Why? How well does the vendor execution matche the strategy to harness innovative ideas from customers, channel partners, and employees? Can the vendor financial situation become a challenge for your organization? Does the vendor's have the ability to adapt to market trends in terms of employee competence
As there is no one-size-fits-all solution for contact center solutions, customers can choose from an assortment of features from these sources. Depending on the organization, this can require significant software integration to make the solution run on customers' network infrastructure and/or within the bounds of their existing services/carrier contracts. If this fails, the organization will be left with a solution that does not meet the needs of the business and provides less than optimal customer service experience. IDC has identified three main areas that are essential in building a complete contact center and customer service experience strategy : Strategy. Define who the customers are and if they need to be segmented into different groups. Identify their channel preferences and how they choose and switch between channels. Decide if your organization wants to guide this process. Ensure that you can measure customer service metrics for each segment and channel. Identify which channels are most effective and cost effective. Make sure your reporting system will give you the information you need to refine your strategies. Operational. Document system and process alignment with the targeted customer service experience. Identify if and when the systems help or hinder sales and services staff. Communicate efficiently so staff members clearly understand their roles in each channel where they interact with customers. Delegate clear accountability for service delivery outcomes, and ensure that sufficient authority is delegated to solve customer problems. People. Measure and recognize how coordinated your customer communication is. Evaluate whether your culture is customer-centric and how external customers are treated. Determine whether company leadership is proactive or reactive in its approach to customer service experience. Make sure that customer service experience is strategic in your organization and there is a shared and communicated vision. Ensure that company leadership is driving business innovation and business transformation as part of its role in the customer service experience. Determine if customer service staff members have the skills and capabilities to meet the needs of customers. Evaluate the impact on your recruiting, introduction, training, and performance management.
Communication channel inconsistency. No internal coordination of customer service experiences. Competitive pressure and high customer attrition.
Business Outcome
Inconsistent/weak customer service experiences; reacting only to counter threats.
Enriching
At best tactical initiatives around customer service experience. Some limited sponsorship of initiatives.
Business Outcome
Shifting customer service experience across communication channels.
Multidimensional
Aligned vision and sharing of innovation within organization. Standardized CCIS platform for both voice and digital channels. Regular corporate management involvement.
Business Outcome
Consistent customer service experiences based on a common set of platforms and applications.
Predictive
Customer Service Experience at VP level reports directly to C-suite. Common CCIS application deployment with some use of predictive analytics.
Business Outcome
Business leadership with consistent, repeatable and quantifiable customer service experiences across channels.
Disruptive
Systematically updated business vision for disruptive business creation. Engaging customer using multiple channels and involving the whole value chain..
Business Outcome
Business leads change in existing markets, creating new opportunities by engaging its customer base innovatively and consistently providing visibility throughout the journey.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
For many customers, the contact center is the most important point of contact with a supplier, and for better or worse, this often defines the customer's view of his or her "experience." A strategic approach to contact center infrastructure, software, and staffing requires a nuanced understanding of the organization's maturity in these areas. As organizations focus on their contact center technology infrastructures and application architectures to address specific customer touch points, there are many opportunities to improve the customer service experience across the organization by using the same technology. This IDC MaturityScape enables enterprises to: View and assess their contact center infrastructure and customer service experience maturity, make a plan for achieving the level of customer service experience maturity that matches their organizational objectives, and transform themselves into a customer-centric organization Use a baseline to define short-term and long-term goals and plan for improvements to influence a change from the traditional siloed organization with a traditional frontoffice/back-office focus and enable the enterprise to evolve into a customer-centric organization. Identify and prioritize contact center technology, staffing, and other related investment decisions Uncover maturity gaps among business units or between business and IT groups Leverage contact center technology for significant long-term competitive advantages developed a model to evaluate contact center maturity once you have implemented your solution.
Communication channel inconsistency. No internal coordination of customer service experiences. Competitive pressure and high customer attrition.
Enriching
At best tactical initiatives around customer service experience. Some limited sponsorship of initiatives.
Multidimensional
Aligned vision and sharing of innovation within organization. Standardized CCIS platform for both voice and digital channels. Regular corporate management involvement.
Predictive
Customer Service Experience at VP level reports directly to C-suite. Common CCIS application deployment with some use of predictive analytics.
Disruptive
Systematically updated business vision for disruptive business creation. Engaging customer using multiple channels and involving the whole value chain..
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Leaders must take a hard look at themselves and their teams and assess whether they have what it takes to focus on the right areas and develop a platform for all types of customer-facing interactions and processes, as well as all of the ingredients of the customer service experience. Organizations that master the orchestration of the five dimensions will thrive, while those that do not will struggle to survive. To maximize the value of IDC's Contact Center Infrastructure MaturityScape, IDC provides the following guidance: Assess the level of capability of the business in each of the five dimensions of the customer service experience. Identify the optimal level of maturity for the business in the context of its industry, competitive position, and customer/market needs for each dimension. Evaluate the current state of the leadership team in each dimension as well as its ability to create and execute the vision for customer service experience and automation of customer-initiated communications processes. Assign leadership roles to develop customer service plans and governance frameworks for essential functions such as operations, infrastructure, culture, and organization. Develop a plan and process for building necessary competencies in each of the five disciplines.
Seven Rules for Architecting a modern contact center
