February 2000

Next-Generation Call/CRM Centers...A World Of Opportunity... Only If You Do It Right!

BY NADJI TEHRANI

The Internet economy has changed the way the world must conduct business today and tomorrow.

During the recent CTI™ Expo (now renamed Communications Solutions™ Expo) Fall 99, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 7-9, 1999, representatives of three of the leading advanced technology companies presented a series of truly outstanding and extremely informative keynote addresses by providing insight for what is ahead and what every call center/CRM executive must keep in mind in order to survive the revolution that has been brought about by the Internet economy.

To clarify my point, I would like to share with you only the highlights of the keynotes made by Mr. Todd Murray, Vice President Communications Software and Network Services Group, Cisco Systems; Mr. Alexander J. Gray, Internet Communications Vice President, Lucent Technologies; and Mr. Mark Christensen, Vice President and General Manager of Intel Network Communications Group (NCG).

1. Comments from Mr. Murray included:

• The Internet will touch everything we do dramatically.
• To compete effectively, in the Internet economy, it is vital to be first and to be fast.
• Enterprise CTI is ready to penetrate every aspect of business.
• Collaborative computing often matters more than size.
• Open minds equal open telephony.

2. Comments from Mr. Gray included:

• Specific communications solutions for each enterprise will be the key to success.
• Companies are transforming themselves to remain a leader.

3. Comments from Mr. Christensen included:

• We are a world of connected people and a trillion connected dollars of opportunities.
• The Internet is not just an economy.
• There is only one enterprise, and that is global, and there is only one network, and that is the Internet!
• The emerging Internet economy is demanding new levels of service and agility.

I think these visionary statements made by senior management of arguably some of the nations most respected technological leaders, if not the worlds largest technological leaders, are extremely revealing and tell a story. As I read them, I came to the conclusion that we are in the midst of a global business revolution and here are the guidelines for success and how to remain competitive (not to mention, to remain in business). You will need to respect and follow these guidelines or there may not be a tomorrow for your business. Furthermore, another clear message that comes from these visionary comments is that you are not in business unless you are in e-business. To which I would like to add, you cannot be in e-business successfully unless and until you have corresponding high-quality customer service, customer care and customer relationship management (CRM), and that is where the role of the call center comes in. To put it in different words, you may not be in business without e-business and without e-sales and e-service, a topic that this publication has covered for quite some time. It was always our vision that before too long, customer service would be referred to as e-service and all sales activities would be referred to as e-sales. Let us remember once again the eloquent comments of Mark Christensen from Intel Network Communications Group (NCG), There is only one enterprise, and that is global, and there is only one network, and that is the Internet. Having said all of this, it is accurate to say that there is really no point to be in e-business if you cannot deliver products on time and offer quality customer service. Indeed, the failure of many well-known e-commerce companies to deliver purchased goods on time (even before the 1999 Christmas rush) was a great lesson that brought home this message over and over again. Customers who were disappointed by lack of timely delivery ended up canceling all orders on the Web and repurchasing the products from the stores and shopping malls. As such, many e-commerce companies who did not have proper customer service and delivery either went out of business or lost considerable market share. Believe it or not, even if a company provides timely delivery of goods and services bought on the Internet, no company can guarantee or expect customers loyalty unless you manage the relationship with the customer effectively to generate repeat business. One of the greatest things I learned early on in my business life was companies live or die from repeat business. And it is effective CRM that generates repeat business.

Advances In Communication Technologies
Advances in communications technologies have irreversibly changed the face of commerce during the past few years. The Internet has brought the nearly instantaneous availability of mass amounts of data to the masses, and the masses want to do business. Consumers suddenly have more choices for contacting a business. Open, standards-based technologies have led to the convergence of voice and data. The focal point of that convergence is in the call center data are given inspiration, explanation and clarification through the voice of a call center agent. E-commerce and the next-generation call center are here.

The next-generation call/CRM center recognizes the growing demand for interactive, Web-based customer contact. The movement away from closed, proprietary call center systems has allowed the integration of Web technologies with business applications, PBX platforms and Centrex systems, and standards-based databases. The next-generation call/CRM center provides corporations with the ability to lower customer contact costs and maximize agent effectiveness in providing better customer service. Next-generation call/CRM centers can help to better manage customer expectations, turning call center agents into brand-centric ambassadors, moving the call center from the heart of your business to the heart of your brand. The next-generation call/CRM center is vital for providing customer relationship management (CRM).

To provide our valued readers with complete and cutting-edge guidelines for preparing next-generation call/CRM centers, I have asked the editorial staff of C@LL CENTER CRM Solutions™ to research and discover the latest, most significant factors that one must consider in establishing next-generation call/CRM centers, and I am grateful to the editorial department of this magazine to have provided the guidelines listed below. In addition, I further asked the editors of C@LL CENTER CRM Solutions™ to provide a list of references and related Web addresses for your further research and reference.

Following are some attributes, benefits and issues about next-generation call/CRM centers you should consider when looking to upgrade your call/CRM center to a next-generation call/CRM center. It should:

• Have the ability to support customers on their turf by effectively managing multiple customer access channels including the telephone, Web self-service, e-mail, chat and IVR, and in the process, help build effective electronic customer relationships through the integration of these channels.
• Establish consistent quality of service guidelines across all media and provide real-time, detailed management reporting to improve productivity and monitor service levels.
• Employ open systems that support standards such as TCP/IP, and have the ability to scale upward to accommodate new applications such as voice over IP and voice recognition.
• Be able to handle application sharing through which customers can be guided online, through Web pages.
• Be sure traditional ACDs will be complemented by intelligent VoIP, e-mail, fax, chat, and call-me-back request routers for more efficient skills-based routing and call routing based on detailed customer data.
• Use a single system to monitor customer calls, e-mail, text chat and queue times and enable agents to respond based on service level agreements and business rules.
• Use the latest technologies in agent scheduling and load-balancing to reduce wait times and keep the flow going.
• Employ interactive voice response (IVR) to route calls to the best agent for the call or allow the customers to get the information for themselves without the need for agent intervention.
• Ensure e-mail requests will be answered immediately. Today, e-mail is often given last priority, with much of it not even answered.
• Understand that global call centers can quickly route multinational calls or requests to the correct agent, allowing them to speak the same language as the customer.
• Have all their systems integrated with their back-end databases for real-time information storage and retrieval.
• Employ expert data mining to help customers quickly find relevant information regarding their requests.
• Use immediate customer profiling (using demographics information gathered from multiple sources such as telephone, Web and fax) to provide effective cross-selling and upselling.
• Be sure systems are tightly integrated with warehousing, shipping, accounting, etc., to provide customers with the latest details on their orders.
• Make a choice between training agents for specific media (e-mail agents, phone agents) or for multimedia (one agent handles e-mail, phone, etc.).
• Revamp knowledge bases and implement customer self-service solutions online BEFORE deploying online contact solutions such as Web call- through.
• Make use of voice over IP, both inbound (customer using Web call- through to contact the company) and outbound (call centers cutting costs to use Internet telephony for outbound campaigns).
• Provide agent training and support: Assessing the impact of the technology on staff.
• Be VPN (Virtual Private Network) capable, allowing agents to support customers from anywhere in the world.
• Increasingly become distributed, and make greater use of remote agents (home-based, for example) to decrease infrastructure costs and improve agent retention.
• Exploit the benefits of CRM to raise customer service, raise revenues and lower costs.

For further amplification and clarification, I suggest you go to www.tmcnet.com/cis/nextgen.htm for articles that have appeared in C@LL CENTER CRM Solutions ™ over the past year that discuss various aspects of next-generation call centers.

Just A Suggestion
May I suggest that before you embark toward your next-generation call/CRM centers that you refer to an insert in this issue on our forthcoming convention, Communications Solutions™ EXPO, to be held April 26-28, 2000 in Washington, D.C., and attend this highly informative event that is specifically designed to guide you toward the development of the next-generation call/CRM centers.

On the exhibit floor at Communications Solutions™ EXPO 2000, you will find not only all of the technologies that you will need to take your call center to the next level, but you will also find related free features in the exhibit hall as follows:

1. Six Learning Centers (ASPs, E-Sales/E-Service, Next-Gen Wireless, Speech Recognition, TAPI 3.0 and Testing Tools),
2. Live, Web-Enabled Multimedia Call Center,
3. Live CRM Showcase,
4. ConvergeNET,
5. Live Office Of The Future,
6. Consultants Corner,
7. Next-Gen Telco In A Booth,
8. Your Remote Office,
9. Internet Phone Center,
10. Job Fair & Career Resource Center,
11. Messaging Center.

I strongly urge you to not only attend Communications Solutions™ EXPO 2000, but to compare and assess the value of technologies offered on the exhibit floor and learn from the above revealing live call/CRM center events. May I also suggest you consider supplementing your knowledge by attending all related call/CRM center conferences.

For more information, please refer to the Communications Solutions™ EXPO insert bound in this publication.

Good luck and best wishes in preparing your next-generation call/CRM center solutions.

Sincerely

Nadji Tehrani
Executive Group Publisher
Editor-in-Chief
ntehrani@tmcnet.com