|
Multichannel Customer Contact Centers:
The House That Customers Built
BY ANNE MORRISON, AMERICAN MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS
Among the survivors will be companies that have implemented a customer
relationship management (CRM) strategy: a flexible system that lets
companies assess each customer's value and determine appropriate care
strategies. Competitors with the flexibility to allocate resources based
on a range of factors that determine customer value can come out ahead on
all fronts. Among the benefits: enhanced customer loyalty, reduced churn,
lower costs, minimized risk and the potential to generate new revenue by
using CRM methods to cross-sell and upsell to premium customers.
One key CRM channel in which improvements can yield immediate dividends
is the call center. Long captive to voice and IVR technologies, call
centers are undergoing radical changes as communications companies explore
ways to enhance customer relations via the Web. The result is a
new-generation multichannel contact center that offers significant
advantages over its predecessor.
Think of the traditional call center as a 1960s-style brick rambler. It
was solidly built and suited the needs of its era, but today customers
want more modern options: big picture windows so they can see in and out
more easily, more doors so they can access their home by the entryway of
their preference, and automated features that make the house a more
comfortable experience suited to individual needs. A multichannel
environment gives you the flexibility to satisfy all these needs,
tailoring accommodations to the customer.
How do you build a house like this?
Foundation And Structure
As with any edifice, begin with a plan. Your blueprint should be
conceived from best-practice technology solutions and designed around
customer needs. The following considerations ensure that the new structure
will be solid, open from any point of entry, and leak-proof in the event
of stormy weather.
Multichannel. Don't limit yourself to one door. The customer
needs a choice of channels ' voice, Web and, in the future, wireless
Web. Each channel must give the customer the same good experience and
results.
Channel integration. Business processes and systems must
seamlessly integrate all channels, so changes in any one area of customer
records generate an update of customer information across the enterprise.
Interactive/integrated Web. The provider must have a strong,
interactive Web presence that is information-packed, easily navigable,
permits online transactions (including payment) and allows simultaneous
interaction between customer and agent.
Single view. The customer should have a single view of the
provider, and vice-versa. For the customer, single view means simplicity
' one point of entry that can handle questions/issues on all services.
For the provider, a single view means having a panoramic picture of the
customer's value across all services, including business and personal.
The single view is made possible by linking the front office to integrated
OSS functions.
Skills-based routing/workforce management. Intelligent,
skills-based routing should be employed across all channels to maximize
agent efficiency and customer satisfaction. This tool should balance
employee availability, personal preferences, specialization and the needs
and goals of the call center. In the e-mail arena, response systems should
be intelligent with auto-response mechanisms. Even when customer e-mail
cannot be addressed immediately, the provider should still use
skills-based routing and provide accurate, timely responses.
Enterprisewide reporting. A customer knowledge base generated by
an enterprisewide reporting tool must be deployed and then leveraged to
evaluate and enhance customer interactions.
Multichannel Interaction: Adding The Web
With the basic structure in place, how do customers get in? In the old
days, a voice/IVR front door worked fine. Today it has become necessary to
add more doors, and just as importantly, shift traffic to the most
cost-effective portal: Web-based access.
Attracting customers to the Web door takes some creativity and a plan.
Just because you build it doesn't mean they'll come. You need to
advertise and let customers know they have new options, and you should
create incentives, such as the ability to pay online or receive discounts,
to entice customers to your new Web site.
Once you get customers to the Web door, how do you keep them there to
complete their business ' and make them so satisfied with the experience
that they return?
In the early days of Web-based care, customer frustration and site
abandonment were major problems, and for good reason. Most sites were
static and presented only basic answers to common questions, often in
random order. Worse, the sites directed customers to a toll-free number
for further questions, siphoning traffic off the site and creating a new
voice pileup at the contact center.
One solution to this dilemma is to create a dynamic Web site that
empowers the customer to initiate an array of self-care and assisted-care
interactions.
For example, a dynamic FAQ (frequently asked questions) area lets the
customer drive both the content and organization of the information
presented on the FAQ Web pages. Information is stored in a self-learning
knowledge base which can be rearranged, updated and searched to provide
customers with the most useful answers.
Moving beyond the FAQ, why not use the full interactive power of the
Web? Your site can empower customers to order services, view bills,
analyze call details, dispute charges, pay their balances or update their
own customer information.
Or, if you really want to offer premium value, give customers access to
sophisticated Web-enabled applications. A few examples that might excite
customers are online DSL provisioning help, online self trouble-shooting,
network utilization tracking, online exchange with partners and suppliers,
flow-through ordering and the ability to define their payment options.
Assisted Care
Assisted care provides an enriched experience for customers by
allowing them to interact simultaneously with the site and an agent '
viewing their information, discussing it and taking action. While there is
a potential for savings, the real benefit of assisted care is that it
represents a great service for your key accounts, and if offered on a
targeted basis, can help your company keep the right customers.
Among the assisted care applications that you can offer to valued
customers:
Click-to-talk, including click-to-chat and click-to-VoIP.
Customers already on the Web site can click a button to 'chat' in near
real-time with an agent, using the e-mail chat function. Alternately, a
customer could access another capability that triggers a VoIP conversation
with an agent while still browsing the Web site. The advantage is that the
customer need not log off and make a phone call. Click-to-talk features
appeal to customers who are Internet-savvy or who have only one phone
line. The benefit to providers is that customers are less likely to
abandon the Web site or an in-progress sales transaction. Both
click-to-chat and click-to-VoIP can be offered to your best customers as a
premium-level service that boosts loyalty.
Click-to-call. With this feature, customers can go online and
request that an agent call them at a specific time on a defined topic. By
identifying the topic in advance, customers help agents prepare for the
call, or route the call to the most appropriate agent.
Co-browsing. Here, the agent and the customer view the same page
simultaneously. A more complex variant called 'follow me' allows the
customer to watch what the agent does on the Web. Both forms of
co-browsing enhance service by improving the agent's ability to quickly
identify and respond to questions in an immediate, visible manner, and by
instilling confidence in the customer-agent relationship.
Wireless Web And Wireless
A discussion of multimedia contact centers would be incomplete without
outlining two other emerging trends in access: wireless Web and wireless.
Although wireless Web access is much talked about, significant
obstacles have impeded widespread adoption. These include the absence of a
single mobile communications standard for wireless Web, low wireless
penetration in some parts of the country, high prices, erratic service,
tiny screens and the lack of investment in 3G networks. For now, wireless
Web access to your contact center would appear to be far over the horizon.
However, other methods of wireless access may appeal to business
customers who need to be informed about mission-critical network events.
For example, short message service (SMS), PDAs and pagers can be used to
notify customers of network outages and capacity problems, or to provide
trouble management features.
Airtight And Weatherproof
Fast forward: You've finished construction of your multichannel
contact center and both you and your customers like the result. You now
have a flexible edifice that lets you tailor customer access and care
based on their preference and value. You're using each channel to
maximum effectiveness. By migrating many customer inquiries to the Web,
you are driving down costs. Assisted-care Web site functions delight your
most valued customers. Everything's automated and running smoothly. What
could be better?
Well, maybe you haven't automated everything. Don't forget that
agents and customers are human. You can't automate them, but you can
improve the effectiveness of their relationship by understanding them. Two
tools can help: a powerful, intuitive customer knowledge database, and
workforce automation tools that balance automation and agent needs.
A customer knowledge database provides a holistic view of the customer,
based not only on knowledge from the center, but from other systems across
the enterprise. The database provides detailed information on each
customer's desires so you can determine how to value the relationship
and work proactively to ensure satisfaction.
Agent workforce tools address the human element in your center and help
you leverage and appreciate your most vital asset: agents. These tools can
balance employee availability, personal preferences and specialization
with the needs and goals of the center. This way, you squeeze optimal
results from the center without draining your agents.
Because it is constructed on a best-practices foundation, uses new
technologies to diversify access and treatments and continually
self-monitors to ensure customer satisfaction and agent optimization, the
multichannel contact center will stand firm for the long term. Build it
and you will have the security of a solid dwelling that attracts, delights
and keeps customers. Stay put and you can watch as customers pass by your
tumble-down rambler in search of a modern multichannel facility.
Anne Morrison is a principal in AMS's Corporate Technology Group,
responsible for developing e-business and application integration
methodologies.
[ Return
To The February 2002 Table Of Contents ]
|
