Call Recording Featured Article

When we think about an omnichannel approach, we tend to think more about how it benefits the customer than how it helps the contact center. Sure, workforce optimization (WFO) software may be used to help streamline the omnichannel experience, making it easier for agents to keep track of all the different channels being used, but that’s not really the focus. We tend to focus instead on the customer—after all, omnichannel is all about making communications as easy and convenient as possible for them. But why can’t we focus on both experiences—agent and customer— at the same time? A new move toward enhanced integration by Avaya (News - Alert) Japan is looking to solve this exact problem.

Avaya announced recently that is has enhanced integration with “LINE Customer Connect,” the customer support service for businesses offered by LINE Corporation. This will provide support for LINE free calls on Avaya Japan’s contact center system, thus enabling companies to reduce the cost of toll-free calling.

Given that LINE is the most popular messaging app in Japan, Thailand and Taiwan, with about 218 million monthly active users, this was a smart move by Avaya. This expanded partnership is a step in the right direction toward enabling contact centers using Avaya Japan systems to provide true omnichannel support to customers. According to the announcement, “The expanded integration of different channels and added support for the LINE free calling function will enable end users to seamlessly move between chat and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) on the LINE app while receiving customer support from businesses.”

With over 200 million monthly active users, that’s a lot of happy customers who are able to reach help whenever and however they want. Users can connect from a company’s customer support website without having to dial a phone number, and can easily integrate chat and phone functionality on the same LINE app. Being able to choose their preferred method of interaction is key to happy customers, and Avaya Japan is successfully moving in that direction.

But, again, we’re focusing on the customer. Improving this LINE integration is also better for the contact centers because it will significantly reduce the cost of toll-free calling. In addition, agents will have easy access to preceding LINE chat conversations on the Avaya contact center system screen, thus allowing them to see if there were any previous problems that may relate to the current issue. This also eliminates the need to ask time-consuming basic questions, because the answers are already right there for the agents. As a final benefit, Avaya’s call-routing feature will allow the agent to continue conversations started on chat or LINE free calls without disruption in the flow of communication.

“We are very pleased to extend our partnership with LINE, which boasts overwhelming superiority among communication apps. With the new integration enhancements, we are able to offer an overwhelming advantage to contact center operating businesses, with significant reduction in calling costs. This is a benefit that could not have been achieved without integration with LINE. We want to continue to explore collaboration with various companies as we seek to achieve true contact center omnichannel support that enables instant integration of various channels,” said Hideki Wachi, Country Managing Director, Avaya Japan.