A positive customer experience hinges on many things, what was once as simple as a phone call has sprawled into today’s digital, omnichannel era. As Virtual Hold CEO Wes Hayden (News - Alert) mentioned at Editors Day Silicon Valley, his 20 year old firm started with a clear focus on improving the customer experience by eliminating wait times. And, after thorough examination,  found that the modern customer wants to interact digitally – i.e. Web, mobile app, Microsoft (News - Alert) Xbox.

About a year ago, Virtual Hold (VHT) released a new product that builds upon context to provide agents with more rich data to better serve the customer.  Navigator tracks interactions across channels. It is not simply a tool for the call center, as it can track intent, and follow the customer journey – marketers could get some invaluable insight as well. This knowledge can then be utilized to improve operations overall, with improved results. Hayden walked me through an example.

Using a very large cable company as the use case, Hayden explained it was having an issue with video on demand; specifically, a credit problem. Say, there’s a big fight coming up in a few weeks, so you order it in advance, invite a bunch of people over to watch and come fight night the order was cancelled. Why was it cancelled? Because your kids ordered a bunch of pay-per-view, which took your account over the “invisible credit limit.” Typically, this scenario is only solved by “IVR hell,” and by the time resolution is met, the fight is already over. Utilizing Navigator, the cable company is able to track interactions from the set top box, and a message pops up on the screen to confirm the purchase – alleviating the headache all around. The addition of Navigator has resulted in an increase in revenue, which is directly tied back to the ability to track interactions.

In addition to Navigator, the acquisition of CALLPROMISE (now VHT Callback Cloud) rounds out the portfolio nicely, expanding presence in the market and making solutions more attractive to firms of all sizes – not just some of the big boys from finance, insurance, telecom etc. The Navigator product can be easily integrated leveraging a rich set of open APIs – allowing firms to gain optimal ROI.

This week VHT will be hosting a webinar, “Getting up and running quickly with VHT Callback Cloud.” TMC’s (News - Alert) Stefania Viscusi will be moderating the session with Director of Product Management at VHT Alain Mowand walking attendees through the paces of deployment and capabilities. 

VHT’s vision for future is, “Providing a much better overall customer experience from the use of capturing available information for customer service before they start the conversation with you.” As you can tell by the product roadmap, VHT is definitely of the opinion that context is king.

Star2star is also getting ready to launch new set of customer service products and services to work with current VHT offerings. These include the ability to dial a number to access a broadcast, visual engagement and callback – for example. 

The omnichannel world is both exciting and challenging. As we have seen favoritism delve more deeply digital, it is crucial to support these burgeoning channels in a contextual and customer friendly way. VHT is listening to customers, and delivering.

Are your customer interactions contextual?