Top 11 Trends
Transforming your Contact Center!
Most Contact Centers are still stuck
in 1990s with menu trees and area code routing where today’s customers are
expecting interaction using today’s technologies (and future technologies).
Callers have smartphones, tablets, and laptops (which all have some form of webcam)
at their disposal. So before they jump on Social Networks complaining about low
CSAT when calling your Contact Center take a look at the new technologies and
develop a game plan to incorporate these tools by the next quarter. If you do
not focus on your customer you will be focusing on how to manage Chapter 11
proceedings within 3 quarters.
1. Speech Recognition can help a company lower costs and automate the
handling of 30-75 percent of inbound customer calls. This is usually coupled
with an IVR system to work in tandem and improve call handling efficiency. It’s
not just to get the right call to the right agent faster but to also simplify
the caller experience when calling from a cellphone.
2. Word
Recognition is also a variation of Speech recognition where words or phrases
are recognized and acted upon. It could also be used to trigger an automatic
recording of the call if the caller is making threatening remarks. We all know
that the standard “this call is being monitored and recorded” is not always
true. So when the IVR asks “How can I help you?” and you respond “You guys
charged me an extra $90 on my bill and I have no idea why” the system hears
bill or billing and routes you quickly to the billing queue. When we get to
reliable technology that can detect tone and demeanor accurately we can escalate
the call to a higher priority when the caller is yelling or is angry.
One thing to note is that
"word recognition" and "speech recognition" are often used
interchangeably, but they both mean different things.
3. Scheduled Call Back – “Your call is
important to us but we are experiencing more than usual call volumes. Your wait
time is 32 minutes”. Nice, the supervisor is excited she is answering 80% of
calls in 20 seconds but has not even had a chance to talk to the caller which
is a more important statistic. Ok so now
you know that at 10am they haven’t staffed enough agents and after several
calls you realize the wait time is always a long time. Not to worry, take
advantage of their scheduled call back and let them call you back when the agent
is available . This works very well in a blended environment and in fact may be
better served with dedicated call back agents depending on volumes. So now you
can go back to listening to classical music and checking your Facebook waiting
for a call. Vendors, Please ensure that you actually call back as promised to
avoid more customer frustration.
4. Smartphones – So by now the flip
phones have been sent to retirement homes and to an alien planet that just got
2G cellular, so everyone has a smartphone. So now apps are now available to
everyone calling into the queue. You can
now use those features to improve your CSAT scores. SMS/Text messages can be
used to initiate the Call Back function or to even request an agent to call
when free. Apps can be created to help clients self-serve.
5. Video Agents – Video offers a high
touch approach to interacting with customers and Amazon is doing a great job
with Mayday. I used a video based kiosk yesterday that allowed me to call a
video agent and have them ship a Starbucks gift pack that same day. I told them
who I was and who to send it to and it was done. It was so easy and I can see
Winnie the agent smiling and so happy to take my call. Now If I am a mortgage
or investor client for a bank just think how much better a call can be handled
via video. It could be done on any smart device.
6. Social Media – In today’s environment
it may be the only way people complain about bad service and good service. The
smart ones use Social Monitoring tools and then reach out to the person and
engage them in a conversation to solve problems or to thank them for a great
comment. This should be a priority in the contact center game plan.
7. Remote Agents – Todays high speed networks
and IP telephony systems make this a reality and can helps solve staffing
issues. Moms working from home will enjoy jumping into a queue for 4 hours a
day with no commuting required. Time zone variations and overflows can also be
managed this way. The biggest gotcha will be voice quality so you need to be
stringent about quality of service. One vendor will not allow sales to use VOIP
and must place all calls on copper Landlines to avoid QOS and their VOIP system
dropping calls.
8. Better Tools – Not every
vendor has the best of everything in their solution. You may need to reach out
and add new applications from 3rd party vendors to provide the best
solution to meet your needs. For example, a prominent manufacturer has created
an awesome desktop tool that integrates with Cisco Unified Contact Center and
Finesse. It provides enhancements to the Cisco platform that improves efficiencies
and CSAT scores in an easy to implement solution.
9. Sales
and Marketing Automation Services – There are a lot of benefits to having a CRM
or Marketing platform integrated with your IP telephony system. Once that integration
is done then you can add the integration into the call center agent desktop.
There is a lot activity going on in this market so please contact your company’s
Chief Marketing Technology Officer for more details.
10. Workflow
and Multi-Channel Integrations – The modern contact center is one that brings
all the different communication channels into the agent desktop. These
applications can sometimes be best served by a 3rd party vendor that
integrates with your platform. The advantage they bring is to offer a solution
that is less complicated than your pbx vendors (multiple box approach) if they
do not offer an integrated solution. Every pbx and acd platform vendor has different
solutions that need to be better explored beyond this article.
11. Analytics
– Data and Business Analytics is becoming more and more the norm. Some are tied
into various call center tools, or salesforce tools or marketing tools. This
data can be collected by the agent during the call or have a dashboard of
information available to the agent to make better decisions. Think how useful a
caller that has been with Fido since the Microcell days and is thinking of
cancelling their service and going to a competitor. The agent who has that
information available to them can respond “Thank You for being a long-time
customer, WOW over 10 years. We sure want to have with us for another 10 years,
may I ask as to why you are thinking of leaving us?” This is also very important in a Service Desk
call where the agent can indicate “We can dispatch a technician but since you
are not on a service agreement our rates are $250 the first hour, and then $180
each hour after that and it’s based on portal to portal”. In an outbound sales environment
the customer sales data is very powerful and can be used to generate more
sales.
Consumers
are being spoiled by the disruptive vendors like Amazon, eBay and PayPal and
others in how customer service should be defined and how it can be optimized in
a way that generates a higher CSAT and more stickiness for more sales for them.
Vendors like Zappos use technology to better the customer experience which again
means more sales.
Retailers
are enjoying the increase in getting more sales by better use of technology but
also in the cost savings by being more efficient and productive. Big data is
making them smarter in how they treat you as a caller and customer and in how
they reward you for your loyalty.
It’s
time to stop looking at those abandoned call reports and agent performance
reports and start thinking on how the new contact center technology can help
propel your business forward.
Note:
This is not just big enterprise thinking as many themes apply to the mid-market
or small business environment, even non-profits and charities.
Bonus
Old School Contact Center gets it Right the First Time
I had a
problem with a food product as I was writing this so I thought this could be a
great test call. I call the 1-888 number, the ivr menu tree tells me to press 9
for English (they do not know my area code so they cannot assume an English caller),
the ivr asks me to press the extension if I know it (they do not have a
customer service queue), if not press 0 for the receptionist.
Ok I
press Zero, this could be interesting
After 1
ring a bilingual agent (English is not her first language) listens and tells me
no worries
Johnny,
coupons are in the mail for you.
We
struggle to exchange details and after “My postal code is L6A 5M9” Ok L68 “no
its L6A” Sorry can you repeat….”can I send an email? “Yes please to info@gumbyfoodco.com” (so no designated customer service
email).
The
call is done in 60 seconds and I am happy and she did not have worry about
calls being recorded and probably a report somewhere.
Good to
know their Nortsar still works like a charm.
