Article by Miguel Araújo Lopes
Today´s world has made Skype, LinkedIn, Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube household business names. We are witnessing the expansion of the collaborative and social dimension of the Web, an extremely fast, global and unparalleled phenomenon in the history of mankind.
However, the people leading organizations and making decisions still tend to diminish the scope and immediate influence of this phenomenon, despite the “noise” generated by the media. They tend to think that the successful impact of the social networks on the business plan will not match the success already experienced in the lives of a great number of people.
The tendency do diminish the success of the phenomenon subsists even with the impact of auto-organization initiatives on the Web, such as Wikipedia (with several versions for each language), TripAdvisor or eOpinions that thrive without any kind of hierarchical coordination. These have shown how millions of small individual contributions can be organized, resulting in a useful service to many millions.
Contact centers, as a privileged point of contact with customers, cannot remain indifferent to this profound social mutation that impacts organizations and the business success. This article points out a few clues to the evolution of the new individual and social contexts that will generate a new orientation in customer service and a new reality that we call Contact Center 2.0.
Traditional business metrics, such as average answer time or number of calls are no longer sufficient and many contact center managers need more information based on different types of data and KPIs. New times bring new expectations from people, customers, and potential customers and a new reality that reflects the change of customer expectations and the contact center regulatory laws.
According to our experience, the new relationship with customers will require the development of a “digital nervous system” based on new information architecture to manage interactions with customers. The new information architecture should leverage, in real time and for all interactions, customer information, monitor performances and results, trigger workflow processes and create business opportunities and customer satisfaction.
Therefore, the new customer management paradigm should: 1. Focus on First Call Resolution (FCR).2. Gear operations towards business metrics (KPI). 3. Combine interactions with the main business processes.4. Follow the legislation and apply it in real time.5. Include and manage the most relevant new channels, such as social networks.
Focus on First Call Resolution
The majority of call centers should be clearly focused on First Call Resolution as the main performance KPI. Focusing on First Call Resolution develops the discipline necessary for the continuous improvement of contact center performance and associated business, ironing out problems, such as poorly designed menus in voice portals and inadequate agent scripts or desktops, and in the final analysis introducing levels of qualification and autonomy that allow agents to exercise common sense, which is a key ingredient for the customer satisfaction. Therefore, First Call Resolution as the main contact center KPI provides the closest indication of customer satisfaction and customer service.
A Key Performance Indicator Metrics Management
Operational management based on KPIs aims at measuring and tracking, in real time, key business variables and services provided by the contact center. This approach is the most appropriate for an effective contact center management, especially because it highlights the added value and not only efficiency. Indicators such as the activation of contracts, recovered debt or first call resolution show the positive contribution of the contact center as generating revenues and customer satisfaction instead of focusing only on costs.Combine Interactions With the Main Business Processes
Companies across the world are replacing the old paper based processes and procedures, through digitalization and automation, with Web pages and electronic processes allowing significant reduction of costs and time and a more accurate performance measurement.From the perspective of the contact center, several limitations have been consistently detected in these implementations:* Lack of automatic interconnection between processes and communication platforms.* Clear separation between the internal and external processes of the contact center.* Excessively rigid management tools.
In the context described above, it is vital to have all the business processes integrated through workflow technologies that connect the structured contact platform in all stages of the interaction life cycle.Even if the step of a process is as simple as approving an invoice, automatic contacts, managed by the contact center, help to accelerate the process and improve customer satisfaction. Questions raised by the customers regarding other processes may be managed at the contact center if the contact center has the information of the processes and a tight link with the back-office systems of the organization.
New Ways of Interacting Online
Social networks and online communities are reaching hundreds of millions of users at an unprecedented speed. The amount of information that flows in these communities can define attitudes and campaigns, build and destroy brands and services, accelerate choices or delay product adoption. Due to the massive growth of this new social media, companies will have to take them in to close consideration because their positioning and performance may be highly influenced by this phenomenon. Although this is still an emerging trend, sometimes risky and with some pitfalls, the first companies committed and willing to invest resources and time will be the ones harvesting the profits later on.
To systematically address these requirements, contact centers must define good processes, train agents and implement the right technology to automatically assure that the rules are followed.Technology alone will not solve those requirements but it brings an even bigger benefit as it allows the precious resources of the enterprise (people) to focus on solving customer problems and higher value tasks, while the software handles tracking and response time!
Conclusion
These vectors represent an enormous challenge and a true revolution in customer relationship. However, its implementation means building an entrepreneurial architecture of information circuits based on collaboration and able to immediately impact the business model and the success of companies.The new requirements to adopt when selecting interaction management solutions are as follows:1. Proprietary platform independence2. Focus on business performance metrics3. Speed of adaptation of new processes 4. Simple connection of interactions within processes5. Real time compliance with legal requisites6. Integration and management of new channels like social media.
Implications for top managers include seeking partner solutions that have a strong track record, are close to the market, have a strong vision and offer to address these markets. One example of such a company is Altitude Software, global leader in contact center solutions.
It is crucial for companies to have a central nervous system that revolves around the contact with customers, with the ability to collect information, react quickly and give sequence to complex and intense interaction processes.
Only then it is possible to create differentiators in a new world of interconnection between online and offline realities.
About the Author
Miguel has 15 years of international experience in the CRM software industry. His responsibilities include defining the company strategy, managing the product life cycle, defining and executing the marketing plan, and supporting the sales force in 15 offices globally, which enables to get the customer feedback into the company roadmaps with R&D.Holds an MBA from Santa Clara University (CA, USA) and has a B.S. in EE/CS from IST (Portugal).
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