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I hope you will move over with me to my new blog ... all the content on this blog is now on the new blog. So head on over to http://www.shirazdatta.com/.

Thanks for your readership. Enjoy life.

Simplifying Web 2.0: It’s not really that technical!

If you are not comfortable with technology and its concocted numerical nomenclature. If you haven’t figured out Web 2.0 yet, we give you a load up on what it really means to get connected!

By Shiraz Datta

How many of us are comfortable with technology and advancements in it? Not too many, I’m sure. The recent generation is a little more ‘Tech-savvy’ they say, but even then it’s just a very superficial understanding of the terms and their purposes. Under this condition, when someone mentions Web 2.0, it seems a little over your head! Have they actually reinvented the web? Isn’t that what 1.0, 2.0 etc are supposed to mean? Different versions of the same thing. So does this affect the way we use the web? It will probably become more complicated with more tools, more buttons, more of everything to make the user think even more while using it! So many questions that tend to make Web 2.0 seem like some enigma which is understood by just a few and blindly used by the rest. But the fact of the matter is that, Web 2.0 would not exist if it was not for the common user. It is us that make the new version of the Web, and not the geeks in their cubicles writing innumerable lines of code.

Web 2.0 was a term introduced to the world during the first O’Reilly Media
Web 2.0 conference in 2004, but has never really been accepted widely as the right nomenclature. We could possibly define Web 2.0 as a knowledge-oriented environment where human interactions generate content that is published, managed and used through network applications in a service-oriented architecture.

This by itself is obviously confusing and is not how you would want to describe it to someone who you are trying to explain the simplicity of Web 2.0 to! However, I have mentioned it here for those who are interested in knowing the technical description of the term. For the rest, it is basically trying to say that Web 2.0 is a place where you, your friends, your family and anyone else can come share information in various forms and get connected to each other in the process. Basically, let’s come hang out and exchange information!

Simple isn’t it?
Let’s take some examples to get into the spirit of Web 2.0 a little more. How many of us have an Orkut, Facebook or MySpace account? Pretty much everybody. And this is exactly what Web 2.0 is all about. People no longer use the Web just to check their mail and send out information at fixed points of time.

It’s now all about making everything real time and sharing and exchanging information then and there. The sites mentioned above allow you to put up photos, write down your thoughts, make a profile that people can browse, share videos and lots more. Suddenly no one on the net is a stranger. People can look through your profile and learn more about yourself even before they have met you. You can connect to people you would never have directly met, but who may be able to help you in a number of ways from hobbies, to accommodation, to education and a lot more. These sites function on user-generated content and that’s what Web 2.0 is all about.

Putting the power in the hands of the user!
You will no longer be told what to do online, but will be asked what you want to do. The Web is no longer a place for the ‘Tech –savvy’ or the professionals who want to showcase their skills. It’s all about the common user who wants to share his thoughts, his work, his skills and allows others to view and rate his work.

Everybody can now have their own web page, and even a custom URL to give them their own online identity. Blogs have already been advanced enough to allow you to not only write about your experiences, but to also include pictures, videos and lots of other features that make them a rich source of information and an outlet for the creatively inclined to showcase themselves to the whole world.

Gone is the time when you had to have big bucks behind you to do anything online and even then have technical expertise to execute it. Now, all you need is some basic computer knowledge and you are on your way to destinations unknown! You no longer need a space ship to “Boldly go where no man has gone before!”

But for all its plus points and advantages, the Web 2.0 advancement also has some serious privacy invasion and identity theft drawbacks. With the amount of personal and potential sensitive information online, you need to make sure you take care of who is looking at your web pages and blogs. Identity theft for creating bogus accounts, image theft, misuse of personal information are all very serious and real threats that abound in this brave new world of the Web.

The movies “The Net” and “The Net 2.0” dealt with a fictional situation of the ill effects of the World Wide Web, but these seem very plausible with the simplification of the Web of late. But with the ease it introduces and the scope for enrichment of our lives, Web 2.0 cannot be viewed as a bad advancement at all.

It’s just up to the user to ensure that he/she uses it responsibly. “With great power comes great responsibility”, said Spiderman and that applies to the Web as well. With the new power and control that it offers to the common user, it is up to him to ensure he uses it carefully and makes sure he watches his own back and other’s as well. At this time of sharing information and thoughts, sharing concerns and watching out for your online colleagues is a must. After all, isn’t that what Web 2.0 is all about. Sharing, exchanging and experiencing what others have.

Why Personalized Customer Communications is Mission Critical

Creating a consistent message across disparate media

By Troy Gross  - Cincom Systems

 

In a world run amok with data, it’s the rare company that doesn’t know something about their customers. If a customer has done business with a company in the past, that company can retain pertinent information about them for years to come.

 

The question is, what exactly does a 21st century business do with all that information?

 

Savvy companies are starting to realize that using that data for “personalization” needs to be taken to a higher level. Consumers aren’t impressed if your personalization efforts stop at putting their name on a document. If you want to engage your customers, highly personalized communications with a consistent message are key.

 

Not just document automation

 

Let’s tackle a few industry terms first. “Personalized customer communications” does not mean just “document automation”. A document automation system consists of pre-defined models with standard information about your customers. They are capable of sending out mass mailings, but only mass mailings of the same information to thousands of customers.  Above all, a document automation system is focused on saving your company money.

 

On the other hand, a personalized customer communications system is focused on your customer. The goal of such a system is to provide timely, relevant and concise information to your customer. This information can be communicated via email, fax, a website, written documentation or even a real-time phone conversation. It uses your existing data to provide information that is relevant and targeted only to that customer.

 

Here’s an example. At a health care company, a document management system could send out mass mailings of the same welcome packets of information to each new member. The packets contain dozens of forms that new members need to sign and return. But only certain members need to fill out certain forms. The other forms – at best – will be discarded. At worst, they will frustrate and annoy your new customer.

 

A personalized customer communications system handles the mailing very differently. It sends the same welcome packets, but includes just the forms that each individual member needs to complete. Based upon pre-existing data, the system knows which member needs what form and can even increase font size for older customers. There’s no waste and no frustrated customers.

 

It all boils down to the three cycles of customer care – acquisition, retention and extension. You may acquire that new customer, but if they have a bad experience in the next two phases, you stand a good chance of losing them. A personalized customer communications system helps you to engage your customer through each of the three phases.

 

The bottom line? A personalized customer care system is built upon the radical idea that you shouldn’t just collect data on your customers, you should use that data to continue to engage them.

 

New system, new efficiencies

 

Engaging the customer sounds like a lofty goal. It also sounds like a goal that costs a lot of money. What are some the internal efficiencies and cost-savings that a personalized customer care system can bring?

 

The flexibility of a personalized customer communications system brings the most efficiency. Standard language and a consistent message are crafted and implemented by functional line of business areas, such as sales and marketing teams, without the need for a heavy-handed IT presence. If you can edit a Word document, you can make changes to your company’s correspondence and message in various forms of customer communications.

 

Further flexibility is found in the medium itself. A personalized customer care system can help your company create a consistent message across various forms of media, including email, faxes, web sites and written correspondence. A fully-utilized system can also interface with your telephone support system. Customer care reps can have access to real-time data about your customers. They can make decisions and immediately create correspondence based upon known and live feedback from that particular customer.

 

Another efficiency of a personalized customer communications system is found in scalability. The best thing that can happen to your business is more customers, right? Not necessarily. If your call volumes are going up, but you don’t have the staff or systems to handle the resulting documents that need to be produced, your service levels may falter. That lack of top-notch service could drive current or potential customers away.

 

 

Cost center to profit center

 

While increased efficiency, flexibility and scalability will save your company money, forward thinking companies are also using their personalized customer communication systems to generate income. It moves your customer response center from a cost center to a profit center.

 

Consider something as mundane as an invoice. A company that sells limited edition ceramic figurines sends an invoice with every purchase. It’s something the customer will review to make sure they received the correct item at the correct price. Why not take advantage of this time with your customer to expose them to new products?

 

On the invoice, you could include ad copy and photos of new lines of figurines. Based upon the customer’s purchase history, you could suggest a high-priced purchase or a medium-priced item. If you know they purchase gifts for others from your company, you could suggest the item as a gift. 

 

The insurance industry provides another example. Insurance is basically selling a promise. The customer purchases a promise of payment under certain circumstances. That promise is summarized in a document, a piece of paper. Since you are required to send the customer that piece of paper, why not make the most of out it? Why not put everything you’ve got into that document?

 

Instead of sending out a massive amount of information, tailor the document to just the information that consumer needs to know. Send a two page summary instead of a two pound packet of information. Personalize that summary based upon that customer’s purchase – and what you have learned is important to them.

 

That customer will recognize – and appreciate – the extra personalization that went into that document. But don’t stop there. While you have them engaged and impressed with your company, include targeted information about the insurance’s company’s other products that might appeal to them. This targeted new information would be based upon what you already know about the customer’s current situation and probable upcoming life events. The information you send would pertain only to them.

 

It seems like a simple idea – and a personalized customer communications system makes it possible. While that customer is already holding your required communications in their hand and is thinking about your company, why not engage them further and work on extending your relationship with them?

 

A consistent message above the fray

 

In a consumer culture where customers can Tivo through commercials and purchase software to block pop-up Internet ads, it can be difficult to get your message heard. By providing a consistent and targeted message across any form of media, your company can get its message directly to the consumers it needs to reach.

 

A personalized customer communications systems provides concise and relevant information to existing and prospective customers. By fully utilizing the system, your company can establish itself as responsive, knowledgeable, and truly customer-focused. By integrating a personalize customer communication system into your customer care strategy, you are utilize the data you already have on your customers to build an even stronger customer relationship.

Retailers, get ready for the magic of CRM

“International giants entering India in a big way was an impending trend only waiting to happen.  If you haven’t prepared for the tussle yet, this is your chance. Indian retailers are set to impress customers and increase their bottom-line with the aid of the right CRM”

 

By Shiraz Datta

 

It’s ironic that while the retail sector in India is estimated at US$350 billion, organised retail is estimated barely at US$8 billion. The upside is the expected growth rate. By 2010, organised retail is expected to grow up to US$22 billion, an estimated 40 percent compounded annual growth of return over the next few years.

 

Numerous international retail giants from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States are entering the Indian market with enormous hope and investments. Retailers in India so far only prefer to increase the number of outlets within a city or to other regions as a part of their expansion drive. But they will now need to fight the burgeoning retail space with many new shopping centres and growing new markets like the kids’ retail revolution in apparel. To manage the tremendous volume of transactions and to beat international competition, Indian retailers have an immediate need for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools.

 

CRM will happen. It’s simply a question of how long it will take and in how many ways retailers will benefit. Customer Relationship Management is important, especially for your repeat customers and for them to feel camaraderie with the retailer. A good CRM will provide the right framework to retailers so that they can personalize merchandise purchases, services and responses across all communication channels for the customer’s satisfaction and for increased sales.

 

Low cost, high value

But before retailers embark on any CRM software, they need to ensure it comes at optimal cost, with minimal risk, high value, and a higher return on investment (ROI). It should install quickly, interface readily with existing systems, be easy to learn and to use, and deliver uncompromising performance.

 

Driven by changing lifestyles, strong income growth and favourable demographic patterns, the Indian retail market is growing at compounded annual rate of five percent and expected revenues of US$320 billion in 2007, according to a report by AT Kearney and the Confederation of Indian Industry. And big international and domestic retailers have realized this growth.

 

To sustain competition from the giants, Indian retailers must differentiate or brand their business. Customers expect retailers to do this is by personalizing products and services. And this is where a rightly implemented CRM comes into play.

 

Growing Communication Channels

India has more than 129 million mobile communication subscribers and the number is expected to go up to 300 million in 2008. This is a strong marketing channel retailers cannot afford to miss. “Truly loyal customers can’t imagine doing business with anyone else. They are your best means of advertising because they’ve become advocates for your company. They bore their friends with stories of how great you are,” write Shaun Smith and Joe Wheeler, authors of Managing the Customer Experience.

 

To implement the right CRM, retailers need to analyze customer preferences and trends, and then merge analysis with inbound and outbound calling via CRM technology so that customers can communicate with the retail chain by fax, phone, web, SMS and the like. The CRM framework links and integrates these channels to individualize the customer’s experience and ensure satisfaction.

 

Similarly, competition must be kept under a check. If a retailer offers volume discounts, its competitors must likewise offer comparable value to the customers. If a retailer has tools to reach more customers with personalized purchase offers, or to process orders faster, or with fewer errors, or more efficiently, other vendors must adapt or gradually surrender market share.

 

But unfortunately, only 30 percent of companies worldwide have actually implemented a commercial CRM software package. And most of these are only a year old. Of this minority, 54 percent have implemented just one part of CRM. With so much room for improvement in meeting customer demands, CRM can only help.

 

Contact centres form an integral part of CRM because they directly impact how customers feel about the retailer’s products, services and business. With an efficient system at the contact centre, retailers can help customers buy what they want and need. For instance, retailers are yet to utilize the opportunity of selling daily needs to a population that is using the latest technology to purchase almost everything.

 

If you are looking at moving to customer-centric marketing, this means that all customer functions are subject to CRM’s analytical processes. This helps retailers understand both how the customer base is presently segmented and, for the future, according to what retailing values. Other analyses identify new services, evaluate their ROI, shift focus from less to more profitable customers, etc. The outcome from CRM analytics is better service, improved planning and profitability, and more appropriate pricing.

 

Customer Analysis

CRM analysis can help retailers make a smooth shift to a customer-focused enterprise by allowing processes like differentiating customers into segments, discovering precise needs of customers and redesigning compensation and rewards to effect behavioural changes. This process establishes the context that stimulates the customer to shop and buy. Hardcore marketers make their own analytical understandings with the help of a CRM to evaluate what their customers need.

Improved Sales

Better services imply the customer’s improved ability to make purchases. They will make informed decisions and be happy with their purchase. Such efficient shopping will only mean a patronizing customer. For the retailers, this means higher transaction rate, increased revenues, and a wider profit margin.

 

Smart retailers are looking up new and critical CRM tools like the unified agent desktop that allows customer service agents to respond faster and with greater accuracy and consistency every time a customer picks up the phone, accesses e-mails or chats. The unified agent desktop brings the customer into focus at the desktop and turns the agent’s screen into a hub that can access all enterprise applications and databases necessary to respond rapidly to the customer.

 

The result is increased quality and decreased operating costs, leading to one of the most handsome ROIs in the industry. It also eliminates data redundancy like repeating customers with the same requests or relying on agents to recall the correct systems to enter a new customer record or service request.

Questions to ask about any CRM Framework:

·          Does it allow the supervisor or manager to access and process analytical data online? Preferably through a web portal?

·          Does it use just one screen to manage all customer channels – e-mail, voice, chat, fax, web self service – so that agents stay productive and don’t get lost in the transaction?

·          Does it offer a universal view of your retail CRM data on a single screen – contact information, history of recent activity, knowledge base, workflow interaction, resource management?

·          Does it make efficient use of your and the customer’s time by minimizing clicks so that managers and agents don’t have to toggle to other screens or other applications while the customer waits impatiently?

Four Components of the Successful Customer Experience

It’s about more than fulfilling a transaction - By Randy Saunders, Cincom Systems

 

Contact center leaders are canny and battle-tested enough to know that each and every customer touch is a test of the service organization as a whole. But not everyone realizes that each and every customer touch is a test of the entire brand and its promise to that customer. When a customer and your representatives make a connection, that one experience will be the culmination of all the time, money, and materials invested by both parties – and the outcome of that encounter will be the impression and the memory the customer has of your company.

 

When your brand goes on trial, the only way to succeed is to deliver the kind of experience that transcends the ordinary and the everyday, and reaffirms the company’s entire brand premise. In the contact center, the front line of so many businesses, revenue is made and lost every day not on price or performance, but by the quality of the customer experience.

 

Connections. Not collisions.

The organization and its management are on the line every time the customer joins a call. Customer experience expert Shaun Smith of Shaun Smith + co warns against looking at customer interactions as compartmentalized moments in time. “Experience is every firm’s value proposition because no company can avoid delivering a total experience. A customer cannot not have one,” he says. “The million dollar question is: ‘Was the experience the one you intended?’”

 

Like it or not, consciously or not, customers evaluate their business relationships every time they touch your company. Learning to manage the experience every time the phone rings or the inbox chimes is an essential skill to maintain and build business with customers who are empowered to be brand-agnostic and effortless switchers. Above all else, the function of the contact center is to positively construct connections and to not negatively cause collisions between the customer and the provider.

 

Four components of the successful customer experience and positive connection

Customer experiences are not created in a vacuum. They evolve from industry conventions, customer demands, executive orders, peer exchanges, and expert advice, just to name a few influences. But up until recently, what the brand wants to stand for has not directly influenced the way that service is delivered in the call center. But that is changing fast. Relying on technology or expert advice alone to craft your customer experience is a losing strategy – those tactics are too easily copied. Doing what you have always done in the contact center (or worse, what everybody else appears to be doing) will not differentiate your brand. “Managing the customer experience is a complex undertaking, which requires strategic choices to be made, new competencies to be developed, and management’s will to execute,” Smith says.

 

Smith cites four criteria that are the base for any solid, sustainable customer experience management effort. A positive, managed customer experience must be consistent, intentional, differentiated, and valuable. Meeting them head-on is critical if the customer experience is truly a top priority.

 

1. Consistent: Your customers are not interested in the many complex layers of technology and analysis required to manage each and every call they make. All they are interested in is their own experience, and it is disastrous to that experience if they believe the quality of that call is subject to a roll of the dice. Consistency at the agent level is about more than simply giving everybody access to the same screen pops, call scripts, and escalation protocols, however. It requires being able to identify and anticipate the needs and interests of a customer, and ensuring that the right steps are taken – every time – to satisfy those requirements in a timely, predictable manner, and in a way that is “on-brand.” Inconsistencies and lamentable misses will damper the experience – and returns from that customer. Consistency is a hallmark of organizations as high-tech as Amazon, whose shopping cart interface has become a web standard, and as everyday as McDonalds, where replicable taste and process is the fundamental strength of the business. In the contact center, consistency hinges on the organization’s ability to know everything relevant about the customer, regardless of the contact channel or agent handling the interaction. The integration of flexible, powerful customer information systems that are easy to use by both agents and customers alike can go a long way toward supporting consistency. But just as McDonald’s found, consistency alone is no longer enough.

 

2. Intentional: The contact center must be able to clearly articulate and understand the customer experience it is trying to create and preserve in order to carry it out. Furthermore, the procedures and policies of that service organization must be specifically geared toward meeting the needs of the customer and, by extension, gratifying the customer experience. That is the failure of many CRM implementations; management assumes that technology will drive the customer experience, whereas, in fact, the opposite should be true. The customer experience must be designed first and then implemented throughout the organization. Note that this should not be interpreted to mean that the best customer experiences must always be directed from on high. Individual agents or teams may have developed their own, undocumented, but still intentional methods of delivering a superior experience, but these must be developed within the framework of the brand strategy – otherwise well-intentioned anarchy will result. Be on the lookout for customer experiences that outstrip the norm, and consider whether there may be an intentional aspect to them that could be used in the larger contact organization. Calculated intention can be expressed as a way of using channels that serve a clear purpose and deliver clear value to both the customer and the company.

 

3. Differentiated: “Simply put, if your customers cannot discriminate between the experiences they achieve with your company and that of a competitor, they won't distinguish.” If they cannot distinguish you from your competitors, you will feel it in the form of a significant, quite possibly unconscious, lack of loyalty. The experience you deliver to your customers must produce a feeling on some level that no other organization can do quite the same thing for its customers as you can. Skeptics may believe that this factor is based entirely on issues of product and pricing, but such an assumption misses the entire impact of the customer experience. Nothing saps the joy of feeling part of a singular, irreplaceable community than a customer experience that is bland and run-of-the-mill. If Harley-Davidson treated its customers like a faceless quick-lube shop treats its clients – as an anonymous assembly line of vehicles and owners – it would not be the brand and customer experience standout it is today. No organization can afford sameness in its customer experience unless it is happy to allow price to become the determining factor.

 

4. Valuable: In a sense, this is the validating step after the first three directives have been considered. Once a consistent, intentional, and differentiated strategy is devised, the question must be asked – will implementing this strategy produce value for both the company and the target customer base? For example, First Direct, an online U.K. bank with 1.2 million customers, wins a new customer every six seconds. The bank spoke to their most loyal customers and asked them what they valued most about First Direct. The research identified that being able to engage with a real person was an important driver of satisfaction. As a result, First Direct’s advertising agency created an ad that featured a customer speaking of her experience of calling First Direct and getting through to a real person, any time of the day or night and getting the kind of help that most call centers can only dream of. The ad’s engaging message and apparent empathy struck a chord with target customers. Customers have become its biggest advocates because of the value they receive. And by “value” we are not talking here about relative price, but the whole experience they have of the brand. Perhaps it’s no coincidence then that 36% of First Direct’s customers come to them through referral.

 

Receiving value is the validating test of all brand experience.

 

This article is an excerpt from the white paper “Customer Experience Happens in the Contact Center, With Insights From Shaun Smith." Go to www.cincom.com/shaunsmith to download the complete white paper or to view a webcast titled "See, Feel, Think, Do - Creating Breakthrough Ideas to Deliver the Perfect Customer Experience," in which Shaun Smith presents a lively discussion on how to build great customer experiences.

The Ultimate Productivity Tool: The Unified Desktop

From Job Satisfaction to Better Business Intelligence – The Desktop Brings It Together

By Randy Saunders at Cincom Systems

Fundamentally, people enjoy being good at their jobs, and they enjoy being provided with the means to do their jobs well. Knowledge empowers the smart agent, and ready access to appropriate information for each customer makes the challenge of a diverse customer base much more manageable and enjoyable for front-line employees. Job satisfaction is closely tied to the ability to understand and execute the tasks at hand, and the unified desktop is an important tool for employee empowerment.

Routine customer-service interactions may require agents to interact with five, 10 or even 15 or more systems. Much of the time, these systems are ignorant of one another, requiring agents to log on each time they access a new system. This requires customer data to be re-keyed with each new program, each with its own unique interface that must be learned and mastered over time.

The only way agents can be productive and meet their performance and satisfaction targets is to understand the slate of tools at their disposal. As a result, companies that persist in relying on multiple disconnected agent applications on the desktop condemn themselves to lengthy, complex agent training practices that must touch on each and every application, documenting all of the use cases, dependencies, and quirks of each one. This is expensive and time-consuming. The alternative, skimping on agent training, leads to wasted time, increased escalation, and lower customer satisfaction.

Unifying the agent experience into a single, consistent desktop takes the complexities out of the training process and job performance. By promoting a single, browser- and tab-based approach that is widely understood by computer-literate professionals, enterprises can streamline the agent education process, making it easier to bring new agents online without spending weeks in technical training. Cutting out lectures on green-screen etiquette also frees up more time for value-boosting activities, such as cross-selling briefings and product education. Simplification equates to higher job performance and satisfaction.

Productivity Beyond the Contact Center

Bringing the entire contact center in sync with the same customer-service desktop has a significant benefit for management reporting and understanding as well. Because all agents have the same tools and techniques at their fingertips, meaningful, apples-to-apples comparisons between all of the agents on the service force are possible. Other metrics, such as customer cost-to-serve and cost-per-sale, are also free of distorting variables.

Management is also more clearly able to see the impact of call resolution because call closure procedures are uniform, no matter what back-end functionality comes into play during the course of the call. Compare that to a contact center using several customer-service desktop tools, where post-call procedures may differ by application and involve inconsistent closure status codes, or not even offer the same abilities to record the status of the inquiry and the customer’s post-call disposition. A consistent view into post-call activity makes understanding customer lifecycle and retention trends much easier.

The universal desktop view also makes it considerably easier for constituencies such as sales, marketing, and finance to understand the customer-service business processes at play and tailor their own activities accordingly. Marketing and the contact center, for instance, can quickly find themselves at odds if customer campaigns are launched when the support staff is not prepared for an increase in call demand or the new requests that will be generated by customer response. When marketing and service can work together, using a common frame of reference provided by the universal desktop, such conflicts are far less likely. In fact, the thin-client accessibility of many available universal desktops enables employees and executives across the company to see the exact customer service experience, without the need to deploy additional programs or special access on the user’s desktop.

The concept of a “universal” desktop shouldn’t be mistaken with one that is inherently inflexible or ill-suited to a diverse work environment. On the contrary, the universal desktop concept is particularly well suited to diverse, complex working environments because the desktop view can be tailored to instantly adapt to the task at hand, whether categorized based on user role or access clearance, or the topic of the customer interaction. Universal desktops can be quickly configured to support multiple departments and customer campaigns simply by implementing rules that dictate how the desktop will appear to each user, all without requiring the user to change applications or even know what functionality they will need at any given time.

The More They Know, the More You Grow

Every aspect of modern business runs on information, and the contact center is the hub of knowledge flow, both into and out of the organization. Bringing sensible presentation and a unified view of critical business data to every agent desktop is a meaningful and critical way to rationalize the powerful yet uncoordinated applications that drive each and every customer touch, and improve client value at every opportunity.

Every touch in the contact center, whether inbound or outbound, represents a unique and immediate opportunity to extend and strengthen a customer relationship. Each interaction, whether it is a sale or a save situation, requires that your agents be prepared to respond quickly to the unique demands of the individual customer, and have the best decision support available. The universal desktop gives your organization the best chance to make the right decisions for customer satisfaction and profit growth, each and every time a customer interacts.

 

This article is an excerpt from the Cincom white paper “Grow Your Business: The Value of Knowledge in the Contact Center.”

 

High-value Manufacturers Need to Maximize Customer Ownership Experience

“Getting it right the first time is critical to the customer ownership experience – and a challenge for complex manufacturers.”

 

By Randy Saunders, Cincom Systems

 

Manufacturers of high-value capital equipment and their distributors recognize that the initial purchase of a complex industrial product is a fraction of what the customer will spend over the course of owning and operating that equipment. Over a product's 10- to 20-year lifespan, customers will rely on your service and warranty department's support to minimize downtime and keep their equipment performing.

 

Consistent and reliable customer service – the ability to “get it right the first time” – is critical to satisfying the ownership experience. Customers care nothing for the complexities that make delivering customer service in the manufacturing industry so different and more challenging than other areas. They don’t want excuses or delays. If the customer’s production line is at risk while waiting for a spare part or service, they demand immediate service. Manufacturers that meet these service expectations and challenges have an excellent competitive differentiator that can lead to winning new and repeat business.

 

The Nine Key Customer-Service Issues of Industrial Equipment Manufacturers

Manufacturers of complex equipment have many unique challenges when it comes to customer service. That's why most companies find that ordinary contact center software doesn't meet their needs and that they require a more specialized solution. Here we’ll consider nine of the key issues facing many complex manufacturers and what to look for in customer-service technology that will help you address these challenges.

 

1.       Segmenting and prioritizing high-value customers and projects - Every manufacturer has its top-revenue or profit-generating customers. Or maybe it's the customers with the greatest global potential, a specific project with a tight deadline or a pilot project with a highly desired account. For any number of reasons, you might want to make specific customers or projects a top or higher priority.
What to look for: “Most people leave a company because they feel they’re not treated well,” according to Arthur Hughes, author of “The Customer Loyalty Solution.” “They feel that, for some reason, they have been ignored or not treated properly. The ability to dynamically set priorities so that all interactions from your most critical accounts either go to the top of the queue or are always handled by your top service specialists is a critical first step to preventing this neglected feeling.”

 

2.       Complying with individual service level agreements (SLAs) by customer or even by project - Service-level management for customer support varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and is often one of the most critical and contentious elements of a contract. Some may have a single published service level, while others offer tiered service contracts with perhaps two or three levels of service. Or, individual service-level agreements may be customized by customer or even by project; an agreement may call for different service levels and different metrics for each product the customer buys. Needless to say, this can become very complex to manage in the contact center, magnified even more when there's a merger between companies or even a consolidation of divisions.
What to look for: One manufacturer has found that without a “single view” of the customer through a unified desktop, meeting specified service levels quickly became unmanageable. The ability to track and report on SLA performance metrics allows them to quickly and easily identify any problem areas, and to more precisely negotiate future contracts and SLAs.

 

3.       Supporting complex equipment that's routinely modified and reconfigured over a long production life - Over a product's 10- to 20-year life span, complex machinery is often reconfigured to address changing maintenance requirements or customer needs. Many times the discrepancies between a product's original configuration and its current configuration can be dramatic.
What to look for: One Midwest machine manufacturer had this very problem. Because its machines are highly specialized and have a long service life that may extend more than 20 years, each time a customer called, the service agent had to manually research the customer’s history to ensure that they received the correct part or service order. This led to much longer customer wait times than the company felt was acceptable. A unified agent desktop that automatically searched and displayed a complete profile and history enabled the company to respond quicker as well as measure and track customer interactions and transactions for improved productivity and reporting.

 

4.       Solving customer issues quickly - Most customer-service departments routinely access four or more different business applications to find an answer. Often this is because of existing databases or systems that are not able to collaborate across applications. Not only is this time-consuming for the service rep, the customer is waiting.
What to look for: A unified desktop that gives your service reps a 360-degree view of all pertinent customer information will enable them to improve first-call resolution and call-handling times. By delivering the right amount of back-end information to address the task at hand without toggling from system to system or drilling through information, the service rep’s time and effort is reduced and the customer experience enhanced. One manufacturer found that such a system enabled them to improve their call response time by 73%.

 

5.       Sharing customer and product knowledge across all reps - Duplication of efforts is frustrating for both service reps and customers alike and practically unavoidable when the systems don’t integrate across applications and stations.
What to look for: While it would be great if a customer could communicate with the same customer-service agent with every interaction, often this is not physically possible. However, it is possible to create a case management and contextual knowledge base that reps can tap into to resolve customer issues. Make sure the application can be configured to store any information about customer communication history, product issue-related events and status, and any product information such as operational and warranty/repair information.

 

6.       Consistent handling of customer requests through their communication channel of choice - Gone are the days when customers just picked up the phone to call customer service. Today, they may communicate using web forms, web-based live chat, e-mail or fax. On a single problem or issue, they may interact with your service center using a combination of all the above.
What to look for: The ability for service reps and engineers to manage, synchronize, and coordinate all customer interactions over multiple communication channels. So no matter how the customer interacts with the contact center, all communications are managed, queued, and tracked consistently. For example, the parts and services group at a large machine manufacturer uses a hosted application with multiple channel capabilities to interact by phone, e-mail and fax. They are able to view all previous interactions regardless of channel to get a complete view and status of any parts or service orders.

 

7.       Intelligently routing customer interactions to the best available service rep - All service reps are not created equal, and as every business will testify, not all customer interactions are of equal importance.
What to look for: The most successful contact centers are able to group service reps by skill level, geography, and familiarity with a specific customer, dealer, or project. This is especially true for complex manufacturers. The manufacturer mentioned above intelligently queues all customer interactions and then distributes the contact using skills-based routing to ensure a qualified rep handles each interaction. Additionally, if a customer needs to be escalated to a knowledge worker such as an engineer, you’ll want that knowledge worker to view the same history, case management, and resources so that you can have an uninterrupted, continuous conversation.

 

8.       Balancing the workload across all service reps and locations - A key to maximizing call center operations is to optimize the call distribution and level the workload by managing the interaction queue and routing all communications appropriately. What to look for: A web-based, hosted system that can route calls and present desktop views anywhere, giving you flexibility to manage high call volumes and leverage company experts at home or in other locations. This also provides a strong level of business continuity capability in the face of an emergency or other event that might otherwise impede service.

 

9.       Performing real-time measurements and reporting on your customer-service and warranty operation - In the pursuit of the continuous improvement required to remain competitive in today’s business, it is a necessity to be able to track, analyze and report on what's happening in the service center.
What to look for: Managers should have the ability to analyze critical service metrics including service-contract performance and profitability, up-to-the-moment service activity by customer, and actionable customer and business insight. Managers should also have the option to select from standard reports or create their own ad hoc reports. This has enabled the contact center manager of one manufacturer to track the number of quotes converted to purchases and provide detailed reports on results, helping to guide future actions.

 

Manufacturing experience delivers rapid ROI and implementation

The unique nature of industrial manufacturing and the common issues of multiple databases and applications often bring complexity to the contact center. Manufacturers looking for a customer-service and warranty communications system should look for a vendor that has experience in the manufacturing industry and understands their unique environment. They should expect to see examples or testimonials from existing installations that show measurable results in the following areas:

·          Improvements in service efficiency

·          Increases in parts and service revenue

·          Increases in new-equipment sales and replacement parts from new and returning customers

 

A recent trend in the industry is a move to hosted solutions. Hosted solutions can greatly streamline your implementation, minimize internal IT requirements, eliminate hardware investments, and reduce maintenance costs. With these advantages, you can reap the benefits of a robust customer-service application, with minimal risk.

 

Leverage What Works and Keep It Simple

Understanding the value of the agent desktop

By Randy Saunders | Cincom Systems

 

Increased and streamlined access to knowledge is a critical component of contact center modernization efforts, and it is certainly clear that the distractions and ambiguity created by too many applications on the agent desktop are a hindrance to the smooth flow of information. As a result, some vendors and consultants see a modernization effort as an invitation to “rip and replace” functional systems and architecture with a completely new, and in many cases, completely untested platform. The promise is a single-business operating platform.

 

What they sometimes deliver instead is an application that does far less than advertised, far later than was promised, and which in the final analysis, does not even work as well as the systems it purported to replace. In these scenarios, single sign-on is not achieved, and knowledge remains just as locked up and frustrated as it ever was. Even in best-case scenarios, the end result is no different than a coordination layer that acts to blend, unify, and synchronize the proven, time-tested systems that run your business today.

 

The universal desktop approach, on the other hand, acknowledges and honors the fact that the systems that run your business today do so for a good reason – they work. Whatever they may lack in front-end integration, at their functional core, they are the time-tested, battle-hardened programs that are tightly integrated into your everyday business. Taking them offline for the promise of a new application is a gamble, and more importantly it is a gamble most companies need not take at all. Valuable knowledge transfer can be promoted by building a common, unified front end to these valuable back-end systems using clearly defined web services standards.

 

One example of a company that successfully implemented a universal desktop with disparate back-end systems was a large cable company that provides several core consumer and business services, including high-speed internet access, digital cable, and digital telephony services.

 

Before the implementation, each product line had its own separate and unique groups of customer service agents, divided further into subgroups based on interaction channel. Each group used different systems, processes, and channels and lacked access to customer information outside the group. This structure not only created operational and financial inefficiencies, but inconsistent and time-consuming service led to customer dissatisfaction.

 

The company set out to reduce costs and increase operational efficiency while enhancing the customer’s experience. To do so, they wanted to test the feasibility of a “universal” agent capable of handling customer requests across all product lines and communication channels.

 

To validate and measure the universal agent concept and technology, the company designed a measured trial involving 75 agents across three call centers, including an outsourced group.

 

At the end of six months, the trial revealed the following results:

 

·          Shorter Training – Each training class was reduced by three weeks due to the system’s transparency, its navigation, and the ability to access multiple systems from a single interface. This resulted in a projected savings of more than $5 million per year. It also eliminated the need for retraining when back-end systems were consolidated. As the universal desktop provided system transparency, agents never knew that the data had moved to a different back-end system.

 

·          Increased agent satisfaction – Agents experienced a reduction in system and business-process complexity, leading to a projected reduction in attrition.

 

·          Faster log-ons – The system eliminated 10 minutes in system log-ons, which directly resulted in significantly lower handle times.

 

·          Improved business planning – Once the complete customer view was created, the ability to track trends and make business decisions improved.

 

Even better, the improved knowledge available to agents noticeably increased customer satisfaction. Customers received consistent and relevant help across all three product lines because agents better understood the customers’ histories and preferences.

 

The result of implementing a universal desktop with your existing systems provides the best of both worlds – an agent desktop built on the same key functionality that already powers your business, but delivered with the coordination and ease-of-use of a modern thin-client. Functionality need not be compromised, re-invented, or even taken offline during the transition. Such rapid system integration at the desktop means faster resolution at the customer level, and far less service interruption and migration time for the organization, all without the expense and tension of a “rip and replace” operation.

 

Go Fish for an Agent Desktop

Go Fish for an Agent Desktop Or 13 questions to ensure you get what you asked for

By Randy Saunders, Cincom Systems

 

When a customer is “on the line,” and your agent is “fishing” for the right information to respond to that customer, it might be a little bit like real-life fishing – but a lot more frustrating. The agent trawls for information, searching through billing, ordering, inventory, and a score of other applications, piecing together the appropriate information. This takes time and patience, just as fishing in the wrong place or with the wrong equipment or knowledge can be painstakingly slow and exasperating.

 

No Fishing Allowed

A unified agent desktop brings all of the right information – for and about each customer – directly to the agent’s desktop. No need to fish through murky backend systems, casting and recasting until you get a hit. With a unified agent desktop, the agent has a crystal-clear view of the customer – including their history, contact information, resources, and relevant applications.

 

Catch and Release

Your customers, just like fishing resources and all of our natural resources, are too valuable to be wasted. A unified agent desktop helps promote and preserve your customer base by treating them with care and efficiency.  Equipped with the necessary information, tools, and resources on the desktop, you can effortlessly reel in the customer with little to no pain (hold times/inadequate responses/repetitive input) and then release them happily into the market where they can advocate to other hungry customers about just how great their experience was.

 

Back to Go Fish – Make Sure You Get What You Asked for

So you’re convinced that you need a unified agent desktop, but you’re not sure of what to ask for. What capabilities should you look for? Should you consider hosted or on-premise? What is important to look for in a vendor?

 

Here are 13 questions to consider as you fish for the solution, and the vendor that is best for your organization.

 

1.       Are you making the proper presentation on the desktop?

 

Like the fly fisherman selecting the perfect lure to fool a finicky trout, you must present the right information at the right time for success. Look for a solution that can expose data from your legacy systems and silos of information, and present them in one desktop view. This universal view enables you to maximize your previous technology investments while providing all of the information your agents need to satisfy the customer’s request at the time of contact.

 

Some of the categories that should be accessible from the desktop include:

·          Contact management

·          Workflow

·          Legacy applications – billing, ERP, inventory, shipping, etc.

·          Resource and content management – intranets, websites, FAQs, decision trees, access lists, etc.

·          Knowledge management

·          Interaction management

·          Activity management – to manage customer issues from beginning to end through activity and task management

 

2.       Is the desktop dynamic and relevant? Does it adjust to provide the proper tools based on who is contacting you or the nature of the contact?

 

Matching your tactics and equipment to your situation is vital to success. You wouldn’t use a rod built for tuna to catch sardines. Similarly, your agents aren’t going to save much time if the desktop doesn’t automatically populate with the content that is relevant to the customer or interaction at hand. Look for an “identifier” capability such as a customer’s phone number, e-mail address, account number, or social security number that triggers a lookup of a complete, detailed history of the customer, and initiates the workflow and desktop content that puts everything at the agent’s fingertips. This also eliminates the need for customers to repeat contact information even when the contact is escalated to someone else.

 

3.       Does the desktop highlight information so that agents can easily find it?

 

Once you cast your bait out in the water, it can be difficult to tell what’s going on below the surface. That’s where a bobber can save the day. When it goes under, you know the most important information right away, and you can react. Today’s desktops can serve the same function, highlighting important information so that agents know what is going on.

 

Some applications do a better job than others at presenting information. Things to look for include:

·          Does the application present a universal view of the customer? Most do not. Sorting through various applications to find the correct information wastes time and aggravates the customer.

·          Does the application use pop-up windows or “folder tabs” to organize different information? Pop-up windows are tedious to navigate, requiring the agent to click multiple times and remember which window has the appropriate information. Folder tabs are comparatively much easier to navigate.

·          Can the application be customized to always present selected information to the agent? This is made more difficult, if not impossible, if the solution doesn’t utilize a universal view or folder tabs. If the solution utilizes multiple windows, it is likely that windows will eventually block each other and the necessary information.

 

4.       Can you see a total view of the customer across communication channels all within the single desktop (phone, fax, e-mail, web chat)?

 

Information is the key to learning and success. Much like today’s underwater cameras have unlocked mysteries locked in the deep with a complete unobstructed view, today’s desktop can provide a total view of the customer. To get the full benefit of the desktop, your customer touch points – voice, e-mail, fax, and chat – should be integrated. Without leaving the desktop, agents not only see current activity, they also get a complete picture of all of the customer’s previous contacts. This enables the agent to see a complete history of the customer’s communications and interactions with the company and allows them to act accordingly.

 

5.       How does the desktop present all of these legacy systems?

 

Fishing guides, like vendors, come in all shapes and sizes. Rarely is the one-size-fits-all variety a good choice, but each has its place. A dedicated fly angler won’t be happy with Johnny-the-worm-drowner as a guide and vice versa. Vendors also can have vastly different approaches to creating a unified agent desktop – some are more invasive than others. The “non-invasive” approach typically uses web services to present any web-enabled application to the desktop. If an application is not web-enabled (typically older, legacy systems), professional services work can get you there. If the desktop doesn’t support web services, expect a much larger integration and customization project for each application you need to access.

 

6.       To host or not to host? And is there a migration path from hosted to on-premise that’s licensed with the same desktop? If not, what are the differences?

 

It’s not uncommon for someone who is new to fishing to immediately buy armloads of expensive equipment before they understand how they will use it. Soon after, they find that the equipment they have chosen doesn’t suit their needs. That’s where careful research and just a little patience and experience could have saved them both money and aggravation. Many companies offer both hosted and on-premise licensed solutions. At first glance, this looks like a logical path for small and midsize businesses or departments – begin with the hosted option and then migrate to the licensed version after a proven ROI. But often the hosted and licensed solutions are not the same solutions, having completely different features, functions, and desktops. As a result, there is a less-than-linear migration path, with additional training and costs to move to on-premise. To ease migration, look for the same solution in both environments, and consider testing the waters with the hosted model.

 

7.       Can I still be operational if my center goes down or my agents can’t make it to the office?

 

Contrary to what some believe, fish will bite in the rain. The prepared angler – with a wind- and waterproof suit to protect against hypothermia – could experience some of the best fishing to be had. Similarly, your contact center has to be prepared to handle customers even when the weather turns bad, power goes out, or another emergency hits your location. A hosted option, where the software operates in a secure, remote location with 24/7 redundancy, minimizes your risk. Agents can access the system from anywhere with a high-speed internet connection whether that is from home, a hotel, or a satellite office. This provides two major advantages. One, in the event of an emergency or disaster, your agents (or your entire contact center) can relocate to safety and begin working as soon as possible. The second advantage is that because the agents can be located anywhere, you can hire the best possible candidate for the job.

 

8.       Can you be provided with company names and/or references from two current customers and one company that did not select your services?

 

Equipment failures on the water are a source of exasperation that can be eliminated with research. Ask experienced anglers and store clerks what they recommend. They are often more than willing to share what equipment they use (but probably not the location of their secret honey hole.) Likewise, established companies should be able to provide references of its capabilities. Additionally, it is wise to ask about lost businesses. Every company loses deals, and learning why could provide valuable insight to help you make a decision. It also is a good measure of how open the potential vendor is willing to be.

 

9.       What is the typical ROI? How long should it take to realize 100% return on investment?

 

How long will it take you to catch a fish? Well there are no guarantees that you’ll ever catch a fish – that’s why it’s called “fishing” and not “catching.” However, if a vendor has done its due diligence during the discovery process, they should have an in-depth understanding of your business and the areas where the unified desktop will impact your business. Using this custom data, they should be able to provide a quantifiable figure and timeline for reaching your break-even point. As a point of reference, ask for examples of the ROI of other implementations.

 

10.     What levels of product support are available?

 

After your implementation, you don’t want to be a fish out of water if you suddenly need assistance. Make sure that your vendor has a clear, established support infrastructure including escalation procedures. With your contact center on the line, 24/7 support is mandatory. Talk to existing customers to understand their experiences with the vendor’s support staff to ensure that you will have experienced and responsive product support.

 

11.     How long is a typical implementation?

 

When you hop on a boat for a fishing excursion, you typically have an idea of how long you plan to be to out there. Likewise, established companies should be able to provide a reasonable estimate and actual examples from past installations of the length of time required to implement the solution.  Typically, the more complex your environment – the more systems and applications you are presenting through the desktop, the complexity of workflows, and the number of customer channels being implemented – the longer the implementation. Spend the time upfront with your vendor meticulously planning the implementation and setting expectations within your organization.

 

12.    Are there reporting and analytics capabilities? Can you access real-time statistics as well as standard and customized reporting to build out in-depth business intelligence?

 

Other anglers could be quite reserved with information about what they are catching, where, and with what bait. Or they could just be lying. Fortunately, contact center reporting and analytics enable you to monitor and track communications to improve your customer service. Make sure that the vendor you select gives you the ability to query the database for the report that your business needs, not what the vendor determined ahead of time. Additionally, if you are considering a hosted solution or plan to utilize remote agents, ensure that you will have adequate reporting and real-time monitoring capabilities to effectively manage those agents.

 

13.    Has your preferred vendor been acquired or experienced a recent merger with another company?

 

Wildlife agencies are taking a much more proactive role in managing their resources. Because of this, regulations often vary from one body of water to another, or even within different spans of the same water. This puts the responsibility on the angler to make sure they know the regulations wherever they are that minute. Likewise, in the technology industry, recent mergers and acquisitions have resulted in wide disparity in the knowledge, experience, and service capabilities within these companies and their newly acquired or legacy solutions. Make sure that the vendor you plan to work with has the internal resources, longevity, and commitment to make your implementation a success.

 

Whether equipping yourself for fishing or for improving customer service in the contact center with a unified agent desktop, determine what you are really after, ask the right questions of the right people, and make the proper investments. Then you will be well on your way to productive days.  While no one solution will be a true one-size-fits-all, some solutions are dramatically more flexible than others. This can make a substantial difference later if your needs or desires change and you want to go after bigger fish in larger waters. Tight lines all!