The evolving multi-channel contact centre

Believe it or not, "contact centre" is still a relatively new term. It didn't appear in the call centre industry until the late 1990s - a time when call centres were almost exclusively voice-based and focused on the traditional activities of receiving and making phone calls with live agents.

Integrated voice response (IVR) was the only form of self-service available for most customers and it was limited to simple applications using dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF)-based menus. The Internet was also still relatively new, and the Web was generally misunderstood by a multitude of businesses that didn't grasp its growing popularity or foresee the potential impact it would have on daily activities.

Much has changed in the past five years. Explosive Internet usage spawned new higher consumer service expectations, which had a dramatic effect on the way companies operate. Many traditional call centres had to evolve into contact centres to meet expectations, or risk losing business. So many call centres evolved, in fact, that leading industry analysts such as Gartner now describe the contact centre as "mainstream".

However, the evolution from call centre to contact centre hasn't been totally smooth. Initially, there were significant challenges in the way companies viewed new channels such as e-mail and chat, and companies struggled to fit these channels into their overall business strategies.

While many businesses have more successfully integrated Internet-related interaction channels into today's contact centres, business processes and service offerings continue to change as technologies are introduced that open up new ways of interacting with customers.

When "multi-channel" first became a buzzword, it really signified channel enablement. Call centre managers knew they needed to take advantage of new communication channels, but how to integrate new channels with existing voice-enabled contact centre technology wasn't clear. In fact, when multi-channel emerged, many call centres had yet to fully integrate IVR systems with live voice operations. As a result, when it came time to deploy new channels such as e-mail or Web chat, applications were oftentimes deployed without any strategic plan at all.

Unfortunately, this type of deployment often did more harm than good. We can all relate to the classic example of a customer who sends an e-mail to a company, but never receives a reply. The saga worsens when the customer follows up with a voice call, and finds that the agent has no record of an e-mail ever being received!

Traditional inbound voice channels were never immune to these problems either - callers interacting with IVR systems often found a lack of integration when they opted to speak to a live agent who had no record of interactions within the IVR. But, adding even more channels without a solid, well-conceived plan tended to compound the interaction problems that already existed.

In some of the worst-case multi-channel deployments, technologies like IVR and e-mail were deployed in silos, all managed separately with different business strategies, and there was no uniform approach to handling customer data.

With key applications handled separately, customer data wasn't shared and agents handling one channel had no visibility into the customer's previous interaction across a different channel. If it wasn't for the growing consumer interest in self-service and the Internet, these early experiments in multi-channel contact centres could have put an end to the transition from call centre to contact centre.

The fact that consumers continued to embrace these new technologies in ever-increasing numbers meant that contact centres needed to find a better way to handle and integrate these multiple communications channels. The solution came with the introduction of universal queue technologies, integrated architectures and speech and content analysis. These technologies played a big role in the evolution of the traditional call centre into a true contact centre.

Through the advent of these technologies, today's contact centres are being built around a single architecture that carries both voice and data. This unified architecture allows companies to build a cohesive strategy for interaction management that crosses all media channels as well both self and assisted service.

For example, the concept of an integrated interaction management software framework allows for customer data to be attached to an interaction (such as an e-mail) and sent directly to an agent desktop along with the interaction, enabling the agent to personalise the customer experience while improving agent productivity and effectiveness.

This concept holds true for voice self-service systems that are integrated to the platform as well. For example, when a customer elects to transfer from self-service in the IVR platform to assisted service, that customer's information and previous contact history can be presented directly to the agent desktop along with the interaction. If the customer had previously contacted the company via e-mail or a Web chat, the agent would have access to that historical information as well, enabling the agent to respond in a more consistent, knowledgeable manner.

This ability to store customer data in a centralised location that can be accessed by multiple applications is one important by-product of the unified architecture. Regardless of which media channel the customer chooses to use, the chosen application has the same access to customer data as any other media application. This unification of customer data has played a significant role in improving the customer experience as well as maximising the efficiency of the contact centre.

With a multi-channel framework that integrates customer data, companies can leverage customer and service information more effectively, allowing each customer interaction to build upon the next one. This process strengthens the relationship, because no matter how the customer chooses to interact with the business, each interaction is managed in a consistent manner.

It is worth noting that although the technology exists to design an automated speech application that leverages data in addition to the customer's behaviour across channels, the reality is that implementation of this strategy is just not as commonplace as it could be. This is often because speech implementation teams tend to only view callers' automated experiences rather than the entire customer experience, including other channels that customers use before or after their automated speech experience. Companies considering speech automation need to consider working with a team that understands multi-channel perspectives to successfully deliver a truly integrated customer experience.

As the multi-channel contact centre and unified platform concepts continue to evolve, so will the tighter integration of channels. Advances in XML-based self-service applications are making the integration of voice and Internet media channels easier, allowing companies to provide more consistency across channels while reducing development costs. With XML, both voice-and Web-based applications can leverage the same data libraries for self and assisted service inquiries. With integrated solutions that leverage the same information across all channels, businesses can present a consistent and unified image to customers.

These technology advances have allowed companies to evolve customer contact strategies as well. The unified platform approach allows for the centralised creation of interaction routing strategies that are common across multiple channels, leveraging common components and data. These strategies can also involve the blending of multiple channel types for a single interaction.

For example, a customer calls into the customer service centre, submits a customer ID, navigates through some speech-enabled voice self-service menus and is placed in an assisted service queue. Due to heavy call volumes, the wait time is so long that the customer abandons the call. This could trigger an outbound e-mail to the customer apologising for the unusually long wait time and offering a discount on future purchases, increasing customer satisfaction and retention.

Another example of the blending of interactions involves a customer using a cellphone to make a flight itinerary change. The customer can talk to a live agent or even an IVR application to make desired changes to the itinerary. When the change is finalised, the customer can indicate the preferred confirmation communication channel. Since the customer is in transit, he/she can choose to receive a text message with the new itinerary details.

Clearly, by deploying multi-channel solutions on top of a common framework, businesses are able to blend interactions across channels and use common data to improve the customer experience and increase loyalty. There is little doubt that the multi-channel contact centre has proven its value and is here to stay. Improvements such as the unified framework and XML-based contact centre applications are enabling contact centres to provide more effective and proactive interactions with customers. But, understanding the capabilities of these new technologies and building a solid business strategy that leverages technology to the fullest is key to delivering truly world-class customer service.