Unified comms boost competitiveness

Today's focus may be firmly on the customer, yet the need to drive down costs remains unrelenting.

The good news, however, is that these are no longer mutually exclusive, as today's best call centre technologies are increasingly being adopted and can deliver the twin goals of operational improvement and better service quality.

For example, using the latest software's flexible multimedia routing capabilities, together with such functions as presence management and remote and mobile support based on voice over Internet Protocol, customers can benefit from a simple and cost-effective way to extend customer service beyond the contact centre - gaining competitive edge without resorting to costly and complex multi-point solutions.

In recent decades, as businesses have expanded, so the essential familiarity and customer understanding typified by the old 'corner shop' has been lost. Indeed, it could be said this has been one of the main drivers behind the emergence of customer relationship management (CRM) technologies, seeking to create an environment in which the enterprise has the equivalent level of knowledge about their customers as the archetypal local shopkeeper.

Yet CRM technologies have received more than their share of poor publicity, as implementations have fallen short of expectations. Much of the reason for this has been CRM's almost exclusive focus on the acquisition of customer information. For the truth is that the most sophisticated database will be of limited value unless that information can be both accessed and used intelligently.

The result is that there has been something of a reality check among end-users in particular, with a recognition that this needs to be part of a broader approach, encompassing both infrastructure change and putting in place the right people and processes.

For example, every business has the necessary knowledge of each customer: the key is to be able to access and react appropriately to that data at the point of interaction and decision-making.

In order to be able to make this essential link between the caller and the information held on them within the business, the chosen solution must seamlessly combine the database management capability of a CRM system with some form of customer interaction management.

Another key tool in extending contact centre capability across the broader enterprise is presence management. This breaks down the historic barriers between the contact centre and other departments, by providing visibility of the status of any employee throughout the business.

So, if the call centre agent needs to resolve an accounts query, for example, they can see the availability of a suitable member of the finance team. At the click of a button, they put the call on hold, briefly explain the nature of the query and then connect the caller - resulting in a 'warm' introduction in which the customer does not have to repeat the enquiry.

Equally, if the customer dials that employee directly, presence management enables the call to be forwarded to wherever they are situated, whether in another company location, home office, on the mobile or a partner's extension. Further, if they are not immediately available, a voicemail message can be e-mailed to the recipient as an alert, enabling an early response.

In recent decades, as businesses have expanded, so the essential familiarity and customer understanding typified by the old 'corner shop' has been lost.

Dave Paulding is Interactive Intelligence's regional sales manager for UK and Africa.

Historically, contact centre operators have acquired point solutions to deal with point problems, building up a complex infrastructure of multiple licensing and maintenance contracts in which the various applications do not talk to each other, resulting in a slow and 'clunky' customer response.

In adopting a single unified communications platform based on open systems, the end-user reduces the reliance on multiple third-party vendors, significantly reducing cost and management complexity. Importantly, an open-systems solution, which can integrate with a CRM package or other third-party applications already in place, will also help leverage existing investment.

Few businesses either need, or can afford up-front, the full range of available technologies. By adopting a solution based on a modular architecture, the end-user can invest in such differing applications as automatic call distribution skills-based routing, interactive voice response (IVR), unified messaging, predictive dialling, multimedia recording and more. This allows nearly any contact centre or enterprise requirement to be cost-effectively addressed at a pace that suits the broader business strategy.

There is a view, still commonly held, that 'customers don't like self-service technologies'. Yet, as research has shown, the reality is that users typically have no problem with the inherent technology, but rather with poor self-service implementations - designed purely to save the business money, with little or no concern for the customer experience.

As a result, as IVR and speech recognition become more reliable and practical, they increasingly form part of a company's ability to satisfy demanding customers looking for rapid and effective response to their needs via the communications channel of their choice.

The local shopkeeper has always been ideally geared to respond to customers whom they recognise as real people, with individual needs that are clearly understood. After losing sight of this over many years, the enterprise looking to differentiate its offering through superior, individualised service, can now do the same.

* Dave Paulding is Interactive Intelligence's regional sales manager for UK and Africa.