Whitepaper

Omni-Channel Strategy in Contact Centers

Status 08/2017

We record & analyze communications

1 Market requirements

What customers expect

Today‘s customers are flexible, well-informed and have

become more demanding than ever by deploying mobile

technologies and social networks. Before every purchase, they

actively inform themselves about various sources, share their

experiences and expect excellent customer service as a matter

of course.

Companies can be reached via multiple channels thus

enabling customers to select their preferred method of

contact. Customers may change channels at any time,

and they expect this change to occur seamlessly without

needing to repeat previous interactions. Moreover, they

demand consistent service quality across all channels.

Channels deployed

Channels used by customers often vary. During the

selection process, digital channels are typically deployed

by customers to search for suitable products before

initiating more concrete interactions via chat or e-mail. If

customers call contact centers, they are often well-informed

or dissatisfied because they could not make progress via

other channels. Therefore, demands on agents are growing

enormously.

The spread of smartphones has led to a growing deployment

of text-based channels. E-mails and text messages are more

easily and rapidly sent, especially if customers do not need

or want personal contact. Since many users spend a large

part of their time on social media, many concerns can be

easily addressed and followed up via social networks on a

24/7 basis.

Growing demands for contact centers

Customers expect companies to know about their former

purchases and interactions and demand personalized

service. Companies frequently differentiate themselves

from the competition through excellent customer service

alone.

2 Multi-Channel versus Omni-Channel

Every man for himself: Multi-Channel

The term “Multi-Channel” describes the availability of

multiple methods of contact for customers to communicate

with a company. Several channels are often established

sequentially and operate independently without being

integrated with other channels. Each channel may employ

unique strategies and separate staff.

If customers shift from one contact channel to another,

they often experience a different selling approach and the

need to re-explain their requests. This dichotomy increases

frustration and leads to a rapid decline in customer

satisfaction, not to mention missed cross-selling and up-

selling opportunities. In the worst-case scenario, the

customer may end up migrating to a competitor.

An integrated Omni-Channel approach

The disadvantages of a simple Multi-Channel contact center

are eliminated by implementing an Omni-Channel approach.

The Omni-Channel approach unifies and synchronizes

individual contact channels instead of treating them as

isolated separate entities. It facilitates the same service across

all channels without any disadvantages for the customer.

Customer histories and information already exchanged in

previous channels are processed seamlessly to optimize

service quality.

Implementing an Omni-Channel approach requires changes

to a company’s structure including technical adjustments,

altered employee expectations and innovations to overlapping

business processes.

3 Benefits of an Omni-Channel Strategy

Implementing an Omni-Channel approach results in significant

advantages.

According to the Aberdeen Group, an Omni-Channel

strategy:

• Increases customer loyalty by 7.1 % per year

• Boosts positive mentions on social media by 5.5 %

• Improves Customer Lifetime Value by 4 % compared to

an annual loss of 23.3 % in companies without an Omni-

Channel strategy!

• Reduces transfers by agents by 4 % per conversation; and

• Decreases agent costs by 3.3 %

Moreover, contact centers with an integrated Omni-

Channel strategy:

• Increase the IVR-completion rate by 10.6 %

• Improve customer loyalty by 9 %

• Bolster Customer Lifetime Value by 5.8 %

• Lift agent utilization rates by 3.5 %; and

• Reduce supervisor time for agent support by 7.8 %

Omni-Channel strategy offers tangible benefits, but it must

be carefully planned in terms of organizational restructuring,

technical adjustments and employee involvement.

We record & analyze communications

4 First step towards an Omni-Channel Approach

After deciding to implement an Omni-Channel strategy,

management typically starts by thinking about technical

adjustments. However, they will save a great deal of time by

considering organizational adaptations first to guarantee a

smooth transition.

The Omni-Channel approach targets company-wide customer

communications to foster a uniform picture of the enterprise

on any channel. For proper implementation, intra-company

and uniform communications must take place at a corporate

level. Various departments processing on separate channels

must integrate with each other, and joint objectives must be

created through effective collaboration. Only by doing so can

a company convey a holistic picture to the outside world.

Established structures must be reconsidered and transformed

through a uniform strategy.

This overarching cooperation must be technically supported,

e.g., via the use of an ERP system to facilitate interconnection

among multiple departments and the management of their

corresponding resources.

Existing reporting must be adjusted as well. Due to inter-

divisional cooperation, the need for new reports arises because

the focus transcends the specific objectives of an individual

department. Moreover, conflicting reporting solutions within the

same company must be standardized.

Finally, reorganizing customer data management must become

a new priority. An Omni-Channel strategy means the customers’

full history must be known regardless of the channels they

choose. Therefore, the customers’ data from all channels must

be made available to every employee. An independent, secure,

yet easy-to-use authorization process must connect various

departments and their employees to access customer data. A

continuing conversation with customers must occur without the

need for them to repeat their histories.

We record & analyze communications

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Integrating the Contact Center within the Omni-Channel Strategy

Study by the Aberdeen Group (2014): The Business Value of Integrating the Contact Center within your Omni-Channel Strategy

5 Changing Technology

A strict separation among individual channels must be

abolished to create an integrated whole. In doing so, various

technical aspects should be considered:

• How does data enter the communications channel?

• How is data managed?

• How is data evaluated?

Routing: All interactions should be intelligently routed in

an automated manner to assign the right customer to the

right agent at the right time. The employee should possess

sufficient technical and professional competencies. If

a customer is communicating via chat, the agent needs

familiarity with the „chat“ channel as well as professional

customer service skills.

Channel change: If a customer chooses to change the

channel, a uniform customer approach must be employed as

well as the technical means to incorporate this change in a

seamless manner.

Documentation of customer interactions: To fully

understand the Customer Journey, it must be documented

across all communications channels to make all interactions

available on demand at all times. In short, customers’

interactions on various channels must be linked.

Central data applications: Central applications must enable

access to all available data from the Customer Journey to

convey a consolidated, holistic approach to customers’ requests.

Agents will be unable to quickly find the right information if they

need to use too many applications. Thus, the introduction of a

streamlined Unified Agent Desktop will facilitate this process.

Cloud technology: At the same time, the infrastructure should

be installed via network instead of locally. Doing so decreases

the need for costly investments and improves scalability so

the company can respond flexibly and actively, and adapt to

ongoing progress.

6 Capturing the Customer Journey

After enabling interactions via multiple channels in the contact

center, all communications must be documented with a suitable

recording solution.

Typically, each channel is delivered in its own format so different

recording solutions must be used. For example, telephony recording

is based on an entirely different format than recording text-based

channels such as e-mail or chat.

However, an Omni-Channel approach links communications

across multiple channels to understand the Customer Journey.

The customers’ communications must therefore be thoroughly

recorded and correlated for each interaction.

The contact center’s CRM tool merges information to create a

Customer Journey and can be viewed and queried by agents

at any time.

Capturing the Customer Journey with ASC

• ASC offers systems documenting communications tailored

to meet the demands of contact centers, security critical

markets and the industrial sector.

• Recording of all channels: In addition to voice and screen

data, other channels such as SMS, chat or video can also

be recorded.

• Link to ERP and CRM systems: Open interfaces make it

easy to connect existing contact center infrastructure with

ASC’s system. By doing so, a wide range of data can be

preserved and exchanged.

• Search by specific criteria: Stored communications are

tagged with index data such as the name of the agent, the

customer number or a support ID. This information can

be transferred manually or automated with ASC’s system.

Relevant information can be rapidly and easily found and

compiled.

• Depiction of the Customer Journey: Data is played by ASC

applications to convey individual interactions or the entire

Customer Journey.

• ASC offers a visionary Cloud solution based on real multi-

tenancy to ensure unlimited scalability, availability and

flexibility.

7 Quality Management

Today, agents are faced with ever-increasing demands: they

must operate multiple channels, deal with an increasing

number of applications and convey superior knowledge about

a company’s products and services. Especially via phone,

many customers have already collected a lot of information

through other channels and expect agents to know the same.

Agents must understand the Customer Journey at a glance

and detect any patterns from previously generated data to

determine either next steps or cross- or up-selling opportunities.

Similar to traditional telephony, where agents are regularly

trained and evaluated, agents in a more complex Omni-

Channel environment require a detailed introduction to social

media channels and e-mail, even if they use them privately.

Certainly, some agents prefer certain channels, so, it makes

sense to get an overview of their comfort levels for deployment

planning. In addition, targeted training can be employed for

unpopular channels to prevent negative tendencies during

project implementation.

We record & analyze communications

We record & analyze communications

However, channel training must be supplemented to ensure

adequate service quality. Thus, all interactions should be

monitored regularly in a random manner. In addition to

the agent’s development and service level, new training

requirements can be specifically determined. Ineffective

training is avoided by the „watering can principle“, and each

employee or team can be promoted in a customized manner.

With the Omni-Channel approach, the actual evaluation

process should be adapted to consider unique criteria for

various channels as well as the entire Customer Journey from

initial contact to conclusion. Only by doing so can management

assess what customers have experienced on their journey and

how contact center agents have accompanied them on their

trip.

ASC‘s quality management solution

• Comprehensive quality management for agent evaluation

• Individual evaluation templates for each channel or

company-wide

• Evaluating customers’ individual steps or their entire

journey

• Detailed determination of employees’ training

requirements by channel

• Standard review of employees’ knowledge through

customized quizzes

• Ensuring quality level by assigning personalized training

packages

• Recorded sessions for on-the-job training

• Channel-specific or company-wide reporting

8 Analytics

With multiple contact channels, the number of customer

interactions to be evaluated has increased exponentially.

Manual evaluation is impossible with immense data sets,

and an automated analytical solution must be used for

representative results.

Automated evaluations must include all customer

communications for an accurate portrayal of the service

level. When using analytics solutions in an Omni-Channel

environment, the evaluation of both audio- and text-based

channels must be included.

Complete analysis of all communications from multiple

channels transcends traditional quantitative measures, such

as the average call duration, to determine the service level.

Instead, the causes for these statistics must be researched.

The triggers within critical conversations must be found quickly

and remedied, and the automated detection of new trends

can proactively address customers’ needs.

In addition, detecting dissatisfied customers in real-time enables

an immediate response to prevent customer defections.

Agents’ behavior can be specifically filtered and analyzed in

critical situations for customized training. If necessary, real-

time support for agents can be provided through automated

recommendations. Analytics solutions can even evaluate

customers’ emotional state and their histories to determine

whether they wish to buy or are in the mood for up-selling.

Predictions about customers’ behavior and the corresponding

adjustment of agent services are delivering impressive results

in advanced research and development.

ASC‘s analytics solutions

• Automated analysis of all recorded communications

• Trends recognition through automated categorization of all

incoming calls

• Identification and alerts of critical conversations requiring

immediate action

• Cause analysis for containment and problem resolution

• Pre-filtering of calls for efficient quality management

• Automated transcription of audio data for holistic analysis

with existing BI solution

• Reports and dashboards to view the most critical

information at a glance

We record & analyze communications

ASC Technologies AG Seibelstraße 2 - 4 | Phone +49 6021 5001 0 63768 Hösbach | Fax +49 6021 5001 310Germany | hq@asctechnologies.com

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8 Summary

Introducing an Omni-Channel approach facilitates excellent customer service to create loyal customers.

At the same time, the transition must be carefully considered with thoughtful planning.

In short, you should ask the following questions:

• What are the most important channels, and are they all recorded?

• Can information from all channels be collected, analyzed and processed appropriately?

• Can information from channels be combined with relevant information from other operational systems on one platform

(QM, WFM, CRM, etc.)?

• Is the database scalable as new channels are added?

• Can the platform be implemented with minor adjustments and is it scalable?

• Is analysis across all channels possible?

• Is recording across all channels possible? Can the data be displayed in a customized dashboard?