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 | [email protected]
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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?