Evolving From Contact Center to Engagement Center

Evolving From Contact Center to Engagement Center

Jeff Foley Director, Product Marketing PEGASYSTEMS Today s digitally empowered customers are more demanding than ever. They expect a quick, accurate resolution to their inquiry via their communication channel and device of choice. In this ebook, Pegasystems Jeff Foley discusses why digitally empowered customers make it imperative for service organizations to evolve from traditional contact centers to engagement centers and how to successfully start the journey. JOIN THE CONVERSATION

The Demand for Change Good service is good business It s no secret that customer service lies at the heart of the customer relationship. Gartner reports that service interactions make up 75% of overall customer interactions, and a Bain & Co. survey reports that customers are 4 times more likely to buy from a competitor as a result of a bad service experience. Unfortunately customer expectations have evolved faster than customer service delivery, leaving the majority of customers dissatisfied with the service they receive. ONLY 1% OF CUSTOMERS FEEL THEIR EXPECTATIONS ARE CONSISTENTLY MET.* 91% OF CUSTOMERS ARE FRUSTRATED THAT A SINGLE ISSUE REQUIRES MULTIPLE CONTACTS TO RESOLVE.** * Forbes, "Customer Experience: Is It The Chicken Or Egg," ** Accenture Customer Service Study 3

Customers Demand Change Engaging everywhere Customer service is no longer limited to phone calls between 9am and 5pm. Customers demand that service is available to them in any channel, at all times and on every device. Companies must engage customers on the web, on their mobile device, in social media as well as on the phone. Most customers now use multiple channels simultaneously and expect service organizations to instantly respond across these channels. And if they do not, the customer may abandon the purchase, churn or even demonize the company via social media. 74% OF CONSUMERS UTILIZE THREE OR MORE CHANNELS WHEN SEEKING CUSTOMER CARE* 58% OF CUSTOMERS ARE FRUSTRATED BY INCONSISTENT EXPERIENCES ACROSS CHANNELS** * Ovum 2014 State of Multichannel Customer Service Survey, September 2014 ** Forrester Research, North American Technographics R Customer Experience Online Survey. 4

Employees Demand Change Disengaged amidst shifting responsibilities According to a global Gallup poll, 80% of today s employees are disengaged from their jobs. Employees are forced to wade through information overload, work towards de-motivational metrics and comply with continuously shifting policies and procedures. Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) are not empowered to act on the customers behalf to resolve issues and must frequently escalate to managers. They cannot understand why their personal technology has become so easy to use while their work systems remain difficult and unintuitive. EMPLOYEE LEVELS OF JOB ENGAGEMENT 60% 20% 20% ENGAGED NOT ENGAGED ACTIVELY DISENGAGED 5

The Engagement Center Meeting the demand for change Engagement centers are designed to improve the customer and employee experience, providing omni-channel interactions tailored to the needs to the individual and designed to rapidly incorporate feedback and adapt to change. Engagement centers exhibit five key characteristics that improve service delivery and the bottom line. GARTNER S DEFINITION OF THE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT CENTER (CEC): Business applications that are engineered to provide customer service and support, regardless of the engagement channel. The goal of the CEC is not only to provide service to customers as they move among communications channels including social media while retaining the customer s context, but also to deliver the appropriate business rules to determine the next best action, information or process with which to engage the customer.* * Gartner Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center, Michael Maoz 6

1 Embrace the Everywhere Customer The engagement center must deliver service when and where customers need it. It is equipped to handle interactions via each channel and device to resolve the customer s issue. Whether using video chat, self-diagnosing connected devices, co-browsing or social media, the engagement center sits at the heart of each customer interaction. It seamlessly connects and transitions from one touch point to the next, gathering and using context along the way to better personalize every encounter. CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT CENTER 7

2 Empower Employees The engagement center provides the CSR with the context they need to intelligently resolve an interaction. This goes far beyond serving up the traditional 360-degree view of the customer. Context captures the customer intent and employee goals for an interaction and eliminates information overload. CSRs can focus on delivering an accurate and complete resolution for each customer while aligning their actions to their performance goals. The customer's value is clearly presented A dynamically assigned SLA keeps the CSR on track to meet goals The system recommends the best action to take based on context A comprehensive view of the customer's relevant transactions and interactions are presented to the CSR 8

3 Recommend The Best Resolution The engagement center must deliver relevant, personalized responses. It leverages the context about each customer and business goal to deliver personalized actions that guide a CSR or a customer to the best, most relevant resolution. For example, the supporting system can recommend the appropriate service levels, information and actions for a specific customer, CSR and situation to reach the best resolution. 9

4 Eliminate Silos 91 percent of customers are frustrated that a single issue requires multiple contacts to resolve.* This results from the fact that the people, channels and systems needed for a resolution often operate in isolated silos. An engagement center breaks down the walls between organizations and systems, hiding the complexity from the customer. It leverages a unified case to cut across channels, interactions, departments, and systems so that inquiries can be completely resolved on the first contact. The result is more efficient interactions that build trust with your customers. CASE * Forrester Research, "Navigate The Future of Customer Service" by Kate Leggett 10

5 Add Value for the Customer Fixing a customer issue is an good outcome, but it essentially puts customers back where they would have been if they did not have an issue to begin with. Engagement centers take each opportunity to advise customers, based on their usage and preferences, on how they can get more value from their existing products and services or from complementary products. The engagement center leverages capabilities such as predictive analytics and business rules to anticipate a customer s needs and directly align those needs to the best products and services to build a longterm relationship. 11

Transitioning from Contact Center to Engagement Center Key Best Practices There are three key best practices for evolving from the contact center to the engagement center: 1 SELECT THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY Choose flexible and agile technologies that support the five key characteristics of the engagement center. Do not choose technology that maintains siloed channels and processes. 2 CAPTURE THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY Capture the journey directly within your system execution so that it becomes the backbone of service operations, engages employees and guides each interaction. 3 NEVER STOP EVOLVING Customer demands, products, regulations and business goals never stop evolving and the engagement center should keep pace. Follow an agile approach to change. Implement, learn and improve, to deliver a more efficient and customer-focused experience. 12

The Rewards Of The Engagement Center DRIVE MORE REVENUE AND NET PROMOTERS Happy customers stay loyal, buy more and tell their friends. 86% of customers say they are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.* And with social media, this means their positive experiences can influence thousands in seconds. INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY CSRs do not waste time on low value tasks like handling repeat calls or searching through irrelevant information. They are more motivated by a system that helps them effectively engage with customers, leading to productivity boosts of 40% and higher. BE FASTER TO MARKET Engagement centers leverage agile technologies for constant evolution. This means you can bring new products to market rapidly (as much as 7x faster) and quickly change to meet new customer demands, channels, regulations and business objectives. * 2014 Marketing Pilgrim Blog 13

About Pegasystems Pegasystems, the leader in business process management and software for customer centricity, helps organizations enhance customer loyalty, generate new business, and improve productivity. Our patented Build for Change technology speeds the delivery of critical business solutions by directly capturing business objectives and eliminating manual programming. Pegasystems enables clients to quickly adapt to changing business conditions in order to outperform the competition. For more information, please visit us at www.pega.com. Copyright 2016 Pegasystems Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.