Citrix SaaS Division. Citrix achieves support nirvana via integration of GoToAssist, Salesforce and the Interactive Intelligence CIC solution.

Transcription

1 Citrix SaaS Division Citrix achieves support nirvana via integration of GoToAssist, Salesforce and the Interactive Intelligence CIC solution.

2 2 It s great to have all our agents working in one system. It s much simpler and more efficient, and helps our organization respond more quickly to changes in volume. Tim Maskrey Director of Service Operations www. Citrix is the cloud company that enables mobile workstyles empowering people to work and collaborate from anywhere by securely accessing apps and data on any of the latest devices as easily as they would in their own office. The company s SaaS Division, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, provides cloud-based solutions for remote connectivity and collaboration that include GoToAssist, GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining, GoToMyPC, Podio and ShareFile. The challenge: streamlining customer support with blended agents The Global Customer Support (GCS) organization within the SaaS Division provides 24/7 follow-the-sun support in multiple languages via phone, chat, or self-service. More than 100 agents, working remotely or at the Citrix contact center in Santa Barbara, handle approximately 10,000 inquiries per week. In 2008, GCS implemented an all-in-one IP communications software suite from Interactive Intelligence to provide automated call distribution (ACD) and other contact center functionality. Although this Customer Interaction Center (CIC) solution was able to handle chat inquiries as well as phone and , Citrix preferred to use the powerful chat functionality in its GoToAssist tool. This enabled agents to escalate their support sessions from chat-only mode to real-time control and viewing of customers computers for fast resolution of complex issues. This decision meant that GCS had to manage two separate incoming workstreams: one for chat and the other for phone and . In turn, this necessitated a separate, dedicated team of agents to handle chat. With two teams, two customer queues and two systems, it was difficult for Director Seth Woltz to optimize staffing flexibility and operational efficiency. During slow times, when few chats were coming in, the agents were not fully productive, but I wasn t able to switch them to calls or s. On the other hand, during peak periods, agents struggled to handle multiple chats and we experienced unacceptable abandoned rates, impacting customer satisfaction, he said. Adding to the challenge, chat agents were forced to perform a significant number of manual tasks to input customer information in Salesforce, the company s customer relationship management (CRM) solution. They had to search Salesforce for the customer contact, start a case and categorize it. They also had to remember to copy and paste the chat transcript into Salesforce. The lack of automation was affecting agent productivity, Woltz said.

3 3 Woltz and Tim Maskrey, director of service operations, felt that the solution lay in integrating GoToAssist with Salesforce and CIC to automate backend data entry and consolidate all customer inquiries into a single workstream. We wanted autocapture of support session information and channel-agnostic routing to provide a seamless experience for our agents and greater flexibility for our management team. Integration would allow us to use the logic and algorithms in CIC to route any type of inquiry chat, phone or to the right agent at the right time, said Maskrey. The ultimate goal was a team of blended agents who could be assigned to chat, phone and duties depending upon the needs of the support organization and the volume of work. Integrating GoToAssist, Salesforce and Customer Interaction Center The integration project, spearheaded by Maskrey and Woltz, involved Citrix and Interactive Intelligence engineers, as well as a consultant with expertise in Salesforce. Since this was the first time such an integration had been undertaken, the team faced a number of challenges, including a learning curve for the Interactive Intelligence engineers, who needed to understand the Citrix APIs and code base. There was no blueprint for this integration, but we had a great team and a clear set of objectives, Maskrey said. Key benefits Reduce abandon rate, improving customer satisfaction. Increase agent productivity with automated data entry in Salesforce. Enhance staffing flexibility with blended agents. Streamline operations with single, integrated workflow. The new unified system, which went live in 2012, was tested internally and then piloted by a few agents before being rolled out. Here is a summary of the new chat process: 1. The customer fills out a chat request form on the GCS website. 2. The web server queues the chat request in the CIC system. 3. The web server searches for the customer contact in Salesforce and creates a case that is pre-populated with customer data. 4. CIC presents the chat to the appropriate agent through the use of algorithms based on availability, language, product or technical expertise and other criteria. 5. Once the agent accepts the chat, CIC notifies the web server, which then assigns the Salesforce case to that agent. 6. GoToAssist initiates the chat session with the agent. 7. CIC populates the GoToAssist agent with customer data and a link to the case in Salesforce. 8. Upon completion of the chat session, CIC retrieves the chat log from GoToAssist and uploads the transcript into Salesforce.

4 4 Higher productivity, lower abandoned rates The integration is delivering benefits to GCS managers, agents and, most importantly, customers. According to Woltz, productivity of the chat agents has jumped by 25 percent and abandonment by customers has dropped sharply, from 25 percent to just 5 percent. Both metrics are related to the automation of search and data entry in Salesforce. Previously, our agents could only handle a couple of chat sessions at a time because they were doing so much manual work. Now, they handle three chats simultaneously during peak times. They could physically do even more, but we have found that quality declines with more than three interactions. Besides serving more customers in a given period, agents can focus their attention on the issue rather than on creating cases or pasting chat transcripts into Salesforce. My productivity went up tremendously once we stopped using manual processes, said Nick Cassaro, a customer care coordinator with seven years at Citrix. In the first week, I was able to complete 10 to 15 more chats per day. A major reason is that chat logs are now automatically uploaded to Salesforce. Before the integration, the logs could get lost, leaving no record to refer to if the customer contacted us again. Sometimes we could ask the previous agent if they recalled the issue, but often we had to start from scratch. The new system saves a ton of time. Flexible management The integration of GoToAssist and CIC has given GCS greater freedom to assign and reassign agents according to changing business conditions. All workflows are integrated into a single system, making it easy to direct inquiries to any agent. However, during peak times, one group of agents takes chat and inquiries, while another group takes phone calls and . We don t combine phone and chat because an agent can only handle one call at a time, while someone on chat is expected to handle three inquiries simultaneously. These models don t mix. However, a person taking phone calls or chat can also handle because it is not as time sensitive, Woltz explained. In off-peak periods, when agents are no longer required to juggle three chats at once, he can use a true blended model with each agent accepting phone, chat or inquiries. One of the major benefits of the integration is simplicity. It s great to have all our agents working in one system. It s much simpler and more efficient, and helps our organization respond more quickly to changes in volume, said Maskrey. In addition, many agents have acquired multiple skills, benefitting their professional development and giving GCS the flexibility to optimize human resources. Enhanced customer relationship management Automation of case creation and data entry in Salesforce helps Citrix build a more robust and accurate picture of each customer. This process not only provides improved visibility into the customer s scenario for the next agent who responds, it also gives management a valuable resource for quality assurance.

5 5 I do some QA, and it s reassuring to know that the chat transcripts are now automatically saved in Salesforce, said Stacy Gronsky, a level 1 coordinator. Because chat is less personal than a phone call, there are more opportunities for misunderstandings, such as a customer thinking an agent isn t being helpful. The transcript provides proof of what was covered during that interaction. It can either exonerate the agent or support the customer s complaint. And it s important that the upload into Salesforce is done automatically, because no one can alter the transcript. Like Cassaro, Gronsky appreciates the time savings she has gained from the integration. Eliminating a few clicks per chat really adds up over a day or week. I like the new system a lot. This project demonstrates the benefits that contact centers can achieve by leveraging their investment in ACD technology to support a single, integrated workflow and blended agents, said Barry Dacus, product line director. With an integration, organizations can take advantage of the robust functionality of GoToAssist without the complexity of managing separate routing, documentation and reporting systems. We believe this successful implementation can serve as a model for achieving support nirvana. North America Citrix Online, LLC 7414 Hollister Avenue Goleta, CA U.S.A. T info@ Europe, Middle East & Africa Citrix Online, UK Ltd Chalfont Park House Chalfont Park, Gerrards Cross Bucks SL9 0DZ United Kingdom T +44 (0) europe@ Asia Pacific Citrix Online, AUS Pty Ltd Level 3, 1 Julius Avenue Riverside Corporate Park North Ryde NSW 2113 Australia T asiapac@ About Citrix Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) is the cloud company that enables mobile workstyles empowering people to work and collaborate from anywhere, easily and securely. With market-leading solutions for mobility, desktop virtualization, cloud networking, cloud platforms, collaboration and data sharing, Citrix helps organizations achieve the speed and agility necessary to succeed in a mobile and dynamic world. Citrix products are in use at more than 260,000 organizations and by over 100 million users globally. Learn more at Citrix Online, LLC. All rights reserved. Citrix, GoToAssist, GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, GoToTraining, GoToWebinar, Podio and ShareFile are trademarks of Citrix or a subsidiary thereof, and are or may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners /B-89425/PDF