How To Handle And Text Based Communication

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1 Contact Center Understand, automate and learn from customers communications Harness the flood of for exceptional customer service

2 Manage the incoming wave of messages continues to be on the rise Customer expectations have reached new heights. They are used to communicating however it suits them, by phone, , Facebook, twitter or text. The method doesn t matter to them, except when the company they want to deal with can t handle it. Where does that leave contact centers? Contact centers have made significant investments to optimize call handling mostly focusing on efficiency. and other text-based conversations lag. The volume of and other textbased service channels have grown 10 times faster in the last 9 years. Yet only half of service centers have automated their conversations and the other half mainly handle them ad-hoc using their basic systems. Today, when a customer engages an agent on a call and makes reference to an previously sent, the agent is usually left hanging, without access to the exchange. Growth of service questions since 2006 i 14x Text based service questions 1.4x Voice based service questions 100.0% 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% What customers expect. The sobering facts Text-based communications are on the rise. s, web chat and social media are steadily growing in use and by 2018 less than 70% of customer interactions in the UK are expected to be on the phone. As text-based channels continue to gain popularity, it is important to create a multi-channel experience. Customers, already accustomed to using multiple channels in personal conversations, expect companies to be able to do the same. Although the expectation is there, a mismatch has developed between usually static contact center capabilities and the always dynamic nature of customer needs and preferences. This has resulted in a decrease in the level of customer experience for the last 4 years in a row. iii Inbound interactions by channel, ii In addition, inquiries are becoming more complex. In the past literally all customer issues were solved with a phone call. Today simple inquiries can also be answered through self-service or a short response. However s also have the ability to efficiently transfer more complex and often technical information, making it an important channel for B2B support. Most contact centers are not well geared up to conquer these challenges. 30% Telephone Web chat Social media Self-service Letter Fax SMS Other Only 30% of US customer s are answered in one hour or less. iiii 2

3 Create skill based customer agent connections every time Understanding the request is tedious Customers expect a response to an inquiry within a couple of hours. Time sensitive topics should be handled faster. But how can contact centers identify which inquiries demand immediate attention? And how can they match inquiries with the agents best able to assist, ensuring efficiency. Is it possible to completely automate routine questions? The unstructured nature of messages makes it difficult to route or automate based purely on keywords and rules. As volume grows every incorrectly routed message wastes agent time. And as s get forwarded around to find the right person, inquiries can get lost substantially reducing first contact resolution rate. 79% 79% of Contact Centers agree that first contact resolution is one of the most important factors in achieving customer satisfaction. ii People often write s quickly, and don t clearly articulate the requests. Use of touch screen mobile devices can result in misspellings, grammatical errors, and unclear structure. In these cases, agents may have to ask for additional information, making what may have been a simple request to drag on and cause irritation. 50% 50% of customers said repeating information would be frustrating. iv s have an inherent ability to be ignored too. They don t generate a sense of urgency in busy agents who have calls lined up. As a result, s are answered more slowly, leaving customers waiting, the cornerstone of dissatisfaction. 33% 33% of respondents rate Efficiency as the most important attribute of a successful customer service professional. v Agent motivation and efficiency As the volume of and other text-based communications increases, resource planning becomes exponentially more difficult. peak times must be forecasted and staffed correctly to avoid having agents sitting idle. Are agents cross-trained and ready to acquire skills necessary to handle other communication channels? Customer service centers often use different software applications and workflows to process communication that arrives through different channels. This creates a new barrier, hindering agents from responding to inquiries quickly and effectively. Without integration, information can get trapped in one system or another, forcing agents to manually look up data, leave customers waiting or transfer them to another agent. 29% 29% of respondents rate Agent Empowerment i.e. their ability to handle requests without transfers or escalations as most important. v The Solution Adapting to a multi-channel environment is difficult for many contact centers but critical to meeting customer expectations and creating the personalized experience that customers expect. communication is on the rise and can no longer be considered a separate channel. An integrated solution for managing text based information is simply a must for the future. And this future starts now. Text-based communications received through , fax, sms and social media etc. can be successfully managed using contextual management. Routing can be more effective than Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and can be automated without input from the customer. s can be routed to the most effective agent based on their individual skill set. Furthermore by fully understanding the request even less experienced agents can answer inquiries correctly using pre-populated suggestions. Agents are assigned inquiries that are challenging but still allow them to provide a customer a complete response in the first contact. Routine inquiries can even be handled completely automatically, removing wait time and agent involvement from the equation altogether. 3

4 Drive efficiency and pursue unmatched customer experience Online insurance company automates web portal requests Challenges: The existing correspondence management solution offered limited functionality and could not handle the growing communication volumes. Incoming s needed to be grouped into approximately 100 different process categories. was manually processed and required frequent switching between different applications as there was no interface to the legacy system. 40% of all is processed without manual intervention Results: 80% of all incoming customer correspondence is automatically assigned to the correct document category selecting from 100 existing categories. 1 out of 4 inquiries via the web portal is automatically resolved using suggested responses. The average processing time per case has been significantly reduced. German automotive dealer service gears up for automated responses Challenges: The dealer service team was faced with hundreds of inquiry types across automotive parts, repair processes and warranties. Decision rights were very complex involving 117 potential decision makers and varied by car model, nature of damage or repair and location. Inquiry handling was time consuming and manual, often involving searches of several third-party systems, lists and databases. 850 combinations of inquiry topics and go-to persons are now handled automatically Results: The contextual management solution allows the fast and reliable processing of , significant reduction of response times and the increase of response quality. Inquiries are now routed automatically to the right decision makers using a decision matrix. Service quality has improved by providing decision makers with topic-based proposed responses. Health insurance carrier significantly cuts response times Challenges: The insurer s system of manually sorting inquiries, routing them to available staff members, determining premiums and adjusting benefits through 3rd party systems could not keep up with its growing client base. Inquiries arrived in freeform, completely unstructured s, and half of them included attachments. Manual processing was prone to error. 90% improvement in inquiry processing time Results: The average time to process inquires has dropped by a factor of ten, from an average of ten minutes to only 62 seconds for all correspondence types. More than 95% of inquiries are automatically assigned to the correct process. For some transactions, 89% of the manual task is automated. Increased workforce productivity allows staff to focus on valuable activities, especially handling of special incidence cases. 4

5 What to look for in a contextual management solution An enduring marriage There are a multitude of solutions out there but not all will be right for your business. So it is important to analyze each one for the best fit to your specific situation. However as an investment in the future it is important that a solution has the attributes needed to live up to the needs of the near to medium term future. As consumers further adapt to the likes of social media and web chat decision makers must ensure selected solutions have the ability to easily expand and incorporate new communication channels. This will reduce the number of applications that agents are using and of course reduce the total cost of software for the Contact Center. s are rarely structured, often written poorly and can be phrased countless different ways. They require some deciphering and only the most advanced AI technologies are able to automatically understand the content of the message. Many Management Systems use keywords and rules to route s based on a set of criteria; programming these systems takes valuable time and expertise. With only these tools they are unable to find multiple incidents in one or one incident across several communications. Innovative solution providers have developed Artificial Intelligence-based solutions that overcome the limitations of rules-based systems. With semantic language understanding, an inquiry can be understood with increased accuracy and deeper understanding. Last but not least, integration with business processes and repositories upon the receipt of certain s or attachment is essential. Integration allows validation of customer inputs and enrichment of data using information in other silos, helping to close the request. Solutions with this built-in capability provide quicker and more complete responses thus resulting in high customer satisfaction. After implementing a Contextual Management System, agents will be presented with a guided discovery of both questions and answers, empowering with them with the correct information to solve customer inquiries quicker and more effectively. Customers will feel valued and appreciate having a positive customer experience. This will make them more loyal and more likely to ultimately become advocates for the brand. For Contact Centers the result is reduced cost and cycle time that enable them to free up staff and pursue growth opportunities. i Gartner Predicts 2015 ii UK Contact Centres in 2015: The State of the Industry & Technology Penetration, Contact Babel, 2014 iii 2015 Global Contact Center Benchmarking Summary Report, Merchants A Data Dimension Company, 2015 iiii The US Contact Center Decision Makers Guide 2014, Contact Babel, 2014 iv Customer Service Experience Study (Wave II), Interactive Intelligence, 2014 v 2014 Global Customer Service Barometer, study by Ebiquity, sponsored by American Express,

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