White Paper: 4 Key Factors that Define a True Unified Agent Desktop

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1 White Paper: 4 Key Factors that Define a True Unified Agent Desktop To help businesses understand the different definitions and levels of functionality, mplsystems has summarised 4 key factors that they believe define a true unified agent desktop

2 4 Key factors that define a true Unified Desktop The agent desktop plays a crucial part in the delivery of customer service, however with the continuous innovation in technology as well as the complexity of customer service, the required functionality for an agent desktop has dramatically changed over the past decade. Call centre agents now need to make use of multiple software applications, systems and databases to take care of customer enquiries. However, each app has its own user interface meaning agents have to spend high volumes of time navigating and copying/ pasting between them and logging in and out of different systems. Recent research shows that over 50% of agents have to access in excess of 10 systems to do their job, dramatically effecting call times and customer satisfaction. In order to provide the level of customer service customers are now demanding, agents need to have instant access and full visibility of customer data from across the business from a single, easy to access place. Many solution providers have started addressing this challenge and as such the industry term Unified Desktop was introduced. However, whilst the term unified desktop is used quite widely in the industry, the meaning differs from different providers offering different levels and functionality of desktop technology. To help businesses understand the different definitions and levels of functionality, mplsystems has summarised 4 key factors that they believe define a true unified desktop that can help a business achieve the following outcomes: 88% reduction in IT costs due to integration of functions 38% reduction in head count requirements Lead Closure success rate up 40% Response performance improved by 20%

3 1. Multi-Channel Communications and CRM The most basic definition and functionality of a Unified Desktop, is the integration of the CRM system alongside multi-channel communication e.g. phone, , social, chat and mobile on to a single user interface on the agent desktop. This allows agents to move away from having to access multiple different systems for each channel by effectively managing all customer enquiries from one system. Customer enquiries are placed in to a universal multi-media queue and can be routed to the right agent based on skill, type or urgency rather than being prioritised solely by channel type. This helps the business provide a more consistent level of customer service and gives the customer true choice of channel for customer service enquiries. Once the enquiry reaches the desktop the agent is able to see all information on that customer by drawing customer data from the CRM and presenting it on a single user interface alongside all contact channels. This is the definition and functionality many providers in the industry offer when talking about their unified desktop solutions. However, whilst CRM systems are efficient at storing the majority of customer data, agents often need access to other business systems in order to complete a customer s enquiry.

4 Fitness First Tranforms Customer Contact Performance Fitness First s UK contact centre operation offers an essential first point of contact for customers looking to join up, change their membership details, renew contracts, as well as for general enquiries. The business was keen to improve customer contact performance, however the combination of its legacy call delivery system and CRM-based member management system made it hard for agents to gain access to the information they needed. The Unified Desktop solution from mplsystems allows Fitness First to aggregate relevant customer and transactional data from the company s CRM and member databases with incoming contact details to present agents with a single view of all customer activities across the business. Combining the agent desktop with multi-channel contact centre technology ensures that Fitness First s agents always have access to all the information needed to complete customer interactions, removing the need to offload enquiries to the back-office, and lets agents focus on customer conversations while completing transactions as quickly and effectively as possible. Eliminated repeat calls Increase in First Contact Resolution Reduction in FTE Increase in agent productivity

5 2. Integration of multiple business systems in to a visual desktop When customers communicate with a contact centre, they often want to ask several different issues which span further than the information held in the CRM such as billing information or delivery enquiries. To answer this, the agent would need to log in to the accounting system or dispatch database, put the customer on hold or pass to another department to deal with. Therefore just combining multi-channels and the CRM on to the agent desktop isn t enough. To achieve a true unified desktop the agent needs access to all necessary business systems such as accounting applications, stock control systems, marketing databases and ERP through one integrated view on the desktop. This allows the agent to not only view a basic customer profile, but a 360º view of all information relating to their account from across the business including, previous purchase history, outstanding payments, dispatch, delivery and other vital information related to that customer. This approach to a unified agent desktop allows a business to transform agent interaction from a systems driven focus to a customer driven approach by significantly simplifying the agent s tasks and allowing them to spend more time engaging in conversation with the customer and answering their enquiry. A Unified Desktop enables non-technical end users to quickly build process-centric mashups delivered as a single agent desktop using a simple drag and drop environment. This allows all required user interface elements to be placed on onto a page and includes integration with platform services, external Web Services and back office databases.

6 Simplifying workflow and improving response rates Cofely GDF employs over 80,000 people and has an impressive turnover of 14 billion Euros and now offers a unique combination of service expertise,including design, installation and management of integrated facilities services. The company was keen to identify a solution that could offer a dedicated customer handling and CRM system tailored to their needs, rather than an off-the-shelf package that would require expensive implementation and customisation. The resulting system is designed to make best use of Cofely s agents time and skills, automating workflow and simplifying the contact handling. Most importantly the agent desktop draws data from multiple systems including asset information and their ERP solution Maximo. When a client calls the operations centre, the agent screen is populated with not only case history, but also any SLA details, asset databases and status of all jobs associated with that contract. The agent does not need to access different applications during the course of the call and can quickly. 18% improvement in response rates 25% reduction in rectification payments 28% improvement in SLAs 515K efficiency savings in 9 months Non-value add calls reduced by 2,000

7 Grouped multi-channel activations Customer account information from CRM integration Full view of previous customer spend Accounts integration for notifications to agents for important customer payments 3. Relevant 360º view of customer data Whilst providing the agents with a complete view of the customer, it is important not to inundate them with too much information from all the different systems and lots of CRM menus on to the desktop. The key to a unified agent desktop is how information from all the different business systems is presented to the agent. Whilst may technology providers say their system provides a 360º view, this often means their agents are inundated with data and multiple menus making their job even more complex and time consuming. The desktop solution should be intelligent in that it can identify the customer and type of enquiry before it even reaches the agent, for example by using text analytics or and IVR menu. The desktop is then able to present only relevant data for that specific customer and enquiry, enabling the agent to easily access information and respond to the customer with all the knowledge they need. A true unified agent desktop should be customised for each organisation, or even each agent within the organisation, to suit their specific business processes by providing them only with the information they need. The data should be presented in a visual way to further help agents capture the data they need efficiently. For example instead of including a list of past purchases, business can display this data in a graph format. Agent targets and other key statistics can also presented in more visual ways.

8 Babcock simplify complex sales environment Babcock International Group (Babcock) is the UK s leading engineering support services company and operates in a complex sales environment with constantly changing sector and regional targets and differing eligibility criteria dependent. Until recently, the process of generating new leads was a heavily manual one, reliant on spread sheets and leading to inefficiencies in agent time. The unified agent desktop, from mplsyetms, helped convert the complexity of Babcock s campaign requirement into a simple interface for Babcock s contact centre agents. The unified desktop manages customer data from various systems and manages campaign priorities allowing agents to concentrate on sector requirements and interacting with employers instead of managing data; the benefit has been significant increases in calling efficiency. Win rate increased by 40% Increase in agent productivity Seamless campaign management Increased visibility of leads

9 4. Embedding Business Process Management Every business is individual and has its own set of unique processes and business priorities. Off shelf, one size fits all CRM systems will never meet these needs even with customisation, instead organisations end up having to mould their processes around what the CRM provides. So the final factor that is essential in defining a true unified agent desktop is the ability to guide the agent through the customer interaction, specifying the business process and providing all the steps required to complete any interaction with the customer. The desktop must adapt to the conversation and offer only appropriate options. Data from relevant front and back office databases is aggregated in real time and presented to the agent at logical points in the customer service process, so the interaction can be personalised. For example, if a customer calls in to place an order, the desktop will guide the agent through the process by screen popping specific information that is required to place the order, ensuring the agent is aware of cross sell and upsell based on customer history, presenting relevant coupons the customer has outstanding or relevant promotions. Workflow will also be built into the application to ensure the interaction is part of a complete customer journey, with proactive outbound communications as follow up. A support application would include case management trouble ticketing and knowledge enabled service resolution all specific to an individual business. Building this type of Customer Engagement application requires consultancy and business process mapping.

10 Summary After reviewing these key factors in defining a unified desktop, it is clear that it isn t just another customer relationship or business process management system; it is a complete agent desktop solution and whilst many providers say they offer a unified desktop, they are in fact only offering an element of this. A true unified agent desktop should provide multimedia contact handling to include calls, s, online and social contact; it should guide the agent through all processes to complete a customer transaction; it should draw required data from underlying systems and action the required requests to these systems. The key element, however, is that the intelligent desktop is created specifically for the requirements of the individual organisation and so will guide the agent through the multitude of call types they will receive. mplsystems delivers all elements of a true unified agent desktop as part of their customer engagement solution which has just been announced as part of the 2015 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Enagagement. mplsystems are one of only two European organisations that made it in to the Gartner Magic Quadrant in 2015.