Companies that have embraced CRM are taking the next step by integrating their customer data with their phone systems. The result: An Integrated Customer Contact Center. Jim Southwell from Infratel will discuss evolution of call centers into Customer Contact Centers, the benefits to an organization of integrating customer data directly into the phone system, surprising ROI's, empowered phone agents and more.
Presented by Jim Southwell, General Manager, Infratel, at SugarCon 2011.
Optimizing the Contact Center Agent Experience through Effective and Efficient Use of CRM | SugarCon 2011
1. Optimizing the Contact Center Agent Experience through Effective and Efficient Use of CRM Jim Southwell 425.282.1769 jim.southwell@infratel.com @InfratelUS
2. Agenda Company overview Define the SMB “Call Center” What is Infratel’s “Suite” What drives the SMB? Agent experience Interesting ROIs available The challenge
3. Company Overview Infratel delivers Enterprise capabilities to the SMB call center market Leading independent software vendor offering a full spectrum of customer interaction solutions Founded in 1999 by former executives from Genesys (Now Alcatel/Lucent) 10+ years in production 700+ systems installed 10,000 End-Users Innovative products for full featured, multi-site call center deployments Support for leading, industry standard VoIP technologies and protocols (SIP) with no proprietary hardware Product success proven by large installed base Typical SMB call center verticals Hosting, Software, Finance, Transportation and Healthcare Key customers Parallels, Sequoia Credit Consolidation, Robson Communications, UralSib Bank, Sony and LG Electronics
4. What is a “Call Center”? “A center equipped to handle a large volume of telephone calls (especially for taking orders or serving customers)”wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn “A call centre or call center is a centralised office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers...”en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_Center “An organization that handles a high number of customer interactions including requests, information, provisioning, sales or services via the telephone or multiple contact channels either through inbound transactions, outbound transactions or both.”campus.blueprintaudits.com/mod/glossary/view.php A business or group that receives or makes a high volume of calls and requires the ability to automate, distribute, manage and measure the efficiency of the interactions
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6. be up and running with a relatively small implementation and system integration effort – compared to Enterprise Solutions
18. Interesting ROIs FourExamples Inbound and Outbound Using Common Resources Agent Surplus States Virtual Agents Virtual Hold
19. Shared Resources Assumption The client has a team of inbound agents that handle customer requests. They use a traditional inbound ACD solution The client also has a team of outbound specialists that function separate from the inbound agents and use a traditional “dialer” that quickly makes large volumes of calls Opportunity Each system requires administration and management, and employs carrier services to serve the specific work functions. Value An inbound/outbound system allows a single management and administration platform. A combined pool of trunks (carrier services) serves both groups. In the SMB, this provides a significant savings as resources usually come at a high cost.
21. Blended Agents Assumption There are periods of time during the day that, due to random call arrival, have a surplus of agents. Agents can be cross-trained to serve more than one function within the call center. Opportunity Leverage these surplus periods and have agents make outbound calls to existing customer base. Thank you…, Checking in…, Hope all is well…etc. Better yet, a new offer that’s tailored for them Value This drives revenue, tightens the relationship with your customer base, doesn’t erode service level and leverages resources that were previously idle.
22. Virtual Agent Assumption The client has past-due accounts where no attempt is made to collect because the outstanding balance is low. The cost of outsourcing the collections or setting up a live agent collections process is too costly for the amount that will be collected. Opportunity An application that will contact past-due account holders and collect payments or promise-to-pay using a self-service application Value Little or no need for live agent assistance. Ability to collect on those low value balances.
24. Virtual Hold Assumption There are periods during the day where agent deficit states will drive you out of service level adherence. Callers are frustrated by long hold times and are not calling about things that need immediate action. Opportunity An application that will collect the caller’s information (name, number and intent) and deliver that call to an agent at a pre-determined time or when the call would have been delivered Value A combination of tools allow you to improve customer service, better allocate resources and keep service levels in check.
25. The Challenge Analysis Paralysis – “My current processes work. Why would I change them?” Every day is an opportunity to do something more effectively and/or more efficiently. Take that opportunity and run with it. Agent Training – “My agents wouldn’t know how to handle this shift.” Agents adapt. No one “likes” change but they adapt. If they don’t, question their value. Execution – “We have no problem buying tools. We have a problem using tools.” When faced with a clear ROI, a proven solution and the ability to execute, do you typically embrace the change?
26. Things you won’t hear your customers say This hold music is awesome. Especially the third time around. Or course I don’t mind giving you my information again. And again. Yes! I’d love to be put on hold. I don’t even need a choice. I really don’t care when they get back to me. I just hope they meet their SLAs. www.zendesk.com
27. Thank You Jim Southwell 425.282.1769 jim.southwell@infratel.com @InfratelUS