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Best-in-class firms, for instance,
are 17 percent more likely than all
others to have access to detailed
historical account data, often pre-
venting the need for agents to ask
more exploratory questions or for
customers to provide and repeat
basic information – an issue that
often tops lists of customer support
complaints. Likewise, intelligent
contact centers provide workers
with unified desktop capabilities,
whereas, on average, contact cen-
ter agents traditionally have used
three screens to find relevant data
needed to serve customers.
“This consumes 15 percent of
agent time,” said Aberdeen. “Hence,
a 300-seat contact center with a fully
loaded annual labor cost of $50,000
incurs $2.25 million each year in un-
necessary costs due to poor informa-
tion management practices.”
Customer service reps in an
intelligent contact center also are
empowered with easy access to
relevant knowledgebase articles,
said Minkara. “Such easy access to
relevant insight ultimately helps the
intelligent contact center reduce
handle times and improve first con-
tact resolutions.”
Empowered agents lead to hap-
pier customers, and improving cus-
tomer experience results is a top
objective for 96 percent of contact
centers surveyed by Aberdeen. Here
again, intelligent contact centers are
known for allowing executives to man-
age performance through the lens of
the customers. In other words, the
top-performing companies use a mix
of activities to track customer experi-
ence outcomes and ensure agents are
meeting and exceeding client needs.
Best-in-class contact centers, for
instance, are 28 percent more likely
to enable supervisors and execu-
tives with real-time views of activity
results. This provides decision mak-
ers with the ability to detect posi-
tive or negative trends in a timely
fashion and take corrective action
when necessary, say Aberdeen ana-
lysts. The best-in-class also are 30
percent more likely to use customer
feedback when measuring and
managing agent performance, and
are 37 percent more likely to use
voice of the customer (VoC) data as
a way to build agent competency
profiles, compared to all others.
So far, we have seen how in-
telligence in the contact center
improves agent interaction with cus-
tomers and upper management, as
well as their own performance. The
forth building block involves smarter
interaction between customer care
and IT departments. Aberdeen sur-
veys found that best-in-class com-
panies are 44 percent more likely
to have a formal process where cus-
tomers care executive and the CIOs
work closely to manage customer
data. (Incidentally, they are also
significantly more likely to regularly
back up customer data.)
“A collaborative data manage-
ment process includes determining
the roadblocks in making better use
of data, mapping data flows, and
determining how to incorporate new
channels within the current customer
interaction channel mix,” Minkara
stated. “While each business will face
unique issues at different points in
time, it is regular collaboration that
ultimately helps the intelligent con-
tact centers outpace all others and
drive maximum results through effec-
tive use of data.”
Ultimately, in the era of the em-
powered consumer, who typically is
armed with a single device by which
they can communicate with a busi-
ness in multiple ways, an intelligent
contact center becomes less a differ-
entiator and more a necessity.
o
Personalize the Customer Service Experience
Source: Aberdeen Group
Focus on the Agent Desktop to Create Happy Customers
& Minimize Costs
Source: Aberdeen Group
Global Carriers' Top SDN/NFV Applications
for Producing New Sources of Revenue
70%
50%
30%
10%
Use customer contact
information to direct
customers to the right
channels
Route customer cases
based on complexity and
nature of issue
Use self-service
data when forecasting
agent demand
Best-in-Class
All Others
-6%
-4%
-2%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
Number of
positive
mentions
through social
media
channels
Customer
retention
Average
revenue per
call
Improvement
in average cost
per customer
contact
Improvement
in average
handle time
7.3% 7.2%
4.3% 4.4%
-4.5%
-1.0%
-3.4%
2.3% 2.2%
1.5%
Compani s with agent esktop
optimization programs
All Others
Year-over-year percent change
64%
49%
61%
38%
46%
26%
vCPE virtual
managed services
Metacloud
Bandwidth
on demand
Virtual
private cloud
Services
P rsonaliz he Customer Service Experience
Source: Aberdeen Group
Focus on the Agent Desktop to Create Happy Customers
& Minimize Costs
Source: Aberdeen Group
70%
50%
30%
10
Use customer contact
information to direct
customers to the right
chann ls
Route customer cases
based on complexity and
nature of issue
Use self-service
data when forecasting
agent demand
Best-in-Class
All Others
-6%
-4%
-2%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
Number of
positive
mentions
through social
media
channels
Customer
retention
Average
revenue per
call
Improvement
in average cost
per customer
contact
Improvement
in average
handle time
7.3% 7.2%
4.3% 4.4%
-4.5%
-1.0%
-3.4%
2.3% 2.2%
1.5%
Companies with agent desktop
optimization programs
All Others
Year-over-year percent change
64%
49%
61%
38%
46%
26%
14
THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S
PLAYBOOK