Question: Can you give us some tactical actions that we can take to jumpstart our post-pandemic planning while keeping the continuation of our digital transformation in mind? Answer: The pandemic has accelerated many transformations that needed to happen in enterprises and their front-office servicing departments by as much as 2 – 4 years. Some of [...]
Question: What information should we include in a job description? Answer: A job description (JD) is an important tool for defining and communicating the functions and responsibilities associated with a particular position in an organization. It also serves the very important function of compelling the hiring manager to specify and document the requirements and skills [...]
Question: Is contact center performance management something more than advanced reporting? Answer: Leading workforce optimization (WFO) and best-of-breed providers have offered contact center performance management (CCPM) applications for decades, yet they continue to be one of the most misunderstood and under-appreciated applications in the contact center market. While CCPM solutions should be able to generate [...]
Question: What is predictive analytics and how is it being used in contact centers? Answer: Predictive analytics is playing an increasingly vital role in contact centers. It is an artificial intelligence (AI)-based capability that utilizes data mining, statistical techniques and machine learning to identify relationships, patterns and trends. Based on the captured data, a predictive [...]
Question: I’ve heard a lot about digital customer service solutions. Isn’t this just another way of saying that it’s omni-channel? Answer: Digital customer service (DCS) consists of more than adding digital servicing channels to contact centers, which has slowly been happening for years. It’s about meeting customers in their channel (or channels) of choice and [...]
Question: Our back-office operations utilize robotic process automation, but I’m not sure how we’d use it in the contact center. Is there a different application for contact centers? Answer: Robotic process automation (RPA) solutions most commonly used in back-office environments are unattended RPA applications. This type of RPA performs end-to-end automation of high-volume transaction-based activities [...]
Question: How does speech analytics perform trend analysis? Isn’t it just counting how often words are used? Answer: Trend analysis in interaction (speech and text) analytics solutions provides deeper insights than word count frequency. At its most basic, trend analysis is designed to allow users to define “things” they know to look for in voice [...]
Question: Our contact center agents are working from home due to COVID-19 and many want to make it a permanent move. What technology will help us manage this shift? Answer: Transitioning to contact center as a service (CCaaS) infrastructure solutions will help provide flexibility for “hybrid” in-office/at-home contact centers, which are expected to be part [...]
Question: I have heard about artificial intelligence (AI) being used in workforce management (WFM) solutions. How much historical data is needed for AI to improve forecast accuracy? Answer: Not surprisingly, the more data you have the more accurate the findings. AI-enabled WFM solutions leverage machine learning (ML), an AI technology that is effective at finding [...]
Question: How should agents handle calls when customers are sharing their fears and concerns about the Coronavirus pandemic – or other personal issues, for that matter? Answer: Although the current COVID-19 pandemic is different from anything we’ve experienced and worked through to date, fundamental contact handling communication or “soft” skills that have been around for [...]
Question: We are planning to include cloud-based contact center infrastructure vendors in our RFP process for the first time. What are some high-level considerations we should keep in mind as we evaluate these solutions? Answer: For most companies, putting contact center systems and applications in the cloud, whether public or private, is the way to [...]
Question: What contact center organizational structure is being used by enterprises to deliver an exceptional customer experience? Answer: While there is no “one-size-fits-all” alignment, many successful companies now include a customer experience (CX) executive who manages all customer-facing operations either directly or indirectly. To underscore the importance of this position, it typically reports directly to [...]
Question: Our new workforce management (WFM) solution includes gamification capabilities. How should we use this feature? Answer: Gamification can enable employees to earn rewards, recognition, and/or social rank for achieving key performance indicator (KPI)-based goals, helping peers improve performance, successfully completing eLearning activities, adhering to schedules, and much more. Organizations in many industries are leveraging [...]
Question: I’ve used workforce management (WFM) in a contact center, but now I’m managing a back-office team. Can I use WFM here too? Answer: WFM solutions can help back-office (and branch) organizations optimize employee utilization, however these environments require applications that are purpose-built to address their unique needs. First of all, back-office WFM suites need [...]
Question: Is voice biometrics used only for live-agent interactions or does it work with intelligent virtual agents too? Answer: Voice biometrics can provide authentication for interactions that take place with humans as well as with intelligent virtual agents (IVAs). Voice biometrics and IVAs are complementary solutions that deliver enhanced and additional benefits when used in [...]
Question: I’ve heard of speech analytics to analyze phone calls; what’s used for the new digital channels? Answer: Interaction analytics (IA), which combines speech and text analytics capabilities, enables enterprises to gain insights from both voice and digital channels. IA solutions convert unstructured recorded and/or live-stream audio and digital customer conversations into transcripts. Once transcribed, [...]
Question: Is robotic process automation another name for workflow management software? Answer: Robotic process automation (RPA) and workflow management software applications are different – but complementary – solutions. Both applications are intended to help organizations streamline processes and optimize resources, including the use of automation. While there are some similarities, the differences are significant. Here [...]
Question: Can contact center infrastructure solutions integrate with home-grown servicing systems or only commercially available CRMs? Answer: Although many contact center infrastructure vendors offer pre-built, out-of-the-box integrations with leading customer relationship management (CRM) solutions like Salesforce, Zendesk, Microsoft Dynamics, etc., they generally support custom integrations for proprietary applications as well. To integrate with a customer [...]
Question: What’s the difference between customer journey mapping and customer journey analytics? Answer: Customer journey mapping provides enterprises with a visual representation of the touchpoints that prospects or customers traverse when interacting with their organization, from the first touch through the last. While customer journey mapping provides valuable insight into the channels and activities experienced [...]
Question: I used to hear about multi-channel contact centers, now it’s omni-channel. Are they the same thing? Answer: While there are some surface similarities – both terms refer to contact centers that support customer interactions in more than one voice and/or digital channel – the differences are significant. Multi-channel contact centers manage each channel (e.g., [...]
Question: We’re considering the addition of intelligent virtual agent capabilities to provide 24/7 customer service. How can we confirm they will provide the same information as our contact center agents? Answer: To ensure an intelligent virtual agent (IVA) delivers responses that are consistent with a human agent – and vice versa –requires a single source [...]
Question: We are just getting started with speech analytics. Aside from the tactical uses, what are the top ways we should use this solution to get the maximum benefits? Answer: Enterprise executives who are not thinking more broadly about the uses of solutions like speech analytics are leaving cost savings and valuable benefits on the [...]
Question: Should the business case to acquire an omni-channel cloud-based contact center infrastructure solution be multiple mini-business cases (by channel) or one overall? Answer: A business case, which DMG defines as “a document designed to convince a decision-maker of the need for and benefits (contribution to the bottom line) of an investment,” are not one-size-fits-all. [...]
Question: What’s the best way to use contact handle time as a key performance indicator? Answer: The amount of time agents spend handling interactions in each supported channel (e.g., inbound/outbound calls, chats, emails, short message service (SMS)/text, messaging, social media, etc.) is a critical key performance indicator (KPI) for contact centers, and has been one [...]
