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Question:

How do omni-channel contact centers route interactions?

Answer:

In an omni-channel contact center, interaction routing is centralized and agents have a comprehensive view of what happens with customers across all channels. In these environments, companies have one unified system that receives, queues, and routes all types of interactions, and is smart enough to identify who is reaching out and the best way to handle each contact.

Here’s how it works:

  1. The contact center infrastructure solution, also known as the automatic call distributor (ACD), receives and addresses all types of interactions – calls, emails, short message service (SMS), chat, social media, messaging, mobile apps, videos, and any other channel that may emerge.
  2. The ACD uses a variety of technologies and applications to determine the appropriate treatment for each interaction. Within nanoseconds, the ACD identifies the customer (or prospect), calculates their value to the organization, and checks to see if this is a new or ongoing interaction.
  3. The ACD identifies the reason for the interaction by accessing data from the customer relationship management (CRM) system, sales, collections or other servicing application, and then determines the best approach for delivering a personalized and outstanding experience. Based on pre-defined rules (and in the future, self-learning technology), the ACD identifies the most appropriate agent or system to handle every interaction.
  4. After the match is made, the ACD routes and queues the transaction to the selected endpoint, system or person.
  5. The ACD tracks and records every interaction for legal and compliance purposes, using technology that can differentiate between the portions of interactions that can be recorded and the components that must be masked or removed for security and regulatory reasons.

This new generation of contact center infrastructure is available on-premise and in the cloud, and can be built to work in a hybrid model. It is designed to support customers in their channel of choice, provide a seamless experience, and track customers and their activities as they transition between channels. Because transaction handling is centralized, standardized rules can be developed and applied for handling all types of interactions to deliver a consistently outstanding service experience.