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WHITE PAPER




      KEEPIng PAcE WITH THE consumER
      Finding the right partner for your
      next-generation contact center




THE NEXT GENERATION OF CUSTOMER CONTACT

                                           ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
WHITE PAPER




                 Table of Contents

                 Executive Summary                                                                             1
                 The Foundation for the Next-Generation Contact Center                                         2
                 A Software-Based Unified Architecture                                                         3
                 The Advantages of Unified Communications and Collaboration                                    4
                 The Future of Customer Contact: From Customer Interaction to Customer-Company Collaboration   4
                 What Vendors Should Offer                                                                     6




© 2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
WHITE PAPER




Executive Summary
Today’s socially networked consumer is demanding more from the companies they do business with. They
are expecting higher levels of service and enhanced communications provided through more channels, and
they have more outlets for voicing opinions about their experiences than ever before. Engaging in proactive
conversations with those consumers to manage and deliver on their expectations will become critical to
a company’s ability to succeed. Planning for a next-generation contact center will help to address these
requirements while enhancing the overall customer experience.

Unified communications and collaboration technologies provide the foundation for the next-generation
contact center, by connecting not only the contact center and the rest of the enterprise, but also the
enterprise and the customer in new ways. These technologies bring vital capabilities to customer-
company communications, including voice/telephony, unified messaging, contextual presence, multimedia
conferencing, desktop and data sharing, web portals, social computing and content and knowledge
management.

Communication channels are expanding beyond more familiar choices like voice, chat and email to include
SMS/text messaging modes, customer communities using social networking, and access to content-rich,
user-directed, self-service experiences through the Internet. And as these channels are expanding, so
are consumers’ expectations. At a minimum, they’ll expect a rich experience tailored to each channel. As
social media continues to democratize the customer experience, they will increasingly want to interact
with both fellow consumers and decision-makers within the company to gain a larger voice in the brands
they champion. Ultimately, they are looking to participate in the reinvention of customer-company
communications and the creation of products and services.

These trends bring either risk or opportunity to companies looking to build relationships that cultivate
loyalty. The outcome depends on whether or not businesses take action. Customer-centric companies that
choose to adapt to this new norm will need to move from traditional customer interactions confined to the
contact center to enterprise-wide customer-company collaboration. To keep pace with evolving customer
needs and to take full advantage of emerging technologies, companies should understand the essential
capabilities that a next-generation contact center must deliver and begin planning for it today.

This paper outlines key capabilities and top-line technical requirements to consider as you engage with IT
to determine the best path forward to meet your customers’ demands.




                                                                               ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.   1
WHITE PAPER




              The Foundation for the Next-Generation Contact Center
              How should companies begin the journey toward this new customer communications paradigm? It starts
              with an understanding of the key benefits and requirements of the next-generation contact center—from
              both a business and an IT perspective. Key stakeholders across business management, contact center,
              telecom, networking, and enterprise architecture functions must work together to find common ground on
              short- and long-term requirements.

              There are some essential requirements that all next-generation contact centers must address. Simply
              stated, any contact center platform should meet certain criteria today and be supported by a roadmap
              that provides flexibility and a seamless transition to newer capabilities. Unified communications and
              collaboration technologies are going to play an instrumental role by providing the foundation that
              enables increased internal and external customer communication channels, as well as enhanced
              business processes. The availability of core contact center capabilities on a unified architecture will
              allow businesses to leverage the advanced functionalities provided by unified communications and
              collaboration.

              The effort to transition to the next-generation contact center is worthwhile, as companies that effectively
              address the change and its inherent challenges are reaping several important benefits. To succeed in
              the expanded, open environment of customer-company collaboration, companies must harness the
              knowledge of their entire organization and the customer ecosystem in real time.

              Underlying the benefit of increased customer satisfaction is the next-generation ability to provide
              consistently relevant, high-quality transaction experiences regardless of channel choice. Beyond building
              customers’ trust across individual transactions, multi-channel dialogue facilitates ongoing customer-
              company communication that promotes increasing loyalty to products, services and the brand. The
              information exchange may take place through a blend of proactive company communications and
              customer-initiated conversation, or through mutual participation in customer communities and the
              blogosphere.

              Most companies face serious barriers to delivering at this level. Their contact center platforms tend to be
              siloed from the rest of the enterprise, and augmenting existing systems with new products and capabilities
              can be an expensive and time-consuming proposition.




2    ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
WHITE PAPER




              A Software-Based Unified Architecture
              The next-generation contact center requires a unified platform that can initiate a dialogue and respond to
              inquiries in a consistent manner across all contact channels. This technology integrates business rules and
              centralizes communication channel management and administration, empowering business line managers
              to monitor and optimize operational and agent performance in real time.

              A unified contact center overcomes the challenges and expense
              associated with the previous generation of proprietary, siloed               Tech Talk
              and hardware-intensive computer telephony integration (CTI)
                                                                                           A software-based unified contact center
              architectures. ACDs with integral PBXs and other stand-alone                 architecture breaks down communica-
              systems (“point products”) are rapidly becoming obsolete. They               tions silos by going beyond telephony to
              are being replaced by a software-based model that unites all of the          unite all contact center capabilities and
              communications components in your contact center architecture to             work with the company’s enterprise
                                                                                           architecture.
                                                                                                                                .
              reduce complexity, cost and risk, while at the same time increasing
              system reliability. Most importantly, a software-based architecture          An effective unified contact center
              is essential for delivering customer contact applications that fully         architecture should be compatible with
                                                                                           enterprise architecture, including a
              leverage next-generation enterprise technologies like unified
                                                                                           network layer that interoperates with
              communications and collaboration.                                            open-telephony standards, as well as
                                                                                           application integration, reporting and
              A unified architecture should combine the following critical                 management layers. It should also:
              capabilities:
                                                                                           •	 	 upport	virtualization	to	minimize	
                                                                                              S
              •	 Full-featured	inbound	routing	(ACD	capabilities)                             physical footprints
                                                                                           •	 	 upport	web	services	to	ease	applica-
                                                                                              S
              •	 Intelligent	proactive	contact	capabilities	(outbound	dialing)                tion integration
              •	 Speech-enabled	and	self-service	technologies	such	as	voice	portals        •	 	 ffer	access	to	an	existing	pool	of	IT	
                                                                                              O
                                                                                              professionals who can develop and
              •	 Virtual	routing	to	remote	agents	and	dispersed	locations                     manage the environment
              •	 Rich-presence	tools	that	identify	the	availability	of	experts	within	     •	 	 mbed	interfaces	in	other	enterprise	
                                                                                              E
                 the contact center and throughout the enterprise                             applications

              •	 A	real-time	communications	environment	that	integrates	the                •	 	 ffer	Session	Initiation	Protocol	(SIP)	
                                                                                              O
                                    .
                 customer contact and unified communications technologies
                                                                                              interoperability
                                                                                           •	 	 upport	user	preferences	for	receiv-
                                                                                              S
                                                                                              ing communications on mobile
                                                                                              devices


                                 PBX w/
                                  AcD


                AcD                                   cTI

                                                                             unIFIED
                                                                            conTAcT
                                                                             cEnTER

                                                                             ucc



Divergent paths: unified, software-based applications that fully leverage unified
communications and collaboration (UCC) infrastructures will replace legacy
solutions that have PBX hardware at their core.



                                                                                             ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.   3
WHITE PAPER




              The Advantages of Unified Communications and Collaboration
              As companies look to find common ground between their enterprise and contact center architectures,
              unified communications and collaboration technologies are primed to merge the capabilities of two
              separate environments.

              A unified architecture that supports session initiation protocol (SIP) interoperability provides a standards-
              based way to employ new and third-party applications as they become available, giving contact centers a
              foundation for taking advantage of these technologies. This enables contact centers to support the real-
              time capabilities and features of unified communications such as call control and speech recognition—and
              non-real time communications such as voicemail, email, SMS and fax.

                                                        Unified communications and collaboration in the contact center
                                                        offers the following advantages:
    Tech Talk
    In this rapidly changing environment,               •	 Greater	first-call	resolution
    contact center vendors must have
                                                        •	 Optimal	balance	of	proactive	and	customer-initiated	contact
    a well-defined strategy for taking
    advantage of unified communications                 •	 	 doption	of	web	2.0+	applications	to	benefit	the	next-generation	
                                                           A
    and collaboration. Companies should                    consumer
    consider these factors as they review
    potential platforms:                     .          Contextual presence is a core element of unified communications
    •	 	 n	a	space	where	no	single	vendor	has	
       I                                                and collaboration. Among its many functions are the abilities to
       all of the answers, solutions shouldn’t          identify and engage enterprise knowledge workers in customer
       rely on proprietary technology that              interactions or to drive intelligent notification via the best channel
       can impede companies from tapping                for announcements and alerts, such as order shipment status or
       into third-party innovation
                                                        prescription refill notices. As interactions expand into the enterprise,
    •	 	 oundational	unified	communications	
       F                                                next-generation contact center operations will need to leverage
       capabilities, such as rich presence,
                                                        workforce optimization both in the contact center and the enterprise.
       that can be embedded into
       applications to engage enterprise                This allows the use of a common set of unified communications and
       knowledge workers to resolve                     collaboration technologies to track, manage and optimize customer
       customer issues, should be part                  interactions within the contact center and into the enterprise and
       of any modern contact center                     consumer communities.
    •	 	 oadmaps	should	include	
       R
       collaboration capabilities such as
       enterprise search for both structured
       and unstructured content—for                     The Future of Customer Contact: From Customer Interaction to
       example, call recordings and                     Customer-Company Collaboration
       conversations taking place on social
                                                        While unified communications and collaboration are important
       networks—and work processes that
       integrate traditional and web-based              considerations for today’s contact center, they will become even more
       transactions                                     critical as customer communications move beyond session-based
    •	 	 he	technology	roadmap	should	
       T
                                                        transactions to an ongoing dialogue. Any contact center solution
       include capabilities to leverage                 must account for the convergence of the 2.0 consumer and the
       location data and presence on                    enterprise powered by unified communications and collaboration.
       mobile devices                                   This reality is breaking down the walls between the enterprise and
                                                        the contact center, and shifting the emphasis for engaging effectively
                                                        with consumers from customer interaction to customer-company
                                                        collaboration. Each interaction is just one element in an ongoing,
                                                        often customer-initiated conversation.




4    ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
WHITE PAPER




Customer satisfaction hinges on the immediate availability of the most helpful resources—voice or web
portals, agents, or any other option including blended self-service and live services—just as long as the
information provided answers their most complex questions in the simplest possible way. To deliver
a single-interaction experience that’s appropriate to the channel, companies will need to follow a few
entrenched rules.

Just as consumers expect to switch smoothly from one channel to another, they take for granted the
company’s	complete	familiarity	with	their	history	at	each	interaction	point.	For	example,	customers	who	
search a company’s secure self-service Web portal and find they need additional information should
have a click-to-connect option for contacting an agent through
voice or instant messaging. The agent, with access to a knowledge
base that contains a detailed customer profile, can more effectively           The Next-Generation Contact Center
troubleshoot a service need. Structured data as well as unstructured           Essential Elements
data gathered from the company website, call center interactions,              •	 	 dvanced	technologies	that	bring	
                                                                                  A
social networks and other sources also provide actionable and                     customer contact processes into the
consumable customer information for other departments.                            enterprise
                                                                               •	 Standards-based	technology
To address the changing consumer most effectively, companies
should devise an approach to engage social networks and online                 •	 	 eamless,	multichannel	capabilities	
                                                                                  S
communities. They must also make effective use of their vendors’ IT               in a unified platform
services to enable the next-generation of collaboration capabilities.          •	 	 lended	capabilities	to	support	
                                                                                  B
By providing access to the organization’s entire knowledge base,                  intelligent outbound (proactive) and
                                                                                  inbound contact
the contact center can implement a customer-centric model that
is monitored and managed by the company. This model offers                     •	 	 nified	communications	capabilities	
                                                                                  U
enterprises the following advantages:                                             including rich presence, instant mes-
                                                                                  saging and multimedia conferencing
•	 	 ransforms	the	immense	volume	of	unstructured	data	from	contact
   T                                                                           •	 	 apabilities	that	leverage	social	
                                                                                  C
   center interactions, web site visits, the blogosphere and social               networks, online communities, web
   networks into actionable information and intelligence                          portals and enterprise search and
                                                                                  knowledge stores
•	 	 ses	search	capabilities	to	monitor	customer	conversations
   U
                                                                               •	 	 ightly	integrated	workforce	optimi-
                                                                                  T
   around key topics (e.g., “closing account”) by linking applications            zation capabilities that use unified
   to customer-facing emails, instant messages, SMS/text messaging,               communications and collaboration to
   Web conversations and social networks                                          track interactions into the enterprise

•	 	 ncorporates	data	gathered	from	social-media	monitoring	into
   I                                                                           •	 Support	for	consolidated	CRM	views
   individual customer records                                                 •	 	 trong	strategic	professional	services	
                                                                                  S
                                                                                  that ensure companies fully lever-
Finally,	contact	centers	need	to	leverage	communications	channels	                age their intellectual capital with
to collect customer data, as well as proactively deliver information              communications-enabled business
and service via the customer’s preferred channels, such as intelligent            processes
notification of events or actions taken on the customer’s behalf (e.g.,
account approval or credit issued). The balance of this two-way flow
supports optimal communications management. Companies looking
to implement next-generation contact center solutions should ensure
that the partner they select is able to accommodate the adoption of
these expanding capabilities today, with an eye toward how CRM
systems can be integrated to optimize sales, customer service and
collections business processes.




                                                                                  ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.   5
What Vendors Should Offer                                                           About Aspect
                                                                                                   Aspect is a global software and IT
               Unified communications and collaboration capabilities in the contact
                                                                                                   services firm specializing in applying
               center support favorable business outcomes, including cost reductions               Microsoft unified communications
               through increased operational and agent efficiencies, and stronger customer         and collaboration to help customers
                                                                                                   achieve optimal results through
               relationships. As customer interactions become more integrated into the
                                                                                                   enhanced business processes
               enterprise, leading companies will use their organization’s full knowledge          across the enterprise and in the
               and expertise to engage their customers while embracing social networking           contact center. Aspect provides
               to enhance customer-company collaboration.                                          IT consulting, integration services
                                                                                                   and	business	applications.	For	more	
                                                                                                   information, visit www.aspect.com.
               The most qualified vendors will provide a contact center solution that
               optimizes a company’s resources and allows easy adoption of the best tools
               and technologies as they become available. That means enhancing customer-
               company collaboration through applications that can be configured to optimize
               both	business	processes	and	intellectual	capital	in	real	time.	For	instance,	
               the vendor’s professional services may deliver a 360-degree customer view
               that	pulls	real-time	data	from	the	financial	server	into	the	contact	center.	Or,	
               applications may introduce back-office processing capabilities into contact
               center workflows that trigger real-time communications. Communications
               triggers can help move a process forward, whether the purpose is to support
               a customer interaction, advance a requisition, or manage a back-office
               transaction. Another example is applications that enable web self-service
               to allow agents’ use of wikis to alert other agents of contact center trends.

               Interacting with customers at the connection points they favor responds
               to their desire for convenience. Answering their needs with full-enterprise
               expertise helps deliver the consistent quality they expect. Progressive
               companies will embrace opportunities to engage consumers in meaningful
               dialogue, through proactive service and participation in online communities
                                                                                                   Aspect Software
               and other user-centric channels, to communicate on the customer’s terms.            Corporate Headquarters
                                                                                                   300 Apollo Drive
               To achieve the net result, greater customer loyalty, companies should consider      Chelmsford, MA 01824
               only those vendors that possess the vision, expertise and professional services     978 250 7900 office
               to help them engage with the growing ranks of 2.0 consumers.                        978 244 7410 fax

                                                                                                   Europe & Africa Headquarters
                                                                                                   2 The Square, Stockley Park
                                                                                                   Uxbridge
                                                                                                   Middlesex UB11 1AD

                consumER 2.0                                  EnTERPRIsE 2.0                       +(44)	20	8589	1000		office
                                                                                                   +(44)	20	8589	1001		fax
                      Blogs                     conTAcT           Real-Time
                    Social Sites
                                                 cEnTER        Communications                      Asia Pacific & Middle East
                                                                                                   Headquarters
                   Communities                                  Social Software
                                                                 Communities                       138 Robinson Road
                                                                                                   #13-00	The	Corporate	Office
                                                                                                   Singapore 068906
                       unIFIED communIcATIons + coLLABoRATIon                                      +(65)	6590	0388		office
                                                                                                   +(65)	6324	1003		fax	

The combination of social-software savvy consumers and next-generation                             aspect.com
enterprise communication technology changes the rules of customer contact, and
breaks down the walls between the contact center and the rest of the enterprise.




6     ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.                                                                       3837US-B       11/10

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Keeping pace-with-the-consumer-wp

  • 1. WHITE PAPER KEEPIng PAcE WITH THE consumER Finding the right partner for your next-generation contact center THE NEXT GENERATION OF CUSTOMER CONTACT ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
  • 2. WHITE PAPER Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 The Foundation for the Next-Generation Contact Center 2 A Software-Based Unified Architecture 3 The Advantages of Unified Communications and Collaboration 4 The Future of Customer Contact: From Customer Interaction to Customer-Company Collaboration 4 What Vendors Should Offer 6 © 2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
  • 3. WHITE PAPER Executive Summary Today’s socially networked consumer is demanding more from the companies they do business with. They are expecting higher levels of service and enhanced communications provided through more channels, and they have more outlets for voicing opinions about their experiences than ever before. Engaging in proactive conversations with those consumers to manage and deliver on their expectations will become critical to a company’s ability to succeed. Planning for a next-generation contact center will help to address these requirements while enhancing the overall customer experience. Unified communications and collaboration technologies provide the foundation for the next-generation contact center, by connecting not only the contact center and the rest of the enterprise, but also the enterprise and the customer in new ways. These technologies bring vital capabilities to customer- company communications, including voice/telephony, unified messaging, contextual presence, multimedia conferencing, desktop and data sharing, web portals, social computing and content and knowledge management. Communication channels are expanding beyond more familiar choices like voice, chat and email to include SMS/text messaging modes, customer communities using social networking, and access to content-rich, user-directed, self-service experiences through the Internet. And as these channels are expanding, so are consumers’ expectations. At a minimum, they’ll expect a rich experience tailored to each channel. As social media continues to democratize the customer experience, they will increasingly want to interact with both fellow consumers and decision-makers within the company to gain a larger voice in the brands they champion. Ultimately, they are looking to participate in the reinvention of customer-company communications and the creation of products and services. These trends bring either risk or opportunity to companies looking to build relationships that cultivate loyalty. The outcome depends on whether or not businesses take action. Customer-centric companies that choose to adapt to this new norm will need to move from traditional customer interactions confined to the contact center to enterprise-wide customer-company collaboration. To keep pace with evolving customer needs and to take full advantage of emerging technologies, companies should understand the essential capabilities that a next-generation contact center must deliver and begin planning for it today. This paper outlines key capabilities and top-line technical requirements to consider as you engage with IT to determine the best path forward to meet your customers’ demands. ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 1
  • 4. WHITE PAPER The Foundation for the Next-Generation Contact Center How should companies begin the journey toward this new customer communications paradigm? It starts with an understanding of the key benefits and requirements of the next-generation contact center—from both a business and an IT perspective. Key stakeholders across business management, contact center, telecom, networking, and enterprise architecture functions must work together to find common ground on short- and long-term requirements. There are some essential requirements that all next-generation contact centers must address. Simply stated, any contact center platform should meet certain criteria today and be supported by a roadmap that provides flexibility and a seamless transition to newer capabilities. Unified communications and collaboration technologies are going to play an instrumental role by providing the foundation that enables increased internal and external customer communication channels, as well as enhanced business processes. The availability of core contact center capabilities on a unified architecture will allow businesses to leverage the advanced functionalities provided by unified communications and collaboration. The effort to transition to the next-generation contact center is worthwhile, as companies that effectively address the change and its inherent challenges are reaping several important benefits. To succeed in the expanded, open environment of customer-company collaboration, companies must harness the knowledge of their entire organization and the customer ecosystem in real time. Underlying the benefit of increased customer satisfaction is the next-generation ability to provide consistently relevant, high-quality transaction experiences regardless of channel choice. Beyond building customers’ trust across individual transactions, multi-channel dialogue facilitates ongoing customer- company communication that promotes increasing loyalty to products, services and the brand. The information exchange may take place through a blend of proactive company communications and customer-initiated conversation, or through mutual participation in customer communities and the blogosphere. Most companies face serious barriers to delivering at this level. Their contact center platforms tend to be siloed from the rest of the enterprise, and augmenting existing systems with new products and capabilities can be an expensive and time-consuming proposition. 2 ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
  • 5. WHITE PAPER A Software-Based Unified Architecture The next-generation contact center requires a unified platform that can initiate a dialogue and respond to inquiries in a consistent manner across all contact channels. This technology integrates business rules and centralizes communication channel management and administration, empowering business line managers to monitor and optimize operational and agent performance in real time. A unified contact center overcomes the challenges and expense associated with the previous generation of proprietary, siloed Tech Talk and hardware-intensive computer telephony integration (CTI) A software-based unified contact center architectures. ACDs with integral PBXs and other stand-alone architecture breaks down communica- systems (“point products”) are rapidly becoming obsolete. They tions silos by going beyond telephony to are being replaced by a software-based model that unites all of the unite all contact center capabilities and communications components in your contact center architecture to work with the company’s enterprise architecture. . reduce complexity, cost and risk, while at the same time increasing system reliability. Most importantly, a software-based architecture An effective unified contact center is essential for delivering customer contact applications that fully architecture should be compatible with enterprise architecture, including a leverage next-generation enterprise technologies like unified network layer that interoperates with communications and collaboration. open-telephony standards, as well as application integration, reporting and A unified architecture should combine the following critical management layers. It should also: capabilities: • upport virtualization to minimize S • Full-featured inbound routing (ACD capabilities) physical footprints • upport web services to ease applica- S • Intelligent proactive contact capabilities (outbound dialing) tion integration • Speech-enabled and self-service technologies such as voice portals • ffer access to an existing pool of IT O professionals who can develop and • Virtual routing to remote agents and dispersed locations manage the environment • Rich-presence tools that identify the availability of experts within • mbed interfaces in other enterprise E the contact center and throughout the enterprise applications • A real-time communications environment that integrates the • ffer Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) O . customer contact and unified communications technologies interoperability • upport user preferences for receiv- S ing communications on mobile devices PBX w/ AcD AcD cTI unIFIED conTAcT cEnTER ucc Divergent paths: unified, software-based applications that fully leverage unified communications and collaboration (UCC) infrastructures will replace legacy solutions that have PBX hardware at their core. ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 3
  • 6. WHITE PAPER The Advantages of Unified Communications and Collaboration As companies look to find common ground between their enterprise and contact center architectures, unified communications and collaboration technologies are primed to merge the capabilities of two separate environments. A unified architecture that supports session initiation protocol (SIP) interoperability provides a standards- based way to employ new and third-party applications as they become available, giving contact centers a foundation for taking advantage of these technologies. This enables contact centers to support the real- time capabilities and features of unified communications such as call control and speech recognition—and non-real time communications such as voicemail, email, SMS and fax. Unified communications and collaboration in the contact center offers the following advantages: Tech Talk In this rapidly changing environment, • Greater first-call resolution contact center vendors must have • Optimal balance of proactive and customer-initiated contact a well-defined strategy for taking advantage of unified communications • doption of web 2.0+ applications to benefit the next-generation A and collaboration. Companies should consumer consider these factors as they review potential platforms: . Contextual presence is a core element of unified communications • n a space where no single vendor has I and collaboration. Among its many functions are the abilities to all of the answers, solutions shouldn’t identify and engage enterprise knowledge workers in customer rely on proprietary technology that interactions or to drive intelligent notification via the best channel can impede companies from tapping for announcements and alerts, such as order shipment status or into third-party innovation prescription refill notices. As interactions expand into the enterprise, • oundational unified communications F next-generation contact center operations will need to leverage capabilities, such as rich presence, workforce optimization both in the contact center and the enterprise. that can be embedded into applications to engage enterprise This allows the use of a common set of unified communications and knowledge workers to resolve collaboration technologies to track, manage and optimize customer customer issues, should be part interactions within the contact center and into the enterprise and of any modern contact center consumer communities. • oadmaps should include R collaboration capabilities such as enterprise search for both structured and unstructured content—for The Future of Customer Contact: From Customer Interaction to example, call recordings and Customer-Company Collaboration conversations taking place on social While unified communications and collaboration are important networks—and work processes that integrate traditional and web-based considerations for today’s contact center, they will become even more transactions critical as customer communications move beyond session-based • he technology roadmap should T transactions to an ongoing dialogue. Any contact center solution include capabilities to leverage must account for the convergence of the 2.0 consumer and the location data and presence on enterprise powered by unified communications and collaboration. mobile devices This reality is breaking down the walls between the enterprise and the contact center, and shifting the emphasis for engaging effectively with consumers from customer interaction to customer-company collaboration. Each interaction is just one element in an ongoing, often customer-initiated conversation. 4 ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
  • 7. WHITE PAPER Customer satisfaction hinges on the immediate availability of the most helpful resources—voice or web portals, agents, or any other option including blended self-service and live services—just as long as the information provided answers their most complex questions in the simplest possible way. To deliver a single-interaction experience that’s appropriate to the channel, companies will need to follow a few entrenched rules. Just as consumers expect to switch smoothly from one channel to another, they take for granted the company’s complete familiarity with their history at each interaction point. For example, customers who search a company’s secure self-service Web portal and find they need additional information should have a click-to-connect option for contacting an agent through voice or instant messaging. The agent, with access to a knowledge base that contains a detailed customer profile, can more effectively The Next-Generation Contact Center troubleshoot a service need. Structured data as well as unstructured Essential Elements data gathered from the company website, call center interactions, • dvanced technologies that bring A social networks and other sources also provide actionable and customer contact processes into the consumable customer information for other departments. enterprise • Standards-based technology To address the changing consumer most effectively, companies should devise an approach to engage social networks and online • eamless, multichannel capabilities S communities. They must also make effective use of their vendors’ IT in a unified platform services to enable the next-generation of collaboration capabilities. • lended capabilities to support B By providing access to the organization’s entire knowledge base, intelligent outbound (proactive) and inbound contact the contact center can implement a customer-centric model that is monitored and managed by the company. This model offers • nified communications capabilities U enterprises the following advantages: including rich presence, instant mes- saging and multimedia conferencing • ransforms the immense volume of unstructured data from contact T • apabilities that leverage social C center interactions, web site visits, the blogosphere and social networks, online communities, web networks into actionable information and intelligence portals and enterprise search and knowledge stores • ses search capabilities to monitor customer conversations U • ightly integrated workforce optimi- T around key topics (e.g., “closing account”) by linking applications zation capabilities that use unified to customer-facing emails, instant messages, SMS/text messaging, communications and collaboration to Web conversations and social networks track interactions into the enterprise • ncorporates data gathered from social-media monitoring into I • Support for consolidated CRM views individual customer records • trong strategic professional services S that ensure companies fully lever- Finally, contact centers need to leverage communications channels age their intellectual capital with to collect customer data, as well as proactively deliver information communications-enabled business and service via the customer’s preferred channels, such as intelligent processes notification of events or actions taken on the customer’s behalf (e.g., account approval or credit issued). The balance of this two-way flow supports optimal communications management. Companies looking to implement next-generation contact center solutions should ensure that the partner they select is able to accommodate the adoption of these expanding capabilities today, with an eye toward how CRM systems can be integrated to optimize sales, customer service and collections business processes. ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 5
  • 8. What Vendors Should Offer About Aspect Aspect is a global software and IT Unified communications and collaboration capabilities in the contact services firm specializing in applying center support favorable business outcomes, including cost reductions Microsoft unified communications through increased operational and agent efficiencies, and stronger customer and collaboration to help customers achieve optimal results through relationships. As customer interactions become more integrated into the enhanced business processes enterprise, leading companies will use their organization’s full knowledge across the enterprise and in the and expertise to engage their customers while embracing social networking contact center. Aspect provides to enhance customer-company collaboration. IT consulting, integration services and business applications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com. The most qualified vendors will provide a contact center solution that optimizes a company’s resources and allows easy adoption of the best tools and technologies as they become available. That means enhancing customer- company collaboration through applications that can be configured to optimize both business processes and intellectual capital in real time. For instance, the vendor’s professional services may deliver a 360-degree customer view that pulls real-time data from the financial server into the contact center. Or, applications may introduce back-office processing capabilities into contact center workflows that trigger real-time communications. Communications triggers can help move a process forward, whether the purpose is to support a customer interaction, advance a requisition, or manage a back-office transaction. Another example is applications that enable web self-service to allow agents’ use of wikis to alert other agents of contact center trends. Interacting with customers at the connection points they favor responds to their desire for convenience. Answering their needs with full-enterprise expertise helps deliver the consistent quality they expect. Progressive companies will embrace opportunities to engage consumers in meaningful dialogue, through proactive service and participation in online communities Aspect Software and other user-centric channels, to communicate on the customer’s terms. Corporate Headquarters 300 Apollo Drive To achieve the net result, greater customer loyalty, companies should consider Chelmsford, MA 01824 only those vendors that possess the vision, expertise and professional services 978 250 7900 office to help them engage with the growing ranks of 2.0 consumers. 978 244 7410 fax Europe & Africa Headquarters 2 The Square, Stockley Park Uxbridge Middlesex UB11 1AD consumER 2.0 EnTERPRIsE 2.0 +(44) 20 8589 1000 office +(44) 20 8589 1001 fax Blogs conTAcT Real-Time Social Sites cEnTER Communications Asia Pacific & Middle East Headquarters Communities Social Software Communities 138 Robinson Road #13-00 The Corporate Office Singapore 068906 unIFIED communIcATIons + coLLABoRATIon +(65) 6590 0388 office +(65) 6324 1003 fax The combination of social-software savvy consumers and next-generation aspect.com enterprise communication technology changes the rules of customer contact, and breaks down the walls between the contact center and the rest of the enterprise. 6 ©2010 Aspect Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 3837US-B 11/10