Evolving From Contact Center to Engagement Center
Today’s digitally empowered customers are more demanding than ever. They expect a quick, accurate resolution to their inquiry via their communication channel and device of choice.
In this ebook, Pegasystems’ Steve Kraus discusses why digitally empowered customers make it imperative for service organizations to evolve from traditional contact centers to engagement centers and how to successfully start the journey.
Steve KrausSenior Director, Product MarketingP E G A S Y S T E M S
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
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It’s no secret that customer service lies at the heart of the customer relationship. Gartner
reports that service interactions make up 75% of overall customer interactions,
and a Bain & Co. survey reports that customers are 4 times more likely to buy from
a competitor as a result of a bad service experience.
Unfortunately customer expectations have evolved faster than customer service
delivery, leaving the majority of customers dissatisfied with the service they receive.
The Demand for ChangeGood service is good business
1%OF CUSTOMERS FEEL
THEIR EXPECTATIONS ARE CONSISTENTLY MET.*
91% OF CUSTOMERS ARE FRUSTRATED A SINGLE
ISSUE REQUIRES MULTIPLE CONTACTS TO RESOLVE.**
ONLY
* 2013 Forbes Article, "Customer Experience: Is It The Chicken Or Egg," January 20, 2013** Accenture Customer Service Study
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Customer service is no longer limited to phone calls between 9am and 5pm. Customers
demand that service is available to them in any channel, at all times and on every device.
Companies must engage customers on the web, on their mobile device, in social media
as well as on the phone.
Most customers now use multiple channels simultaneously and expect service
organizations to instantly respond across these channels. And if they do not,
the customer may abandon the purchase, churn or even demonize the company via
social media.
Customers Demand ChangeEngaging everywhere
74%OF CONSUMERS UTILIZE THREE OR MORE CHANNELS WHEN SEEKING CUSTOMER CARE*
58%OF CUSTOMERS
ARE FRUSTRATED BY INCONSISTENT
EXPERIENCES ACROSS CHANNELS**
* Ovum 2014 State of Multichannel Customer Service Survey, September 2014** Forrester Research, North American TechnographicsR Customer Experience Online Survey.
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According to a 2013 global Gallup poll, 80% of today’s employees are disengaged from
their jobs. Employees are forced to wade through information overload, work
towards de-motivational metrics and comply with continuously shifting policies
and procedures.
Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) are not empowered to act on the customers’
behalf to resolve issues and must frequently escalate to managers. They cannot
understand why their personal technology has become so easy to use while their work
systems remain difficult and unintuitive.
Employees Demand ChangeDisengaged amidst shifting responsibilities
EMPLOYEE LEVELS OF JOB ENGAGEMENT
60%20% 20%ENGAGED
NOT ENGAGED
ACTIVELYDISENGAGED
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Engagement centers are designed to improve the customer and employee experience,
providing omni-channel interactions tailored to the needs to the individual and designed
to rapidly incorporate feedback and adapt to change. Engagement centers exhibit five
key characteristics that improve service delivery and the bottom line.
GARTNER’S DEFINITION OF THE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT CENTER (CEC):
The Engagement CenterMeeting the demand for change
Business applications that are engineered to provide customer service and support, regardless of the engagement channel.
The goal of the CEC is not only to provide service to customers as they move among communications channels—including social media—while retaining the customer’s context, but also to deliver the appropriate business rules to determine the next best action, information or process with which to engage the customer.*
* Gartner Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center, Michael Maoz, April 24, 2014
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The engagement center must deliver service when and where customers need it. It
is equipped to handle interactions via each channel and device to resolve the
customer’s issue.
Whether using video chat, self-diagnosing connected devices, co-browsing or social
media, the engagement center sits at the heart of each customer interaction. It
seamlessly connects and transitions from one touch point to the next, gathering and
using context along the way to better personalize every encounter.
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
CENTER
Embrace the Everywhere Customer1
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The engagement center provides the CSR with the context they need to intelligently
resolve an interaction. This goes far beyond serving up the traditional 360-degree
view of the customer. Context captures the customer intent and employee goals for
an interaction and eliminates information overload. CSRs can focus on delivering an
accurate and complete resolution for each customer while aligning their actions to
their performance goals.
A dynamically assigned SLA keeps the CSR on track to meet goals
The customer's valueis clearly presented
An overall goal for the interaction is
automatically assigned
The system recommends the best action to take based on context
A comprehensive view of the customer's relevant transactions and interactions are presented to the CSR
Empower Employees2
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The engagement center must deliver relevant, personalized responses. It leverages the
context about each customer and business goal to deliver personalized actions
that guide a CSR or a customer to the best, most relevant resolution. For example,
the supporting system can recommend the appropriate service levels, information and
actions for a specific customer, CSR and situation to reach the best resolution.
3 Recommend The Best Resolution
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91 percent of customers are frustrated that a single issue requires multiple contacts to
resolve.* This results from the fact that the people, channels and systems needed for a
resolution often operate in isolated silos.
An engagement center breaks down the walls between organizations and systems,
hiding the complexity from the customer. It leverages a unified case to cut across
channels, interactions, departments, and systems so that inquiries can be completely
resolved on the first contact. The result is more efficient interactions that build trust with
your customers.
CASE
Eliminate Silos4
* Forrester Research, "Navigate The Future of Customer Service" by Kate Leggett, February 6, 2014
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Fixing a customer issue is an good outcome, but it essentially puts customers back where
they would have been if they did not have an issue to begin with.
Engagement centers take each opportunity to advise customers, based on their
usage and preferences, on how they can get more value from their existing products
and services or from complementary products. The engagement center leverages
capabilities such as predictive analytics and business rules to anticipate a customer’s
needs and directly align those needs to the best products and services to build a long-
term relationship.
Add Value for the Customer5
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Transitioning from Contact Center to Engagement CenterKey Best Practices
SELECT THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY — Choose flexible and agile technologies
that support the five key characteristics of the engagement center. Do not
choose technology that maintains siloed channels and processes.
CAPTURE THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY — Capture the journey directly within
your system execution so that it becomes the backbone of service operations,
engages employees and guides each interaction.
NEVER STOP EVOLVING — Customer demands, products, regulations and
business goals never stop evolving and the engagement center should keep
pace. Follow an agile approach to change. Implement, learn and improve, to
deliver a more efficient and customer-focused experience.
There are three key best practices for evolving from the contact center to the
engagement center:
1
2
3
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The Rewards Of The Engagement Center
DRIVE MORE REVENUE AND NET PROMOTERS — Happy
customers stay loyal, buy more and tell their friends. 86% of
customers say they are willing to pay more for a better customer
experience.* And with social media, this means their positive
experiences can influence thousands in seconds.
INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY — CSRs do not waste time on low value
tasks like handling repeat calls or searching through irrelevant
information. They are more motivated by a system that helps
them effectively engage with customers, leading to productivity
boosts of 40% and higher.
BE FASTER TO MARKET — Engagement centers leverage agile
technologies for constant evolution. This means you can bring
new products to market rapidly (as much as 7x faster) and quickly
change to meet new customer demands, channels, regulations
and business objectives.
* 2014 Marketing Pilgrim Blog
© Copyright 2014 Pegasystems Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About Pegasystems
Pegasystems, the leader in business process management and software for customer centricity, helps organizations enhance customer loyalty, generate new business, and improve productivity. Our patented Build for Change® technology speeds the delivery of critical business solutions by directly capturing business objectives and eliminating manual programming. Pegasystems enables clients to quickly adapt to changing business conditions in order to outperform the competition.
For more information, please visit us at www.pega.com.
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