Communications technologies are increasing the ability of organizations to serve their clients in geometric ways. From the linear functionality of Automatic Call Distribution depth was added with the application of skills based concepts. Today the ways in which customer care is expanding might be described spatial. The concept of context allows organizations to surround the interaction in multiple dimensions. As the call center became the contact center; today we are seeing the emergence of the Context Center.
Empowering the context center is a fundamental new model for how the value of the enterprise organization relates to and is expressed to the customer. The prior prevailing interaction model was a set of serial transactions. By dialing a telephone number or clicking through on a website link the client entered a virtual turnstile. The client may have been presented with self-service options. Some found satisfaction through self-service. Some abandoned. Others dropped into a queue. Eventually, those who survived the rigors of the journey were transferred to a live agent.
The experience was all too often like standing in those endless lines at an amusement park; sometimes even without the "45 minutes wait from here" warning signs. All that was missing were perspiring strangers and restless children.
The context center by comparison is more like a concierge service. The idea is to anchor the client and surround them with the organization's resources. Rather than requiring the client to shuffle along in undifferentiated cadence, the context center uses collaborative sessions. The client is ushered to a comfortable position. Critical information mined from previous interactions and current transactional history aggregates to the customer. While they wait intelligent multimedia information - specific to the client - may be presented. When it's time for human interaction experts are brought into the conference rather than the client being shuffled to the experts.
Yesterday's amusement park cattle call like experience is replaced with an environment that provides the opportunity for excellent customer care. Information important to the client is no longer lost in transition like valuable fun park souvenirs misplaced by wayward toddlers. Persistent annoyances of the legacy model such as the need by the client to endlessly repeat information are eliminated. Information is persistent and stays anchored with the customer while agents, experts and automated resources come to them.
All this sounds great, right? The key questions include: How does an organization get there? How does an organization master the new math of multidimensional customer service to conquer the "Hassle Quotient" without taking customers on a disorienting thrill ride? How can such a fundamental transition occur in a way that does not cost more than the benefit derived?
The key is having business and technology partners who can take the vision and help the organization to make it reality. Figuring out who those partners will be requires unbiased advice.
One source of such unbiased advice is MierConsulting, LLC, who recently tested some of the fundamental building blocks of the context center from three top manufacturers. MierConsulting conducted side by side comparisons of Avaya Aura Contact Center 6.1, Cisco Contact Center Express 7, and Interactive Intelligence Customer Interaction Center.
Of Avaya's Context-sensitive prompts and auto-suggest capabilities MierConsulting stated that they are "Excellent" and "State of the art." Avaya's "context-driven expert, agent lists" were also rated as superior the other competitors. You may read the complete results at by clicking through to MierConsulting Independent Lab Comparative Review.
For more information on how Avaya is transforming the contact center to the Context Center, please visit: Improve the functionality of your contact center, reduce costs and improve customer service.
Posted 19 Jan 2011 at 08:00 AM
Comments
Nice post man.I like the content.Thanking you
Posted 24 Nov 2011 at 02:28 AM