Balancing Self Service and Live Service
Over the last year particularly we've seen an increased focus on challenging contact centre demand as a way of managing overall contact volumes. However, once you've been through that process – and once you're satisfied that the interactions still coming into your service centre are the right kind of interactions – then it's time to consider whether deploying automation techniques could help in supporting your broader contact resolution targets.
There's no doubt that today's challenging market conditions have also played a role in helping to drive a customer service automation agenda – not least because of its underlying business case of resource reduction. It is though important to acknowledge that self-service channels work increasingly well both for organisations – who benefit from direct customer inputs without the cost of a service channel, and for customers – many of whom actually now prefer self-service interactions to traditional voice contacts.
The organisations that are set to achieve the best customer service outcomes are those that successfully balance the drive towards self-service with the need to still offer live service. Here Sabio's Peter Galloway – head of the company's Voice Self-service Practice – discusses how getting this balance right is key to a successful automation strategy.
It's all too easy for commentators and the media to criticise self-service technologies – however the reality is that most people are happy to take advantage of today's best practice self-service processes. The problem has never been self-service itself, just badly designed and implemented self-service applications.
We all know self-service works – as consumers we've quickly helped to turn online banking into the number one banking channel, and we're happy to withdraw our cash from ATMs or use the terminals at airports to avoid check-in queues. What all these applications have in common is that they deliver on their promise: they empower consumers, they're convenient and they're efficient. They also help to inspire confidence by providing the service we need in a way we can quickly master. This inspires trust and makes us want to keep on using the applications.
Organisations who get this right can gain real competitive advantage. Today's reality is that self-service really works, and that – providing solutions are properly implemented and integrated – voice self-service solutions can provide benefits to customers while still delivering the improved service and cost savings that organisations demand.
As consumers we can all immediately tell the difference between an automated solution that has actually been designed to help customers, and one that has just been rolled out to help an organisation cut costs. We can all tell the difference intuitively – we feel in control of the process, the system is easy to use, it's convenient and it also seems appropriate for the task we need to accomplish.
Feeling in control
From the customer perspective, we always want to feel in control. We don't want to have to squeeze our choice to fit a pre-defined self-service option, and we don't like it when we're uncertain of the ramifications of making a wrong service choice. Traditional IVR applications that assume initial control of the dialogue and offer an awkward presentation of choices are always more likely to leave customers feeling stuck and unsure what to do next. That's where speech-enabled solutions can help, giving customers the ability to say what they want. Any form of auto-attendance or 'press one for this and press two for that' just isn't appropriate anymore. We find that the most successful applications are those that find the right interface to support the dialogue that works best for the customer – and always leave them feeling in control.
Presenting tasks from the caller's perspective
For organisations the challenge is always finding the right combination of automated and agent-assisted interactions – however this invariably requires a lot more than just technology. Successful speech applications, for example, demand in-depth, user-centred design techniques, the right persona and customer engagement strategies, as well as a clear understanding of where they can – and can't – work well. Key to this is designing self-service applications around actual customer requirements by presenting the task as the caller actually sees it.
Usability is essential, and organisations need to drive all their self-service processes using a user-centric design approach that assesses applications over time with regular optimisations. The best applications are those that appear to adapt to user behaviour, significantly helping to build user confidence during an interaction.
Delivering convenience
While customers may want live conversations because they feel happier dealing with a real person, providing a live agent for every call isn't always realistic – and for simple calls or transactions, a fully or part-automated solution can prove much more convenient. A key benefit of successful self-service deployments is that they can provide customers with far greater accessibility to services, while enabling organisations to keep on operating outside of their normal working hours. For this to work well, however, companies need to understand exactly who their customers are, and how, why, and when they contact them in order to devise an automation approach that delivers a convenient personal customer service.
Ensuring service is appropriate
It's also important for organisations to make sure that the self-service approaches they offer are appropriate for their customers. There are times when a traditional channel such as an automated IVR call or SMS are exactly the right channel, providing they're based on information or permission that the client has already given. Adopting a proactive service approach can also help organisations to reach out to customers before they actually need to get in touch, using techniques such as SMS fulfilment, mobile web applications based on the latest presence data (such as the latest BlackBerry-based boarding passes at airports), as well as focused outbound IVR initiatives that can reduce or eliminate the requirement for follow-up customer calls.
For example, if you've ordered a new washing machine for delivery on Wednesday morning, then you'll be re-assured to get an automated call letting you know that the driver is on time for your 11am delivery. Such an automated solution can effectively reduce the cost of non-delivery for both the customer and the supplier, and shows outbound IVR enabling call avoidance for both parties.
Delivering value through self-service
Properly implemented and integrated voice self-service solutions can clearly provide caller benefits – often in terms of convenience, security, privacy or the cost of service offered. They also enable improved service and cost savings for organisations, supporting key corporate objectives including providing consistent customer interactions, reducing the cost of service, and ensuring consistent information presentation and security.
By challenging demand, offering self-service technologies to support contact resolution, and deploying fully integrated proactive channels, organisations can go a long way towards making sure that the live contacts they receive in their customer service centres are the right kind of contacts. Balancing self-service with live service is an essential strategy if organisations are to optimise their expensive agent resources and leave them free to concentrate on the higher value cross-sell/up-sell interactions that can make a real bottom line difference.