Case Study in Building a Modern Contact Center
November 19, 2022
At Grep Digital, we continuously look for ways to adopt modern technologies to solve some earlier problems or upgrade from legacy systems. The contact center is one such area where there is a lot to leverage from current technologies, and we would like to share our recent experiences on this.
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, a modern contact center plays a pivotal role in delivering exceptional customer service. To meet the evolving needs of customers and streamline operations, integrating the contact center with robust platforms like ServiceNow has become increasingly essential. In this article, we will explore various approaches to building a modern contact center, with a specific focus on the integration with ServiceNow. We will also examine the current integration model and delve into recent case studies that highlight the benefits of this integration.
Understanding the Modern Contact Center
A modern contact center goes beyond traditional phone-based interactions. It embraces multiple communication channels such as voice, email, chat, social media, and more. This approach enables businesses to provide seamless, omnichannel customer experiences and leverage advanced analytics to gain valuable insights.
Multiple Communication Channels
One of the key advantages of a modern contact center is its ability to offer customers the flexibility to choose their preferred communication channel. Some customers might prefer the convenience of a phone call, while others may find it more convenient to interact via email, chat, or social media platforms. By offering these multiple channels, businesses can cater to different customer preferences and ensure a higher level of customer satisfaction.
Unified Interface
With the integration of various communication channels, a modern contact center enables agents to handle interactions from different platforms within a unified system. This consolidation simplifies the workflow for agents, as they can access all customer interactions from a single interface. They can seamlessly transition between channels, allowing for a consistent and personalized customer experience across multiple touch points.
Advanced Analytics
In addition to offering a variety of communication channels, modern contact centers also leverage advanced analytics and technologies to gain valuable insights. By capturing and analyzing data from different channels, businesses can extract meaningful information about customer behavior, preferences, and trends. Use these insights to enhance customer experiences, improve business processes, and make data-driven decisions.
Real-time Monitoring
For instance, analytics can help identify common customer pain points or frequently asked questions, enabling businesses to proactively address these issues and reduce customer effort. It can also provide real-time monitoring of social media platforms, allowing companies to promptly respond to customer queries or concerns shared on these channels. By harnessing the power of analytics, businesses can optimize their contact center operations and deliver more personalized and efficient customer interactions.
Alternatives Offering Contact Center Solutions
Numerous alternatives provide robust contact center solutions that businesses can integrate with ServiceNow. These alternatives include cloud-based platforms like Genesys Cloud, Cisco Contact Center, Avaya Aura, and Zendesk Talk. Each of these solutions brings unique features and functionalities to enhance customer interactions and streamline operations.
Genesys Cloud
Genesys Cloud is a cloud-based contact center platform that provides a comprehensive suite of communication and customer engagement tools. It offers omnichannel support, allowing businesses to interact with customers across multiple channels like voice, email, chat, social media, and more. Genesys Cloud provides advanced routing capabilities to efficiently distribute interactions to the most appropriate agents based on skills, availability, or other criteria. It also offers workforce management features, real-time analytics, and integration options with various CRM systems, enabling businesses to deliver personalized customer experiences and optimize their contact center operations.
Cisco Contact Center
Cisco Contact Center is a versatile solution that combines various communication channels to deliver seamless customer experiences. It offers voice, email, chat, social media, and video interactions, allowing businesses to engage with customers through their preferred channels. Cisco Contact Center provides intelligent routing capabilities to connect customers with the most appropriate agents, ensuring efficient and effective customer service. It also offers advanced reporting and analytics features to monitor performance, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions. Integration with other Cisco collaboration tools and CRM systems further enhances the contact center capabilities.
Avaya Aura
Avaya Aura is a contact center solution that offers a range of features to streamline customer interactions and optimize operations. It supports various communication channels, including voice, email, chat, social media, and SMS, enabling businesses to provide omnichannel experiences. Avaya Aura provides intelligent routing for efficient call handling and personalized customer service based on profiles and agent skills. It also provides robust reporting and analytics capabilities to track performance, monitor customer satisfaction, and identify areas for improvement. Avaya Aura can integrate with existing CRM systems and other applications to enhance productivity and deliver a seamless customer journey.
Zendesk Talk
Zendesk Talk integrates with the Zendesk customer service platform, providing a contact center solution. It allows businesses to manage customer interactions across channels like voice, email, chat, and social media from a single interface. Zendesk Talk offers features such as call queuing, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), and call recording to improve call handling efficiency. It provides real-time analytics and reporting capabilities to monitor call metrics, agent performance, and customer satisfaction. Integration with the broader Zendesk ecosystem enables seamless ticketing, knowledge base access, and customer information synchronization.
Amazon Connect
Amazon Connect is a cloud-based contact center service offered by AWS. It offers businesses a flexible, scalable, and reliable solution to engage customers via voice, chat, and web channels. Amazon Connect is designed to deliver exceptional customer experiences while simplifying contact center management and reducing costs. AWS recognized as a Visionary in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service. Some of the key advantages of Amazon Connect:
Flexibility and scalability
Amazon Connect is built on the cloud-based AWS platform, which provides businesses with the flexibility and scalability to handle a large number of customer interactions. The platform can easily scale up or down to meet the changing demands of a business, without requiring additional hardware or software investments. This is a significant advantage over some of its competitors, such as Avaya and Cisco, which typically require on-premises installations and can be more difficult to scale.
Omnichannel capabilities
Amazon Connect supports voice, chat, and messaging interactions across various channels, including web, mobile, and social media. This omnichannel approach allows end-users to interact with their system using their preferred communication method, resulting in a better overall customer experience. This is a significant advantage over some of its competitors, such as Genesys and Five9, which have limited omnichannel capabilities.
AI-Powered Automation
Amazon Connect includes built-in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities, which can help businesses automate routine tasks and improve agent productivity. For example, Amazon Connect can use AI-powered chatbots to handle simple customer queries, freeing up human agents to handle more complex issues. This is a significant advantage over some of its competitors, such as Zendesk Talk, which do not have built-in AI capabilities.
Pay-as-you-go Pricing Model
Amazon Connect’s pay-as-you-go pricing model is flexible and cost-effective for businesses of all sizes. Only pay for what you use, with no upfront costs or long-term commitments. This is a significant advantage over some of its competitors, such as Avaya and Cisco, which typically require large upfront investments and long-term contracts.
Integration Model
The integration between the contact center and ServiceNow facilitates a seamless flow of information, ensuring a unified customer experience and streamlined agent workflows. The model typically involves connecting the contact center platform with ServiceNow through APIs, enabling real-time data exchange, case creation, and synchronization of customer information.
Integration Ways to Consider
When integrating a contact center with ServiceNow, there are multiple approaches to consider, such as:
Incident Management Integration
This integration streamlines the creation of incidents directly from contact center interactions, enabling agents to initiate issue resolution processes in ServiceNow seamlessly. Here are the steps in the Incident Management Integration Process:
Integration Setup
The contact center platform and ServiceNow need to be configured for integration. This involves establishing communication channels, defining data mapping between systems, and setting up authentication and security protocols to ensure a secure data exchange.
Data Capture
During customer interactions, contact center agents capture relevant incident details. This includes customer contact information, issue descriptions, any attachments or supporting documents, and timestamps. The captured data is used to populate the incident fields in ServiceNow.
Incident Creation
Using the integrated functionality, agents can initiate incident creation directly from the contact center platform. The captured information is automatically transferred to ServiceNow, populating the incident form with accurate and complete data.
Incident Management
Once incidents are created in ServiceNow, they can be assigned to the appropriate incident management teams for investigation and resolution. The incident management team can access all the relevant information captured during the contact center interaction, enabling them to understand the reported issue and take appropriate action.
Collaboration and Communication
Contact center agents and incident management teams can collaborate efficiently within ServiceNow by sharing additional notes, updates, or clarifications related to the incidents. This promotes effective communication, ensures all parties have access to the necessary information, and facilitates faster incident resolution.
Monitoring and Reporting
Organizations can monitor the status and progress of incidents in real-time through ServiceNow. Incident-related metrics, such as response times and resolution rates, can be tracked and analyzed. This data can be used to generate comprehensive reports, measure performance, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to improve incident management processes.
Knowledge Base Integration
By integrating the contact center with the ServiceNow Knowledge Base, agents can access relevant articles and solutions during customer interactions, reducing resolution times and ensuring accurate information delivery.
Automated Ticket Creation
Leveraging automation, the integration can automatically create tickets in ServiceNow for specific contact center events, ensuring efficient case management and improved visibility.
Case Study for ServiceNow Integration
Recent case study demonstrating the benefits of integrating a modern contact center with ServiceNow:
Situation
A client calls the contact center as a result of cancellation of a flight and looking to rebook on a different flight. The system is already aware of the flight cancellation and the impacted passengers who might call to rebook. The client details are available from the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool and are saved with permission from the client.
Solution
The contact center system identifies callers and knows their booking and cancellation statuses. The system then addresses the caller by name and apologises for the cancellation. It then offers to book on an alternate flight the same day later in the evening. The system checks for the next day’s availability and seat numbers based on the client’s response. Upon confirmation from client, the system then goes ahead and completes the booking. The entire conversation is saved as reference for future.
The airline business’s customers regularly require contact center support for flight cancellations and rebookings. Instances like these, spanning various industries, involve the system recognizing changes that may prompt client calls for resolutions.
Benefits
Integrating Amazon Connect with ServiceNow automates client requests, delivering swift, satisfying service. Any unresolved issues are only escalated to the human agent for further consideration. The benefits realized on the sustained use of this system are as follows:
- Company Reduced call volume routing by up to 24%.
- Shortened Average Handling Time by up to 15%.
- Reduced System Administrator effort by up to 60%.
- Reduced Supervisor effort by up to 20%.
- Reduced training time by one week.
- Reduced subscription & usage costs by 31%.
Conclusion
Building a modern contact center integrated with ServiceNow empowers businesses to deliver exceptional customer experiences while improving operational efficiency. Organizations can achieve a successful, modern contact center with ServiceNow by exploring integration options, models, and learning from case studies. This integration boosts customer satisfaction, streamlines processes, and enhances agent productivity, fostering sustainable business growth in the digital age.
Grep Digital worked together with collaborators on multiple cloud-based contact centers with integration to ServiceNow. Contact Grep Digital to start your digital transformation process.
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