At a time when people are mandated to self-distance and wear masks, the idea of “the human touch” may seem a bit disquieting. In commerce especially, face-to-face contact is about the last thing most customers want right now. Human voices, however, have perhaps never been more important.
As many companies struggle to find a “business usual” stance in 2020, service demand levels have risen steeply for around the world. It’s one of the most surprising outcomes of the global shift to a largely work-from-home (WFH) model. For many leaders this blessing, this sign of prosperity, comes with its own set of problems that need to be resolved.
Moving parts
The baselines for what customers expect from “service-based organizations” are very high now, and there are a number of moving parts that must be addressed by companies looking for a solution to the increased customer service (CX) demands, including:
- Loyalty – With a strong majority of companies now competing mostly or completely on the basis of CX, it is imperative to deliver an effortless experience throughout the entire customer journey, across voice, digital channels and devices.
- Performance – A service solution must offer the ability to elevate agent performance in real time via such things as prompts and the initiation of workflow actions.
- Productivity – The question of how to keep workers productive got more complex with the move to WFH. The productivity equation is now a matter of not only extending your capacity to support remote offices and WFH agents but also offering such functionalities as end-to-end call recording, screen capture, live monitoring, and quality management.
“While customer service is key, the employee experience is also critically important for companies seeking to provide better customer experiences,” said Ian Purdell-Lewis, Head of CCaaS Public Sales for Avaya, North America. “Staff must be engaged and empowered with the right solutions so they’re able to create those memorable experiences for customers.”
The case of Hydro Ottawa
As the third largest energy and utilities company in Ontario, Hydro Ottawa earlier in 2020 was faced with the possibility of disruption to their contact center operations while outsourced partners were forced to relocate their employees to home offices.
It took Avaya less than a week to deploy a cloud-based Contact Center-as-a-Service solution — Avaya OneCloud Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS). Hydro Ottawa employees could work from home while managing contact centre operations and meeting customer needs. This was achieved with no service interruption, which for Hydro Ottawa meant no damage to their excellent safety and service reputation.
A great acceleration
Digital transformation (DX) is nothing new. But with the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown came a dramatic change point, especially with regards to customer service. What had a foothold in organizations pre-pandemic — the need to become a digital enterprise — became an absolute necessity.
The contact center is the beating heart of CX, which in a world where the “human touch” might be lacking has become one of the supreme differentiators. But on the side of caution and law, companies must comply with guidance from governments and health organizations. The good news is the technology exists to transition agent workforces to a remote model without any real impact on productivity or quality of customer service.
The OneCloud experience
Avaya OneCloud CCaaS offers today’s future-facing organization the ability to offer customers top-quality experiences through a hassle-free, “always on” contact center:
- Speed – The case of Hydro Ottawa demonstrates one of the big pluses of OneCloud: that deployment can happen in days as opposed to weeks.
- Flexibility – With OneCloud, you pay only for what you use. Have a busy month, pay a bit more; have a quiet month, pay less.
- Intelligence – Advanced analytics help maximize performance and productivity
About Avaya
Avaya cloud communications solutions and multi-cloud application ecosystem power personalized, intelligent, and effortless customer and employee experiences to help achieve strategic ambitions and desired outcomes. Avaya is committed to help grow your business by delivering Experiences that Matter.