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Agents don’t need a 360 degree view of the customer: Transforming knowledge into action in the contact center
By Dror Pockard, President of Amdocs ClarifyCRM
I have found that the total emphasis on the creation of a 360-degree view of a customer leads to a flawed CRM strategy and does not necessarily lead to more profitable customer relationships. What's more relevant to maximizing profitable customer relationships is being able to use the 360 degree view of the customer to determine the right actionable information in the right format for each customer interaction in the contact center. Because contact centers remain the primary interaction channel, contact center is indeed the focal point for successful and profitable CRM.
I’m not advocating that a 360-degree knowledge of customers is not required. I am stressing that such knowledge must be translated into actionable and relevant data for the contact center agent. It is the responsibility of executives and management teams to build the knowledge and make strategic decisions to form the appropriate customer strategy based on this 360 degree view. Once the strategy has been determined, the company must direct the agent and empower them to execute the customer strategy. Rather than relying on the unfiltered 360-degree view of the customer, agents require actionable, relevant information and a dynamic, intelligent business process to follow.
Contact Centers require a different 360-degree strategy
Companies in every industry have invested significant resources to provide agents with the illusive 360-degree view of each customer. However, they are only now beginning to examine whether agents really do need a 360 degree view of the customer. I’ve spoken with many companies who manage large-volume contact centers; they say that the answer is no. The 360-degree view, in their experience, does not impact the bottom line or increase profitability. Their agents perform in a very stressful environment in which average call lengths are measured in seconds. Companies are facing increased pressure to improve efficiency and reduce cost per interaction yet maintain customer satisfaction and revenues. The truth of the matter is that agents do not have time to muddle through all of this information created by the 360-degree view.
Agents require actionable information
What agents need is actionable customer information that clearly directs them to a desired outcome. Many companies have the ability to display intelligent data, such as the rating of a particular customer’s value, on the agent’s desktop. However, that information alone does not provide agents with suitable directives. And in some cases, unclear direction may give the agent an excuse to deliver poor service. For example, I spoke with an experienced contact center director who objected to displaying the rating of customer value on the agent’s desktop because the agent might be more apt to provide poor service when encountering a difficult customer with a low value rating.
A better use of 360 degree knowledge of the customer is to present this insight to the agent as actionable data in the appropriate form. For instance, if a customer has underutilized a service plan, then the agent can be prompted in real-time to offer a more appropriate service package. These prompts can occur as a flash on the agent’s desktop or as an automatic trigger of relevant scripts. But the key is to focus on providing actionable information that will achieve the desired result of achieving profitable customer relationships rather than just flat information.
Agents require relevant information
Actionable information must also be relevant to that particular interaction. An appropriate action based on the 360-degree view of the customer may be to offer a new marketing campaign. However, if the customer has called into a call center due to a product issues, the agent first needs to service the customer requests. By presenting the relevant information about that customer, the product, and related knowledge about the issues, the agent will be able to anticipate customer requests and quickly provide the resolution.
In order to deliver the right information at the right time, the systems on the agent desktop needs to be integrated. If a customer navigates through an IVR system and inquires about billing, then the agent ought to be first presented with the latest billing-related interactions. The quick snapshot of relevant information allows contact centers to decrease the call handling time while increasing customer satisfaction, which leads to profitable customer relationships.
Drive the business process with 360 degree view of the customer
We’ve discussed the importance of actionable and relevant information that increases customer profitability in the contact center. Another important strategy of using 360-degree view of the customer is to drive the business process based on that knowledge.
As mentioned earlier, there is a renewed focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of contact center operations. To accomplish this goal, the new design concept requested by contact center managers is to allow agents to select the appropriate business function and for the desktop system to guide the agents to complete that function, efficiently and effectively. For example, if a customer requests a software upgrade, the agent selects the business function of software upgrade. The system, knowing the customer, then presents the right form to accept credit card information because the system already knows that the customer is not entitled to a free upgrade. If it were another customer with the same request but was entitled to a free upgrade, the agent would presented with an address screen to verify that customers’ address.
In the above scenario, the system drove the business process of software upgrade based customer knowledge. It took the guesswork away from the agent, ensured intentional business process, and allowed the agent to focus on customer service, not on figuring out the system.
When business processes is tailored for each customer for each interaction, agents are able to deliver service excellence across all business functions.
Transforming knowledge into a profitable relationship
To provide actionable, relevant, business process-driven information to agents, companies ought to have intimate knowledge of their customer base. Companies must invest the time and resources necessary to collect the appropriate data, mine it, analyze it, and then make intelligent decisions.
The 360 degree knowledge of the customer is absolutely essential. But the ultimate responsibility belongs to the business leaders, not the agents themselves, to form and assess the customer data. Companies must devote themselves to researching the nuances of customer preferences, the key influencers, and the emotional trigger points of their customers. Without such research, companies cannot determine the appropriate actionable information to present to the agent.
Where most companies have failed in their execution is knowing what to do with that 360-degree view of the customer in the contact center. The agent does not need to know everything about the customer. The agent ought to have the most relevant, actionable information to provide efficient and effective service. When this information is delivered through process driven navigation in the contact center, agents are empowered to deliver service excellence and thus improve the bottom line. By executing such a customer strategy, the contact center can truly become a main source of profits and a key factor in growing customer loyalty.
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