Welcome to the Contact Center of the FutureThe Intelligent Contact Center

Todays Contact Center

The Intelligent Contact Center

The Intelligent Contact CenterIntelligent Contact Center Defined as a single point of contact to provide quality customer care, while also acting as an individualized marketing channel to push new products and services. SOURCE: Yankee Group

What Does it Look Like?TDM to VoIPSeamless IntegrationCalls to Multi-Media

What Does it Look Like?Service Agents to Self-ServicePhysical to VirtualEfficiency to Effectiveness

Media and Analyst Chatterit is practically impossible to achieve this without tight integration across all communications systems and enterprise applications.

Source: Yankee Group

Media and Analyst ChatterThrough 2010, information management will prevent most customer service organizations from keeping pace with changing enterprise needs.

2009, 10% of Type A (pioneers) organizations and 5% of Type B (mainstream) organizations will use work-at-home CSS agents.Source: Gartner Group

Media and Analyst ChatterThe intelligent contact center will require a significant amount of planning and cross-departmental coordination, but the results will be well worth the investment of money and time in the long run.Source: Gartner Group

The Intelligent Contact CenterGetting there

The Call Center 1987CRM (CICS, COBOL) Database (Progress) ReportingServers (IBM)Desktops (Compaq)Email (MF, CompuServe)

PBXIVRACD Fax Machines Network (Token ring) OS (OS/2, Netware, Windows)

One BuildingInbound CallsVendors, Vendors, Vendors!!!

The Contact Center 1997Multiple SitesPhones calls, faxes, emailsStandards based servers

New Applications into the Contact CenterRecording/MonitoringEmail management/routingWFO Predictive DialersUnified Messaging

The Intelligent Contact Center 2007Phone calls, emails, web transactions, SMSAgents anywhereMobile DevicesOne VARInteractive Intelligence PBX, IVR, ACD, Recording, WFO, Outbound DialingMicrosoft OS, CRM, Email, UM

SIP Gateway

What makes todays Contact Center

Key parts of the Intelligent Contact CenterTodayFutureIVRAnalyticsSpeech RecognitionSpeech AnalyticsVideo ChatVideo QueuingPassive Agent TrainingAutomatic e-Learning

IVR TodayPredominantly Digit based Press 1 for Support.

Fixed Menus

Frontend of calls only

Separate development from other apps (CRM, Web)

AnalyticsAgent

Analytics Generic Menu4273.568 MenuAgent

AnalyticsAgent

AnalyticsAgent

Advantages of AnalyticsUse technology to dynamically drive agent actions

Less training on complex business issues

Dynamically interact with the customer based on: Buying patternsProducts ownedCall historyValue of customerCurrent InventoryAgents available

Custom experience for every customer

Speech Recognition TodaySpeech enabled directories Speak the name of employee.

Speech IVRs Press or say 1.

Message Management Play new emails

Full speech enabled applications (Address changes, 411)

Speech AnalyticsAgent

Speech AnalyticsAgent

Speech AnalyticsAgent

Advantages of Speech AnalyticsTake actions during a call

Keyword matching (Cancel!, Hello-Hello)

Security / Threat Assessments

Drive agent screens based on speech patterns

Video chatClick to Interact

Peer-to-Peer Kiosks

Internal Communications

One-way broadcasts

VideoAgent

VideoAgent

Advantages of Video QueuingAgent Kiosks

Video Conferences (Adding in Level 2 agent)

Queuing with Mobile Devices

Passive Agent TrainingAudio and Screen Recording

Scoring and cataloging

Fixed curriculum and delivery methods

e-LearningAgent

e-LearningAgent

e-LearningAgentSupervisor

e-LearningREVIEWEDAgent

Advantages of E-learningRules Based

Supervisor controlled or system controlled

Training becomes part of daily routine

Real time Trend Analysis

Key parts of the Intelligent Contact CenterTodayFutureIVRAnalyticsSpeech RecognitionSpeech AnalyticsVideo ChatVideo QueuingPassive Agent TrainingAutomatic e-Learning

Steps toward the Intelligent Contact CenterIntegration of the contact center and the enterprise (moving cc apps to the enterprise) Media Transitions across devices Offering multimedia interactions (call, fax, web, email) Be-Anywhere Agents

Queuing of task/workflow objects Automation of business processes

The Intelligent Contact Center SolutionChoosing the right platform and vendor

PBXACDIVRVMDialerRecorderWFMFaxHardware-centric, Multi-box Approach

A Comprehensive, All-in-One Suite

Proven SolutionInteractive Intelligence positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of the 2007 Contact Center Infrastructure Report

Welcome to the Contact Center of the FutureThe Intelligent Contact Center

Today, advances in technology are expanding the capabilities of the call center and improving service to the customer, while reducing the capital and HR costs. Customers now can leave voice messages, and send email and faxes, evolving the old call center into the contact center, which manages nearly all forms of customer interactions.

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Technology will be used to improve the effectiveness of agents and thereby provide the customer a better experience. Intelligent database analysis, speech analytics, and more flexible push technology--incorporated into contact center software--will bring about what at Interactive Intelligence we call the Intelligent Contact Center.

**TDM to VoIPVoIP offers both an economical alternative to TDM and much more flexibility in expanding your call center. Phone Calls to Emails, On-line Forms, and Web ChatsThe modern contact center has the technology to handle multiple communications media. Seamless Integration with Multiple Back-end SystemsThe ability to push relevant information from a database to the agents desktop, simultaneous with the incoming call, enhances the agents power to respond to the call effectively*From Service Agents to Self-serviceThe contact centers self-service capabilities, driven by new technology, enable customers to find information they need quickly, improving the customer experience.Agent Efficiency to Agent EffectivenessThe technology in todays contact center provides tools that measure customer satisfaction, identify problems and offer solutions. Research reveals that 41% of contact centers perceive themselves as evolving from cost centers to profit centers.

The Decline of the Physical Call CenterRemote agents have access to the same information and view the same screens as agents working in the physical contact center.

*Although many companies are trying to transform their contact center into an intelligent contact center, it is practically impossible to achieve this without tight integration across all communications systems and enterprise applications. A seamless experience produces a more personalized service with automated routing of inbound communications based on a customers needs and agent availability and capability to maximize first call resolution. Tight integration between telephony applications, the infrastructure and enterprise applications can also parlay itself into other benefits throughout the organization. Source: Yankee Group

**Those with legacy systems already in place will have to develop a master plan for a smooth evolution to the intelligent contact center and plan for timely system change-outs as products reach the end of their lifecycles. In addition, product selections will have to consider integration capabilities with other systems throughout the enterprise. The intelligent contact center will require a significant amount of planning and cross-departmental coordination, but the results will be well worth the investment of money and time in the long run.

**The Call center market really got moving in 1987. Sure, some forms existed long before then, but this was the time when dozens of vendors came on the scene building specialized, one-off call center products. *The challenge with this diagram is so many boxes trying to do many things. All with different administrative interfaces. All requiring specialized integration projects.

*1997 marked the initial introduction of the contact center. Technology now provided a way to go beyond just call routing, but added new media types, support for multiple locations, and sophisticated new applications.*Jump ahead another 10 years to the start of the intelligent contact center. Here we are talking about even more sophisticated applications, using technology to minimize agent turnover, remote and mobile agents, video and more.*Contrast this diagram with the last one we looked at. Here, there is a central platform that provides all the needed communication technology for the organization.*Todays contact center really is quite vast. All of these various applications providing an added edge to either improve customer service levels or reduce costs or in many cases accomplish both.*We are going to look at four items that will be key evolutions of the contact center. In each case well contrast todays technology with where we see the future headed. Well start with the use of analytics in driving agent and self service actions.

*The use of IVR today certainly can reduce agent talk time. That said, there are many limitation. Most implementations are digit-based, the menus are fixed, they only front end calls and even with voice XML, the development environment is quite separate from other applications.**(these notes cover the next four slides) Contrast that now with using analytics to drive agent and self service behavior.

In our example, the caller calls into the company and is presented with a generic self service menuThen based on gathering some basic info, most likely through a simple speech-driven interface, that can be as simple as an account number (or might even be driven by the callers phone number) a query is made to our database.This database has information on the callers accounts, buying history, length of time as a customer etc.Based on the information in the database, we then provide a more dynamically-driven set of options. For example, if this were a banking customer and based on the database look up we knew that the caller only had a savings account with us, why would be present a generic menu of press 1 for checking, press 2 for savings, press 3 for money market accounts etc. So the options become driven based on the information we pull from the database.And we are no longer just talking about phone-only interactions. This can work to push tailored information to the customers web browser or via email.How about in a live interaction with an agent. In the Intelligent Contact Center, information can be pulled from the database, that then drives the script for the agent. For example, lets say that the agent is alerted that the customers subscription is about to expire, the agent is then prompted to sell a renewal contract. Or the database shows that this particular customer has taken advantage of upselling opportunities during the last three calls if an added discount was made available the agent is scripted to make the offer.****An explanation of todays basic speech implementations. Realize that while cool, they essentially are most often used as a replacement for dtmf input.**(these notes cover the next three slides) For the Intelligent Contact Center we are talking about going beyond using speech as a dtmf replacement. We are talking about using the analysis of speech patterns, words, and emotion to improve service levels and drive agent behavior. IN REALTIME.

Lets look at an example:

The caller calls in. The call is received by our communications system and the call recording begins.The call is then connected to an agent and the conversation starts. Unfortunately, during the call, a high level of emotion or anger is detected from the caller. This is detected and then prescribed action is provided to the agent (or perhaps an alert is triggered to a supervisor) and the conversation comes back under control.In the future, we are also working on the implementation of word spotting. These could be positive or negative words. On the positive side, it could be words that indicate an buying signals. On the negative side, it could be the use of competitors names. In these cases the point is that this can trigger prescribed actions on the part of the agent.**So for the Intelligent Contact Center, call it key take-away #2, speech isnt about just replacing dtmf or analyzing calls that took place 2 days or 2 weeks ago. It is about using speech analytics in realtime to drive agent behavior and improve the experience for the customer.*Video. Lots of talk about video these days. Our impression is that video is still a specialized technology for the contact center, but as the Intelligent Contact Center evolves, video will be a key part of it. So todays model of video chat is nice, but what is the real power of video in the contact center.**Our example here is pretty straightforward. Instead of a peer-to-peer video interaction, the video call is received by the communications server. That video call is then queued and routed to the appropriate agent.

Remember that video is about personalization. Yes, it can enhance the experience for some uses, such as with hearing impaired for example. But overall, it about personalizing the experience for the customer.*Technically video will move beyond peer-to-peer and will become another queued interaction type. This includes the use of agent kiosks at banks and other service-related industries. Allowing the addition of ad-hoc video conferencing of additional agents or third-parties. And finally extending it mobile devices as the bandwidth and capabilities of these mobile devices continue to increase.*Our last segment looks to advance the concept of agent training and improving agent effectiveness. Today, really good contact centers use methods that arent that effective. They gather a sample of audio and screen recordings; a quality team with score the interactions; and then curriculum will be provided to improve agent knowledge all in the hopes of improving the agent scores.

There are some big holes in this methodFirst, it is labor intensive. That quality team spends a lot of time reviewing and scoringIts not very timely. Sometime the quality team might be dealing with 3 week old interactionsIt is very subjective hard scorers vs. easy scorersIt usually is not agent specific in its prescribed remedy. Instead generic learning is put in place such as our agents need to improve their soft skills, lets create a class to help train them on that.**(notes cover the next four slides)

Lets contrast this with a more dynamically-driven model.

The caller calls in and the call is answered by the communications server. The agent is alerted and the call is connected to the agent. During the conversation, the call gets a bit heated. Instead of the caller getting mad and hanging up. Or even worse the agent getting mad and hanging up (it happens), as the call is concluded the caller has the opportunity to participate in a post-call customer satisfaction survey (note that this was most likely provided to the caller at the beginning of the interaction). The caller completes the survey which is then routed based on a set of rules for example low scores could be routed to a supervisor for review. Then either automatically or with triggered by a supervisor, automated elearning, SPECIFIC TO THE NEEDS OF THE INDIVIDUAL AGENT, is then pushed to the agent to complete.***This type of implementation for elearning and customer feedback management takes out the subjectivity, allows for a lot of flexibility, is timely in nature, and becomes a part of the agents daily routine.**All are self explanatory, but are examples of more of the near term things being implemented as the contact center evolves.***How to get started? It all starts with the platform that you deploy. Using a multibox approach of loosely connected systems wont get you there.

*That is why we architected CIC as a single, all-in-one platform providing all required communication applications with a single administrative interface.

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