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Source : SAP
Enhancing Interaction Center ROI in Turbulent Economic Times: Beyond Traditional Data Sources for Workforce Automation
Workforce Automation is also known as :
Workforce Automation,
Workforce Automation Tools,
Enterprise Workforce Automation,
Workforce Automation Solutions,
Workforce Automation Software,
Workforce Automation Info,
Workforce Automation Technologies,
Using Workforce Automation,
Workforce Automation Business,
Opportunities Workforce Automation,
Customer Service Workforce Automation,
Service Workforce Automation,
Workforce Automation Improve Productivity,
Workforce Automation Productivity,
Workforce Automation Service,
Enhanced Workforce Automation,
Project Workforce Automation,
Proven Enterprise Workforce Automation,
Sales Workforce Automation,
Mobile Workforce Automation,
Mwa Mobile Workforce Automation,
Human Resource Workforce Automation,
Workforce Automation Directory,
Documentation Workforce Automation,
Process Workforce Automation.
By building on your investments in IC processes and workforce optimization
software - and going beyond traditional data sources to drive these applications -
you can do more with less.
Executive Summary
Increasing Visibility to Improve the Customer Experience
Interaction center managers, along with their counterparts
in sales, marketing, and service, are being asked to deliver
greater value on shoestring budgets. While the conventional
reaction in tough economic times is to simply cut
costs and services, the nature of the current downturn
indicates that austerity measures of the past won't work
today. Customer satisfaction is paramount. Your competitors
are delivering increasing value by revamping their contact
centers - and you certainly don't want to lose your hard-won
and loyal customers.
To better weather the storm, you can
release the untapped potential of your
interaction center (IC) and take advantage
of opportunities presented by new
software to enable IC processes. By
building on your investments in IC
processes and workforce optimization
software - and going beyond traditional
data sources to drive these applications -
you can do more with less. Specifically,
you can enhance effectiveness while
cutting costs.
By using data from sources such as
automatic call distribution systems and
HR applications, a workforce optimization
solution can provide visibility into IC
operations, help ensure proper staffing,
and facilitate better-informed decisions.
While these disparate sources enable
the software to deliver value in many
types of business scenarios, the data
is typically insufficient for addressing
emerging requirements for streamlining
customer-facing and back-end processes.
By going beyond traditional data sources,
companies can enhance channel data
with detailed customer information
and help ensure the availability of wellprepared
agents with the right skills.
They can leverage more complete and
timely data from customer relationship
management (CRM), business communication
management, and other solutions.
This tightly integrated approach
enables adaptive planning, superior IC
performance, and greater ROI . And
with more complete data feeding IC
processes, departments can more
easily collaborate to focus on the goals
everyone shares - enhancing customer
satisfaction, trumping the competition,
and kindling profitable growth.
Workforce Optimization for IC Planning and Execution
The Importance of Data Integration as Complexity Increases
In recent years a great deal of complexity has been introduced within contact centers. There is a proliferation of
communication channels, including e-mail, text chat, and voice communication, with both stationary and mobile staffers linked to virtual call centers. Business processes are more sophisticated, with inbound and outbound
calling to handle promotions, real-time offers, marketing campaign support, and routing and escalation of calls to subject matter experts in the back office. And with more complex product and service offerings - plus greater reliance by organizations on contact center operations - volumes have greatly increased, compounding
management and planning issues.
To achieve targeted performance levels, IC agents must have the right skills and the right information at hand. This requires IC operations that are well integrated with those of the organization at large - with visibility into operations by managers throughout the enterprise, and by IC managers specifically into key sales, marketing, and service programs. For example, IC managers must be well informed about a marketing campaign in order to properly train and
deploy agents. Marketers must ensure that their expectations are aligned with IC staffing plans.
A workforce optimization solution can help an IC organization forecast, plan, and execute in alignment with company strategy. The solution can unify workforce management, quality monitoring, analytics, performance management, e-learning, coaching, and more to help organizations understand their customer- focused operations (see Figure).
Particularly in IC s with a critical mass of about 50 agents, workforce optimization solutions can deliver strong ROI , helping companies achieve visibility into agents' activities, enhance process adherence, and ensure that service
levels are met. Further, these solutions can help reduce agent turnover and enable managers to respond proactively to variations in crucial operating metrics such as queue volumes and average hold times. A workforce optimization solution is especially important in today's environment, which is characterized by an increasing mix of communication channels, agent skills, and complex global processes.
Workforce optimization solutions do not stand alone; they depend on data sourced from different areas. These sources typically comprise automatic call distribution and computer-telephone integration systems to provide per-channel data about call lengths and wait times. Sources also include HR systems to supply employee information.
Figure: Continuous Improvement in Customer Service with an Integrated Solution
By going beyond
traditional data sources, companies can enhance channel data with
detailed customer
information and help
ensure the availability
of well-prepared agents with the right skills.
I
nteraction centers can perform well
to the extent that their workforce optimization solutions are populated with accurate and complete data. With good information, organizations can properly plan for marketing campaigns, heightened service demands, real-time offer programs, and the like. These organiza-
tions can better prioritize and handle
training and coaching, manage volume spikes with well-trained frontline agents, attain first-contact resolution goals, and more consistently meet service-level goals. And when necessary, the organization can route calls to a back office staffed by knowledgeable experts.
Toward Better Data Quality for Workforce Optimization
Sources: CRM , Softwtware-Based Communication Syststems, Others
Given the increased importance of leveraging ICs to enhance the customer experience, traditional data sources for workforce optimization are no longer sufficient. Just as one example, using more complete data can increase the accuracy of demand forecasts, thereby improving scheduling effectiveness and freeing management to focus more on customer-specific issues. The status quo is simply not an option, particularly with the heightened need to retain existing customers and cut costs in today's economy.
First, companies should look to their CRM systems. The use of CRM is vital and has expanded across industries. And in many organizations, the existing CRM system can become a more important data source for workforce optimization relative to traditional,
nonintegrated sources.
CRM data provides value for end-to-end customer service processes - encompassing the back office and the contact center across all channels. As the primary repository for data about marketing campaigns, sales programs, and transactions for traditional phone-based customer service communications and back-office interactions, it is well maintained and integrated. Thus, CRM data can provide great detail, timeliness, accuracy, and consistency.
Moreover, by using CRM , modeling the specific skills and qualifications of IC agents can take place outside of a standard HR organizational model. This helps ensure up-to-date details about agent capabilities for handling general interactions as well as those specific to marketing, sales, and service campaigns. Above all, CRM is a single source of truth about customers and their interactions.
Another source of data for a workforce optimization solution, where applicable, should be a company's software-based
business communication management software. Software-based applications are increasingly replacing capital- and maintenance-intensive hardware-based communication systems (such as PBXs with automatic call distribution features). With business communication management software, companies can more flexibly connect mobile and geographically distributed IC agents using a range of
communication methods, including desktop, mobile, and soft phones; short message service (SMS); instant messaging; PDAs; and the Web. With a business communication management solution, these multichannel communication systems are integrated with CRM, enhancing all customer-facing business processes. They provide a real-time source of data about IC communications that is complete, timely, and accurate - and, when combined with CRM data, enable a deeper understanding of interactions. The result is a higher level of forecast accuracy for the workforce optimization solution.
Interaction centers can perform well to the extent that their workforce optimization solutions are populated with accurate and complete data
Certainly, other systems with precise and relevant customer interaction data - including enterprise resource planning systems, third-party software, and in-house development (such as a custom Web channel application) - can be considered as new sources for workforce optimization software. And by using CRM , business communication management software, and other appropriate data sources for workforce optimization applications, companies can achieve myriad benefits. Standard channel data and interaction details can be enhanced with comprehensive customer information. For example, a gold-tier customer that has recently increased business volume can be identified and elevated to a higher service level. Each step of
a transaction can be tracked, and
companies can use analytics to gain new insights into contact length, content, quality, and other attributes.
Through the use of workforce optimization applications populated with better data, companies can improve forecasts and thus more accurately and completely plan staffing levels, training, and coaching. In particular, CRM -enabled integration points provide the following benefits:
- Channel data - Presents all aspects of interactions to provide greater accuracy for forecasting and planning to support workforce optimization
- Marketing data - Helps ensure that contact center operations and marketing campaigns are aligned, contact center agents are trained and staffed for campaigns, and demand forecasts represent the projected increases in channel volume
- Employee data - Provides clear representation of agent skills and qualifications aligned with workforce optimization, helping ensure that the right agents are available at the right time
- Business communication management data - Results in reduced cost of channel infrastructure and acts as a primary input for the real-time channel management functionality of the
workforce optimization solution
In short, by transitioning to timely and integrated data sources for workforce optimization, companies can make the right agents available at the right time, thereby enhancing first-call resolution and increasing customer satisfaction. Companies can take advantage of the full array of traditional contact center functionalities, leverage investments in existing technology, and thus better position the organization for efficient operations and long-term growth.
In many organizations, the existing CRM system can become a more
important data source for workforce optimization relative to traditional, nonintegrated sources.
Supporting the IC with Solutions from SAPSAP and Verint
Integrated Softwtware and Data Enable
Custstomer Centricity
By using CRM , business communication management software, and other appropriate data sources for workforce optimization applications, companies can achieve myriad benefits - including use of analytics to gain new insights into contact length, content, quality, and other attributes.
The SAP ® Customer Relationship
Management (SAP CRM ) application helps organizations establish an interaction center that serves as a strategic delivery channel for service, sales, and marketing - enhancing the customer experience, improving customer loyalty, reducing costs, and boosting revenue. By deploying the IC functionality of SAPAP CRMCRMCRM, organizations can give agents the tools to handle inbound and outbound, front- and back-office transactions encompassing the complete range of telemarketing, telesales, customer service, and help desk processes. The solution includes IC analytics to plan and optimize customer-focused operations by evaluating customer interactions, business processes, and market opportunities.
These IC functionalities can directly incorporate a robust set of data from marketing campaigns, sales and service programs, real-time offer management, Web channel, agent qualifications catalog, and other features of SAP CRM . Moreover, through integration with SAP CRM , data can be sourced from other SAP solutions including SAP Business Communication Management software and the SAP ERP application - as well as a broad range of third-party solutions
As noted, a workforce optimization solution can help companies take control of their IC operations. Verint Witness Actionable Solutions - a partner of SAPAP and a division of Verint Systems Inc. - is a leading global provider of analytics-driven, enterprise-enabled workforce optimization solutions. Its Impact 360 Workforce Optimization suite is a unified
solution set that features quality monitoring and recording, workforce management, speech and data analytics, customer feedback surveys, performance management, e-learning, and coaching. The Verint suite has SAP -certified integration with SAP CRM .
Verint's Impact 360 - in concert with robust data sources and the interaction center features of SAP CRM - helps
improve IC operations as well as the performance of the entire customer service delivery network. These solutions from SAP and Verint can help facilitate the right decisions to support process excellence and transform organizations into customer-centric enterprises.
Find Out More
The interaction center functionality of SAP CRM and workforce optimization solutions from Verint are available today. These solutions are helping enhance the customer experience, reduce costs, and improve revenue for companies around the world. To learn more about how to enhance interaction center performance,
please visit www.sap.com/crm and
www.verint.com.
CONTENT
- Executive Summary
- Workforce Optimization for
IC Planning and Execution
- Toward Better Data Quality for
Workforce Optimization
- Supporting the IC with Solutions
from SAP and Verint
- Find Out More