Hampered by legacy, on-premise systems and faced with increasing demands from customers for flexibility, many operators are yet to realise the benefits they had initially foreseen. The challenges can be even more acute for smaller operators. Faced with limited budgets and staff numbers, they can struggle to introduce new channels and ensure a consistent customer experience across them.

Increasingly, customers want to use multiple communication channels during a single interaction or transaction. They may start by using a web site, but then shift to email or chat to have specific questions answered. For companies to be able to provide consistently good customer service, they must have the systems in place that allow interactions to flow seamlessly between multiple channels.

Recent research conducted by Interactive Intelligence found that more than 50 per cent of small-to-mid-sized contact centre operators aim to have their interaction channels fully integrated by 2016. The key question they have, however, is how they will reach that goal?

There are six key challenges organisations faced when implementing a multi-channel contact centre. Those challenges, and how to overcome them, are:

1. Restrictive capital budgets
Virtually all organisations wrestle with the challenge of limited budgets. Finding the funds needed to introduce new communications channels can be difficult and could mean shifting money away from other areas.

A cost-effective alternative is to embrace cloud-based platforms. Rather than investing in new on-premise equipment, organisations can take advantage of externally hosted resources. These can be linked to existing in-house systems to create a more flexible platform capable of supporting multiple customer communication channels.

2. Lack of in-house expertise
As new communication channels are added to the mix, the skills required of contact centre staff will change. Where once it would have been sufficient to be adept at handling voice calls, keyboard skills and awareness of social media can quickly become requirements.

Organisations need to evaluate the skill level of existing agents and offer training where required. It might also be a case of looking externally for other skilled staff and adding them to the mix.

3. The limits of legacy infrastructure
Legacy contact centre infrastructures that have evolved over a period of time can struggle to deal with new communication channels. Many comprise multiple silos of data which cannot be readily accessed and shared. As a result, agents can find it difficult to obtain a clear picture of a customer when communicating with them using multiple channels.

To overcome this, organisations can take a phased approach to the introduction of new channels. As each is deployed, attention should focus on ensuring customer data is still readily available. If a customer starts with an email conversation and then shifts to chat and the web, the agent handling the interaction will then be able to see all elements of the relationship and provide a high quality of service.

4. Customer unwillingness to embrace new contact channels
Despite the spread of communication channels such as chat, text and social, many customers are still reluctant to take advantage of these new alternatives. This reluctance appears particularly prevalent in the utilities and government sectors where people still tend to prefer voice interactions.

To overcome this, organisations should consult with the customers to determine what channels they might consider and the benefits this could deliver to them. Trials can then be undertaken and feedback sought to ensure those benefits are being realised. Once a new channel is working for a select group it can then be rolled out to the entire customer base.

5. Limiting organisational silos
Contact centres that have grown over time due to company acquisition or rapid growth often have organisational or structural silos that limit efficient operation.

To overcome this cross-function teams focused on the customer experience should be established to find ways to change the structure and improve its effectiveness.

6. Multi-channel not a strategic priority
Finally, it can be a struggle to implement an effective multi-channel contact centre if doing so is not a strategic priority for the organisation as a whole. Centre managers must work with senior managers to ensure the contact centre is seen as being of strategic value rather than simply a cost centre.

By overcoming these key challenges, multi-channel contact centres can become a critical and effective part of the organisation. By allowing customers to interact seamlessly across multiple channels, they will be able to both improve internal efficiencies and boost customer satisfaction.

ABOUT CARL PRICE//

Carl Price is APAC head of marketing at Interactive Intelligence.

Contact centres are in a time of transition, with ongoing success dependent on how they integrate the latest technologies with the right people skills to delight individual customers.

The rise in digital consumer expectations requires consideration of the impact on customer service and the contact centre in furthering and facilitating these heightened expectations.

The aim of customers hasn’t changed. In making contact, they want to complete an intended task successfully (purchasing goods, obtaining information or organising a particular service).  What has changed is their absolute determination to complete these tasks as quickly and as conveniently as possible.

The expectation of an improved experience is being shaped by the technologies and contact centre platforms that enable omni-channel communications, ensuring customers receive consistent, knowledgeable and tailored service across each and every channel.  The platforms are also facilitating delivery of a broader range of services via the contact centre, along with the assurance of a more coordinated customer experience.

The age of impatience
Offering consumers a choice of channels is now the norm, but paradoxically, as omni-channel convenience has taken its place among consumers, it has also signalled the age of impatience.

Asking digital consumers to navigate time-consuming interactive voice response (IVR) menus or put up with lengthy delays while waiting to speak to a human being is no longer considered acceptable. Nor is it okay to offer phone and email as the only ways to contact customer service.

Customers want the ability to select from a range of communication channels and their choices will differ according to personal preferences and the nature of their need at that moment in time.  For example, one customer might choose to use SMS to lodge a query while at work, then web chat when browsing for information at home in the evening. Another, given the exact same circumstances, might choose a completely different set of channels.  But both expect their details and interaction history will be available to all agents across all channels, so that they can experience the same level of service with each transaction, regardless of how they contact the organisation.

This places a great deal of pressure on contact centres to get omni-channel strategies and technology platforms right.  They must ensure every channel is capable of performing according to expectations. They must also build-in the flexibility to add any new channels that may arise in the future.

Technologies that are changing the contact centre
One way of providing customers the choices they crave is to use a contact centre platform that provides a seamless customer experience across any channel.  With this in place, organisations can adopt a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach, leaving it up to the customer to select from a variety of channels for everyday interactions and transactions.

Similarly, self-service capabilities that enable customers to take charge and quickly resolve their needs without having to speak to an agent, are extremely popular with digital consumers and are shown to increase customer satisfaction.

We still need people
Digital consumers expect to interact with retailers and service suppliers using their digital devices, and they want all the functionality that a modern digital contact centre platform can offer.  But technology alone is not the answer.

Consumers want choice and part of that choice is the ability to interact with other human beings.   Without people, phone calls, web chats, SMS and emails remain unanswered.   And as expectations rise, the quality – and therefore training and knowledge – of contact centre personnel is becoming more important than ever.

It is the combination of agents and technology that makes the critical difference to customer experience and to contact centre competitiveness. When good agents are empowered with the right technologies, they have the ability to handle complex interactions, encourage new transactions, resolve issues quickly and win customer loyalty.  In short, they have at their disposal everything required to delight the customer.

ABOUT CARL PRICE//

Carl Price is APAC head of marketing at Interactive Intelligence