Report Date: April 2011 There is a strong link between Web customer service and the contact center. Whenever a customer needs the assistance of a human customer service representative, there is a shift from strictly Web customer service to the CRM customer service contact center. In increasing order of complexity, the requirements for the CRM customer service contact center may include one of these four major areas: " Information access: These contact centers focus on low interaction complexity and low process complexity. They can support order placement, complaint management, password assistance or consumer information, service activation, balance look-up, timetables, or ticket purchasing. Basic CRM capabilities are needed for account information, order information and contract details, but there is less emphasis on real-time analytics or offer management. The process supported may not be particularly complex; however, the information must be reliable, readily available and delivered in an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI). Contact centers in this space often do not show much business value and will eventually be replaced with Web customer service technologies. " Service process optimization: This is a customer service center or advisory center (for example, investing and insurance) with low interaction complexity, but high process complexity. It focuses on the efficiency and repeatability of the process. There may be little value in complex analytics or offer management. The goal of the customer experience is focused on process efficiency, rather than profitability. " End-to-end industry process experts: The contact centers in this context are complex and industry-specific, and often demand that the customer service representative not be forced into following a specific process for some parts of the interaction, but be forced to follow compliance in others. This is where high interaction complexity meets a range of process complexity. For example, the steps in a loan process must be followed consistently, but the offer, rate and conditions may vary based on the customer type, profitability and potential. " Intelligent dialogue/real-time decisioning: The conversations in this contact center require access to richer information about the customer and product or service, as well as sales and marketing goals. These conversations also become more process-intensive and can be driven by business process management (BPM) software, guided by workflow, analytics and predictive features that can be customized based on personalization rules.
Mentions: Oracle, RightNow, salesforce.com, Microsoft, Pegasystems, SAP, Amdocs, Sword Ciboodle, Nice Systems, Pitney Bowes, Astute Solutions
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