Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

October 19, 2007

VoiceObjects Powers Versatel's New Customer Care Self-Service Phone Portal

By Anuradha Shukla

VoiceObjects will reportedly power Versatel’s new customer care self-service phone portal. The German telecommunications provider now uses VoiceObjects’ phone application server software suite to automate and manage a wide range of customer service and support requests.
 
The new, automated self service portal provides support to Versatel for handling significant customer growth. Versatel’s live agent support costs have remained flat despite the increase in customers. More customers are now accessing the self-service phone portal and self-service automation rates are improving continuously.
 
Serving over 600,000 residential customers throughout Germany Versatel outsources its customer support, which is managed by approximately 400 live agents in four call centers. Versatel wanted to leverage the VoiceObjects-driven self-service phone portal to identify and anticipate customers' service and support requests and improve the caller experience.
 
By tightly integrating with Versatel’s customer relationship management and knowledge management systems, VoiceObjects provided the technology platform to anticipate service and support requests based on real-time and historic customer data.
 
Depending on profiles and usage patterns, customers are now first guided through a customized, touch-tone dialog. This prompts delivery of the latest service information.The customers also have the option of receiving an SMS message notifying them when the network is back up, further reducing call volumes.
 
VoiceObjects Infostore has been tightly integrated with Versatel’s knowledge management system. Infostore stores in real-time all of the information the customer has already provided through the self-service portal. All of the relevant information is transferred via VoiceObjects Infostore when a customer is transferred from the self-service portal to a live agent for additional support.
 
Since the customer query information is automatically loaded, the live agent can obtain one-click access to the knowledge management system to quickly solve a customer's issue.
 
Versatel now receives rich data to analyze customer call patterns and measure the effectiveness of their self-service applications. The company can now monitor and measure caller behavior to easily identify problematic dialogs that cause caller drop-outs or confusion, and continuously improve the customer interaction within the self-service portal.
 
Dr. Greg Kiss, CRM director, residentials, Versatel AG said that with VoiceObjects they were able to handle their increase in customers over the last year through an automated, yet highly personalized self-service experience while their live agent support costs remained flat.
 
Dr.Kiss explained that their company realized a return on investment with VoiceObjects in less than a year. VoiceObjects Infostore and Analyzer provided the insight to help them better understand their customers' service experience and, ultimately, improve the caller experience.
 
“In competitive markets such as telecommunications with high customer churn rates and tight margins, operators like Versatel are challenged to deliver exceptional customer service and reduce live agent support costs,” said Beatriz Infante, chief executive officer, VoiceObjects in a statement.
 
Infante noted that both companies have demonstrated how excellent, yet cost-effective customer service can be realized by combining live agent support systems with an intelligent, data-driven self-service phone portal that leverages a company's CRM and knowledge management resources.
 
 
Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering call centers, CRM and information technology. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
 
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers whitepapers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.
 
 
Today’s Featured White paper is titled ApplianX IP Gateway: Selecting a gateway that is right for your deployment brought to you by Aculab (News - Alert).
 


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