Customer communications has become with the advent of SMS, broadband and the shift from landline to wireless an often bewildering environment where organizations are often not sure what the best strategies are to manage their interactions. Customers are reaching out, and expect to be contacted over a wide array of channels: live and/or automated i.e. cross-channel communications, and over a diverse set of media, selecting and providing preferences for those that are the most convenient for them.
Robin Rees is director of customer programs, Varolii Corporation, which builds and hosts multichannel (voice, SMS/text, e-mail, fax) automated outbound notifications software. ContactCenterSolutions reached out to Robin to get her insights to help guide firms to effectively use cross-channel communications.
ContactCenterSolutions: Are more contact centers using cross-channel communications to connect and reach out to customers? Is the takeup greater or less than what you had expected and why?
RR: Absolutely, we're seeing a lot more cross-channel communications. As long as they are smart in how they use it, companies can engage with customers in more effective ways by communicating using their preferred channels; begin simple conversations with text messaging and offering the option to switch to phone conversations for more in-depth exchanges.
We see huge interest in Varolii's Cross-Channel communication platform, which gives companies the following:
* Integration across all channels: Rather than simply blasting the same message across multiple channels, cross-channel blends multiple channels into single conversation, providing the flexibility to deliver the most effective treatment for each individual
* Convenient customer response options: Recipients can easily select their preferred options to interact, such as transfer to a contact center, retrieve a message, or request an email confirmation
* Ability for customers to self-serve: Recipients have convenient self-service options without having to transfer to an agent. For example, a collections message may offer several options to pay: pay now, promise-to-pay, or speak directly with an agent to pay. This can be accessed from a voice call, an e-mail link, or text message
ContactCenterSolutions: What channels are you seeing growing or lagging in popularity and why?
RR: SMS i.e. text messaging is definitely the emerging channel. As more consumers embrace it, many companies are adding text messaging to the e-mail and voice calls they already use to interact with their customers.
Approximately 89 percent of the U.S. population (more than 276 million people) subscribe to wireless services, sending and receiving 175 percent more text messages than voice calls in any given period. For business-to-consumer communications, SMS can be highly effective because it's less expensive than using contact center agents, is unlikely to be categorized by recipients as spam and is perceived to be more urgent. On average, SMS messages are read within 15 minutes of receipt and responded to in less than 60 minutes
ContactCenterSolutions: What are the key drivers to cross-channel communications?
Companies may have an important message to deliver, but it won't generate the response they want if it never reaches the consumer. Today more people are using an array of communication channels: e-mail, mobile, landline, and SMS/text messaging. If companies rely on only one, they may not be reaching the whole audience. They might be missing a huge portion of their customers or target group completely.
Another driver is consumer expectation. They're mobile, they're impatient and they definitely don't want to get inundated with the same message over and over. Cross-channel lends itself to meeting all these needs: reach them wherever they are, in the timeframe they want, but be smart about it: don't waste their time and use each channel as part of a larger conversation.
ContactCenterSolutions: Outline the difference between cross-channel and multichannel communications
RR: There is a difference between multi-channel and cross-channel communications. A lot of companies simply duplicate messages on various channels that still typically function independently, often duplicating creating confusion and irritating consumers. Cross-channel communications is different, in that it creates a single conversation across all channels to provide recipients with clear, easily understood options to self-serve or take other action. Ideally, the conversation is tailored to each individual recipient based on their past responses to customize messages across the various channels and know when to use each channel for maximum response.
ContactCenterSolutions: What are the best practices to leverage and enable successful cross-channel interactions?
In today's age of increased communication, highly mobile consumers and greater customer service expectations, customers are increasingly ignoring all but the most intelligent communications. For an important message to get through, it needs to be smart, meaning it must:
* Automatically learn individual behavior and preferences: by knowing who to contact when, which channel to use, and each recipient's preferences such as desired language, a smart communication can rival the personalized experience of an agent-led conversation. For example, if a flight is cancelled and an affected passenger has responded only via SMS instead of a voice call to prior messages, the cancellation would be sent via SMS
* Be highly interactive: regardless of which communication channel used, consumers want a real-time dialogue. Continuing with the flight cancellation example, instead of a basic notification that forces the passenger to make an inconvenient, expensive call into the call center, she can choose multiple options-such as selecting an alternate flight and securing a preferred seat-all during the automated call or via a text message
* Use cross-channel communication to reduce overall notification cost: repeating the same message via SMS and voice calls only adds to communication fatigue. A smart communication uses cross-channel capabilities to reduce the number of notifications being made.
Continuing the airline flight cancellation example, after the passenger has confirmed his new flight details, the Varolii Unified Interact Platform can send an SMS with the updated itinerary and confirmation code directly to the passenger's mobile device
* Leverage best practices from other companies' experiences: companies no longer have the luxury of time to learn on their own. Each solution is pre-configured with best practices already built in to take the guesswork out of the potentially hundreds of preferences and response patterns that determine the success or failure of each communication