Choosing a customer experience management (CEM) solution for a call center should be a well thought out process that results in the selection of technology that meets needs now and in the future.
4 Requirements that a Customer Experience Management (CEM) Solution Must Meet
1) Cloud Based
If a company wants to stay ahead of its competition, its customer experience management solution must be in the cloud. Contact center platforms are hosted in the cloud by the software provider, which means they handle:
- Purchase and management of hardware.
- Software update so you are always using the latest version.
- Database management.
- Data Protection.
In addition to these benefits, cloud CEM solutions offer capabilities to help call centers scale in scale based on business need, including:
- Extensive use of open APIs that make integrations quick and easy.
- A multitude of integrated channels and additional applications that contact centers can quickly activate and deactivate.
- Scalability that allows call centers to easily react to fluctuations in call volume.
- A favorable pricing model that requires customers to pay only for what they use.
- Availability of a remote work model, thus strengthening business continuity.
A cloud contact center platform is the best option for companies that want to provide quality service to their customers.
2) Powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) Analysis
With today’s customer experiences reliant heavily on data, call centers need powerful analytics tools to turn data into actionable insights. Artificial Intelligence is the right tool for this because it can process large amounts of data and transform it into meaningful information.
These skills are particularly relevant to contact centers, where much data is unstructured and therefore cannot be analyzed effectively without AI. Customers tell agents what they think about products, promotions, customer service experiences, and other factors that impact CX. Not taking advantage of this information would harm CEM’s efforts.
In this sense, interaction analysis software can analyze 100% of digital and voice interactions in real time. The insights it produces include:
- Customer sentiment.
- Emerging problems.
- Most popular queries.
This information enables organizations to manage and improve CX by identifying and addressing sources of friction. Additionally, monitoring customer sentiment over time allows companies to know how they feel about the brand and whether that sentiment is trending positively or negatively.
Another AI-powered analytics solution that can help businesses better manage the customer experience is customer journey analytics. As the name suggests, customer journey analytics helps organizations gain better control of CX by providing a holistic view that enables companies to identify cross-channel inefficiencies as well as make informed decisions about the design and the optimization of the trip that will improve the CX.
3) Organization of the Journey
Because great CX doesn’t just happen, a customer experience management solution must include technology that orchestrates journeys so customers can seamlessly achieve their goals. Customer journey orchestration tools guide customers through their experiences, which become particularly important when journeys include multiple touch points and channels.
For call centers, the travel organization can include the following solutions:
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a) Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
ACDs are essential to organizing the customer journey effectively because they direct customers to the right agents with the right skills.
The customer-agent matching process can have a significant impact on CX. It is not only the competence of an agent that matters, but also their personality. When the customer and agent personalities click, there is a significant improvement in the interaction. Likewise, ACDs that are capable of routing AI, which take into account variables such as customer sentiment and interaction history, can really elevate CX and help CEM teams achieve their goals.
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b) Integrated Interaction Channels
Digital technology has created a multitude of new support channels, ranging from SMS applications to mobile applications and WebChat, among others. This is essential so that customers can choose their preferred contact channel with a company.
Users want to be able to use the method of communication that is most convenient and appropriate for the resolution of their query. According to Salesforce, the average customer uses 10 different channels to interact with companies.
The best CEM solutions offer an integrated set of channels, which are easier to manage and enable omnichannel experiences, which improves the customer experience.
4) Workforce Engagement Management (WEM)
Effective customer experience management depends on employees aligning with the customer and the company’s CX goals. This alignment requires commitment from agents, as they are willing to go the extra mile to help managers achieve their goals.
Engaging call center agents is essential to executing a CX strategy, because they interact with customers every day and must agree to it. There are many things contact centers can do to increase agent engagement that don’t require technology, but there are also several workforce engagement management tools designed for this purpose.
WEM solutions focus on improving the employment lifecycle, from onboarding to development and professional recognition, and may include the following:
- Workforce Management (WFM).
- Quality Management (QM).
- Agent Performance Management (PM).
- Real-time interaction guide.
Getting agents to commit to helping the business achieve its customer experience goals is vital to its success. That’s why workforce management solutions are one-way call centers can ensure agent engagement.