6SIX THINGS PEOPLE EXPECT FROM YOUR CONTACT CENTER IN THE DIGITAL AGE. Read on to learn more about what today’s consumer expects from your contact center and how you can deliver.

CONSUMERS TODAY ARE MOBILE, self-reliant and demand fast, convenient access to information. In an age where the customer experience is the new battleground for winning and keeping customers, not adapting to meet the new rules of engagement can be catastrophic for your business.

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Seismic shifts are changing consumer expectations for engagement.

MORE THAN 66% OF AMERICANS USE SMARTPHONES. COMSCORE

ANSWERS IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND:

The new reality of the mobile world. Customers are talking, texting, tweeting, browsing and chatting more than ever. !eir lifestyles demand fast, convenient access to information. Customers are also more self-reliant, often using self-service channels, peer-based communities and social networks to get help. Not surprisingly, people have little tolerance for poor service. !ey’ll simply take their business elsewhere. Failure to address these changing consumer needs can put your business at risk.

77% of consumers wish companies offered more ways for them to interact with representatives. (Aspect Omnibus Survey)

72% of consumers stopped doing business with a company because of a bad service experience. (Aspect Omnibus Survey)

Only 5% of consumers say that their customer service experiences exceed their expectations (!e 2014 American Express® Global Customer Service Barometer )

#1 Know Me TO DELIVER GREAT SERVICE AND BUILD STRONG RELATIONSHIPS, you need to understand consumer preferences and be able to personalize your interactions.

As your company o"ers more contact points, it’s imperative you maintain the context of every conversation – even when customers move between self-service and agent-assisted channels. Small traces of information about the customer’s journey, like the dropout point in an IVR or a failed web site transaction, can make subsequent interactions much more satisfying. With this information, you can dynamically adapt a self-service menu or provide an agent with background information to pick up the conversation where the customer left o". !is kind of data can also help you deliver proactive service that gives customers what they need before they have to ask.

© 2015 Aspect Inc.

68% OF CONSUMERS SAY THEY’RE ANNOYED WHEN THEY HAVE TO REPEAT THEMSELVES. (Aspect Omnibus Survey, 2014)

© 2015 Aspect Inc.

BY 2017, AN ESTIMATED 35% OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT INTERACTIONS WILL TAKE PLACE ON A MOBILE DEVICE. (Gartner)

#2 Make it Mobile CONSUMERS TODAY EXPECT TO INTERACT WITH YOUR BUSINESS ACROSS ALL MOBILE-AVAILABLE CHANNELS, including voice, SMS, chat, social, web sites and of course mobile apps. Unfortunately, most mobile channels o"er a fragmented customer experience because they’re disconnected from the contact center. It’s critical to think about customer service when building mobile apps, so that you can create a seamless transition when customers need to call into an IVR or connect with an agent.

FOR EXAMPLE:

• Accompany a self-service voice call with a touch-screen menu of options to improve first-call resolution and reduce call times.

• Embed a qualification dialog into an existing mobile customer care app. After answering the questions, the customer receives a callback from an agent who already has all relevant details.

• Embed a chat, audio/video or co-browse widget into an existing Website or mobile app, giving customers a way to connect with an agent without leaving the application.

© 2015 Aspect Inc.

73% OF CONSUMERS WISH COMPANIES OFFERED MORE WAYS FOR THEM TO SOLVE CUSTOMER SERVICE ISSUES ON THEIR OWN. (Aspect Omnibus Survey, 2014)

#3 Let Me Do It Myself YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE MORE SELF-RELIANT THAN EVER. In fact, most people contact companies only after they’ve been unable to solve an issue on their own. Before they reach out for help, they’ve likely searched the internet, looked at product forums and received feedback through social media.

To better serve your customers, o"er an omni-channel self-service solution. Investing in rich, personalized and integrated self-service is a win-win. It brings you in line with consumer preferences while lowering costs and elevating your agents to experts who can focus on more complex interactions.

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© 2015 Aspect Inc.

MORE THAN ONE IN FIVE CONSUMERS SAY THEY’VE USED SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE. (!e 2014 American Express® Global Customer Service Barometer)

#4 Make It Social SOCIAL MEDIA IS A VITAL CHANNEL FOR COMPANIES TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS. However, it is often under utilized. Maritz Research found that approximately 70% of customer service complaints made on Twitter go unanswered. Companies that fail to respond to customers risk negative posts, tarnished reputations and lost revenue. !ey also miss out on opportunities to create brand advocates and build loyalty.

Implementing a solution with powerful social workflow capabilities tuned to the needs of the contact center ensures that your customers will receive consistent, informed responses through social networks.

© 2015 Aspect Inc.

66% OF CUSTOMERS SAY THAT VALUING THEIR TIME IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING A COMPANY CAN DO TO PROVIDE GOOD SERVICE.

45% OF U.S. ADULTS WILL ABAN-DON THEIR ONLINE PURCHASE IF THEY CAN’T FIND A QUICK ANSWER TO THEIR QUESTION. (Forrester)

#5 Save Me Time CONSUMERS WANT FAST, EASY ACCESS TO INFORMATION. Research shows a strong correlation between e"ort and loyalty – the easier you are to do business with, the more likely consumers will stick around.

To stay competitive, companies must find ways to provide intelligent, personalized service that saves people time. Lowering customer e"ort can be as simple as being where they are. For example, an instant chat button embedded on a web site or in a mobile app to help consumers get quick answers at the point of purchase. Another way to save consumers time is by streamlining self-service menus based on frequent behaviors or a recent transaction.

When consumers need live assistance, they appreciate knowledgeable agents who have the resources and tools needed to quickly resolve their issues – without asking them to repeat information.

© 2015 Aspect Inc.

92% OF CONSUMERS TRUST RECOMMENDATIONS FROM FRIENDS AND FAMILY OVER ALL FORMS OF ADVERTISING. (Nielsen)

79% OF CONSUMERS TRUST ONLINE REVIEWS AS MUCH AS PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS. (BrightLocal Survey)

#6 Make Me Smarter EDUCATING YOUR CUSTOMERS IS ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO INCREASE SALES, create long-term loyalty and inspire recommendations on social networks or peer communities.

According to the White House O#ce of Consumer A"airs, loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase.

!at’s why, it’s worth the e"ort to help your customers discover new and improved ways to use your products or services. When you empower people with information, they can become an extension of your support team – providing answers for other customers who ask questions through social media and peer communities. Well-informed customers are also more likely to become loyal brand advocates and recommend you to friends and family.

7 Hallmarks of a Modern Contact Center !e customer experience is the new battleground for winning and keeping customers. A modern contact center and enterprise-wide consumer engagement strategy will not only help you stay competitive and drive revenue, but also create e#ciencies that lower costs. Here are the core capabilities and strategies you need to achieve these goals.

#1 Experience Continuity

#2 Consumer-Driven Self-Service Channels

#3 Agent Empowerment

#4 Advanced Call and Task Routing

#5 Proactive Engagement

#6 Compliance

#7 Agile Deployment

#1 Experience ContinuityAddress evolving customer interaction preferences with an omni-channel solution that ensures seamless, integrated support across various agent-assisted and self-service touch points – including voice, email, web chat, SMS, mobile apps and social. Today’s consumers will often use multiple self-service channels and, at times, require help from an agent. Experience Continuity means providing context when moving between channels and reducing the need for customers to repeat information while speeding issue resolution.

A COUPLE EXAMPLES:

Passing data entered in an IVR to an agent

Customizing the agent/customer dialog based on an understanding of recent interactions, failed transactions or customer behaviors.

#2 Consumer-Driven Self-Service Channels

While an omni-channel approach is increasingly important, it’s equally vital to ensure the self-service experience is intuitive and quickly leads to answers. You can streamline interactions by tapping into the power of mobile devices, and taking advantage of progressive technologies like natural language and personalization.

#3 Agent EmpowermentA comprehensive Workforce Optimization solution is the cornerstone of agent performance and productivity – which in turn leads to better customer experiences. !is will ensure you have the tools to maximize agent engagement, including workforce planning and scheduling, surveying, coaching, eLearning and analytics.

#4 Advanced Call and Task Routing

Providing great customer service depends on maximizing CRM systems, using experience continuity data and customer-provided information to intelligently route inquiries. But once the customer interaction is finished, you need to quickly, consistently and completely deliver on the commitments your agents make. Strong back o#ce software allows managers and supervisors to rapidly adjust tasks and resources to ensure business objectives are met. !e ability to capture work across any channel, including manual processes, lets you see how well the back o#ce is delivering on what the front o#ce promises.

#5 Proactive EngagementProvide customers with the information they need, when they need it – or even before they know they need it. Proactive customer service and targeted two-way outbound notifications, using IVR and SMS, are an inexpensive way to build customer loyalty and generate more revenue. For example, automated order status updates can reduce the number of inbound calls to agents, freeing them to focus on more complex tasks. And if problems arise, proactive automated notifications can cut down on inbound calls and prevent customer frustration.

#6 Compliance

Meeting today’s regulatory requirements for outbound can be a challenge, especially when developing proactive outreach strategies for mobile contacts. !e Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) has strict regulations about contacting consumers on mobile devices. Sending a reminder, delivering a notification or collecting a debt without explicit consent can lead to steep fines. To avoid this, some companies have agents make manual calls. !is ine#cient approach takes a backward move in technology and opens the door for other compliance violations, like those enforced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). !at’s why contact centers executing any outbound processes need a solution that allows adherence to the mobile device dialing requirements without impacting agent productivity.

#7 Agile Deployment

A modern contact center infrastructure must be flexible enough to support both current and future needs. !e capability to quickly scale for unexpected spikes in tra#c is critical. To stay competitive in today’s rapidly evolving market, you also need to be able to rapidly adopt new features that will keep you on the forefront of consumer expectations. Cloud, hosted or hybrid deployments o"er a way to be more flexible and competitive without incurring the downtime or costs associated with re-architecting an on-premise system. Cloud and hosted solutions enable you to deploy new apps without having to provision, install and configure hardware. Hybrid deployments give you the ability to host core functionality on-premise and utilize cloud capacity for bursts of tra#c, failover or for specific applications like self-service.

Next Steps Now more than ever, it’s critical for companies to balance delivering a great customer experience with controlling costs.

What if you could simultaneously enhance customer interactions, improve satisfaction and decrease costs

– all while staying at the forefront of rapidly evolving technology and ever-changing business requirements?

YOU CAN WITH ASPECT:

• Deliver remarkable customer experiences with intelligent omni-channel self-service, proactive engagement and agent empowerment

• Benefit from the market’s only fully integrated customer interaction and workforce optimization solution

• Map your customer journey to address pain points, identify opportunities and maximize the experience

• Significantly reduce compliance and security risks with a modern, flexible solution

• Eliminate contact center hardware costs, expensive maintenance fees and dramatically lower telco costs with cloud, hosting and hybrid options

• Improve reliability with a proven, global cloud infrastructure, built-in Disaster Recovery and our 100% Uptime Service Level Agreement

Compare Aspect to any solution on the market and let us help you understand your true costs, identify opportunities and create a path forward.

Contact us to learn more or to request a demo. aspect.com 1 888 412 7728 (North America)