Merging Voice and E-Channels: Too big a challenge
for today’s contact centres?
Executive Summary
Customer expectations combine the need for instant access and ‘instant gratification’ but also the need for ‘individualised support’ and guidance.
The brands that will successfully create differentiation and advocacy will be those that not only meet the challenge of harnessing single information across all channels, successfully merging information from voice and E-channels, but are also able to harness the
information into knowledge that benefits the customer.
Merging voice and E-channels is therefore much more than ‘simply’ merging information systems.
Powerful CRM systems are only ever the beginning. Information is not the same thing as providing ‘individualised support’. Organisational culture will determine how the information is used and whether it can be harnessed to benefit the customer.
Each channel will occupy a unique space in meeting the needs of the customer – merging voice and E-Channels is therefore more than replicating the same information across each point – the information need is likely to vary depending on the channel.
How we organise ourselves will have more impact that the CRM system behind it. E-Channels will expose poor structure and leave customers exasperated. Structure will have more impact than introducing the system itself.
In this technological age, where I can access instant information from anywhere, at anytime, consumers have an instant and simple expectation – that the people I trust with my money can at the very least bring all of this to help me when I need it’.
There is a lot contained within this ‘simple’ expectation from the customer – take a moment and read the sentence again. First of all, don’t miss the key words of ‘trust with my money’, which underlines the accountability to which every organisation is held. Second, that every organisation is expected to be able to bring together all of the information needed at any time – at the time that the customer needs it. Finally, that this is the very least that they want, that the organisation uses this information to ‘help out’ and benefit the customer in that particular situation.
Merging E-Channels into contact strategy is not just about providing customers with 24/7 access, it also about providing instant information – and then harnessing that information for the benefit of the customer.
To date, the majority of actions have mainly been focussed on simply providing 24/7 access across many different channels. Unfortunately customer behaviour tends to move quicker than organisational behaviour. As such, the ‘simple’ expectation of customers is far more than what has been achieved to date. The diagram below summarises all of the different components of the customer’s basic expectation and alongside it, a rough estimation of the aggregate progress of organisations to date. It shows that in the main, the customer’s basic expectation is not being fully met and importantly, the challenge of merging E-channels is much more than a technological problem.
Access across all channels Treat me as an individual
Instant information Support my situational needs Harness information to
benefit me
Speed of access
Organisational progress
This expectation is real. All of the components shown in the diagram are present in the statement at the start of the paper – i.e. they all exist now, in every moment that your customers touch you – yesterday, today, tomorrow. How many customers have contacted your organisation in the time you have picked up and read this paper? All of those have contained this basic, underlying expectation.
The reality, of course, is that this ‘simple’ expectation is not simple at all – it is in fact incredibly difficult.
Issues of culture…..
The consumer’s expectation is driven from a belief that ‘you treat me as an individual’ and also in ‘an instant way’. In an information age, I expect instant communication, instant gratification, instant answers – but which also must deal with my individual needs, at this specific moment, taking into account my immediate situational needs. For an organisation therefore, this is more than ‘just’ a technological answer – putting in new CRM systems that gives account history is only the 1st building block – a step towards the holy grail, not the holy
grail itself. In itself, this doesn’t adequately deal with what the customer is looking for.
Likewise, simply personalising WebPages is also unlikely to deal with these expectations in full. Individualisation has been one of the single most significant changes in customer expectation over the last 10 years. However, it is too simplistic to suggest that this translates into an expectation of personalised web pages – the move towards individualisation is driven by customers expecting to be treated as individuals, not numbers, to feel empowered and a part of the experience as opposed to feeling processed or being an awkward after-thought to the organisation’s products. And there is fast approaching a deep cynicism to simple technological innovation (such as putting names on webpages) – these are not meeting the behavioural need for individualisation – they are simple ‘window dressing’, easily created by a clever
Information is only the starting point. It is how the information is used and harnessed that will determine how effective the newly merged channels are. The key point here is that the organisational culture will determine how effectively the information is used.
If the culture is truly customer centric, then existing processes and training will be ripped up and started again, reinventing the use of every channel. In each case, the central question should be ‘how can this channel harness the information to benefit the customer?’
The customer expectation for ‘individualised support’ means that added value is created when the customer is not only presented with consistent and instant information access across all channels, but when that information is harnessed for the benefit and value of helping them achieve their goals. This is only achieved with the right people and the right training. It is crucial that the culture starts with the question of ‘what are those customer goals?’ and not, ‘if we only had information that joined…..’.
Key learning: Technology on its own will not fully meet the customer’s expectations. It is how the information is harnessed that will matter more in the long run.
Case Notes: Banking
Powerful CRM systems are only ever the beginning. Information is not the same thing as providing ‘individualised support’.
The banking sector has been one of the 1st to develop E Channels to give convenience and
control to customers, while in turn seeking to cut the ‘cost per serve’. There is no better evidence for the ever increasing customer demand for ‘instant gratification’ and instant information than the high street banks. As soon as Internet banking was introduced, demand for increasingly up to date account information began without relent – right up to today’s service where the information online is instantaneously updated and directly mirrors that available in other channels. This is one of the best examples of the increasing demand from customers for instant access, but it is also one of the best examples of the transparency
created by E-Channels – where the customer can instantly see actions taken via other channels. Errors are instantly seen.
Not only that, the banking sector is also the best example of seeing the impact that meeting this instant gratification has on customer expectations. The customer, now ‘armed’ with information that directly mirrors that available to HSBC and accessible by agents of the bank in other channels, is actually likely to increase contact across all channels – as opposed to
reducing it.
Expectations are increased because they can get the simple information themselves. Because they can see all of the information and get it whenever they like, they now expect the Bank to be able to make more effective use of that information – to ‘add value’. Without any added value, there is little brand differentiation.
So whilst the Bank may have chased the seemed ‘holy grail’ of instant information and
seamless information exchange across channels, the real challenge that they face is being able to better utilise the information in order to create ‘individualised support’, which will add value to the basic information which the customer can access themselves. The goals posts have moved adding value is no longer simply providing information, it is now being able to add knowledge on top. Otherwise, the customer will make a simple value judgement of ‘well I know that myself, but what I need is help or advice’.
….And issues of structure
In the majority of cases, the way organisations structure themselves has more to do with their internal need (financial, political, cultural, systemic etc) rather than to meet the customer’s needs. When it comes to servicing, this frequently causes problems. Comments from customers about being ‘passed from pillar to post’ can be traced back to difficulties with a
not-so-customer-friendly structure. And merged channels and information systems are likely to exaggerate problems, exposing illogical and difficult to navigate structures.
Even if we introduce a state-of-the-art information system to link all parts of the organisation, the structure may undermine its use.
‘My expectation is that there is a person with a file ‘about me’, which contains everything – And also that the person reading it has the ability to turn that information into knowledge
that will benefit me’
‘Instead they [client organisation] seem to have taken that file and ripped it up into 10 different ones, all of which are kept in different places with different people who don’t know
how to use it for my benefit’
[Consumer quote from research in 2008] The final quote appears to back up the need for improved systems. But in actual fact, 9 times out of 10, the organisation’s structure is likely to remain the same even after new merged information systems have been added. Customer’s may still not know who will deal with what or who to contact when. Not only this, E-Channels will exaggerate such problems – they have a twofold impact; 1) they make our structures more transparent and 2) they increase
expectations of instant gratification and instant information.
E-channels also exaggerate the internal tendency of organisations to ‘dissect’ the customer experience by introducing new teams with new channels (i.e. the E-commerce team, the email team, the voice team, the mobile development team etc), as this improves our ability to manage and create accountability internally.
However, the combined impact is that customers will become more impatient and less tolerant of illogical structures.
Key learning: organisation structure will be more important than introducing the system itself.
Case Notes: Public sector
How we organise ourselves will have more impact that the CRM system behind it. E-Channels will expose poor structure and leave customers exasperated.
The single view that is so frequently talked about, that customers expect, is also very frequently undermined by poor structures that are not customer centric.
If our structure is not in line with how the customer perceives us, then our CRM systems and people will have to work harder to cover over the cracks.
of enquiry routes for the customer and separate management. The logic on paper is compelling and powerful. And yet to the customer, not intuitive at all.
The history for the customer was having one enquiry point – one place where they could start no matter what their need. From here, someone would guide and signpost what they needed to do and who else might need to be involved. Customers were normally confused when asked about contact – they always had been – and so having one simple enquiry point was what they had always desired and liked. This confusion was very real. As well as this, there was a real fear in the customers’ mind when they made contact (across all channels) – they feared for what it might cost them if they happened to make a mistake or not give the information. The confusion, fear and history all came together to create a very powerful feeling of ‘disorientation’ when the customer was actually confronted with a set of different enquiry routes that asked them to choose direction. To their logic, as the quote above indicates, there was ‘one file with all my information on it’ – and yet what they experienced was in their eyes ‘a file that had been ripped up’.
A simple answer would be that the information systems weren’t supportive of a single view. In reality it would have been unlikely to have changed the experience – there is still a devastating logic from the organisation’s perspective to structure and arrange the workflow in the
dissected way that they have. The structure makes for operational efficiencies so there wasn’t a project looking at structure. It wasn’t even on the radar. Furthermore, a single view
information system is actually likely to exaggerate the customer distress when they try to carry out more than one enquiry or transaction - the structure will still force them to other channels, other routes, other depts. This will inevitably happen because of the customer’s history of having one point, but also because it’s the natural response when information is collated in place; ‘can I also find out about….’.
Concluding Remarks: How to meet the customer’s expectation in full
Taking all of this into account, how do we begin to meet the customer’s expectations in full? The first step is to deal with a single view of the customer (account history) – accessed in the same form wherever the customer touches you.The second step is to harness a single and full view of contact history – this is considerably harder because it will need to include everything – successes and failures, Internet log on and simple email questions. Again, this must be available everywhere.
Even at this stage, we have only just reached the starting line in meeting customer
expectations. The information systems only provide you with the foundations – they are part of the beginning of the solution, they are not the solution or end point in themselves.
Step three therefore is actually more important than the first 2. Step 3 is then reorganising and re-aligning culture and structure to enable the information now at our finger tips. And this becomes critical. Information is useless on its own. It is correct that we can only be as good as the information going in – but the customer wants knowledge and individualised support. Knowledge is not the same thing as information and ‘individualised support’ is not the same thing as rapport or questioning skills.
Ask yourself – what are we trying to provide with this information? What will benefit the
customer? How can we best put together the information to help the customer? How might they expect to be able to access the information – where will they be? What are they trying to achieve?
Only then are we beginning to meet the customer’s expectations of today.
Key questions
When you are thinking about merging channels, are you trying to create the same
experience across all of them? In actual fact, each channel has different characteristics and should therefore have a different purposed and design.
What impact will single-view and merged information systems have on changing customer expectations? What knock-on effect will it have on how other channels are used?
Are you seeking merged information systems as the holy grail that will solve all your
problems or is there a parallel review of structure and culture? Is there a review of how the customer expects to use the channels and what they want?
Contact details
Paul Hudson
CEO, Intersperience Research Shoreline Business Park, Sandside, Cumbria LA7 7BF
015395 65450 07899 995783
