Key 2011 Contact Center Trends—and What They Mean for 2012 and Beyond
by Tim Dreyer on December 29th, 2011
Over the past year, several trends emerged that will shape the customer engagement landscape for the foreseeable future. A number of factors, fueled by technology, have elevated the importance of the contact center, making it the hub of customer engagement efforts. Aspect’s executives and thought leaders weighed in on the new challenges facing companies as well as the steps they should take to position their contact center to serve today’s consumer.
The growing importance of the contact center
As consumer expectations continued to increase, progressive organizations came to the realization that the entire organization needed to be engaged in supporting customer engagement. This is easier said than done, as most companies have organizational structures that support 20th century business operations. Nancy Dobrozdravic weighed in on the strategy, tools, and organizational realignment that must occur to strengthen customer relationships:
- The Age of the Customer Elevates the Importance of the Contact Center
- If the Whole Organization Is Responsible for Marketing, What Role Should the Contact Center play?
- Marketing and IT Converge in the Contact Center
- Empowering the Entire Organization to Serve the Customer
Compliance with shifting contact center regulations
Technological advances are presenting new opportunities for contact centers, but existing laws on outbound calling and collections have created ambiguity and potential risk. Mike Sheridan and Lynne Levy shared their insight on how companies could make sense of the current regulatory environment and maintain the flexibility to adapt to changes:
- Ensuring Compliance in Contact Center Operations
- What contact centers need to know to stay compliant
- Features that every contact center should have in place to aid compliance
- How Companies Can Use Social Media in the Contact Center
Workforce optimization
Companies looked to the contact center not just to improve customer interactions and experience; they were also interested in achieving greater transparency and accountability to boost efficiency. In a series of posts, Doug Whitaker laid out the tools and functionality contact centers need to get more out of their workforce:
- How a High-Performing Contact Center Directly Supports Business Strategy
- Empowering the Contact Center with Vital Workforce Optimization Tools
- Four Critical Components of a Next-Generation Contact Solution
Be sure to check back to this blog throughout the year to get more insight on these and other topics. All the best for 2012.
How Companies Can Use Social Media in the Contact Center
by Aspect on December 1st, 2011
In my previous blogs on compliance in the contact center, I discussed the evolving regulations that companies must navigate as well as the tools they can draw on to make their lives easier. Now I’d like to talk about the potential that social media holds for reaching out to customers.
Much of the time, contact centers view social media as a force that has made customer contact more complex and increased the burden on agents. However, as companies attempt to contact customers for both collections and proactive customer service in ways that don’t violate existing regulations, social media can be a source of valuable information.
For example, if a company needs to inform a customer or a group of customers on the status of an issue, social media would be a great channel to use. This is exactly how my utility company kept me up to date when we had the power outage in the Massachusetts area in October.
Here are a few social networking channels that can actually make it far easier to reach customers while still adhering to regulations.
1) Facebook. Legislation currently prohibits companies from calling customers after a certain time of night. With cell phones, it’s not possible to attach an area code to a time zone because of portability. However, say that an individual is a fan of the company’s Facebook page. That connection could enable the company to find out a person’s location and time zone at a given moment based on the most recent Facebook updates. This would enable an enterprise to proactively contact them through social media with relevant information to that end consumer.
Since this information is available to people or organizations within the consumer’s social network, the company could argue that the consumer has consented to the use of such private information. Needless to say, current regulations haven’t begun to address this channel.
2) Twitter. Similarly, imagine if a person had an active Twitter account and kept followers updated on an impending move, new job, or simply current activities. If people tweet that they’re just sitting at home watching television, a company may determine that it’s a good time to call.
3) Location-based channels. Technologies such as FourSquare that share location could also be utilized. If someone checked into a particular location, a company would know their time zone to determine if it’s acceptable to contact them on their mobile phone.
The regulations for proactive contact and collections at a federal level have yet to address the use of social media. However, all indications are that the FCC and FTC may start to regulate it. For now, Facebook or Twitter could be used as legitimate channels to notify people of suspicious activity on their credit card or a lost cell phone, as well as for routine reminders about payments and notifications of special deals.
The challenge for companies will be to strike the right balance with these channels to avoid souring relationships with customers. If individuals feel like the company is stalking them, it’s only a matter of time before these actions start to draw the attention of regulators.
It’s a matter of providing information that a consumer deems to be relevant via the right media type. Social channels may not be the right approach for some customers, who prefer a phone call or a text message. Therefore, companies should review their collections and proactive customer service strategy and determine how and at what stage social media notifications would be most effective to ensure customer loyalty and contact center productivity.
As with all regulatory matters, be sure to consult with your enterprise’s attorney for legal guidance.
Collections Strategies to Tap Consumer 2.0
by Aspect on December 8th, 2010
Consumer 2.0. Much has been made about this new wave of customers, but what makes them different? Here are a few tell tale signs: These are your customers who have cell phones and no landline phone. They prefer to text versus talk on their mobile device. They are on social networks sites trying to gather information versus coming to your contact center for answers.
Many customer service centers are thinking about Consumer 2.0 and how to best provide service to them and improve the overall customer experience, but collections centers should also consider how to approach these consumers. Let’s turn the table on this a bit. What happens if these consumers are in a debt situation where you need to collect from them? We need to rethink the collections paradigm a bit. Today, it’s about dialing, dialing, dialing. Is a phone call the best way to collect from these next-generation consumers? Or is it best to first SMS text them, follow up with an email, and then make that phone call as a last step? Even better, you could use customer demographics to determine the right way to contact them. For example, a 25-year-old in debt may respond to a text versus a 40-year-old who may be more receptive to a phone call.
As you evaluate your collections processes during these rough economic times, consider the demographics of your customer base and the Consumer 2.0 paradigm to help improve the productivity of your collections processes.
Improving the way companies communicate internally and externally with their customers is an important objective for all organizations. This blog is focused on levaraging the collective knowledge withing Aspect.