Description of the process
The value created by this process is as important as the Call Handling process. Automation also offers:
- Increased customer satisfaction by offering alternate ways to do business with a company.
- Reduced costs of self-serve transactions (up to 90%).
- Increased customer access to a company when the contact centre is closed.
- Increased employee satisfaction by eliminating simple tasks and focusing on more complex but value-add problem solving.
There are basically 4 types of automated contacts:
- IVR technology enables customer to complete a transaction using their telephone to key (or voice) their responses to a variety of prerecorded questions or choices.
- E-commerce technology enables customer to complete a transaction on a website
- Automated e-mail response systems find key words in a message and send an appropriate reply to the originator.
- Fax, voicemail and e-mail are commonly used automated communication methods.
This process starts with excellent task analysis of the transactions to be automated and ends with flawless programming to achieve the desired result.
Characteristics of a best practice
A key question for contact centres is to determine their level of involvement in or ownership of automated contact processes. When not involved, development usually defaults to the marketing department or worse yet, the IT department. However, automated contacts serve the same customers, with the same needs who are completing the same transactions as they do in the contact centre. Therefore contact centres are key players in these service delivery channels.
- Customer satisfaction with an automated transaction is measured the same way as a voice transaction, typically using surveys.
- Customer service guidelines unique to automated contacts include:
- Complete information is easy to find.
- Transaction flow is smooth and accommodates exceptions (what can go wrong).
- Follow up is completed both internally and with the customer.
- Both agent and automated customer support (re status) is provided following a completed transaction.
- Usability standards are developed for each medium (i.e. navigation for web transactions)
- At any time during a self-serve transaction, customers can request assistance from an agent.
- Even though e-mail and fax transactions are deferrable by nature, technology is employed to receive, route, manage workflow and respond according to business rules that reflect the service standards.
Relationships to other processes
Input to self-serve process:
- The Agent Roles/Responsibilities process defines where an agent adds value.
- Leads to automation of simple tasks so customers can serve themselves.
- The Call Centre Role process defines the organization’s self-serve channels that will be maintained by the contact centre.
- The Business Model process defines the capabilities that the contact centre requires to serve external customers.
- Self-service using IVR (keyed or voice activated), CTI and Web technology.
- Alternative communication methods using fax, voicemail and e-mail technology.
- The Call Handling process provides the quality standards for the design of automated contacts.
- The Fulfillment process defines the transactions to be automated.
Output from self-serve process:
- Infrastructure process is modified to route the customer
- To a self-serve application when appropriate (IVR)
- From a self-serve application (IVR or Web) when the customer needs assistance from an agent.
- Agent Skill/Competencies process adapts to the needs of automation:
- Writing skills for web text chat or e-mail response are included.
- Increased focus on complex problem solving as simple tasks are automated.
- An understanding of the customer’s experience with self-serve applications is a component of the Skills & Knowledge Transfer process.
What’s in it for me?
Makes life easier
What is so appealing about automation is that everyone wins. If you are under pressure to do more with less, automation of contact handling dramatically reduces costs. The key to ensuring customer satisfaction is to give customers the choice of completing a transaction themselves or calling an agent. Automation should never be forced on the customer. The challenge for you is to create enough value in self-serve that customers will want to use it. Employees enjoy not dealing with the more routine tasks that have been automated. However, automation is often seen as a threat to job security. The reality is that contact centres continue to grow as new products and services generate more traffic and agent value increases as they handle more complex contacts.