CIOTechOutlook >> Magazine >> March - 2016 issue

Optimizing Support Interaction: Closing the Loop in Contact Center Automation

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If you were to draw a diagram of the lifecycle of a tech support episode in a reasonably sophisticated contact center, you'd see a process steeped in carefully thought-out automation.

In today’s modern contact center, everything is pretty much automated until, at the most crucial point of the whole process, all of that programmed intelligence drops away and it's just two people talking. And no matter how well everything else worked, if the live conversation goes poorly, you’re going to have an unhappy customer.

Speaking as the head of a 1600-agent contact center focused on tech support, I believe that we're still babes in the woods when it comes to managing, quantifying, analyzing and optimizing that part of the process during which the actual interaction between an agent and a customer occurs.

The reason is simple: it’s the only aspect of the support process relatively untouched by automation.

Happily, it doesn’t have to be that way. SIO—Support Interaction Optimization—has the potential to address this gap and claim the holy grail of the industry: delivering service efficiently while dramatically boosting customer satisfaction.

The Elements of SIO

1- Systematizing the best approaches

There are many ways to solve a customer's problem but there's only one best way. However that's determined, the best approaches need to be packaged up as stored procedures and made available to every agent. This applies primarily to complex Tier 1 & 2 issues, the kind that could easily get an agent marching down a series of dead-ends.

2- Consistent application across all agents

The quality of service shouldn't depend on which agent a customer happens to connect to. If we're confident that our stored procedure is the best approach to getting the issue resolved, then every customer deserves the benefit of it.

3- Providing the right tools

The most effective tool in the agent's arsenal is full remote control, where she can, with the customer's consent, take over the mouse and keyboard and operate the device herself. Ideally, she will also have the ability to push diagnostic and "fix-it" modules to the remote device and monitor them as they run.

4- Continual fine-tuning

Part of the obligation of a robust SIO system is to check its own work. It does this by gathering data about what occurred during every interaction, checking it against the outcome and providing insights that allow contact center managers to continue refining the stored procedures.

How is SIO implemented?

There are three primary elements required to realize the promise of SIO:

1- Guided problem resolution


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