As consumers continue to become more digitally savvy, organisations are considering and even implementing more cost-effective digital channels as part of their evolving customer engagement strategies. For many, this means investing in artificial intelligence (AI), such as virtual assistants, in-store virtual help desks and automated chat. But the message from customers is that a digital-by-default approach isn’t always conducive to a positive experience.
According to research Verint conducted across 24,000 global consumers for The Digital Tipping Point, human contact remains critical. More specifically, consumers say their channel of choice, whether digital or traditional, is determined by the complexity of their requests.
Businesses that understand the customer experience as the basis for how they compete and win the market need to not only establish their customer’s channel preferences, but ensure they deliver a satisfactory and seamless service across all channels. And, of course, it has to be done efficiently and cost effectively.
The often previously overlooked, and possibly under-invested in, back office plays a key role in doing so. With a well-functioning, predictable back-office organisation tool implemented, all the information and data required by the front office to deliver a positive customer experience can be aligned.
To improve co-ordination between the two, it isn’t a case of simply adding back-office employees to front-office systems. The two environments are vastly different and require different capabilities and skillsets. To drive the optimum outcome, agile organisations are opting to implement a back-office work optimisation solution to connect processes and tasks end to end to create and manage customer journeys and positive outcomes.
Immediate benefits are two-fold as front and back-office teams can proactively collaborate to improve the speed and accuracy of customer service, while the organisation benefits from increased productivity and performance, and a reduction in backlogs and complaint potential.
Evolving technologies such as AI will continue to play a role in the future, enabling businesses to automate simple requests and processes to prioritise the personal touch for more complex or personal issues. But, alongside all this, businesses have to break out of the old ways of working – using command control tactics – to embrace a new way, centred more around engaging and empowering the workforce.
Work traditionally undertaken in the back office can and should also be broken out of its traditional bricks-and-mortar residence to become part of blended end-to-end operations. Remote workers, employees working flexible hours and those in the call centre, branch and field all play a major and effective role in responding to and improving the customer interaction experience.
Verint has invested in enterprise workforce optimisation software by acquiring eg solutions, pioneer of the back-office workforce optimisation market
To gain the most benefit, organisations need to be able to forecast the skills, availability and capabilities required to allocate work efficiently to their increasingly blended workforce, optimising downtime and reducing inefficiency. They need reliable, predictive analytics, alerts and notifications that identify exactly where latency and surplus capacity exists, before things go wrong. Comprehensive metrics are no longer an operational luxury.
This is precisely why Verint has invested in enterprise workforce optimisation software by acquiring eg solutions, pioneer of the back-office workforce optimisation market. With combined solutions and services from Verint and eg solutions, businesses can benefit from managing work, people and processes across the enterprise in any location, anytime and on any device. The combined capabilities empower employees and facilitate proactive interventions to enhance workforce effectiveness by capitalising on the strengths of staff, while taking a more engaged and empowered approach to service delivery.
Visionary organisations are those that not only understand positive customer experience is key to a sustainable competitive advantage, they also recognise this leads to customer retention and, ultimately, affinity. It is vital to ensure clear collaboration between the front and back-office functions to create a blended workforce. With the right infrastructure, processes and culture in place, businesses can implement a strong strategy to service and retain customers effectively, influence sales, and heighten engagement and loyalty.
For more information please visit www.egoptimize.com
