Vonage and IBM: The Future of Contact Centers and Customer Experience
Paul Turner is VP of Strategic Accounts for Vonage, and he leads enterprise sales for Vonage applications in continental Europe. He chatted with Simon Shaw, Service Transformation Lead (EMEA) for IBM iX, about the future of contact centers and the customer experience. Please enjoy the entire video series and the pair’s fascinating insights.
Change Is Not a Bad Thing
When you think about it, just about every job has a customer service element. Maybe that’s why the old saying, “the customer is always right” rings true. But for customers, it’s not so much about being right — often, simply being heard is what matters. And a kind ear can do wonders to enhance your customer relationships. Vonage and IBM technologies — bots, voice assistants, sentiment analysis, and speech analytics — help define the future of contact centers, reshaping contact center roles and continually evolving the customer experience.
Bot or Not
You call into a contact center and get trapped in an automated loop of frustration. Why? Because there was a rush for contact centers to introduce bots into the service flow. But somewhere, companies forgot the “service” portion of the flow. It’s best to offer a choice of channels for the guided experience, and Vonage and IBM have a responsibility to deliver a solution that presents a more holistic customer experience.
Check out the full video chat: Bot or Not.
Bots as a Concierge Service
Bots are your friends. So what’s the best way to integrate them into your contact center and service flow design? Start with your outlook. That is, don’t think about bots. Instead, think of these virtual assistants as concierge tools for initial triage — for agents and customers — and even as part of an overall journey. Remember, it’s best to offer a choice of channels for the guided experience. Time savings and an enhanced experience bring value to your organization.
Start with a better outlook in the full video: Bots as a Concierge Service.
Sentiment Analysis
Surveys can help you gauge NPS and CSAT scores after a call. But what about in the moment? Live speech analytics, such as those drawn from speech-to-text transcriptions and emotional analysis, can uncover vital data. This includes tone analysis, which is becoming more important, to pick up frustrations and anger.
Dive into real-time QA and post-QA analysis in the video: Sentiment Analysis.
Speech Analytics
What can you do with post-call speech analytics? For starters, you can better identify issues that have nothing to do with you. That’s because you can discover things that have gone wrong from the customer’s viewpoint. QA also helps spot trends to make business improvements and ensure compliance. Bottom line: Your customers are talking, so don’t let this valuable data go to waste.
See the details in the video: Post Call Speech Analytics.
Changing Roles in the Contact Center
Some companies don’t like the term “contact center” or downplay it as a career. But contact centers have taken on heightened importance. For example, a customer’s only interaction with a brand is often through a contact center. That’s why managers need to serve as the enablers and coaches, to empower their front-line contact center agents as brand ambassadors.
Get more perceptions in the full video: Changing Roles Contact Center.
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