Moving Beyond Interaction Analytics to an Omnichannel World Connect. Ask. Learn. Share The Community for Customer Engagement Professionals
Moving Beyond Interaction Analytics for an Omnichannel World Introduction Omnichannel - it s not just a buzzword. It s the future of customer service and support. And it s a future that is rapidly approaching. Consumers are coming to expect increasingly flexible, comprehensive experiences with brands in every sector, and soon businesses will have not only the opportunity to improve their engagement with their customers, but will in fact feel compelled to reach this level of performance to keep pace with their industry rivals. To that end, contact centers are going to need to move beyond interaction analytics. While interaction analytics have proven invaluable in a multichannel environment, as omnichannel gains prominence this approach will no longer be sufficient. Instead, firms will need to understand and embrace Customer Journey Analytics, also referred to as Customer Engagement Analytics. Defining Terms and Goals Before delving any deeper into this topic, though, it is important to first define several key terms. First and foremost, what is omnichannel exactly and how does it differ from multichannel? While some in the industry use these terms interchangeably, there are significant differences between the two. Put simply, omnichannel represents the next stage of evolution for multichannel. With multichannel, a company moves from a phone-exclusive call center to a contact center offering customers the opportunity to reach out for support via phone, email, live chat, SMS and other mediums. Interaction analytics of any of these channels can yield valuable information. However, oftentimes individual channels are siloed, with little in the way of coordination or visibility between these mediums or the ability to share insights across an organization. Omnichannel goes further by enabling cross-channel customer engagement. Unlike multichannel, omnichannel is channelagnostic - customers can receive the same level of support through whichever medium they prefer. Critically, omnichannel allows conversations to continue from one channel to the next without interruption or redundancy. Customers don t need to repeat the same information to multiple agents on different channels - those agents will already have access to the relevant information.
The goal for companies eager to embrace omnichannel should be to deploy robust Customer Journey Analytics. Done properly, it enables engagement across the entire journey and has the potential to yield far more valuable, useful and comprehensive insight into a company s customers. Optimally, it also enables the sharing of this information beyond the contact center to marketing, finance, product development, operations and other departments throughout the organization. That is why this white paper is titled Moving Beyond Interaction Analytics for an Omnichannel World. The objective isn t simply to offer a wide range of channel options for customers, or even to make sure those channels are interconnected as seamlessly as possible. On top of that, firms need to make sure they have analytics in place that can account for the entirety of the customer journey, rather than siloed analytics that each offer insight from a single channel. Omnichannel Status Quo That s the goal. However, for most - perhaps even all - companies, it s an objective that lies in the future. The current state of omnichannel is encouraging in some ways, but widespread and effective adoption of omnichannel + Customer Journey Analytics is still a ways off. What are the requirements of an omnichannel contact center? % of Businesses that consider it required 54% 61% 56% 34% 22% 15% 33% 43% 37% 38% 41% 45% 36% 18% 43% 48% 32% 23% 24% Capability Full service in all channels Full service in multiple channels Some form of service/engagement in all channels Some form of service/engagement in multiple channels Channels are integrated Business has dedicated staff for multiple channels Business has dedicated quality/performance management for multiple channels Business has universal metrics that apply to performance in multiple channels Agents handle multiple channels Agents can seamlessly communicate with agents from another channel Agents can access customer/transactional data from another channel Business has a 360 degree view of customer Business can honor customer s channel preference at all times Business can sometimes honor customer s channel preference at all times Customers can seamlessly span channels within single interaction Customers can span channels across separate interactions (and the business always has access to the data) Business proactively engages customers in all channels Business proactively engages customers in multiple channels All channels are managed by the same department From the 2015 Executive Report from Call Center IQ.
A 2015 Executive Report from Call Center IQ and Enghouse found that more than three-fourths of businesses aim to make their contact centers omnichannel in the near future. While that shows company leaders recognize the value of omnichannel support, only 10 percent of respondents believed they had already achieved this level of performance in their contact centers at the time of the survey. Omnichannel may be the goal, but so far, progress remains elusive. A survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers from Forrester Consulting and egain found that only 11 percent of respondents felt that companies are effectively converging digital, mobile, social and traditional channels - i.e., achieving omnichannel. Echoing this message, PricewaterhouseCoopers Retailing 2020 report argued, By 2020, we believe the need for a unified consumer omnichannel experience will be complicated by the need for nearly perfect execution. However, expert use of business intelligence tools, coupled with a profound understanding of shoppers needs and experiences in real time, may make omnichannel a realistic goal. Companies are clearly eager to embrace omnichannel, both in the contact center and beyond, but reaching that goal has been - and will likely continue to be - a challenge. Recognizing Challenges So what are the challenges that make it so difficult to fully bring omnichannel and Customer Journey Analytics into the contact center? For both omnichannel and Customer Journey Analytics, the barriers to success can essentially be grouped into two categories: organization and technology. Organization In many cases, companies and their contact centers are simply not organized in a way that s amenable to omnichannel. Omnichannel demands fluidity between communication mediums, yet in the process of evolving their individual channels, many firms have developed rigid silos. For example, many businesses have assigned social media support and engagement responsibilities to the marketing team, outside the contact center. That team will have its own processes and personnel in place, and they likely won t be closely aligned with the contact center. Zooming out further, the organizational challenges to omnichannel and Customer Journey Analytics become even more apparent and intimidating. As Gartner previously highlighted, many companies feature siloed teams managing different engagement channels, and usually these firms do not have a team in place specifically dedicated to approaching engagement holistically. These organizational issues further demonstrate how much of a leap forward omnichannel and Customer Journey Analytics are relative to multichannel and interaction analytics. They truly represent a new approach to customer support and the contact center more broadly. Firms need to be willing to significantly reorganize if they want to fully embrace the more advanced approach. Technology Beyond the organizational challenges, the technology itself is the biggest barrier to organizations hoping to embrace omnichannel and Customer Journey Analytics in the contact center. There are two elements at play here. As made clear above, achieving omnichannel in and of itself is proving difficult for many businesses, and technology is a key contributing factor. The various customer experience channels are not inherently integrated, yet that level of integrated infrastructure is essential for achieving omnichannel. Such interconnectedness requires not just technical expertise and time, but also a significant financial investment.
What s more, companies often struggle to identify users across engagement channels. This is arguably the biggest technology challenge, as it requires a tremendous degree of visibility and many companies customer service systems are simply not designed in such a way to make this capability easily feasible. When it comes to the Customer Journey Analytics side of the equation, in many ways, the challenge here is reminiscent of those faced by companies moving to take advantage of big data analytics. In both cases, firms are striving to gather insight from a tremendous amount of raw information captured via a variety of systems. In some ways, though, the difficulties are even more pronounced for Customer Journey Analytics, given the lack of system integration and, notably, the tremendous array of device options that companies must factor in. As Gartner noted, Smartphones, tablets and social networks have become ubiquitous, with more channels, such as wearable technology and augmented reality, expected in the future. Combine these with the presence of online marketplaces and other touchpoints outside of digital commerce, such as banner ad retargeting, traditional media (radio and TV) and in-store experiences, and it s difficult to be aware of, much less understand, every interaction in great detail. Yet that is precisely the goal of Customer Journey Analytics. The technology to achieve these capabilities is definitely on the way. Looking and Moving Ahead With all that established, the question that contact center decision-makers need to address is how, given the status quo and the challenges, to move forward with omnichannel and Customer Journey Analytics. The reality of the situation is that the organizational and technological obstacles that companies face cannot be easily, or even effectively, overcome at the present time. The customer experience is undoubtedly moving toward omnichannel, and Customer Journey Analytics will be a natural accompaniment once omnichannel is fully established. But attempting to move ahead prematurely is in neither the company s nor the customers best interests. That being said, there are a number of concrete steps that companies can and should embrace in order to progress in this direction. By taking these actions, businesses can begin to see the benefits of both omnichannel and Customer Journey Analytics, and better set themselves up to fully take advantage of these concepts in the near future. Break down organizational silos To overcome the organizational challenges highlighted above, companies should either merge departments responsible for customer engagement or create a customer experience overlay cross-functional team. Start putting technology in place Companies will not leap directly from their current technological capabilities to fullysupported Customer Journey Analytics. To get there, businesses should start investing in new technologies now. Specifically, organizations should focus their immediate efforts on: User identification across engagement channels Companies need technology tools to accurately track customers in a more fluid, omnichannel environment.
Omnichannel tools Agents need tools that allow them to engage with clients via the ideal channel for a particular type of interaction. The best outbound channel is not necessarily the best inbound channel. For example, agents should have the ability to receive a call from a customer, but then easily send that customer information through SMS. Aggregate engagement data Companies need to invest in IT infrastructure that can serve as a central repository for all engagement data. Adopt the right analytics solution This is related to tech, but deserves its own section. It is absolutely critical for companies to look for an analytics solution that either has or will have the ability to analyze not just different forms of interactions, but also the journey across all points of engagement. The sooner a business has these analytics capabilities in place, the better positioned it will be to take advantage of comprehensive omnichannel and Customer Journey Analytics. All of these steps will take time to implement effectively and securely. As such, companies eager to gain a competitive advantage through omnichannel capabilities and Customer Journey Analytics need to act now if they hope to stand out from their rivals. After all, the customer experience space is undoubtedly moving in this direction, and so it s only a matter of time until virtually every enterprise feels obligated to as well. Sources http://www.reuters.com/article/idusnmkwgxwn7a+1d8+mkw20150825 http://info.enghouseinteractive.com/rs/547-fba-390/images/2015%20omni-channel%20report.pdf?mkt_tok=eyjpijoiwx- poak1xuxpoemd3wmpkacisinqioijhrdy1uxq5b1bcu0tcamnzn21db1bkews5zedyc3jdrznmbui1d2jvvnhtsktom- 3VQYU1kSGpqUHBmcVVcL2pRa0FwM256YXpBVldZYThJOGVlSnpkbkZDV0l4dkR5M1l3clM3WlBpN1FLYXM9In0%3D http://www.pwc.com/us/en/retail-consumer/publications/assets/pwc-retailing-2020.pdf (781) 547-5666 www.engagementoptimization.com eoinfo@engagementoptimization.com facebook.com/engagementoptimization twitter.com/engagementopt linkedin.com/company/engagementoptimization Copyright 2016 CallMiner. All Rights Reserved. ABOUT ENGAGEMENT OPTIMIZATION EngagementOptimization.com is an online community designed for customer engagement professionals. EngagementOptimization.com is the future of work enabling industry experts from around the globe to connect, share, communicate and collaborate in an interactive online community. By building a strong network, we as individuals and groups can tap into our collective industry knowledge and expertise to empower those who wish to further their career, the efforts of their organization and partners and to better serve their customers.