words with colleagues: definitions of commonly used industry terms

Words with Colleagues:Definitions of multiple channel terms used in self-serviceeBook

Words with Colleagues: Definitions of multiple channel terms used in self-service 2

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Defining and understanding how organizations use multiple channels in delivering their Self-Service Customer Experience

In today’s business market, professionals need to know more buzzwords and acronyms than ever before. Added to this jumble of words and letters are many business-related terms that have become seemingly interchangeable but are not. Are you sure you are using these words correctly?

We want to focus on three words:

• Multi-channel

• Omni-channel

• Multi-modal

Let’s clarify each term, its meaning, and make sure we are all speaking the same language.

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Three Terms – Similar Yet DifferentMulti-Channel, Multi-Modal, Omni-Channel

Consumers have increasingly embraced mobile communication, changing the face of proactive customer communications. More than ever, customers want to be able to interact with organizations on their channel of choice – in a consistent and seamless manner – and organizations have responded by offering multiple communication channels. In addition, consumers are adept at multi-tasking in today’s ‘always on’ world and want to be able to combine and expand their self-service interactions.

Gartner Research states by 2020, the customer will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human. This means organizations need to deliver the channels their customers want across the entire customer journey.









Multi-ChannelDefinition: Multi-channel is the ability to offer a choice of channels to engage customers – whether IVR, SMS, web, email – to self-serve.

Multi-channel stats:

• 55% of consumers now expect companies to provide customer service via social media sites such as Facebook. (Source: Synthetix)

• 75% of consumers think companies should make answers to all their common questions available via smartphones. (Source: Synthetix)

• 70% of businesses are anticipated to use social media as part of their customer service programs by mid-2014. (Source: Aberdeen Group)









Companies are looking to interact with self-service campaigns on their customers channel of choice, and deliver campaigns uniquely designed for new mobile channels. P&G added the SMS channel to one such campaign.

Founded in 1837, today Procter & Gamble serves 4.8 billion consumers around the world. Recently, P&G faced an awareness challenge around high efficiency (HE) detergent. Since digital interactions can significantly influence a consumer’s purchase, P&G saw an opportunity to use the mobile channel to attract consumer interest and create a connection with its fabric care brands.

P&G knew it was critical to make a consumer’s transition to HE detergent easy, and they wanted to strengthen new relationships via a compelling, long-term engagement strategy.

Multi-ChannelCase Study: Procter & Gamble adds text to build awareness









For these reasons, P&G designed a program to engage consumers at the key Point of Market Entry. The “Tide Text for Tips” SMS marketing campaign offers laundry tips, stain solutions and special offers from the Tide brand.

The incentive to opt in is a chance to win a year’s supply of Tide HE detergent, and opted in consumers receive messages once every two weeks.

The campaign is ongoing and continues to be quite successful.

Benefits:

• 48,000+ subscribers within the 180 countries P&G serves

• Low opt-out rates

Multi-ChannelCase Study: Procter & Gamble adds text to build awareness









Multi-ModalDefinition: Multi-modal offers a mix of channels within one single interaction.

As customers interact with an organization across various channels, and through self-service options, the conversation can become interrupted or disjointed as new information is presented and handoffs are made. By providing the information needed in a mix of channels that work in a single interaction, organizations can deliver great customer experiences.

Example 1 – Insurance

A client is on their smartphone speaking with an agent in a call center. Instead of the agent reading the T&Cs of a new or changed insurance policy for the client’s verbal agreement, the agent can push the information to the client via SMS with a link to a mobile website – all while still on the call. The client can then quickly scan through via T&Cs, and take action with an “I agree” button. The agent is alerted, the call meets compliance obligations, and it’s a more efficient use of time for both the client and the agent.









Multi-ModalIndustry examples, continued

Example 2 – Mobile Phone Provider

A client speaks with a call center agent regarding eligibility for a phone upgrade. If the consumer wants to see their options, instead of the agent just reading descriptions, the agent can send a link via an SMS to their smartphone. The consumer can then view and select the phone they want. The agent is alerted to complete the transaction all while the consumer feels more comfortable in their selection.

These two examples illustrate how incorporating visuals and delivering information via a second channel for actionable self-service consent saves time, ensures accuracy, and delivers more compelling interactions.









Omni-ChannelDefinition: Omni-channel expands a multi-channel or multi-modal interaction by using multiple channels over a series of interactions, while retaining context between interactions.

Customers want an omni-channel experience:

• On average, agents spend 11% of their time looking for information needed to manage customer interactions. (Source: Aberdeen Group)

• 26% of consumers have experienced being transferred from agent to agent without any resolution of their problem. (Source: 2012 Global

Customer Service Barometer)









Omni-ChannelCase Study: News Limited delivers an omni-channel experience

News Corp Australia, formerly News Limited, is one of Australia’s leading media companies, publishing 100+ regional and suburban newspapers across the continent. It also has a number of divisions involved in digital media, magazines, TV, film, sports, and music entertainment.

News Limited wanted to improve customer service by ensuring that their contact center operations could better handle customer interactions across channels. The company embarked on a new customer segmentation strategy called Voice of the Customer, which was aimed at acquiring and growing revenues from profitable, high-value customers while reducing the costs of serving less profitable, low-value customers.

Thanks to strong relationships with Genesys Business Consulting and business partner.









Omni-ChannelCase Study: News Limited delivers an omni-channel experience

Dimension Data, which implemented the Genesys solutions, News Limited successfully overhauled its infrastructure to ensure an optimized customer experience. Says Jonathan Ng, Technology Manager for Sales Solutions in the CRM and Contact Centers at News Limited, “We can now manage all our customer interactions from one place, no matter which channel the customer uses. We can also migrate customers between channels according to their customer segment, allowing us to reduce costs.”

Benefits

• Realized cost savings by retiring old technologies and managing all interactions through a single system

• Reduced call handling times by around 5 seconds per call; considering that the company handles 2 million calls annually, this translates to a savings of 2,780 working hours in the contact center per year

• Customer segmentation strategy now maintains high-touch for key customers while shifting low-value customers to low-cost channels









Conclusion

Each of these terms is important to know and understand in order to best offer communications across customer touchpoints. Organizations in recent years have worked to add mobile channels, and social media is the latest channel that organizations are looking to incorporate. As channels increase it is more important than ever to consider how to blend, escalate and maintain a history of channels to ensure the customer’s experience is seamless and personal.

By strategically designing and combining multi-channel, multi-modal and omni-channel, your organization will be able to implement a process that will help you understand the context of customer interactions and ultimately reduce costs while streamlining and optimizing the customer journey.









Set Your Company Apart From The Competition With Genesys IVR

According to Forrester, 42% of service agents are unable to efficiently resolve customer issues due to disconnected systems, multiple applications, and archaic user interfaces. Conversely, a recent American Express survey found that 67% of customers have hung up the phone out of frustration when they could not speak with a real person.

Genesys will help you stand apart and have your customers actually rave about their IVR experience! A well-designed IVR system makes self-service part of the resolution process instead of a perceived block to reaching an agent.

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About GenesysGenesys is the market leader in multi-channel customer experience (CX) and contact center solutions in the cloud and on-premises. We help brands of all sizes make great CX great business. The Genesys Customer Experience Platform powers optimal customer journeys consistently across all touch points, channels and interactions to turn customers into brand advocates. Genesys is trusted by over 4,500 customers in 80 countries to orchestrate more than 100 million digital and voice interactions each day. Visit us at www.genesys.com or call us at +1.888.436.3797.





