Avaya: How to Maximise CRM for an Omni-channel Environment  

Benefits of optimising the two to better the customer journey 

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Avaya: How to Maximise CRM for an Omni-channel Environment 
CRM

Published: February 25, 2021

Carly Read

Buzzwords CRM and omni-channel have been bouncing off the walls of contact centres long before the COVID-19 pandemic. But since live agents have been largely working from home, many businesses have been grappling with ways to optimise CRM from within that omni-channel environment and to do so in a more efficient way than ever. There are huge benefits to achieving this for any brand, business or organisation.

In this exclusive interview, CX Today welcomes Tvrtko Stosic, a consultant in Avaya’s international specialists group, to discuss just how to make the most of the link between omni-channel and CRM.  

“Despite CRM being instrumental for Omnichannel, a true omni-channel experience cannot be achieved without a clear understanding of different CRM dimensions and their specific roles and responsibilities,” Stosic says.  

“Common mistakes businesses make in their Omnichannel initiatives include the wrong delegation of tasks to various CRM types, most notably, assigning customer contact management roles to process oriented operational CRMs. Needless to say, such an approach results in suboptimal omni-channel environments.” 

To break this down for better understanding, Stosic says there are three distinctive types of CRM – operational, such as Salesforce or Siebel for example, collaborative, such as Avayaand Analytical. An example of this would be SAS 

Operational CRM gathers transactional, long-persistence information and is focused on running different processes like services, sales and marketing. Collaborative CRM, on the other hand, manages customers’ contacts and deals with transient contextual information from various channels and touchpointsCompanies can achieve optimal Omnichannel environment by proper integration of operational and collaborative CRM. This is key for the consolidation of an all-round customer view, services offered across touchpoints, internal processes and customer contacts. 

Avaya adds that it is important to say that, due to the saturation of the operational CRM market, respective vendors have started to incorporate contact handling capabilities into their solutions. However, operational CRMs’ DNA is based on Business Process Management because they handle objects like cases, complaints, offers and orders. On the other hand, customer contacts are very different from the usual operational CRM objects, which drives the need for different management logic, different functionalities, and very specific monitoring, reporting and analytic abilities. 

Consequently, operational CRMs have limited contact handling capabilities, far inferior compared to dedicated collaborative CRM solutions. Allowing each CRM solution to do what it is meant to do is the best guarantee of achieving an optimal Omnichannel environment. 

Too Much of a Good Thing? 

Stosic says a common error businesses make is that omni-channel is representative of the entire customer journey.  

He explains: “The main mistake with respect to omnichannel is the common belief that it represents the end-state, that it will by itself, provide superb CX and deliver consequent financial returns to companies. The truth is that Omnichannel is only a building block, a step towards an environment that will ensure effortless, meaningful and memorable customer experiences,” 

To explain this in more depth, after so many years of focusing on omnichannel, it is clear that numerous related initiatives and investments failed to achieve expectations with respect to reducing customer effort and improving CX in general. So it’s hardly surprising that companies, even recently, seem to be experiencing ‘omnichannel fatigue’. This is characterised by disenchantment with capabilities and the results of Omnichannel. 

Different market research (for example, Forrester: https://go.forrester.com/press-newsroom/cx-index-2019-results) points in same direction. Despite all investment in achieving Omnichannel, during the last couple of years customer experience has not been improving. On the contrary, it lingers around the same, mostly mediocre, levels with excellent experiences being rare exceptions, not the norm. 

Companies are now starting to understand that omnichannel is not enough for the delivery of superb CX. Also, that the integration of communication channels, touchpoints, customer data and business processes represent only infrastructure, which is necessary but will not, by itself, deliver superior CX. 

So put it simply, something additional needs to be built on top of existing omnichannel infrastructures to achieve real success. 

The Next Level 

Stosic explains that the concept of a channel-free’ customer journey is the key. 

Instead of focusing on channels, companies should work on bringing together all necessary experience enablers at every point of customer journey. The very essence of superior CX is simply doing the right things for customers at every point in their journeys – and that’s it. That’s what we call ‘channel – Free multiexperience,” he adds. 

However, how to know which is the right thing for specific person at a particular journey moment? Here analytical CRM steps in. With its predictive analytics capabilities, analytical CRM utilises historical data to predict future outcomes. The result is a better understanding of specific wants and needs of the individual person at any particular journey moment and a proposal of next-best-action that the company can do if required. By letting analytical CRM orchestrate engagement via collaborative CRM, companies will be able to approach every customer in an individual manner, which optimises the customer experience and improves loyalty. Note that in this type of engagement, everything is centred around the interaction and the experience it requires, while channels and touchpoints are just in the background.” 

To note, it is important to say that analytical CRM receives information from different sources, but usually mainly from operational and collaborative CRMs. As of today, CX doesn’t depend on the environment’s features, but on its ability to collect data, process data and react upon data. As knowledge and insights are of crucial importance for achieving multiexperience, it is advisable that analytical CRMs expand beyond their traditional information sources. 

Here, communication analytics solutions hold great potential because traditional data sources rarely contain as much information about customers’ needs, emotions, perceptions, and experiences as conversations customers are having with contact centre agents across various channels. 

It should also be remembered that even the full mastering of data and the ability to predict customer needs or problems means little if a customer does not find it easy and effortless to connect and interact with company. Getting connected via AI powered Conversational User Interfaces, synergy between Contact Centre and Unified Communication solutions, biometrics and Virtual Reality are becoming true game changers in reducing customer effort and improving CX. 

Human Touch 

Finally, employees are critically important for achieving a real multiexperience environment because they are making a difference between failure and success when it comes to areas in the business that depend on relationship management.  

Stosic says: “Here companies have to change behaviours, attitudes and organisational culture in their contact centres by evolving from workforce optimisation to workforce engagement. Workforce optimisation results in agents who are very good in following rules and procedures while workforce engagement develops agents who are able to use their personal judgement and experience in the handling of customer interactions. Such empowered agents become real brand ambassadors and valuable assets for success in an experience-driven economy. 

By applying a multiexperience concept on top of their existing omni-channel infrastructures, companies will get optimal environments that will reduce the effort of their customers and ensure a superior and memorable CX – as well as desired returns in terms of sales, retention and acquisition. 

To summarise, companies are now starting to understand that omni-channel is not enough for the delivery of superb CX. Also, that the integration of communication channels, touchpoints, customer data and business processes represent only infrastructure, which is necessary but will not, by itself, deliver superior CX. 

So put it simply, something additional needs to be built on top of existing omni-channel infrastructures to achieve real success. 

 

  

 

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