Customer Service

Cx Centers maximizing enterprise value as partners

Traditionally we have observed that customer experience centres or contact centres are perceived as cost centres that simply address customer queries. With design thinking and consumer-centricity coming into sharp focus due to the pandemic, the same Cx have today become revenue generators by feeding businesses with pivotal business insights.

The renewed focus on improving customer engagement, experience, seamless interactions, and quick resolution has created a momentous change in the dynamics of Cx centers and business operations. Customer service and the experience generated are key business drivers for businesses today. While serving the customer has always been the aim, user-generated views are now also becoming central to create value with innovation and differentiate in the face of competition.

In the data patterns generated from contact centres, lies answers to crucial business questions – where to focus the resources, how to design for the future, how much to automate, and so on. In simple words, contact centres are no more support functions, but a valuable feedback loop that helps organizations pass insights to the concerned teams to put into action. Similarly, a healthy investment pipeline to equip contact centres with adequate human + machine capabilities will transform these cost centres into customer experience (Cx) hotspots – a commendable virtue to have in a data-hungry world. 

Equal partners in business stakes

The time is now ripe to integrate Cx Centers as an important business partner. We need to think of CX centres as partner organizations that are not only responsible to provide basic services and improving customer stickiness, but proactively assist in boosting revenues at optimized costs. No wonder that all organizations are today aggressively investing in empowering customers with digital means – AI conversational engine for across the channel support, AR to encourage DIY resolution of queries, or matching complex user queries with the relevant human resources.

But how are we leveraging these digital interactions to increase sales and capture customer sentiments?

There is a strong opportunity to be proactive and offer live human agent interaction to close on a sale. Take for example a customer browsing for offers on a website that provides an immersive experience, while we are observing and understanding the customer’s requirement. If the customer wants to know more details about a product, an AI conversational engine or a real-time chat can help. This is also the opportune time to volunteer a call back in case the customer is further interested. A prompt assessment of what a user might require and act with agility on it was possible in this scenario with a constant loop of data capturing and analytics, which is highly visible to all stakeholders internally.

The CX practice digital offering from Infosys – Cortex – is an apt tool helping in this regard. It not only captures customer sentiments through structured data but also analyzes the unstructured data on social medial platforms to provide meaningful insight to CX centre ambassadors or CX advocates as we call them.

This assistive imperative is in addition to the customer-specific insights generated by the AI-backed system from digital and live interactions with customers, which helps product and engineering teams to enhance products and services.

Sales through service

In other words, contact centres are set to become the interaction hub for an enterprise, transforming them into living and thriving organizations that consistently sense, feel, and act on dynamic changes with speed and scale. In its newfound importance in the overall business metrics, contact centres are also having to shoulder additional complex responsibilities. While a wide range of technology, such as automation, analytics, workflow technology, bots, verification, and so on are being deployed to increase efficiency and enhance the experience, humans will still be required to deal with the most complex and emotive issues. Businesses are quickly realizing that contact centres are well-positioned to transform it into an active service channel, with a potential source to leverage for sales and thus higher revenues. The telecom industry, for instance, has been among the first ones to adopt sales through service models, especially for Value Added Services (VAS).

As customers grow increasingly comfortable using various channels remotely, it presents a significant revenue opportunity across industries. However, transforming a contact centre that acts as the sales and revenue partner of an organization will require the right strategy, compelling customer engagement, and excellent operational execution to convert leads. According to McKinsey, implementing connected and agile customer experience centres with anytime-anywhere visibility of relevant data can improve a company’s revenues by almost 60%.

Tomorrow’s customers will be creative, will communicate across an array of existing and new channels but also in a new visual language. The contact centre will become a powerful resource for finding out what customers think of companies, and for capturing sentiments, feedback, needs, and wants. As an invaluable source of data for both the enterprise and its partners, it will evolve beyond omnichannel operation to become the centre of a connected Live Enterprise. And, as its mode of operation broadens and becomes more proactive, its success will be measured at par with crucial business metrics and overall business performance. We grow as partners.