 |
 |
| Jan Lawford |
Jan Lawford, Senior Director, EMEA Channel at Avaya says a call centre agent’s key objective is to receive and initiate interactions with stakeholders in the most productive way.
Communication: from and to anywhere, using whatever device or medium is at hand, or receiving communications however and whenever it’s most convenient to do so. That’s long been the vision for business communication. This sounds admirable but, from a reseller perspective, how do you actually deliver this vision and its associated business benefits to customers in a way that is both affordable and scaleable?
There is no denying that communications in business is vital. Whether your customer is an SMB or a multinational, it is likely they will have some sort of call centre or customer service function.
In its most basic sense, a contact centre exists to receive communications from customers, partners, prospects and other stakeholders (inbound calls), and to initiate outgoing communications with the same groups (outbound calls). With its sole purpose of delivering and recording clear and simple two-way communications, implementing the right technology within the contact centre is essential. Yet, when faced with a contact centre upgrade resellers still struggle to integrate disparate systems and services to deliver the simple cohesive service their customers demand. It is here that the opportunity for experienced resellers is to be found. While the contact centre fulfils several different roles for the business, from the point of view of the agents on the floor there is but one mission: to receive and initiate interactions with stakeholders in the most productive way.
Recent developments in Unified Communications (UC) make the ongoing accomplishment of this mission possible. The promise of the technology is that it allows all forms of communication to be coalesced into a single easily manageable solution. This application would take all inbound calls and allow the recipient to receive them in a manner most convenient for them at that moment, whether they are working on fixed or mobile devices. Similarly, outbound calls would automatically be routed to the medium and device most suitable to the recipient, without the need for the agent to root through various contact details and select the most appropriate one, saving huge amounts of time and money.
Taken one step further, there are even greater benefits for the end-user and the business in terms of flexibility and agility. A UC-ready organisation could allow part or all of its contact centre operatives to work from disparate locations, which allows the right contact centre agent to reach critical subject matter experts to resolve complex queries, improving customer satisfaction, retention rates and first contact resolution, the Holy Grail for all contact centres.
In today’s contact centre environments, putting the customer in touch with the right person is just as important as doing so in a timely manner, so resellers need to consider another key metric for contact centre customers, namely the drive to improve customer satisfaction. A large corporation might have several contact centres or customer service hubs in different countries, each experiencing varying levels of traffic according to location and time of day. Offering businesses the ability to cut down on response times through prioritisation, speech recognition and the automatic routing of calls internally ensures that their customers are dealt with in the least amount of time possible and by the contact centre and agent that has the greatest capacity, helping cut waiting times considerably and balancing work load across the enterprise.
Technology that further aids speedy customer resolution includes interactive speech recognition solutions that identify and prioritise queries appropriately. Research suggests that 70% of calls can usually be dealt with on a standard, automated basis, giving customers the power to resolve their own issues while simultaneously freeing up agents’ time to handle more complex enquiries and to make outbound calls.
While the above benefits are appealing, the fact they can be delivered without a rip and replace approach is perhaps the most powerful selling point of all. Serious suppliers of UC solutions work hard to ensure simplicity in all things, not just the ideal of the user experience. Avaya Aura’s unified architecture for example can easily integrate communications across multivendor, multi-location, multi-modal businesses, without the need for separate management. This means businesses can implement new applications easily and quickly, extending them to workers anywhere creating a truly unified environment.
UC is ultimately not about reducing or eliminating the number choices available for communication but about simplifying and unifying the operations necessary to initiate them. It is possible today to provide this level of continuity, both for employees and for customers. One view, one experience, one click, one call, one ‘number’, one solution – all leading to better customer service and increased business efficiency. The power of one.
It’s not rocket science
Resellers core business does not rely on add-ons but it can offer good margin to enhance your project turnover and profitability and enhance the overall solution. Sennheisers aim is to offer wireless products which will retain and offer value for money.
The Market has changed significantly within the past 6 years with the initial introduction of True wireless DECT headsets, which now in the reseller market out sell the traditional corded solutions. The reseller channels were one of the first adopters of this technology due to the value add which complimented the upgrades in Telephony technology - as emphasised above this allows for additional margin. DECT today still remains the preferred solution within the channel due to the ease of installation and the universal compatibility. Users themselves prefer the flexibility and freedom that wireless headsets offer.
We have all had the experience of dealing with some one in a call centre and not being able to hear them clearly. There can be many reasons for this and nowadays it is not that narrowband quality is poor but rather that wideband technology is so good, raising the bar for voice quality.
Recapping on my previous statement when call quality is poor it can be as frustrating for the users as it is for the caller. Misunderstandings can arise and calls can take much longer than they need to as we laboriously spell out words or repeat ourselves. If you were connected to a broadband based telephone network you now have the potential with the use of a Sennheiser wireless headset to communicate in wideband and improve accuracy, in turn reducing the cost of calls from the business and improving customer satisfaction.
Wideband is a natural thought when considering the markets migration to Unified Communications. Are you aware that the Unified Communications market estimated turnover is expected to reach 13.4 billion USD (Source: Wayne House Research “WorldWide Unified Communications Services Forecast” December 2008) by 2013? This change could mark the end of the traditional single line DECT headset.
What makes UC very interesting is the flexibility it offers users in the office or at home with the benefits of the same levels of connectivity and with no difference to the caller. With this in mind, Resellers should now look to adopt solutions that allow PC and Telephone connectivity in one single unit.
It’s simple without wires
There are some exciting features within the new DW Office such as fast charge, intelligent pairing, call management, auto wideband/narrowband selection and also a simple ‘plug and play’ setup without any complexities.
So, how do these features bring benefits to your customers? Let us discuss fast charge. If you are a user of a wireless headset how many times have you arrived in the morning to find that your headset has been knocked off or left off its charging base and the battery is flat? It could take as long as an hour with some traditional products to get any useful charge into the device having a negative impact on your work day. How frustrating! Not anymore, with fast charge you could simply replace the headset in the charging base and whilst making your coffee or tea on your return have the unit charged to 2 – 3 hours talk time (10 minutes charge offers 25% battery power). Within 20 minutes the unit will stand at 50% battery power and within an hour be fully charged and offer a full days use (12 hours Narrowband / 8 hours Wideband).
Another feature I’ve mentioned is intelligent pairing. Many single line DECT headsets have very complicated pairing procedures which require a level of technical competence or constant revisits to the instruction manual which for hotdesk environments or shift working cultures, makes sharing base stations unproductive and frustrating both for the user and for technical support. With the DW Office simply place the headset in the base station and within 3-5 seconds it will pair and be fully functional – hassle free! In addition to the Intelligent pairing we can take this a step further with a widely used feature – the conference call where another headset can be placed in the same base station and within the same time period as pairing (typically 3 – 5 seconds) will allow another participant to enter the call at the discretion of the master user with one push of the headset select button on the earpiece – simplicity at its best!
Furthermore and within the features I have already mentioned an additional benefit is auto wideband detection which will allow you to make and take calls from both your desk phone and your soft phone. Also, when it comes to sound quality you won’t have to unplug or re-configure anything. Our headset technology will simply detect whether you are making or receiving a call in wideband or via traditional narrowband: It’s intuitive!
The DW Office really is intuitive! Call management is a complex technology and managing calls from multiple devices is no easy job for a headset but this will make it seem just that – the user will always hear a ringtone in the earpiece whether a call is coming from your desk phone or from your softphone and with the touch of the headset select button it will accept the call so you can talk without complication – it really is that easy!
Having emphasised the many advantages I would like to add that the new DW Office is capable of managing any of your customers expectations and demands making the DW Office the ideal choice.
Learn More
To find out more on the DW Office and register for a free trial, please go to www.comfortcalls.co.uk
Product Overview:
• Unique Premium Design
• Multi use connectivity – Desk phone and Soft phone
• High Comfort Wearing Styles
• Sennheiser Wideband Sound Quality
• Full Workday Talk Time
• Intelligent Fast Charging (100% charged within 1 hour)
• Long Distance Wireless Range
• Intuitive and easy Pairing for desk sharing
Contact Sennheiser UK ltd Tel: 01494 551 551 www.sennheisercommunications.co.uk info@sennheiser.co.uk