1、NOWNEXT COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange Covid-19:WhattoDoNow,WhattoDoNext 2COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange COVID-19 has turned into a global crisis, evolving at unprecedented speed and scale. It is creating a universal imperative forgovernments and org

2、anizations to take immediate action to protect their people. The viruscontinuestorapidlyspread, to every continent, with over 60 countriesimpactedandmorethan 1,700newcasesreporteddaily. ThesuddenemergenceofCOVID-19isrequiringthatbrandsmove at unprecedented speed to serve their customers with quality

3、 whilecaringfortheiremployeeswithcompassion. Brands are required to re-evaluate how contact centers are leveraged, how contact center employees deliver quality customerexperiences,wherecontactcenteremployeeswork, andhowdigitalchannelscanbeusedtosupporttheincreasein contact centervolume. Leadersmustm

4、akeswift,insight-informeddecisionstosupport their contact center employees while maintaining and earning customertrust. The emotional state of consumersandbusinesses addstothechallenge But the combination of fear, uncertainty and frustration presents brands with both new risks and opportunities. Pro

5、viding compassionate customer service will likely generate an outsized increaseinpositivebrandperceptionandcustomerloyaltypost-crisis. Conversely, inaccessible, ineffective or uncaring responses are likely todriveanequallypronouncednegativereaction. During times of crisis, contact centers are crucia

6、l. Customers prefer live interactionwhentheywantanswersto urgentandcomplexissues: 4COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange 58% morecustomersprefertosolve urgentissuesbycallingforsupport ratherthanuseotherchannels.1 57% of customers ranked call support as their initial channel prefere

7、nce for flexible communication, wanting an opportunitytoask,explain,reasonor negotiate with customerservice.2 However,organizationsareoftenill-preparedtoreacttoasignificantandsuddenincreaseincallvolumes.Inthecontext of COVID-19, that increase is combined with the risk of having to suddenly shift to

8、remote work-from-home models and protectaworkforceinahigh-riskenvironment.Itsanunprecedentedchallengethatwillrequireswiftaction. 5COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange Within 48hours Assessyourcurrentstate.Usingarapid technology assessment framework, analyze your current technology

9、 capabilitiesandwhataremotecontact centerwillrequireacrossyournetwork, platforms and securityprotocols. Within 72hours Identify how you can leverage your existing contact centertechnologies toenablenewworkforceneeds. Workcollaborativelywithtechnology platform providers to flex licensing andtakeadvan

10、tageofout-of-the-box platform capabilities. Establish live agentchat(ifnotactivealready)with initial AI HumanAssist. Within 5days Implement measures to drive digital channel adoption for your customers andscaleupyourexistingvirtualagent capability to deflect calls away from the contactcenter. Within

11、 2weeks Plan how you will repurpose your workforce in physical locations to maintain customer and business continuity.Scaleupnewvirtualagent capabilities and digitalchannels. Companiesareurgentlyaskinghowtohandletheimpactontheircontactcenters andkeeptheircustomerserviceworkforcesafe.Theywanttoknow:

12、6COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange 1)HowcanIreducecustomerwaittimesandmanagecustomerfrustration? 2)Howtodeflectorredistributecontactvolumestocontrolaveragewaittimes? 3)WhatcanIquicklyautomate? 4)HowshouldIenhancemydigitalchannels? 5)HowdoImanagemyworkforceifphysicalworklocation

13、sarenolongerviable? 6)HowcanIofferthesamelevelofcustomersupportandworkforceproductivity whenagentsworkfromhome? 7)CanIextendaccesstothenecessarytoolsandsecurenetworksforremote workers? 8)HowcanImaintainthetrustofbothmyworkforceandmycustomers? Thesearetoughquestions.Therisksofexecutionfailurearehighe

14、rthannormal. But companies can take immediate action to create capacity in their contact center,enableconsistentqualityfortheircustomers,andcarefortheirpeoplein thefaceofthecrisis. Whileactionsshouldbetakenatdifferentvariationsbasedonacompanysunique situation, when done correctly, they can effective

15、ly respond to the immediate needs created by COVID-19 and realize a longer-term benefit from increased customerbrandperceptionandloyalty. Expertsdontknowhowlongit willtaketocontainthevirus. Leaders must prepare for the short term, while developing new capabilities and ways of workingthatcouldseamles

16、sly enable longer-term operationalchanges. To respond to the evolving circumstances of the COVID-19 crisis, we recommend contact center executives addressthree criticalareas: Adopt new ways of working: Contactcenters+remoteaccess Rapidlystanduptheinfrastructure,managementsystemsand processesrequired

17、tosupportaneffectiveremoteworkforce. Improvecontactcentermanagement: Data,workflowandanalytics Harnessdataandanalyticstoinformanagile,responsiveandrelevant approach to addressing customer needs and support. Reprioritize andsequencecustomersupportsothatthemostcriticalneedsare addressedfirst,withnon-c

18、riticalcontactsdeflectedtodigital. Augmentandautomateservice: Virtualagents Standuporenhancevirtualagentcapabilitiestosupport COVID-19specificrequestsorgrowingBAUvolume. 7COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange Adopt new ways of working: Contactcenters+remoteaccess Hundreds or even t

19、housands of individuals work together in contact centers, often in confined spaces that make them particularly susceptible to COVID-19. Companies will soon have to enable home working for these teams. This imperative,however,comeswithrealchallenges.Itmaybeoneofthebestways toavoidworkplacetransmissio

20、nofCOVID-19,butworkingfromhomeatscaleis unchartedterritory. As described in Productivity in Uncertain Times Through the Elastic Digital Workplace,enablingthehome-basedworkforcemeansaddressinganumberof keytechnology,processandpeopleissues. The cornerstone of the work-from-home model is the right secu

21、re technology. Tocreateaconsistentworkforceexperience,companiesmust(wherepossible) replicate the contact center technology environment at home. Demands on networking infrastructures will be unprecedented. Companies must be ready to address failures in the distributed network environment that may lea

22、d to performance issues and/oroutages. IMAGE NEEDED 8COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange Beyond technology, companies must also address several people-and process-related issues. Getting people rapidly up to speed will require virtualtrainingandchangemanagementprogramstoeducatewo

23、rkers on the use of new technologies, processes, policies and collaboration toolsets. Leaders will then have to define new methods and rules for collaboration to maintain productivity and effectiveness in the new, distributedenvironment. Caring for the workforce must be balanced with businesscontinu

24、ity efforts and servicing customers. Leaders must realize that thisis an unprecedented situation and unique considerations must be accommodated such as caring for family health and for childrenand managing wellness. They must also navigate the delicatebalance of redeploying agents (sometimes at mass

25、ive scale) whilealso managing significant spikes inworkload. Leaders that can make the shift to a partial or full work-from- home model will be better able to minimize businessdisruption and serve theircustomers. Additionally, they will help reduce potential revenue loss, forge new levels of trust w

26、ith theirworkforce, and position theirbusinesses 9COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange for renewed growth oncethe pandemicsubsides. Improve contact centersmanagement: Data, workflow,analytics AsCOVID-19runsitscourse,nowisthetimeforcompaniestotakefulladvantageoftheirdata topredictc

27、ustomersandtheinternalworkforceschangingneedsandbehaviors.Combining this with a more agile approach to managing work and the workforce will enable contact centerstomeetcustomerdemandmosteffectivelyduringsuchunprecedentedvolatility. Traditionalcallvolumeforecastsshouldbeenhancedwithpatternsseeninothe

28、rchallenging times and contextual data. Other sources of data that should also be included: customer demographicandgeographicdata;impactoncustomersfromcompanyactions;timing of communications; contact behavioral trends from COVID-19 in other geographies and crowdsourced data direct from agents and pu

29、blicly-available data (e.g. changes to supply ofgoods,localserviceavailabilityandlocalandnationalissuedguidance).Usingpredictive analytics with this data will prepare the operations teams to best match volumes with the available workforce. For most companies, creating predictive views of demand will

30、 require newlevelsoforganizationalcollaboration. The same approach should be taken to evaluate workforce supply. Factors like workforce demographics and school/childcare closures will impact attendance. These coupled with analysisofCOVID-19intensity,estimatedrateofspreadanddurationshouldallbefactore

31、d intoapredictiveforecasttoestimatedeviationsfromplannedworkforcesupply. IMAGE NEEDED 10COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange Thesemayincludeenabling the workforce with the latestinformation, ensuring frequentcommunication ofdailychangesthathave customer impacts, and making time ev

32、ery day to celebratejobswelldone. 11COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange To bring together a predictive view of supply and demand with an agile approach to supporting customers, we recommend setting up a virtual command center. Its membersshouldincludedatascientistsandbusinessfunc

33、tionrepresentationfrom Sales,Marketing,CustomerExperience,HR,ContactCenterOperationsleadership, WorkforceManagement,Reporting/Analytics,TechnologyandTelephonyteams. Thesegroupsshouldallcollaborate,sharinginternaldataandidentifyingrelevant external data sources. All stakeholders should share insights

34、 into upcoming company actions that will impact customers, daily customer contact trends, industry or market-relevant insights along with customer topics and sentiments trending on socialmedia. Thecommandcentershouldgenerateinsightsthatwillenabletheorganizationto redefinerolesandprocesshandoffswithi

35、ntheorganizationasneededtobalance supply/demand needs. It should review contact center demand and supply forecastsandalignonexpectedandworst-casescenariosthatthecontactcenter mayhavetohandle.Theseshouldbereviewedandupdatedthroughouttheday. Itisimportanttocareforyourpeoplewhileyoucareforyourbusiness.

36、And,keep in mind the impact of the crisis on your employees mentality throughout the disruption period . Some accommodations may be required to help offset the impactsontheirlivestoenableoptimalcustomerservice. Augmentandautomateservice: Virtualagents BeforetheCOVID-19crisis,theexpression“Thebestser

37、viceisnoservice”heldtrue.When customers serve themselves orbetter yethave issues resolved for them, satisfaction is atitshighestandoperationalcostsareminimized. Right now, customer contacts are at an all-time high. Some (particularly in health and publicservice)arespecificallyrelatedtoCOVID-19.Butvo

38、lumeincreasesarenotlimited tothevirusalone.Thecontinueddisruptonofdailylifeisdrivingspikesinothertypes ofinquiries,suchaspaymentextensions,travelcancelations,latefees,unemployment benefitsandstockinquirieseachwithvaryinglevelsofurgency. Artificial Intelligence (AI) channels for customer service have

39、 never been so critical. But what about organizations that have yet to achieve maturity in this area? With volumes spikingandthecontactcenterworkforcebeingdisrupted,nowisthetimetodouble-down on AI and create a multi-speed human and machine workforce. Virtual agents, built using AI technology, offer

40、customers instant, on-demand service. They provide automated support, deliver a conversational experience, and can handle the same intents as human agents. They can both understand and satisfy individual customer needs. Regardless of their maturity, organizations can still harness virtual solutions

41、to relieve the pressure on contactvolumes. IMAGE NEEDED 12COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange 13 COVID-19: Responsive customer service in times ofchange Takeaction:NowandNext TheimpactfromCOVID-19isevolvingdaily,andthischanginglandscapemeansthat guidance, restrictions and policie

42、s are also continuously being updated or adjusted. Everydeferreddecisionhasrealconsequencesforcustomers,theworkforceandthe business.Timeisoftheessence. Thefollowingactionsshouldbetakennowinordertoquicklyandeffectivelycreate remote contact centeroperations: Adopt new ways of working: Contactcenters+r

43、emoteaccess Fully acknowledging that this process will be difficult and risky, we recommendthefollowingpriorityactionstostandupasuccessfulremote contact centermodel: Establishinfrastructureincludingconnectivity,securelaptopsand softwarelicensingtoenablework-from-homemodels. Enhance management system

44、s by optimizing contact routing configurations,extendingancillarysystemstonewscenariosand enablingend-to-endsecuritywitha“ZeroTrust”model. Look after your people by conducting rapid training needs analysis, creatingcommunityandcollaborationandcheckingindailytocalibrate onthenewwaysofworkingandcarefo

45、rteammindsets. Modify processes to implement clear policies, update internal schedules,processesandmetricsandreflectchangesinpublished customer-facinginformation. 1 Improvecontactcentermanagement: Data, workflow,analytics Werecommendsomekeyactionstobestservecustomerdemand throughoutthedurationofCOVI

46、D-19: Address the most critical contacts first and handle the less urgent but important contacts with tools such as callback assist. Lean on analyticstoinformagileworkforceplanning,modifyIVRmenusand messaging, and adjust the prioritization and distribution logic on existingplatforms. Activateandaugm

47、entalternativesupportchannels.Identifycustomer needs that can shifted, use queue messaging to address quick FAQs andincreaseawarenessofotheroptions.Queuemessagingcaneven help to move customers directly into other channels, such as digital, asynchronousmessagingandvirtualagents. Use the workforce dif

48、ferently. Work with your account and contract teams to see where you can make temporary changes to the operating model to support the right mix of proactive and reactivecustomerneeds,shiftagentstoflexiblysupportinbound and outbound contacts and capture customer preferences for communications as COVI

49、D-19progresses. Do the work differently by utilizing more collaboration tools, deliveringfieldservicevirtuallywiththeuseofphotos,chatorvideo chatandcreatingmoreguidedhelpandproactivecommunications as policiesevolve. 2 Onceorganizationshavethesecapabilitiesinplace,theyshouldnext focusonthefollowinglonger-termactions: Scale at pace. None of the capabilities described here are built perfectly o