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In the Ventana Research study “Customer Interaction Technologies,” sponsored by Genesys and IBM and media sponsors CCF/CallCentre.co.uk, Contact Professional, ICCM, Intelligent Enterprise, Montgomery Research and TMCnet, we set out to discover what channels of communication companies use to communicate with their customers, how this varies between the contact center and the rest of the company, and what plans companies have for the future.

The results show that the standard channels of communication are widely deployed in both the enterprise and the contact center: e-mail (81 percent vs. 82 percent, respectively), fax (69 percent vs. 73 percent) and postal mail (68 percent vs. 66 percent). In an effort to deliver promised rapid response times, companies are starting to deploy systems that automatically respond to e-mail messages from customers. Although this has the desired effect of getting a response out, in many instances we question whether this canned response actually meets the customer’s expectations.

The research results show that in an effort to meet these changing preferences and to become more proactive in reaching out to customers, companies are beginning to deploy alternate electronic channels. The most popular, cited by 26 percent of respondents, is instant messaging (IM). As more customers subscribe to broadband services in their homes, they are becoming familiar with the technology, and companies are recognizing this by supporting it in their contact centers. It is also clear that the cell phone has become ubiquitous, and here also customers are willing to use short message services (SMS) rather than speak to an agent. So far, a small segment of companies (22 percent) have begun to support IM in their centers. A further 24 percent have gone one step further and proactively use the cell phone to leave messages for customers, either as voice mail or text. And as broadband and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services become more widespread, a few centers (12 percent) have become early supporters of video. This can be particularly useful as an alternate channel for supporting hearing-impaired customers or to make available complex information such as technical specifications.

The survey results show two other significant developments that relate to communicating with customers. The use of Web-based self-service continues to grow; 68 percent of respondents said they offer some form of it. And text-based interactive voice response (IVR) is being replaced by voice-based IVR. In the past both typically were used to reduce the number of one-to-one calls with agents, but as the systems become more user-friendly, we expect IVR to play a greater role in providing enhanced customer services.

It appears that expansion of alternative channels will continue. The research results reveal a trend to invest in channels that will meet users’ expectations, enable more outbound services and reduce the number of phone calls to live agents. Over the next two years, the results show, the priority will be more Web-based self-service, increased use of IM, continued replacement of text-based IVR with speech-based systems, and in the slightly longer term, greater availability of video.

Assessment
Our research makes it clear that companies want to cut costs in their centers by reducing the numbers of agents and the average length of calls. To do this, the primary means is to deploy more electronic channels of communication that don’t involve an agent: Web-based self-service and speech-based IVR. Where these don’t meet customers’ expectations, companies are looking to channels such as IM as a way of satisfying customers and making agents more efficient, in that they can deal with more than one customer at a time. Fortunately, customers’ preferences also are changing, so these moves seem more likely to receive acceptance than in the past. One of the trends we find positive for more proactive customer service is the use of outbound SMS. Used properly, Ventana Research believes this could make a difference in the way companies manage customer relationships.