Words of CRM wisdom for the new year

Call Center CRM Solutions, Jan 2000 by Tehrani, Rich

Daily, I am bombarded with e-mail requests from companies desperate to learn how to integrate e-commerce, CRM and contact center technology into a cohesive business strategy. I try to answer these questions, but it is impossible to give each question the attention it deserves. To make matters worse, many of the messages I receive contain requests for a short list of companies with a particular specialty in integration for a certain company size.

At the last CTI(TM) EXPO (which has now become Communications Solutions(TM) Expo), CRM companies were in their glory. Companies are in a frenzy to start serving their customers before they lose them forever to competitors. When your competition is a Web click away and service is a key differentiator, a lack of world-class service means you might as well begin posting the "going out of business" sign.

I feel compassion for companies striving to put together a cohesive strategy to serve their customers effectively. Technology changes rapidly and numerous acquisitions make choosing products more difficult than ever.

In the November 1999 issue of this magazine, I discussed reverse auctions and how a company called buyingedge.com was at the forefront of this technology. I further went on to mention that the individuals who created this company, now called buyersedge.com, are from IMA, which has been producing call center software since the early 1980s. To put this in perspective, IMA's products were launched more than a decade before most other players in the CRM market even existed. The problem with many companies that have been in existence this long is that they are out of touch with technology, but IMA is still at the forefront, as evidenced by their buyersedge.com affiliation. The length of related experience at IMA led me to believe that it would be logical to address the multiple questions I receive through a Q&A session with IMA's president, Al Subbloie. A transcript of this meeting of the minds follows.

How does a call center that is just learning to become a contact center become the heart of a company's e-commerce strategy?

Over the past three years, most companies have created separate organizations between the call center and their e-commerce initiatives. The reason for this was the feeling that e-commerce business requirements are very different than call center requirements, requiring very different skills and technologies for e-commerce implementations. This strategy has created another silo to integrate, increasing the challenge for the call center and the Web center to integrate toward a complete contact center, and sometimes confusing the actual customer with an inconsistent response.

The first thing a company must do is look at the problem differently. Instead of viewing the contact center requirements from the inside, or seller's point of view, the company must look at the problem from the buyer's perspective. Customers' demands for products and services do not discriminate between channels, begging for consistent treatment across all contact center channels, either voice or electronic. Customers do not care very much about technology, but do care about quick and personalized responses, no matter how they choose to demand service.

The e-commerce boom is forcing companies to implement both agent-- assisted and automated response technology, fully integrated between the call center and the e-center, resulting in a complete contact center solution.

A burning question remains, however. Should it be the call center or the ecenter that takes the lead in this transformation? This will vary by company, but the call center has the history and experience to provide world-class service in most organizations, while the e-- center today has the unique position of understanding the recent technological advances available for electronic response, which is still in its infancy.

The right answer is to put these two organizations under the same roof.

What should you be aware of before you implement next-generation contact center technology in your company?

Most important is the need to view the technology from the customer's viewpoint, as opposed to the company's. This is a common mistake made by most organizations, and it usually results in an inconsistent experience for the customer, who should be the most important constituent in the relationship between company and customer.

A second important element is an understanding of all the available technology for response management from the voice channel to the electronic channels of e-mail and Web interactions. Many of these technologies are new and changing faster than most companies can keep pace with.

A third consideration is a sound strategy for integrating the inevitable patchwork of unique but advanced technologies that support response management across the varying channels. These technologies are offered by many different vendors, none of which support an integrated offering.

How can a company integrate the many disparate databases and types of contact methods into a seamless CRW/eCRM strategy?