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We hear a lot about improving the customer experience, but for call center interactions not as much about the agent experience and how improvements in agents’ ability to make their interface and interactions with customers faster and easier can make all the difference. Amdocs, a  leading global  supplier of operations support software (OSS) and telecommunications services, just gave service providers contact center agents’ the tools they need to improve their effectiveness and efficiency with the October 24 announcement of Amdocs Customer Management (CM) 8.1. 

The enhanced suite of new capabilities increases agent efficiency and productivity with intuitive tools to offer a fast and consistent response to customer inquiries by:

·         Simplifying the agent user interface

·         Improving smartphone support

·         Automating the order-taking process

The challenge

Reality for communications service providers worldwide is that despite the move to attempt to do most things via the Internet study after study has shown that when people have problems — especially or including ones where website don’t work, services or phones do not get activated, or there are billing problems — they want to wish to interact with a person. As Yossi Zohar, head of product marketing, Amdocs (News - Alert) Customer Management Division, told TMCnet, “the explosion of smartphones has put incredible pressure on contact centers and the picture has not been pretty and it is getting worse.” 

He cited research collected by Amdocs that shows that in regard to smartphone sales the contact center becomes the last resort since the: 35 percent of people choose self service when they have issues, 40 percent of in-store activations are assisted by the contact center, field technicians heavily rely on call center to activate services, and cryptic bills resulted in 100 percent call-in rates. Add to this that 10 to 20 percent of smartphones get returned even when there is nothing wrong with them, and that the cost of supporting a smartphone can range from 10 to 50 percent above a regular mobile phone depending on what part of the world is being looked at.

And when Zohar says it is not a pretty picture for the agent, whether for smartphones or other complicated issues, he means it. As the Yankee Group (News - Alert) chart below shows: 

 Enter Amdocs CM 8.1

Amdocs CM 8.1 provides the following capabilities to simplify things through an intuitive user interface and provide all parts of the value chain supporting device sales better tools for handling the growing volume of smartphone-related support calls. They also are offering process automation functionality for faster order taking.  The new functionality and benefits highlighted in the press release of the launch of Amdocs CM 8.1  include:

• Amdocs Customer Interaction Manager 8.1 —can cut average handling time by up to 15 percent and training costs up to 20 percent by reducing the number of customer info screens and intuitively guiding agents for faster problem resolution.
• Amdocs Ordering 8.1 — can reduce agent time for order capture up to 10 percent and maintain full bundle offerings with new pending order sequencing and a “stuck order” handling tool that automates fixes. Also adds a needs analysis tool so customers only get what they actually need which cuts down on returns and churn.
• Amdocs Device Care 8.1 —can reduce average handling time of smartphone device-related calls by up to 20 percent  through automated diagnostics and over-the-air updates that allow CSRs to communicate directly with the device to resolve issues.
  • First call resolution can also be increased by up to 30 percent as the rules-based diagnostic engine guides the agent to the solution more quickly.
  • Correctly configuring new devices and educating the customer about them in the store meanwhile reduces costly returns of non-faulty devices by up to 40 percent.
• Amdocs Retail Interaction Manager 8.1 — can cut handling time for in-store orders by up to 50 percent via its tablet-based, task-driven UI.  It also:
  • Enables the store representative to provide needs analysis and personalized offers, increasing conversion rates from "browse to buy" by up to 20 percent
  •  As sales representatives' efficiency is increased, unnecessary calls from the store to the call center can fall by up to 30 percent.

Once again a picture really sums up the true nature of the game changing capabilities being introduced here. Think of this as a before (above) and after (below).

"Improving the customer experience does not have to come at the expense of increasing support costs," said Rebecca Prudhomme, Amdocs’ vice president of product and solutions marketing. "With a simplified user interface, better integration with back-end systems and access to relevant, contextualized information when they need it, Amdocs CM 8.1 enables CSRs in all assisted channels to provide a superior customer experience. This translates into reduced operational costs for the service provider."

 And, Mary Wardley, vice president, Enterprise Applications, IDC (News - Alert) correctly pointed out that, “With competition for acquiring and retaining customers intensifying, providing a superior customer experience has become a prime differentiator for global service providers."

As Zohar told TMCnet, “In the past Amdocs OSS/BSS solutions for the customer contact center made the seemingly impossible possible. Now we are making the possible simple…In fact, we wanted to make it so simple and intuitive for the agents that they almost do not need training.”

The interesting thing about CM 8.1 is that it is extensible. This is not a smartphone support-only solution. It is a way for service providers around the world, whose contact centers get some of the highest call volumes of any type business to make sure the right people have the right tools to get the right resource in the right place at the right time to resolve customer problems quickly and effectively. The end result is an equation that is hard to beat, i.e., not just more effective agents but happier customers.

Think about what the difference between the two figures in this article can mean. While the web may be dis-intermediating lots of business, the preferred way to solve problems is going to be a “call for help” for a very long time. Making that call productive for the helpers is providing true differentiated value in a world where increasingly great service will make the difference.

Peter Bernstein is a technology industry veteran, having worked in multiple capacities with several of the industry's biggest brands, including Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, Telcordia, HP, Siemens (News - Alert), Nortel, France Telecom, and others, and having served on the Advisory Boards of 15 technology startups. To read more of Peter's work, please visit his columnist page.