The changing face of customer service

While the world is moving towards cloud, many leading organizations are concerned about implementing it within. Tata Docomo along with Dataquest hosted an exclusive round table for CIOs and CTOs, titled 'Adopting Cloud-based Contact Centers: Do the Benefits Outweigh the Challenges?' on 28 November at Bangalore. The discussion centered around benefits and challenges of cloud based contact centers and uncovered more value out of their existing investments in the area.

Are cloud based contact centers the future?
The nature of customer service is already changing - we'll see YouTube video instructions on installations and fixing issues, and social media tools will be used more commonly as listening tools. The theory is that a customer should never call. The roundtable discussion started with Ankush Gangwani of Tata Communications' questions on what changes CIOs expect in contact centers. Subramanya revealed, "CIOs today are focusing on M2M, social, cloud, sensors and security. Intelligence behind the call center can make customer experience more digital by connecting through social media, M2M, web and mobility. Most CIOs are aiming at zero calls from customers and these new technologies are capable of solving problems on their own."

Most organizations that have invested in their own infrastructure are looking to move out of it in 5 or 6 years. It's a good opportunity for service providers as they already have the required clearances from DoT and are capable of taking care of business requirements in different cities. Subramanya added, "The ecosystem is so beautiful that once you identify a function to be outsourced, you can quickly find out who is forward in that core area. Only one head should be responsible for the activity. A CIO is an enabler. Make him a boardroom participant and use him as a technology enabler. If he is convinced with your service, he will be a brand ambassador for your business and sell it to his company."

Proven benefits
Meanwhile, in ecommerce, players deal with seasonal changes. The volume handled varies at different times of the year. Satish Kumar Udupi states, "You don't want an investment to hold you down when the volume is low. We double the head count for three seasonal months in a year. Moreover, not every city has the sort of supply we want at all times. This is a primary driver that turns cloud based contact centers in our favor."

In terms of elasticity in capacity and location, cloud enables organizations to increase and decrease capacity according to current needs. "For a few months, we may need 600 agents, and once the need is over, their seats usually end up empty. This can be avoided with a hosted cloud based contact center that enables agents to work from home. A problem is eliminated," adds L Ravichandran. He further states, "Cloud based contact centers let you expand as you want and the service provider already has the required licenses for call routing. Cloud based contact center service providers should understand this seasonal demand and its requirements to provide the required infrastructure and services."

To take advantage of this opportunity, service providers are understanding the concept of managing 24/7 across all geographies. The flexibility and availability of a service provider to handle volume from different geographies at any time matters here. They are working on getting the contact center to the agent, not the other way around.

However, many providers forget that they have to speak about the business benefit when they approach a customer, feels Swati. She reveals, "The communication should not be just about technology, especially to people from a non-IT background. The person who is selling should talk about how they can make our lives easier rather than how to leverage innovation." Moreover, some feel that tel-cos have to work on efficiency and speed, and take care of regulatory problems as any business on a high speed track expects instant solutions.

The irony of outsourcing
It is already known that organizations can benefit better by focusing on their core area and outsourcing the rest. Outsourcing is Asia's bread and butter, but when it comes to outsourcing own processes, we tend to be conservative. Why don't organizations in India practice it?

When you consider the whole IT space, we are seeing it turn around from traditional legacy systems. Cloud adoption has been to a minimal extent though. Swati Goutam explains, "Organizations are looking for host providers to convert calls. The challenge lies how much the contact centers understand its clients - their technology, how you handle the space and domain knowledge."

Manickavasagam Sundaram voices his concern, "One of the problems we consider is how to build an IP for our global service desk- how to integrate an app agent to talk with other APIs, automate and integrate internal applications. This is one of the factors we consider before making such decisions."