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Higher Education + Technology = ACUTA

An hour later, you get a text message. It’s from CHANGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS
cing
your doctor’s o ce, an appointment you forgot Increasingly, today’s customers have access to u
about, but luckily there’s a link to change it. You better communications tools than what agents As a CIO, it is important for
• Professional networking at its best
yee
click and see the options, but none of them t have in the contact center, and this is creating me to be a part of a group of happens at the face-to-face events and via the listserv/community. We provide opportunities to connect o
and your busy schedule. Another click and you’ve gaps in meeting their expectations. Not only are people who strive to con nually with people who can help you succeed.
t the requested a callback, with priority queuing, and your clients conversant across multiple modes – evolve as knowledgeable technology professionals.
• High-quality education features presenters at seminars and
aken
one minute later you’re talking on your mobile voice, messaging, IM, video, email, video, social I know of no be er organiza on conferences who are experts in the eld.
with a scheduling assistant who sets up a better media – but o en use several in combination.
to be a part of than ACUTA.
• Valuable publications bring critical information to you in a timely,
yees time. Of course, you can expect another text is creates two basic challenges for the Keith Fowlkes Director of Informaon Technology pro-active way.
o
y to message reminder the day before. is is the contact center. First, agents must be able to shi Services and CIO • Online resources give you access to solutions that will help you meet r
ered
world we live in, the world of omnichannel seamlessly from one mode to another and work Centre College
the needs of your campus faculty, staff, and students.
t
communications, where multiple forms of in lockstep with the customer. For example, • Professional development opportunities abound at ACUTA,
pri- communication blur together to satisfy our needs. when a session needs to escalate from Web chat giving you experiences that will help you grow professionally and advance f
d?
For those of us who provide tools for businesses to to voice, the agent must do so on the y without your career.
e
pany handle these use cases, the bene ts are clear. But having to switch screens or spend time with plug- www.acuta.org
yee? for business decision-makers to see that, they need ins. Secondly, whatever information was in use at o
ticle to understand how the market is changing. at’s the start of the session needs to port from mode Questions: Call Amy at (859) 278-3338.
Join Today!
r
sen-
where I’ll begin this series, since you can’t build a to mode.
Connecting Campus IT Professionals with Ideas and Solutions
s
%
business case until you know where the problems Otherwise, the agent has to start again or move
lie: along with how omnichannel can address them.
the call to another agent, making the customer
even more unhappy.
Customer expectations are also changing in
terms of how they communicate. Aside from
initiating contact increasingly from mobile Inc.
devices, there is a growing preference to engage Connect and Communicate
via short form messaging than by real time voice.
Conventional contact centers are still rooted in
telephony, and even with basic multichannel
TR
platforms, they only have limited ability to keep ONICS DOES IT ALL!
pace with these preferences.
Finally, because today’s customers are so
Web-savvy, they favor self-service models where
possible. eir rst recourse is to search online
for answers and, failing that, may seek out help
via social media.
Only when these options fall short will they
come to the contact center. At this point, they’ve
done their research and as a last resort are
expecting an agent to address their issue. In this
scenario, there are no easy questions, and to be WE BUY
e ective, agents need both rich communications G
tools and timely access to relevant customer YOUR EXCESS
REPAIRS
information.

EMPOWERING CUSTOMER
SERVICE AGENTS
If these challenges sound familiar for your
customers, then omnichannel should be part
of the conversation. Multichannel (but one 
channel at a time) contact center platforms may
be the norm, but they’re optimized for internal
performance, whereas omnichannel is more
customer-centric.
For businesses that embrace the need to be
customer-centric, they will have recognized
the importance of empowering their agents to
resolve problems in real time and during the
course of a single session.
e only way to do that is by leveling the
playing eld and giving agents the same tools as TRAINING
INSTALLATION
customers. is is what omnichannel delivers.
On one level, it allows agents to use as many
channels as the customer needs, so they can
easily go with the ow. More importantly,
however, omnichannel ensures that customers
get the same experience regardless of what 
communication mode(s) is/are used.

is is where the true value lies, as agents can 
now be empowered to deliver great service by
using the right mode for each situation. Some
problems may require voice, some may need
video, while others may su ce with chat – it
doesn’t matter with omnichannel.
om ins Furthermore, all the content – and the tallation services to excess purchasing, A1 Teletronics does it all.
r
context – stays in the session regardless of what
pende form it takes. Of course, this requires extensive nt distribution within the telecommunications and networking channel
e
cation
back-end integration.
to quality and service. We’ll help you connect and communicate.
I’ll address that another time. But the
discussion needed to begin with the outcomes.
Considering how customer expectations are
changing, my intention here is to show how 800.797.2983
omnichannel can address them in ways that
existing contact center solutions cannot. Once www.a1teletronics.com
that dialog gets going, the business case only
gets stronger, and I’ll explore that further as this
nics, Inc.
series continues. ■
is not affiliated with the manufacturers of the products it sells except as expressly noted otherwise.
o
ith the manufacturers’ names and products are owned by the respective manufacturers.
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