Getting the Most Out of your Contact Center Part 2

by Interactive Northwest, Inc.

Enhance your Contact Center for Profitability

In the first article of our three part series, Getting the Most Out of Your Contact Center, we emphasized the importance of enhancing the customer experience, the heartbeat of the contact center. In part two, we continue our series by focusing on enhancing the contact center for profitability.

The 3 Rs of Self-Service Profitability

Contact center automation affects profitability in three distinct areas and each can have a significant impact on the bottom line of your organization: Reduced Cost, Revenue Protection and Revenue Generation. Something as simple as implementing a payment reminder campaign with a pay-by-phone option can have a huge financial impact by saving the expenses associated with collection efforts, recapturing lost revenue and increasing customer satisfaction. You don’t need a crystal ball to know that happy customers are repeat customers.

COST: We all know that an IVR system costs less than utilizing an agent–10 to 100 times less. But that doesn’t trump the fact that your agents are the most valuable assets of your contact center; their skill and intuition are attributes that are difficult to replace with automation. The cost saving lies in strategically applying self-service applications. Automating tasks that don’t require an agent increases your contact center capacity by freeing your agents to address important customer issues that require agent interaction. In addition, when agents engage in meaningful interactions, their satisfaction is increased which helps decrease turnover and reduce the costs associated with recruitment and training.

REVENUE PROTECTION: Lost revenue is one of the most frustrating losses a business faces. In fact, acquiring new customers can cost five to ten times more than satisfying and retaining current customers. Couple that with the reduction of the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)* and you can see there is a significant financial impact. Intelligently applied automation can protect revenue streams. One powerful example is the use of an account status application with a pay-by-phone option. Service renewal and collection efforts can be very emotionally charged interactions. Allowing customers to resolve these transactions without human intervention can ease the discomfort for customers and agents alike. Implementation of automated solutions like these have been shown to recapture lost revenue, reducing the receivables that must be pushed out to collections by as much as 25%. See Success Story

REVENUE GENERATION: Of all the financial gains contact center automation can provide, revenue generation is one of the most significant and is entirely dependent on elevating the customer experience. Increasing revenue from existing customers is much less expensive and more profitable than the efforts to gain new customers. According to Inc.com, the average spend of a repeat customer is a whopping 67 percent more than a new one. Once a customer has been acquired, their continued relationship depends on their satisfaction with your product, service and support. Any service you can offer that improves the customer experience–whether through added convenience, cost savings, or assisting them in a meaningful way–builds brand loyalty, increases mind share, and encourages repeat business. See Article on Increasing Customer Satisfaction

Take it One Step at a Time

As technology evolves, consumer expectations shift. Assessing your contact center platform and interface periodically allows you to make incremental adjustments that align with current customer expectations and business objectives. Performing regular modifications to your contact center platform and applications not only manages cost by spreading them over time but, more importantly, significantly improves profitability.

Consider fine-tuning your Avaya portal by adding IVR or self-service applications, upgrading outdated applications, and optimizing existing applications to deliver value to your business. Contact INI to learn more about solutions that can improve your contact center for increased profitability!

*CLV is the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer.

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