ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008 - (Page 17)

IN THE CENTER information they need seamlessly, ideally within one interaction, and regardless of whether they first called into the CIN or directly into another contact center? This is a challenge, since Cisco’s contact center landscape contains: > More than 50 contact centers (not including the Technical Support Centers); > More than 4,000 agents; > Approximately 30 outsourcing vendors; > 25 supported languages; and > Almost 30 tracking tools. To meet this challenge, Cisco has begun an ambitious Contact Center Unification Framework (CCUF) initiative that will provide both a better customer experience and save a significant percentage of outsourcing and IT costs by standardizing on just a few vendors. THE PRICE OF NIMBLENESS to collaborate, ask questions and get to know each other. Collaboration is expected to create a culture shift that will organically address the duplicative, functionally focused efforts. IMPROVING THE USER EXPERIENCE Looking at the numbers today, it may seem thoughtless to have allowed such a proliferation of contact centers, all providing some level of service to Cisco’s customers. However, it is important to point out that the very cause of the proliferation of contact centers, that is, the ability of any group in the company to quickly create a team to take care of any customer issues, has also allowed Cisco to move very nimbly. Each contact center is able to specialize in specific customer segments, initiatives or product lines. The lack of concentration may have created duplication and confusion, but also plenty of successful, just-in-time contact centers. This includes small one- to two-person contact centers that take care of investors’ queries to very large 200-agent contact centers, such as the front end to the worldwide technical support team. Being nimble has had a significant impact on spending, especially on the cost of outsourcers. The CCUF aims to lower the price of nimbleness by creating an environment of collaboration across Cisco’s contact centers. Today, it is quite possible for one group in the company to terminate a relationship with a given outsourcer because of a bad experience while another group is negotiating a new relationship with that very same outsourcer. Additionally, it is possible to have different negotiated rates with the same outsourcer for contact center services. The CCUF will create a community space, using innovative Web 2.0 technologies, such as blogs and forums for contact center managers icmi’s insight Although the initiative has the potential to generate attractive excellent savings for Cisco, the focus remains on improving the customer experience. Although the CIN has improved areas of access, customers still may reach a contact center that is unable to help them or, even worse, the contact center they reach may not know where to direct their call. Adding to the inconsistency in the Cisco brand experience, each contact center has its own style of communicating with customers. Therefore, the main focus of the CCUF initiative is to provide each customer with a consistent interface with Cisco and the best possible opportunity to get help on their very first contact. What does that mean practically? > Provide each new contact center with some standard ways of handling customers’ requests to help the company extend the brand seamlessly to all centers. > Provide enough information to all contact centers so they can redirect customers to the proper group if requests are not within their power to resolve. > Share as much information as possible about basic, common requests so they can be fulfilled in any contact center without having to refer customers to another center. For instance, if the customer needs help navigating to a particular area of the Web site to accomplish a specific task, all contact centers should be able to provide that assistance on the spot, even if the customer is looking for a 10K form and the center’s specialty is not investor relations. GAINING EFFICIENCY Beyond streamlining interaction for the customer, Cisco also expects the new initiative to significantly increase the efficiencies of providing service to its customers. This is a long-term project, since, throughout Cisco today, there are so many different tools and vendors, most of them with lengthy commitments with the company yet to be worked through, in use. The company is starting its CCUF with three main deliverables: 1. A pre-selected list of vendors, targeting the best vendors in the most favorable locations. These venwww.icmi.com | JANUARY 2008 17 http://www.icmi.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008

ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008 Contents Customer Care Technologies Ad Index Editor's Page Contact Center Spotlight People: Prehire Tests In The Center Strategy: Video Contact Centers Show Preview Operations: Knowledge Management Industry Research Contact Centers Face Today's Realities: A Case for Consolidation 2.0 Is Your Agent Training Process Evolving with the Role? The Key to Innovation Is Maintaining Your Strengths Becoming Strategic: Using Customer Contact Analytics to Empower the Contact Center's Role

ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008

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