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Why are modern customer engagement strategies falling short?

by | Jun 28, 2017 | Public Relations

As traditional call centers evolve to become Customer Engagement Centers, the measurement of customer experience success must also evolve. New research from Aspect Software examines how enterprises are embracing this change via people, process and technology improvements.

An example of this is the changing relevance and usage of performance metrics such as “average handle time”—just one key customer engagement metric that is, in many cases, morphing into a component of an overall “customer effort score.”

“Our vision was to collect data and produce insights that would be valuable to the participating organizations’ understanding of their own operation as well as provide a measurement against their peers. We aimed to help answer a question many of them ask everyday: ‘How are other enterprises generating the greatest return from their customer and employee-focused technology investments?’” said Ken Ewell, SVP of Aspect Professional Services, in a news release.

“We have been talking with organizations about these topics, as well as collecting and refining our data over the past 18 months,” he added. “We feel that this has resulted in a meaningful and relevant report which provides a great basis for dialogue. Our benchmarking survey readouts to date have been well received and will continue to evolve as we learn more by interacting with companies around these highly relevant issues.”

Key findings of the study include:

  • A majority of the survey respondents say they have the ability to meet or exceed their organization’s defined customer experience—but only 27 percent feel they can do so consistently
  • Half of the organizations lack a migration path to a modern IVR—and confess to providing a less than optimal self-service experience with their current IVR solution
  • Just 34 percent of enterprise respondents feel that their agents’ skills and competencies are fully aligned with the channels and interaction preferences of the digital-first consumer

Greater business insight is paramount for enterprises as they navigate from traditional call centers to Customer Engagement Centers. There are many factors driving the need for an evolution in strategy:

  • Changes in consumer behavior and preferences have created a much more complex customer engagement environment
  • Increases in fraudulent activity demand greater security and identity validation
  • The rise in consumer preference and business opportunity for automation and self-service
  • Greater insight and intelligence from behavioral and transactional customer analytics

Why are modern customer engagement strategies falling short?

The 2018 Survey is now open to respondents. All participants who complete the survey will receive a copy of the 2017 report and the opportunity to participate in a survey assessment session.

Richard Carufel
Richard Carufel is editor of Bulldog Reporter and the Daily ’Dog, one of the web’s leading sources of PR and marketing communications news and opinions. He has been reporting on the PR and communications industry for over 17 years, and has interviewed hundreds of journalists and PR industry leaders. Reach him at richard.carufel@bulldogreporter.com; @BulldogReporter

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