BPM-EAI

Before I elaborate further, one question might cross your mind. Who's the customer I am talking about? Is it the user of the system or may be person like me, who calls up the contact center. I would like to clarify that, in this blog I am trying to capture how this particular application tries to enhance the customer (You and me) experience.

The core process for any contact center is typically like the following with few steps here and there.

In places like Banks, Search Customer and Verify Customer has been automated with the advent of T-PIN, so that you need not verify yourself again during the call. However, in other scenarios like, what I encountered in two-wheeler insurance, when you call, you would be asked certain set of questions to verify your identity. So in latter case we have two scenarios. Either after the agent has selected the customer, he / she is presented with a screen of customer details based upon which the agent will ask relevant questions. Or, you present a screen capturing only the security question details. In my opinion, the latter opinion is better as the chances of human discretion are alleviated and standardization of service is enforced. 

So what after that? Customer would ask for certain services like Address Change or Contact Details change etc. Most of these processes would be work-flow based. So why not have a BPM application, where in you can launch these processes at the click of a link. So what would be the POD (Point of Differentiation) of a BPM application over let's say Non BPM application?

The area where BPM application would score over a Non BPM application is the Case Management feature that most of the BPM tools provide. Remember that a call center is the face of the organization. Even if you have problems with Marketing, Finance, Product department, it's the call center agent who will listen to your grievance.

So in what other ways we can enhance the customer experience. One way is to empower the agent himself. An agent is expected to have an answer to all the queries. One way is to put the agent through exhaustive training. Jeez. Lots of overhead. What's the alternative? Have a robust Knowledge Management. Attach links, files to the flows to 'empower' the agent. For example: One frequently used service process in banking industry is to enquire about different charges. Attach a link or file explaining all the charges. Bravo. I definitely won't mind a knowledgeable agent on my part.

Why else you would even call a contact center? Reward Points. Ring a bell. Campaigns and Offers would be the next logical topic to discuss. Can we utilize business rules to determine what offers and campaigns to present to the customer during the call? Consider this. Why can't system group similar consumers based on age, income etc and depending upon past usage of offers of similar customers, the system would prompt the agent to dole out a similar offer to the current customer. Just an example.

Although my blog has a customer centric flavor. But the benefit is not just restricted to the customer. In fact, if I am allowed, I would call it a Benefit chain. Let's have a look at the benefits from various viewpoints.

Customer's Viewpoint:

A tailor made interaction, with additional offers and campaigns based on past relationship and interactions. Not much of a difference from a traditional application. In fact, whatever offers I might be getting prior to this new application, post installation of this new BPM Application, I won't be getting any new offers. On second thoughts, there might be certain value adds that a customer might be getting. Probably I am missing something. Would certainly like to have a discussion on this aspect.

Agent's Viewpoint:

Knowledge Management capability would help the agent in reducing Average Handle Time as well as First call resolution rate, both of which are important KPIs in this industry.
Less Human Intervention since the interaction would be more or less system driven.

Business' Viewpoint:

Since most of the processes are driven by rules, business rules could be delegated to the business users as in a traditional BPM application. Like for example, how much discount an agent can give to a platinum member. Today it is 5 %. Tomorrow, the business might want it to be raised to 10 %. So business can directly take charge and do the change instead of relying on IT department.

Whatever I just talked about is not rocket science. We do have vendor tools that try to do exactly the same, whatever I have mentioned. The objective of this post was just to sensitize how BPM methodology could be leveraged to automate customer centric processes in this industry, where any miss can prove costly resulting in a lost customer. As they say, it's 6 times as costly as to get a new customer rather than maintaining an existing one.