Mastering the art of Conversation Orchestration

Conversation Orchestration: The key to enhancing customer experience

Customers today use a variety of channels to contact customer service organisations. But managing several channels can be a challenge for contact centres. Multiple channels often mean multiple silos, trapping valuable customer insights that agents can’t leverage. This also leaves customers stuck in a loop, repeating themselves over and over again.

What if you could break free from the silos and orchestrate conversations that flow smoothly across channels?

That’s what Conversation Orchestration is all about.

This eBook will show you how to master Conversation Orchestration, the art of seamlessly connecting customer interactions across different channels, ultimately enhancing the overall customer experience.

You’ll discover the essential tools that make successful Conversation Orchestration a reality in your contact centre. The result? Improved self-service options, shorter wait times, and a customer experience that unmistakably reflects the Puzzel touch.

Let’s dive in!

Delivering on customer expectations: The role of Conversation Orchestration

The rise of new technologies and ever-evolving customer expectations puts pressure on contact centres. Customers want fast, convenient, and personalised service, and they want to get consistent support across multiple channels, without any delays or having to repeat themselves.

However, many contact centre leaders face the challenges of integrating new technologies, managing multiplechannels, and coordinating customer journeys across multiple touchpoints.

With 76% of contact centre leaders reporting an uptick in inbound enquiries over the past year, contact centres are forced to rethink their contact centre strategy and optimise disconnected customer journeys to cope with the demand. Adopting automation and integrating new channels, such as chatbots, into the contact centre can be part of the solution, but many organisations fail to seamlessly integrate them. In fact, an alarmingly 66% of contact centre leaders are unhappy with their application integrations. This leads to frustrated agents, long waiting times, confused customers and internal silos. As new channels, systems and tools are added, organisations have to consider how to create a unified, proactive contact strategy and how to align it with business priorities across customer journeys.

Additionally, many contact centres fully depend on self-service and digital channels to solve customer enquiries. Unfortunately, a Gartner survey reveals that only 9% can fully solve their issues via self-service channels, indicating a clear need for a better balance between assisted and self-service channels. In fact, the same Gartner survey found that 93% of respondents reported high customer satisfaction (CSAT) when there was a seamless channel transition.

The key to achieving this balance lies in adopting a new approach: Conversation Orchestration.

What is Conversation Orchestration?

In simple terms, Conversation Orchestration is the process of aligning different communication channels to provide a smooth and personalised customer experience. It means coordinating conversations across various channels like chat, email, phone, and social media.

Conversation Orchestration will help contact centre leaders align service processes with overarching business priorities. It means moving away from today’s reactive multi-channel solutions, and instead taking proactive control over how, in what channel or channel mix, to best serve the customer across touchpoints and customer journeys.

It also means using an omnichannel contact centre solution that connects all channels in one platform, allowing contact centre leaders to seamlessly blend AI and bots with human interaction across all channels and to oversee and improve customer interactions from a single dashboard. It’s about eliminating silos and creating a cohesive, seamless system that supports the agents and satisfies the customers.

Channel orchestration will not only provide a better customer experience, but it will also help contact centre leaders to improve efficiency by aligning qualified and expensive human resources with overarching business priorities.

Let’s dive deeper into the actual benefits of Conversation Orchestration.

Bonus tip: Watch our on-demand webinar Mastering the art of Conversation Orchestration to get top tips on how to implement this approach into your contact centre.

Conversation Orchestration for improved Customer Experience

Customers today want more than just products or services. They want meaningful and memorable experiences that make them feel valued, understood, and satisfied.

Conversation Orchestration is the key to delivering exceptional customer experience, as it enables brands to create engaging and memorable conversations that foster trust, loyalty, and advocacy, while keeping control over costs. With Conversation Orchestration, contact centres can improve internal processes and ensure seamless customer journeys across all touchpoints.

By using an omnichannel contact centre platform that integrates all channels into one system and adopting the Conversation Orchestration approach, you can offer many benefits to your customers, such as:

• Consistent and coherent service across channels: Customers can contact your contact centre through their preferred channel and receive the same quality and level of service, regardless of the channel they choose. They can also switch between channels easily, without losing the context or history of their conversations. For instance, a customer who chats with a chatbot on your website can transfer to a live agent on the phone, without having to repeat their information or explain their issue again.

• Reduced effort and waiting time: Customers can get their issues resolved faster and easier, by using the most convenient and effective channel for their needs. Contact centre leaders can also leverage the power of AI and automation and seamlessly blend it with any channel. For example, a customer who wants to check their order status can be proactively directed to a chatbot for a quick and automated resolution instead of waiting in queue.

• Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty: Customers can enjoy a smooth and personalised service across channels, that meets their expectations and needs. They can also receive more relevant and contextual help based on behaviour and business priorities. For example, a customer that gets stuck in a form or application can receive instant help from a human agent in order to retain and convert that customer.

Increased operational efficiency and lower costs

Besides ensuring happy customers (which is the main goal of any customer support organisation), Conversation Orchestration can improve internal processes and streamline workflows. With 66% of contact centre leaders being dissatisfied with their integrations, and another 33% anticipating challenges with outdated systems in the next year, contact centres need to adopt a cloud-based contact centre solution and use Conversation Orchestration to overcome these obstacles. They need to be able to seamlessly blend and incorporate AI and automation across all channels and touchpoints. This will not only increase efficiency and performance but also improve the way of working for the agents.

Here are some of the benefits of Conversation Orchestration for your contact centre:

• Lower operational costs and complexity: Instead of using separate tools and systems for each channel, adapting to a cloud-based omnichannel contact centre ensures one platform that covers all channels and needs including AI and bots. This can also reduce the costs associated with maintaining, updating, and integrating these systems and tools, as well as the training and support required for the agents. For example, with Puzzel’s omnichannel solution, you can use one platform that seamlessly integrates AI-powered knowledgebase and bots with your chat, email, phone, and social media channels, instead of using separate systems and tools for each channel.

• Better  resource and capacity optimisation: Contact centres can monitor and analyse customer interactions across channels, from one dashboard, and gain insights into performance, trends, and opportunities. These insights can further be used to monitor and optimise the performance of the contact centre. For example, Puzzel’s omnichannel solution with integrated performance management lets contact centres compare team and agent performance between periods. Additionally, a highly visual interface allows managers to customise key performance indicators, like queue times and channel preference.

Enhanced agent productivity and team collaboration

Contact centres often struggle with siloed operations, where agents and teams use different systems and tools for different channels. In fact, a study by Forrester found that 84% of contact centre leaders report their agents juggle between 4-10 different applications during a customer interaction. This leads to inefficiency, inconsistency, and frustration, both for the agents and the customers.

Conversation Orchestration can help contact centres overcome this challenge and create a connected and collaborative experience, where agents and teams work together to deliver the best customer service.

Here are some ways Conversation Orchestration can benefit your agents and teams:

• Higher agent productivity and performance: Conversation Orchestration can enable contact centres to provide their agents with all the information and tools they need to handle customer enquiries, from one interface, without having to switch between different applications or systems. Additionally, by seamlessly blending AI and automation with human interaction in one unified solution, bots can automate repetitive questions and assist with case classification, information collection, customer authentication, and third-party system look-ups before transferring a case to an agent. This reduces the agents’ workload and enables them to handle complex and high-value interactions faster and better, resulting in a better customer experience and higher efficiency.

• Effective communication and collaboration across channels: With an omnichannel solution, contact centre agents and teams can communicate and collaborate with each other across channels, without having to use different applications or tools. Plus, contact centres can create a unified view of the customer journey, and share relevant data and insights across the organisation, to ensure a consistent and coherent service delivery.

Bonus tip: Watch our on-demand webinar “Breaking down CX silos: Top tips for a streamlined contact centre and cross-selling strategy” to get hands-on tips on how to break down silos in the contact centre.

Overcoming the challenges of Conversation Orchestration

So, we’ve covered what Conversation Orchestration is and the many benefits it can bring. But, integrating systems and optimising internal processes is not without its challenges, and there are a few potential challenges to keep in mind when orchestrating conversations within the contact centre.

Integration issues

One of the main challenges in Conversation Orchestration is integrating various systems and tools that are involved in the customer service process. In fact, an alarmingly 66% of contact centre leaders are unhappy with their application integrations, indicating a strong need to improve integration processes. These tools, such as CRM, IVR, chatbot, email, phone, and social media platforms, may have different architectures, formats, and standards, which can make it difficult to connect. To solve these integration issues, contact centres need to use an omnichannel contact centre solution that can connect all the systems and tools into one platform, and offer a unified and consistent interface for the agents and customers.

Data security and privacy concerns

Another challenge is ensuring the security and privacy of the data and information that are collected, processed, and stored in the customer service process, such as the customer’s contact details, interaction history, preferences, feedback, and personal data. These data and information are valuable and sensitive, and can be subject to various risks and threats, such as data breaches and misuse. Moreover, these data and information are subject to various regulations and laws, such as the GDPR, which can impose strict requirements and penalties for data protection and compliance.

To overcome these concerns, contact centres need to adopt a robust and reliable data security and privacy framework, that can protect the data and information from unauthorised access, use, disclosure, modification, or destruction.

Training and adoption challenges

A third challenge is training and adopting the new systems that are involved in the customer service process, such as the omnichannel contact centre solution, the AI and automation features, and the Conversation Orchestration strategies and techniques. To overcome these training and adoption challenges, contact centres need to provide adequate and effective training and support for the agents and teams, that can help them learn and use the new systems and tools, and improve their skills and competencies. On a positive note, Puzzel’s recent survey shows that 58% of contact centres have increased their commitment to staff training and development in the past year. Many contact centre providers offer a range of training sessions, materials and videos, which agents can use to embrace and adopt new systems and tools.

Bonus tip: Run regular trainings and workshops with your agents to ensure they are confident in the systems they are using and to get their feedback.

The power of AI for Conversation Orchestration in customer service

In the customer service industry, AI is expected to have a significant impact over the next couple of years. In fact, 66% of contact centre leaders acknowledge the importance of implementing AI tools in the next year.

AI and machine learning are powerful technologies that can help contact centres orchestrate conversations with the customers, as they enable contact centres to understand and respond to customer queries, as well as to optimise and enhance the conversation flow. AI and automation can be used to analyse and understand the customer’s context and needs and provide relevant and personalised responses, across channels.

Here are some of the ways AI and machine learning can help contact centres orchestrate conversations:

• Understanding the customer’s context and needs: Contact centres can use AI to collect and process data from various sources, such as the customer’s channel, device, location, profile, behaviour, and feedback, and use this data to analyse and understand the customer’s context and needs. Additionally, contact centres can use AI to recognise and interpret the customer’s intent, sentiment, and emotion, and use this information to tailor responses accordingly. For example, with Puzzel’s Agent Assist features you can collect and process data from the customer’s interactions and use this data to analyse and understand the customer’s context and needs, such as their product interest and satisfaction level.

• Providing relevant and personalised responses: Contact centres can use AI to generate and deliver responses that are relevant and personalised to the customer’s context and needs, across channels. For example, you can use Puzzel’s AI co-pilot feature to generate and deliver responses that are relevant and personalised to the customer’s context and needs, such as their product interest, purchase history, and satisfaction level, and that match their intent, sentiment, and emotion, such as their question, request, or complaint, and their satisfaction, frustration, or anger.

• Providing proactive and timely service: AI can be used to initiate and maintain contact with customers, across channels, and provide them with proactive and timely service, that anticipates their needs and issues, and provides them with solutions and suggestions, before they even ask. For example, with Puzzel Digital engagement, you can get a full overview of the customer’s journey on your website and create a personal and contextual experience. Based on the customer’s intent and context together with your service availability you can direct them down the service path best suited for them, whether this is to offer them a chatbot, direct them to a landing page or direct them to a live agent.

Bonus tip: Download the eBook “Empathy in the Digital Age: How AI can bring empathic customer experiences” to get top tips on how to use AI to build empathic customer experiences.

Taking Conversation Orchestration a step further with Digital Engagement

Besides utilising an omnichannel contact centre solution to orchestrate conversations across channels, contact centres can turn to Puzzel’s Digital Engagement solution to further ensure seamless customer journeys and smooth conversations.

Puzzel Digital Engagement enables contact centres to orchestrate how and on what channel to serve customers in the digital space, by connecting self-service, digital, and voice channels. The solution, integrated with the Puzzel Contact Centre, can track, follow and analyse the customer’s behaviour on the website. Through the process of monitoring key information within the navigation, such as behaviour, web events and shopping baskets, it’s possible to understand when a customer needs support. It is therefore possible to configure how and when to offer proactive help and assistance.

For example, with Puzzel Digital Engagement, triggers can ensure that the customer is invited to chat with an agent, or if the queues are too long, to chat with a chatbot. It can also offer self-service through the Puzzel Smart Chatbot, or a conditional workflow that authenticates and collects relevant background data on visitors before escalating them to agent chat.

Tips for implementing Conversation Orchestration

To implement Conversation Orchestration successfully, businesses need a strategic and well-thought-out approach. First, contact centres need to understand their customer’s needs. Then, they need a strategic omnichannel solution that can integrate and unify all communication channels into a cohesive system. This ensures a seamless customer experience across various communication channels, fostering customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Here are some best practises that can help contact centres implement Conversation Orchestration effectively:

Customer journey mapping

Every organisation need to understand their customer’s wants and needs in order to deliver exceptional services. Customer journey mapping is the process of creating a visual representation of how customers interact with a business across different touchpoints and channels. It helps organisations understand the customer needs, pain points, and opportunities for improvement. To create a customer journey map, businesses need to:

1. Researchthecustomers.Whoisthetargetaudience?Gatherdataandinsightsabout the customers, such as their demographics, behaviours, needs, preferences, motivations, challenges, and feedback. Various methods can be used such as surveys, interviews, analytics, observation, and testing.

2. Create customer personas. Based on the research, create customer personas that represent the typical or ideal customers. Give them names, characteristics, and goals that reflect their diversity and uniqueness.

3. Map out the customer journey(s). Based on the personas, map out the steps and interactions that they take as they move through their journey. Tips: use a timeline, a flowchart, or a storyboard to visualise the journey. Include the touchpoints, channels, actions, and emotions that the customers experience at each stage.

4. Identify pain points and opportunities. Analyse the customer journey map and identify the areas of friction, frustration, or dissatisfaction that the customers encounter. Also, look for opportunities to improve, enhance, or innovate the customer experience. Prioritise the most critical and impactful issues and solutions.

5. Monitor and measure the results and impact of your actions. Solicit feedback from the customers and teams. Refine and update the customer journey map as needed.

Omnichannel strategy

This is the strategy of integrating and unifying all communication channels into a cohesive system. Using a cloud-based contact centre solution ensures a seamless and cohesive customer experience across various communication channels, fostering customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

To adopt an omnichannel strategy, organisations need to:

1.Choose the right channels for thec ustomers; Based on the customer research before, identify the channels that the customers prefer and use, and make sure they are available and accessible. Data and analytics can be used to understand the channel preferences and behaviours of the customers.

2. Integrate and unify channels; Ensure that all channels are connected and synchronised and that the customer data and history are shared and updated across channels. Contact centres can use a cloud-based contact centre solution, like Puzzel, and APIs to integrate and unify the channels.

3. Provide consistent and personalised experiences; Ensure that the customers can seamlessly transition between channels while maintaining a consistent and personalised experience. Contact centres can use AI and automation to provide relevant and personalised responses, based on the customer’s context and needs, across channels.

4. Customer journey mapping and omnichannel strategy are more than just tools; they are dynamic strategies that form the backbone of successful Conversation Orchestration. By placing the customer at the centre, breaking down internal barriers, staying responsive to real-time data, and addressing pain points, businesses can navigate their way to a Conversation Orchestration strategy that delights customers and drives business success. Embrace the journey, understand the path, and orchestrate conversations that leave a lasting positive impact.

Bonus tip: Watch our on-demand webinar “Learn proven strategies for a seamless CCaaS migration and a successful CX strategy transformation” to get top-tips on how to move to a cloud-based contact centre.

Conclusion 

With Conversation Orchestration, you can create customer experiences that is not only satisfying, but also impactful and consistent. By adopting a cloud-based omnichannel solution and integrating all your channels into one platform, you can streamline your contact centre and orchestrate conversations across all channels, ensuring seamless and fast service.

Conversation Orchestration is not just a trend, but a necessity for contact centres in the digital age. It is the art of creating meaningful and engaging conversations, that delight your customers and boost your business outcomes.

But don’t just take our word for it. Book a demo today and learn how Puzzel can help you master the art of Conversation Orchestration.