Time To Lead: Cloud Vendors Need To Take Charge of Hybrid Cloud Deployments

  For the past few weeks Twitter has been abuzz with talk of Hybrid Cloud.  From Dave Michels' article in NoJitter to Gartner to Phil Wainewright's heady piece comparing multi-tenant to multi-instance deployment, Hybrid Cloud is the topic du jour (or at least for this cycle).  But is there anything new here?  I have worked on many "hybrid" cloud deployments, we just never gave it a name. 

  My first thought was that the analysts were finally discussing what has been a necessary evil for solution providers.  Rarely are deployments ever ideal - in which the customer needs exactly what you sell and nothing else.  Few cloud vendors offer everything an enterprise needs or considers part of their telco ecosystem (something that must be redefined for every client) and those who do offer "everything" have such a watered-down offering that best-in-breed rarely defines any part of their stack.   A good salesperson or consultant knows when to look elsewhere for a critical component to their overall solution, not only to satisfy the customer but also to maintain their integrity.  The result is a Hybrid Cloud deployment.

  Setting aside Wainewright's detailed discussion of multi-tenant vs. multi-instance (but only for a minute - it's very interesting too), I'd like to draw a distinction between two kinds of Hybrid Cloud solutions.  The first I call cloud-cloud (feel free to help me with a better name): two or more cloud application providers integrate to deliver a complete solution for the client.  The second kind of Hybrid Cloud deployment is a cloud-premise mix in which a cloud provider (ACD for example) integrates with an on-premise solution (a PBX let's say).  The third kind is really just an amalgamation of the first two in which there are multiple cloud applications and one or more on-premise systems with which to integrate.  This third kind of Hybrid Cloud solution requires significant resource investment from the client (especially in project bandwidth), not to mention patience and vision.

  Speaking of patience and vision...this is something I would like to see more of in the contact center space.  It will be 2014 in a few days and still very few companies have a coherent vision for what their customer experience is supposed to be.  There is nothing more frustrating than getting wrapped around the axle on features and functions without having a clear goal.  I try very hard to help guide the conversation towards more holistic design but those opportunities, those thrilling engagements, are few and far between.  More often cloud vendors are filling a gap in the incumbent's product leading, once again, to a Hybrid Cloud deployment.

  By the way - the reason cloud vendors find themselves plugging holes rather than leading the CX charge is because very few are project focused.  I have seen first-hand how the need to push product (sell what's on the bus - they say) degrades a cloud vendor's ability to implement complex solutions involving more than one vendor.  Sure, cloud vendors are often in the mix but they rarely lead these deployments.  Instead a channel partner from one of the big hardware guys leads.  Unfortunately biases persist and system integrators retreat to their comfort zone and push a less-than-ideal solution rather than stretch and grow by integrating with a better but less familiar cloud application.  A focused client can overcome this by staying engaged but isn't that what they hired the system integrator to do? 

  Because cloud vendors are required to integrate in most of their enterprise engagements they should be very experienced at leading these kinds of deployments.  Unfortunately most are not.  I happen to work for one of the few cloud vendors with decades of experience leading complex deployments that include multiple vendors.  Their project focus was what attracted me.  Companies like this will have a healthy mix of multi-tenant and multi-instance deployments.  Multi-tenant pays the bills and keeps the lights on but multi-instance is where the creative work really gets done.  For those customers who need version control, rock-solid performance and uptime, redundant telco paths, and custom code and integrations, separate-redundant instances fits the bill.  For those clients who truly want a best-in-breed CX solution, look for a vendor that:

• Is highly experienced 
• Knows their strengths 
• Willing to work with other vendors 
• Has the bandwidth and expertise to manage the project
• Offers and Enterprise Support Model and stays engaged post-deployment
• Check out our whitepaper on Entourage Technical Support from VoltDelta

  Hybrid Cloud is not new but we will see a lot more of these kinds of deployments because Cloud has arrived.  Hopefully a few more cloud vendors will step up and start leading complex deployments.  When that becomes the norm the old hardware guys will finally have something to worry about.

 

 

The Forgiving Consumer

  I was not going to write a post today but I noticed something that got me thinking about how forgiving customers can be.  First let me say that I am an Amazon.com junkie.  When you are a busy professional married to a busy professional, leisure time is rare and jealously guarded.  So when I can buy anything and everything (including diapers) from Amazon - get free shipping (Prime baby!) and know that they stand behind everything they sell with great service, then you get to know your UPS guy/gal pretty well.

  The other thing I love about Amazon are the product reviews.  I find them to be generally reliable and sometimes very entertaining too (see AutoExec Wheelmate).  Because I buy from them a lot (I can't overstate that) Amazon sends me emails several times a day.  They know that I have been shopping for a portable Bluetooth speaker for my office and so they sent me an email yesterday as part of their Marketplace deal-of-the-day, tailored just for me, the Oontz XL from Cambridge Audioworks.

  I began reading reviews and this review jumped out at me.

 
   Wow.  This customer (JerryD) gave Cambridge Soundworks three opportunities to satisfy him for one reason: they have him great customer service.  Not only does this review make me want to reward this company with my business but it reminds me that customers are not as fickle as we might think.  The 2013 Temkin Forgiveness Rating show that companies with stellar customer service can weather a mistake or bad experience better than 50% of the time.  USAA has always been a powerhouse of customer service and 60% of respondents stated that they would be willing to forgive a mistake by them.  Retailers also score well on this report with Amazon (no surprise here) scoring very high among their customers.  Some industries have a much more fickle customer base.  Television and Internet service providers have the least forgiving customer base.

  What seems clear from the Temkins report is that good or bad, the experience you create for your customer has a lasting effect.  Companies (and industries) that have a track record of good customer service tend to earn forgiveness from their customers while industries that have a reputation for bad customer service (remember waiting 6 hours for your cable installer to arrive?) are not likely to get a second chance.  In fairness to television and internet service providers, forgiveness is probably much more difficult in their market where jumping service providers is so easy.  But the retail customer base is even less captive and that industry ranks much better.

  As a consumer I want to like the company I buy from.  When I purchase their product I want to feel that I am appreciated for my business and if so, I will reward that company with more business, even at a slightly higher price.  As the Cambridge Audioworks review shows, consumers are willing to forgive some pretty grave mistakes if they believe the company is truly interested in making things right.

SMS: The Forgotten Channel or Ready for Rebirth?

  Everyone is writing about upcoming trends in the contact center for 2014.  There's nothing truly new but there is notable growth and increased interest in things like customer journey mapping (I really like Leisa Reichelt's description) and mobile self-service.  We continue to hear voice biometrics/authentication bandied about but outside of insurance and financial services, I have seen almost no adoption (which to me says more about our lack of imagination than it does the capabilities of the solution).

  Maybe what I am noticing is the gap between trendy solutions that analysts love to write about (remember Nina and Lexee) and practical solutions that customers actually use.  Voice is still by far the most dominant channel in the contact center but web self-service, virtual assistants, chat, social media, and email all have their place.  The reason these channels dominate is simple: there is no technical or experiential  barrier to their use.  Yes, most anyone could download a mobile virtual assistant, but when to use it?  I think most of us would still feel awkward using a mobile virtual assistant in public to do anything other than play a song in iTunes or set a quick reminder.  I personally cringe at the idea of speaking my credit card number or credentials into my phone in public.  I could do these things in the privacy of my home but then the convenience of speech is only marginally better than using my iPad.  For a customer contact solution to take hold it needs to be easy to access, available when the customer wants to use it, quick, and effective.

  I can think of one technology that fits these criteria, has been around for more than twenty years, and yet is still underutilized: SMS.

  In May of this year I participated in a roundtable for contact center managers and what I heard really surprised me.  Of all of the channels they were supporting or deploying, SMS was receiving the most interest from customers and many of them were planning to deploy it in 2014.

  Why had I not heard this before?  I started thinking about my own experiences with SMS as a support channel.  My power utility allows me to submit outage notifications via SMS (something I had to do this morning!).  My mobile carrier conducts satisfaction surveys via SMS.  Submitting the power outage could not have been easier (much faster than calling an IVR) and I completed the satisfaction survey over several hours when it was convenient for me to answer each question (I rarely have the time or patience for a telephone survey).  Some people still pay per SMS (my Dad hates it when I send him a text) but for many of us, it is the perfect channel for certain (obviously not all) types of support inquiries. 

  Here are just a few great uses of SMS:

• Order Confirmation
• Multi-Factor Authentication
• Trouble ticket creation
• Resolution notification
• Brief surveys
• Field Service Dispatch
• Field Service ticket updates / close-out

  If you are reading this and thinking, this is old news, then please ask yourself, why have we not seen wider adoption in the contact center - especially when customers seem to be asking for it?  Maybe it is precisely because it is not sexy or new and maybe there is doubt in the C-Suite about whether customers want or need another channel.  Or maybe it is because few CRMs or contact center platforms support it (I have worked on several of these deployments and they required some custom work but nowhere near the level of effort of a Natural Language application). Despite these challenges at least some of the leaders I have spoken with plan on adding SMS to the channels they support.

  There is a lot of life left in SMS and a lot of potential to serve customers quickly and conveniently.  Hopefully some creative CX designers will pick it up and bring us some new and exciting uses for this old, but hardly irrelevant, technology.

Cloud Contact Center? Overlook Telco At Your Own Peril.

    Generic statement of the year: everyone is moving to the cloud.  In my world that means the contact center.  Cloud makes life nice and easy.  No big footprint to manage, no big cash outlay, and fewer throats to choke.  With more and more cloud vendors offering to do everything soup to nuts, it is easy for decision makers to overlook some very important elements that are still in their control, like telco.

  This subject is near and dear to me because I have seen firsthand the impact of overlooking telco  (and I am including data bandwidth here too - SIP is still telco) in even small to medium-sized contact centers.  From busy signals and poor call quality to lost calls, companies that rely on their cloud provider to handle their telco without asking some serious questions put themselves at risk of jeopardizing the customer experience.

  Since I am by no means a subject matter expert on this topic, I reached out to one of our network engineers, John Pecora, for help answering my burning questions.  John has been with VoltDelta for almost 10 years and spent 14 years with Nortel Networks; much of his time spent delivering solutions to telephone carriers that demand extreme uptime and reliability.

Here are John's answers to my 5 burning questions on Cloud Contact Center telco:

DM:  What is the biggest misconception you see as it relates to cloud contact center technology and telephony engineering and design? 

JP:  I believe from a technical standpoint that the data and voice transport portion of the cloud solution is often misunderstood or assumed more reliable to some extent due to the virtualized nature of the solution. Cloud technology still has two parts to its reliability, one being the robustness of the cloud center transport and the other being the customers access to the cloud environment.  Although there are costs associated with more robust and reliable networks, it has to be weighed against the quality of the customer experience and its values to the business.

DM:  What telco considerations do you see are often overlooked in contact centers?

JP:  Some items that are frequently overlooked in contact centers are Telco Diversity, the ability for the telco to deliver an end-to-end solution with minimal hand-offs and the versatility and/or availability of specific call routing features to support the business.

DM:  When should a company choose SIP over TDM for their contact center and when does TDM make more sense?  Is there a threshold in terms of call volume or number of agents when one makes more sense than the other?

JP:  This is a big one; there are so many aspects to consider when choosing SIP over TDM and vise-versa.  With SIP being a data connection it is critical to have a properly provisioned and reliable network from end-to-end with the ability to maintain the quality of the call.  Although there may be a cost savings with SIP in larger volume contact centers, if you tend to be in an area with sparse IP connectivity, sometimes the tried and true public switched telephone network (PSTN) may be of value.  There are many more factors in this decision such as audio codec needed to support the calls which vary in bandwidth consumed by the call - reducing number of calls transmitted simultaneously with selected bandwidth, call features, SIP platform adherence to the SIP RFC, data and content security, SIP infrastructure additions such as session border controllers and their licensed features.  A sound cloud solution will offer both options to best accommodate their customer.

DM:  What factors contribute to poor call quality – on either SIP or TDM?

JP:  The biggest contributing factor to poor call quality on SIP calls is improper provisioning and/or configuration of the IP transport which lead to excessive jitter (variance in latency). To maintain call quality during a sip call the audio packets must either be prioritized with QOS (quality of service) configuration or provided enough bandwidth so that packets do not experience queuing delay. Typically straight TDM call quality is less troublesome due to the dedicated channel resources of PRI circuits. 

DM:  I often hear customers say they want to “bring their telco” while other companies would rather not bother with separate vendors for telco and contact center.  What are some of the factors people should consider when making the decision between owning their telco or not?

JP:  The biggest factor would be the efficiency of the call flow and limiting the number of times the call has to be moved around separate networks to complete the IVR/agent experience.  If choosing to have a cloud solution to maintain the telephony, one thing to consider would be your ability to manage call routing features, sometimes referred to as ICR or ECR (intelligent/interactive call routing or Enhanced call routing) for the calls as well as understanding the charges for those individual services whether they be per call charges or one time set up charges.  A good trunk overflow and DR configuration is also important to consider. 

Thanks to John Pecora for taking the time to help me with this subject.  Clearly there is a lot to consider when choosing a cloud contact center vendor.  Finding a team that is knowledgeable and experienced enough to guide you through complex telco design can mean the difference between getting a return on your cloud investment or being stuck with a poorly engineered solution.

 

Multi-Channel CX Gets You In The Fight: A Word of Encouragement for Underdogs

In my inaugural blog post I wanted to write about a subject with which I am currently wrestling.

  How do small companies, upstarts, or those with less market share, compete with their larger rivals when it comes to the customer journey?

Since you cannot compete on price, brand recognition, media saturation, or anything else it would seem the only answer is to offer a better customer experience - one that is more personal (I'm excluding the other obvious answer of higher quality because without that what's the point?).  But what if you do not own the point of sale?  What if every direct customer interaction is with a distributor or big box retailer?  It takes an army of channel sales reps to reign in that beast, often with poor results (I say that as a former retail sales person who had constant interaction with channel managers).

  If a brand finds itself in this predicament the only option left to them are traditional channels (voice, email) and social channels.  But even with social channels, the big guy has the advantage because they have an army of enthusiasts who are more than willing to answer each and every question about your product - FOR FREE!

This is an opportunity for the underdog to leverage multi-channel CX technology and one that I think is overlooked.

  When we think about companies with great customer experiences we tend to gravitate to big logos who have spent years refining their image and experience.  Many of these big brands had the luxury of defining that experience prior to the emergence of technologies that level the playing field like Twitter and Facebook.  I know, I know - I just said that big brand evangelists are legion - this is true.  There is no silver bullet for the underdog.  The reason that multi-channel CX favors the underdog is that it costs less for them to deploy it, without the albatross of old, inflexible legacy systems weighing them down.  With cloud technology it is even faster and easier.  In a matter of weeks or months, the underdog can be directly engaged with their new customers and building that next generation of evangelists for themselves.

  One last thing that occurred to me as I debated this in my head (something I do a lot) is the cost of human capital associated with this strategy.  Let's face it, big brands take advantage of the fact that their crowd-sourced support strategy is nearly free.  The underdog has to carry the burden of a costly contact center to compete, right?  I suppose it depends on their culture.  As evidenced by last week's epic Twitter battle between T-Mobile and AT&T even CEOs are willing to login and join the fight.  With the flexibility of cloud-based multi-channel CX anyone can be an agent - anywhere.  CXOs can create a fun and rewarding culture by encouraging staff to check-in to a social queue for a couple of hours per day to respond to customer inquiries.  Bonuses or rewards like an extra day off might just be enough to get those employees who are already passionate about their product to share that passion via Twitter or Facebook.  That's one way for an underdog to kick start a multi-channel initiative.


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