The document discusses the importance of developing an effective contact center strategy to meet customer expectations for seamless, multi-channel interactions, which can significantly enhance a company's competitive advantage and financial performance. It highlights five key trends in contact center technology, emphasizing the need for customized solutions that foster customer loyalty and improve key performance indicators. Ultimately, a well-integrated contact center strategy, built on the right technology, is essential for businesses aiming to thrive in a rapidly evolving market.

1. W H I T E
P A P E R
The Contact Center Opportunity
Embrace Trends to Create a Smart Strategy
Executive Summary
Without an effective contact center strategy in place, companies are missing out on
significant business advantages. The demand is clear: customers expect businesses
to deliver fast, seamless interaction across all communication channels. So, to
compete with organizations that offer sophisticated multi-channel service strategies,
your enterprise requires a contact center strategy of its own. But, how can you develop
a solid strategy that is both cost-effective and precisely tailored to your needs—and
those of your customers?
In this business paper, we will address the contact center opportunity, discuss five
important contact center trends, and explain how companies can embrace these
trends to create a smart strategy that can improve the top and bottom line.

2. Contact Center Technology its own. But, how can you develop a solid strategy that is
both cost-effective and precisely tailored to your needs—
That Fits Your Enterprise and those of your customers?
When it comes to contact center software, some busi- In this business paper, we will address the contact center
nesses have historically found it difficult to find systems opportunity, discuss five important contact center trends,
that meet their specific needs without also featuring hefty and explain how companies can embrace these trends
price tags and lengthy implementation cycles. Faced to create a smart strategy that can improve the top and
with these challenges, many companies fail to embrace bottom line. We will demonstrate how with the right
a contact center strategy, or they fail to achieve a clear contact center strategy and application, enterprises can:
benefit from their strategy because the software they’ve
chosen is not flexible enough to meet their unique require- • Deliver a positive service and brand experience
ments. to customers
• Create proactive interactions with customers
Without an effective contact center strategy in place,
enterprises are missing out on significant business • Reduce costs without sacrificing the quality of service
advantages. The demand is clear: customers expect • Increase revenue with every customer interaction
companies to deliver fast, seamless interaction across all • Improve key performance indicators
communication channels. To compete with organizations
that offer sophisticated multi-channel service strategies, • Outperform larger competitors
your enterprise requires a contact center strategy of • Outmaneuver competitors quickly to take market share
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3. The Contact Center— The Customer Expectation:
The New Epicenter of the Technology Raises the Bar
Technology advancements have raised the bar for service
Customer Relationship excellence. Amazon.com is a great example of a company
that knows how to keep customers coming back time
A smart contact center strategy can significantly improve
and time again. It has set a new standard for the ideal
a company’s top and bottom line—it’s the epicenter of
customer experience. When you visit Amazon.com, it’s
the customer relationship and it’s where smart marketing,
easy to find what you want online. But your positive
selling and servicing converge every day to create satisfied
customer experience is not limited to the Web. You receive
customers and build a positive customer and brand
consistent, personalized service across all channels.
experience. Great customer service is no longer only about
When people have a satisfying service experience at
providing phone-based service and support centers. Contact
Amazon.com, it raises their expectations. They believe
centers provide service and support to customers across
that all companies should be able to live up to this level of
multiple communication channels including phone, fax,
service. As consumers, we find ourselves wondering why
e-mail, Web chat, Web collaboration, and Voice over IP
this level of service isn’t available to us when an airline
(VoIP). Today’s advanced contact center agents can handle
loses our bags. When we’re at work, we wonder why we
contact sales, marketing, and billing interactions in addition
can’t explain to a valued customer why a much-needed
to traditional service requests.
shipment hasn’t been delivered on time. So, every
Companies are starting to realize that with a smart company must ask, ‘How do we compare against the
contact center strategy there is a new opportunity to build companies that are already delivering world-class service?’
long-term, reliable relationships and satisfied customers to
The bottom line is that today’s customers expect much
drive revenue growth. Selling a single product or service
more of the companies they engage with. Contact center
is great in the short term, but the real revenue opportunity
technologies and strategies directly impact a company’s
is to keep loyal customers coming back time and time
ability to deliver on these customer expectations.
again. That’s the revenue stream that contact centers
Innovative corporate leaders are initiating a new
can help generate. In fact, according to Dr. Jon Anton,
conversation about customer service. They are asking
Contact Center Guru and Director of Benchmark Research
their leadership teams, ‘Now that technology can allow
at the Center for Customer-Driven Quality at Purdue
us to service our customers any way we want to, what
University, for many companies “80 percent of next year’s
does our ideal customer service model look like?’ These
revenue should come from this year’s customers.” What
corporate leaders recognize that they have an opportunity
many businesses have often lacked is a cost-effective
to differentiate from their competitors by delivering on
way to track, build and maintain that relationship over
a more compelling and rewarding customer experience
time so that they can continually identify new revenue
across all channels of interaction. To do so, companies
opportunities with existing customers.
must be able to put a contact center strategy in place that
delivers on your company’s vision for the ideal customer
experience, and measures the success of this strategy
over time.
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4. Measuring Customer Service Success
Achieving success in the contact center means improving key performance indicators (KPI), including reducing
interaction costs; increasing revenue from interactions; and increasing customer satisfaction. Improvements in key
indicators not only impact the top and bottom line, but also give enterprises the agility to remain competitive.
Key Performance Indicator To Improve KPI, Enterprises Need:
Reduced interaction costs • The right set of commonly needed functionality combined with easy-to-use customization
tools to develop the functionality that precisely meets each contact center’s unique business
requirements
• Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) to immediately display screen pops with relevant
customer information on the agent’s desktop
• To provide agents with accessibility to the information they need to handle a call quickly and
effectively
• A floating telephony toolbar on the agent desktop—giving them quick access to incoming calls
Increased revenue from • The tools and information, and automated workflow so that agents can effectively up-sell and
interactions cross-sell additional products and services
• To provide agents with dynamic scripting and an easy-to-use interface so that they can
position additional products and services without extensive training
Increased customer satisfaction • To personalize customer interactions across every communication channel
• To provide agents with the knowledge required to give customers quick, accurate answers
including access to all sales and marketing related interactions
• Multi-media interaction capabilities, including phone, e-mail, Web chat, Web collaboration, and
VoIP so that customers can interact across their preferred channel of communication
• Automated routing capabilities to quickly route customer requests from across any
communication channel, to the most qualified agent
• Screen-pops that capture the interaction history so that agents don’t have to ask customers
to repeat information they’ve already provided through Web self-service or an interactive voice
response system (IVR)
Increased agent productivity • To provide agents with a personalized, intuitive desktop that consolidates all the tools and
information they need into a single interface
• One-click access and desktop integration to legacy systems to give agents the ability to solve
customer inquiries quickly and effectively
• A floating telephony toolbar on the desktop that shaves valuable time off every call and gives
agents the ability to quickly pick up and transfer calls
Reduced training costs • A simplified desktop that is tailored to the unique needs of the business, giving agents an
intuitive, understandable interface that is easy and effective to navigate
• Web-based, user-friendly browsers that feature one-click access to all of the necessary
information
• Dynamic scripting so that agents can position additional products and services without
extensive training
Improvement in calls resolved on • Quick access to intra-enterprise information
the first interaction
Decreased call times • Technologies and synchronization tools to create a distributed contact center strategy—ensure
that calls are quickly redirected to other satellite contact centers during peak call times
Reduced maintenance costs • An end-to-end, single vendor solution
• Cost-effective integration capabilities, or an all-in-one contact center infrastructure from a
single vendor
• Easy-to-use customization tools to quickly make changes as needed
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5. Five Crucial Contact Center Frustration Leads to Emotion
Trends We’ve all experienced 15-minute wait times with slow-
service companies. And, we’ve experienced the frustration
Enterprises are in an enviable market position right now. of not being able to get solutions to our problems—or
The economy is causing all companies to re-think key having our problems ‘fall through the cracks’.
business strategies and re-calibrate to the new economic
environment. This presents an opportunity for businesses Customer service issues can be an emotional roller
to move fast, steal market share, and outmaneuver their coaster for the customer—and great companies have
competitors. the capacity to deal with this reality. Problems that occur
must be solved in the heat of the moment, or that emotion
New technology trends in the contact center market atrophies and becomes distrust. These magic moments
are allowing companies to quickly adopt contact center are when companies either build the customer trust and
technologies and out-perform the competition. These loyalty they desire, or they lose loyalty entirely.
trends include:
The hard reality of handling ‘emotional moments’ holds
• The Personal Touch: Self-Service Isn’t the Holy Grail true in both business-to-consumer and business-to-
• Fast, Easy Customization business scenarios. In examining the difference between
individual consumer inquiries and B2B inquiries, Dr. Jon
• The ‘Slim Client’ – High performance applications Anton notes, “Some people might think that there is little
• Distributed Contact Centers or no emotion tied to business-to-business interactions.
But this is a myth. When people are engaging in business
• The Contact Center Meets CRM: One Strategy, One
interactions, their job performance is at stake. For
Software Provider
example, consider a purchasing manager who is trying
to secure a price for a product or service, or an engineer
The Personal Touch: who is trying to obtain a specification for a project. If he
or she fails—their job performance is questioned. If they
Self-service Isn’t the Holy Grail can’t make things happen with a vendor, it reflects on
In the late 1990s, people became enamored with the them—as well as the vendor.”
Internet and the idea of self-service. Companies were
enthralled with the notion that they could get customers
to manage their own service needs through smart,
Fast, Easy Customization,
interactive Web sites. This would greatly lower the cost Lower Cost of Integration
of customer service. The theory worked—to a point.
Enterprises are constantly evolving to capture market and
Many companies have reaped massive benefits by business opportunities as they arise. As a result, their
implementing self-service sites. But even with the major contact center technology must be quickly adaptable to
advantages of self-service technology, the reality is that business process changes.
there are still circumstances in which customers need to
speak to a customer service agent for a deeper level of The challenge is that the business processes inside a
support. Companies have come to realize that they must contact center are highly defined to ensure efficiency.
integrate their call/contact center with their self-service Companies with high-functioning contact centers have
capabilities to manage sophisticated service needs. expended significant energy to define the exact steps
service agents must take to resolve common customer
As a result, personal customer service through contact problems. These well-defined processes become
center agents has regained prominence. And, fast, cost- a powerful competitive differentiator allowing the
effective integration has become a top technical priority. company to keep valued customers satisfied even when
major problems arise. Industry analysts concur that a
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6. company’s unique business processes, especially their territory, especially for less experienced users, agents can
customer service processes, are a significant competitive engage with customers in an intelligent, confident way.
differentiator.
So, what happens when a new product line is introduced? Distributed Contact Center
Or when the company decides to creatively bundle a
Managing costs and ensuring reliable service can be
set of service offerings to outmaneuver a competitor?
daunting in a thousand-agent contact center. High
To quickly address new business opportunities, contact
turnover rates are a significant challenge for large contact
centers must be built on easily customizable software
centers—and it is extremely difficult to continually find and
so that service agents can depend on the technology to
train first-rate customer service representatives. Further,
accelerate their tasks, not slow them down. Companies
customers are demanding round-the-clock service
must be able to easily customize the agent portal,
availability. To mitigate these challenges, companies are
workflow, and business rules. And they must be able to
now choosing to establish smaller, distributed contact
easily integrate the contact center application to provide
centers across multiple cities and multiple geographies.
agents with seamless access to other applications and
As a result, contact centers of 100 to 250 agents are a
data sources.
booming trend.
To address this requirement, companies are looking for
Industry analysts agree this is an important trend. According
flexible contact center applications that are both easy
to Sharon Ward, Vice President of the CRM and Enterprise
to customize and easy to integrate with intra- and extra-
Applications Practice at Hurwitz Group, “Companies
enterprise applications and data sources. Contact center
that realize that their contact center is critical to ensuring
flexibility is about making the contact center software, and
customer satisfaction want excellent employees to staff the
the contact center business process, work the way the
center. It is difficult to attract large numbers of high quality
organization requires—not how the contact center vendor
individuals from a single location, so many companies
thinks they should work. Many vendors’ contact center
are forming ‘distributed’ centers that are geographically
applications are based on inherently rigid architectures,
disbursed to enlarge the candidate pool and also in many
making the application very difficult to customize and adapt.
cases to cover differing time zones.”
Slim Client Contact Center Dr. Jon Anton also agrees, “Our studies show that large
centers are less efficient and/or effective as compared to
Many contact centers turn over their entire workforce three smaller centers. There is a trend to keep centers in the 150-
to four times a year creating two massive challenges to 250-agent range, and to spread them out geographically.”
in workforce management. The first challenge is the
cost of constantly training new agents on the business,
service processes, and software. The second challenge The Contact Center Meets CRM
is moving agents up the productivity curve—it takes time Contact centers cannot operate effectively in isolation.
for new users to become productive and efficient. As a Instead, they must be an integral part of a company’s
result, companies face the dilemma of increasing agent overall CRM strategy and they must consolidate
productivity while keeping training costs low. customer interactions from across the organization.
The contact center typically becomes an answer
To address this need, businesses are looking at ‘Slim
center—and when agents are put on the spot to
Client’ applications as a way to deliver a rich, interactive
respond to an inquiry, if the agent doesn’t have the
user experience—allowing agents to become productive
answer, or responds with ‘I don’t know’, customers
quickly. With slim client applications, the presentation
become very unhappy. The truth of the matter is that
logic runs on the client—with no installed code, while the
many companies are torturing their customers with
business and application logic resides on the server. This
poor, and often disjointed, customer service.
approach provides users with a Web interface that has richer
functionality and better response times than a pure-thin CRM is a highly effective way to demonstrate to
client approach, which has the presentation, business and customers that every business unit across the
application logic running on the server. organization, including sales, marketing, and service, is
connected and interdependent. CRM gives agents the
A slim client approach to application deployment provides
knowledge they need to make changes to the way they
contact center agents with an application that is fast, easy
treat customers inside of the contact center based on
to use, and productive. Since a Web interface is familiar
other activities within the organization.
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7. Companies have a unique opportunity when it comes predominately presented to agents during an inbound
to customer service, especially in our current economic call, it makes sense to equip agents with the right tools
environment. With so many businesses under intense and information to make compelling offers for products
customer scrutiny, companies can use their service and services. These conversations will absolutely lead to
advantage to increase customer loyalty and win new increased revenue in the long term.
customers. Now more than ever, companies should be
optimizing their contact center to take advantage of this
opportunity—it’s up for grabs! An End-to-End Single Vendor
In the last five years, customer service has become a Solution
primary corporate focus—it is an imperative for market Companies are also no longer tolerant of a multi-vendor
success. To take care of customers, companies need solution to meet their complete CRM and contact center
customer-centric processes, systems and capabilities— requirements. Instead, they are looking for a single
and that’s ultimately what CRM is all about. vendor to be able to provide an end-to-end solution that
includes infrastructure, multi-media channels, CRM, and
The Center for Customer-Driven Quality at Purdue
a single interface. They don’t have the budget, resources,
University embarked on a study of thousands of contact
or risk tolerance necessary to purchase multiple contact
centers with the objective of determining the value of
center products and then engage in a lengthy, expensive
CRM in the contact center. They compared companies
integration effort to piece them all together. They want it to
with contact centers that had implemented CRM
be simple, standards based, and cost-effective.
with companies that had not. The study concluded
that companies with both a contact center and CRM Given that contact centers never operate in isolation,
deployment had significant improvement in: contact center software needs to be integrated to other
• The number of calls handled per shift per agent data stores and transactional systems throughout the
enterprise. Agents may need to open a service request,
• The average handle time per inbound call (in minutes) place an order, manage inventories, or access billing
• The percent of calls resolved on the first interaction information—information that is often contained within
other business systems. Contact center integration with
• Caller satisfaction
other enterprise applications is usually the major cost
The Center for Customer-Driven Quality then calculated overrun in a contact center implementation, so businesses
the financial impact of a CRM implementation on are looking for sensible solutions that mitigate the time,
a contact center with 250 agents1. Based on their cost, and risk of integration.
calculations, they concluded that if a company deploys a
CRM solution, the call center would achieve:
• 44% improvement in calls per agent per shift
= $225,000 per year
• 38% improvement in the average handle time
= $177,000 per year
• 37% improvement in calls resolved on the first interaction
= $326,500
• 27% improvement in caller satisfaction
= $135,000 per year
This study reinforces that a contact center strategy must
be set within a larger CRM strategy to be highly effective.
Agents must be able to leverage the full sales, marketing,
and service capabilities of a CRM suite to intelligently
interact and have compelling dialogues with customers.
It is absolutely critical for enterprises because customers
fully expect that every customer-facing employee in the
organization will understand everything about them.
And, since up-sell and cross-sell opportunities are
1 Based on average agent annual wages
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8. The Pivotal CRM Advantage The Pivotal Contact Center Desktop features:
• One-click access so that agents can handle high-
Companies finally have a choice when it comes to volume customer interactions quickly and effectively
their contact center strategy and deployment, and it’s
• Multi-channel interaction capabilities
about time. Together with Microsoft, Intel and Interactive
Intelligence, Pivotal CRM delivers all the contact center • An all-in-one interface eliminating the need for agents to
software, infrastructure, and telephony technologies and switch between multiple applications
gives enterprises several choices when it comes to their • Instant access to customer information from across the
contact center software deployment. It’s an approach to organization
contact centers that makes sense for enterprises—and
it ensures that these companies receive a solution that • Automated workflow to minimize agent training and
precisely matches their business needs. expedite call resolution times
• Dynamic scripting to help agents intelligently and
Pivotal Contact Center can either be implemented as effectively interact with customers
a stand-alone desktop application; as an integrated
suite that leverages existing telephony infrastructure • Sales tools to help agents capture leads, manage
investments; or as a unified platform that creates an opportunities, and up-/cross-sell effectively
IP-compatible, multi-channel solution. It is fully integrated • Robust knowledge repository and easy-to-use search
with the Pivotal CRM suite and features a highly flexible capabilities
desktop that consolidates and supports multiple channels.
• Real-time analytic and reporting capabilities
Using the Pivotal Integration Engine, Pivotal Contact
Center can easily and cost-effectively be integrated to
enterprise applications, transactional systems, and data Pivotal Contact Center-CTC
sources within and beyond business boundaries.
Edition
Pivotal Contact Center Desktop Pivotal Contact Center – CTC Edition gives enterprises
powerful contact center functionality while enabling
Pivotal Contact Center Desktop is designed with flexibility, them to leverage their existing investments in telephony
simplicity, and functionality in mind. Contact center infrastructure. Using Intel CT Connect, Pivotal Contact
agents in mid-sized enterprises need to be able to Center – CTC Edition provides out-of-the-box integration
respond to a wide variety of requests, from customers between the Pivotal Contact Center Desktop application
calling in to order products, to customers placing service and common legacy switches, including Avaya Definity,
requests. The Pivotal Contact Center Desktop is a rich, Nortel Meridian, and Siemens Hicom. This product can
high-performance application that provides agents with an also be integrated to other telephony switches by linking
intuitive interface, a logical layout, and one-click access to the CTI Server via standard PBX protocol modules or
to all the information contained within both Pivotal CRM interfaces.
Suite and legacy systems. Agents are empowered with
the capabilities to handle blended sales, marketing, and
service interactions—critical activities that reduce costs
and increase revenue.
Pivotal Contact Center Desktop Pivotal Contact Center – CTC Edition
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9. Customers are frustrated. They are no longer tolerate the
situation where they enter their information into an IVR,
Pivotal Contact Center-CIC Edition
or they call in from a particular number and the agent For companies with no existing investment in telephony
asks them to repeat their customer or account number. infrastructure, Pivotal Contact Center—CIC Edition
Customers expect agents to recognize them immediately. delivers all the infrastructure, telephony tools, and multi-
Pivotal CRM provides this capability with Pivotal Contact media capabilities in a unified platform from a single
Center – CTC Edition by delivering seamless integration vendor. It features the Pivotal Contact Center Desktop
between Pivotal Contact Center Desktop and the application completely pre-integrated with Interactive
telephony infrastructure. Intelligence’s market leading, multi-media interaction
solution—the Customer Interaction Center. This solution
Using Pivotal Contact Center – CTC Edition, customer gives businesses the ability to simplify their contact center
information is collected from the network, IVR, e-mail, and and streamline maintenance activities by consolidating
other sources and pushed to the desktop simultaneous all the necessary tools and software, including PBXs,
with the customer interaction. This allows the agent to automated called distributors (ACDs), IVRs, fax servers,
shave time off each interaction that would normally be and computer telephony middleware on one scalable,
used to identify the caller—a non-value activity that simply platform.
increases costs to the center.
Pivotal Contact Center — CIC Edition also features a
This high-performance application can also provide data universal queue that ensures immediate, intelligent routing
driven, or dynamic routing. For example, if a particular of all multi-media communications, including e-mail,
agent works with a customer, and that customer calls Web chats, and VoIP, using the Interaction Processor.
back in to follow up on that activity, the solution matches This processor interfaces with e-mail systems (including
the customer to the right agent. It ensures that agents Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes), web servers
can develop a relationship with the customer and provide (including Microsoft IIS and Apache), and database
an exceptional level of service. By using this interaction servers (including MS SQL Server and Oracle), on a
functionality, companies can minimize call handling local or wide area network. It can also interface to legacy
times and streamline agents’ abilities to resolve inquiries, switches or communicate directly with the telephone
taking costs out of the business. It also increases network via analog, T1, E1, and ISDN PRI trunks. The
agent efficiencies because they are not forced to enter processing of communications can be quickly and
erroneous data or repeat the information already entered easily configured using the Interaction Designer, which
in by the customer. graphically maps how interactions are handled.
Pivotal Contact Center – CTC Edition also features a For enterprises with limited resources, Pivotal Contact
floating telephony toolbar that provides agents with Center — CIC Edition is designed to deliver market-
one-click access from the desktop to telephony control leading contact center infrastructure and technologies
functions including, call pick-up, call hang-up, or call at a cost that makes sense—without the inherent
forwarding. It is a simple, but cost effective way to implementation risks found in enterprise applications. This
streamline call handling and increase agent efficiency. pre-integrated, multi-channel platform eliminates the need
for complex integration projects and costly maintenance
of multiple telephony systems. As a result, companies can
quickly create and optimize their contact center—with the
goal of improving revenue, margins and customer loyalty.
Pivotal Contact Center – CIC Edition
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