The Road Less Traveled
By Maor Rudick
The customer service that is offered by call centers is being progressively offered at the expense of the customer and high costs. Far too often customers are forced to waste good portions of their day attempting to reach a representative that can help them or punching in policy numbers and repetitively verifying themselves for security purposes. All of these issues and more are eradicated by call centers that have implemented contextual communications as part of their service.
Imagine for a minute that it’s a beautiful day out and you’re driving alone down a suburban road singing along with the radio. You pull up to a four-way stop, see you are the only car there, and proceed through the intersection. A car comes speeding out of nowhere and CRASH- your car skids sideways, over the curb, and comes to a screeching halt. You step out of the car, shaken but otherwise unharmed, only to see the entire side of your car is smashed in. You look around and see the driver of the other car is also unharmed. As you move to contact your insurance company, how the rest of this story pans out is entirely dependent upon which road- or technology- your insurance company uses.
The Road Over-Traveled (current technology)
- Before making another move, you make sure to first obtain a hand copy of the other driver’s insurance details.
- You then pull out your cell phone and dial your insurance company. An automated message first answers and tells you to dial 1 for insurance claims.
- You are then led to an automated message that tells you to enter your policy number. You do so, wait for verification, and after a good amount of elevator music a live agent answers.
- You then have to give the agent your name, your car details, your location, the other driver’s details, and explain what had occurred.
- A tow truck is sent out and you are left waiting, in which time you take any relevant photos of the damage to your car and your surroundings. You email them in and continue to wait for the tow truck.
This whole process took at least 20 minutes.
The road less traveled (future technology)
- Before making another move, you make sure to take a picture of the other driver’s insurance information.
- You then call the insurance company and within a few rings reach a representative that has your identity and location have already been verified through the call center’s technology.
- You explain to the representative what had occurred and then send them the pictures of the damage, your exact location, and the relevant insurance paperwork, along with any other necessary details as well as the sensor data log from the car that had been linked to your phone.
The representative informs you that the tow truck is on its way and only a mere five minutes have passed since the initial phone call.
Contextual information- the information used by contextual communications that is actionable or supplemental and makes the end customer interaction more meaningful and personal- allows calls centers to create a better and more profitable customer interaction.
As Robert Frost once wrote, “Two roads diverged… I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.”
So too does Cloudonix, not do we only believe in but we also offer the road less travelled. The technology we provide enables two-way communication and helps to further along the customer service process with the utmost customer satisfaction, cost-effectiveness, and immediacy.
