Large-scale London property development and investment company, Almacantar, has appointed digital transformation specialist Nexer to oversee the total replacement of its CRM system, in order to facilitate increased accessibility to data and ensure...
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Sep 09, 2021 • News • Artificial intelligence • contact centre • Digital Transformation • omnichannel • EMEA • Customer Satisfaction
Large-scale London property development and investment company, Almacantar, has appointed digital transformation specialist Nexer to oversee the total replacement of its CRM system, in order to facilitate increased accessibility to data and ensure the consistently high level of service expected by its clientele.
Almacantar transforms iconic property development assets in prime Central London locations, and is known for its design-led approach and focus on creating long term value. Since 2010, it has acquired more than 1.5 million sq. ft, including live projects Centre Point and Marble Arch Place.
THE OVERHAUL OF THE EXISTING CRM SYSTEM HAS LED TO MORE EFFICIENT SALES AND CLIENT ENGAGEMENT PROCESSES.
With communication and management of the client engagement process throughout the property sales and completion process being critical to achieving high levels of client satisfaction, Almacantar has partnered with Nexer to implement a Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM application that will meet its specific business needs.
Almacantar’s legacy CRM application had reached the end of its lifespan, with the business requiring an updated system that would provide increased data accessibility, improved connectivity and coordination with other applications, and smooth integration with lead generation campaigns, as well as watertight GDPR compliance and data security due to the high transaction values of its property sales.
Implementation of the new application, has delivered a more efficient and streamlined sales and client engagement process, has increased automation of client communication where appropriate, has enabled accurate tracking of all client offers, and increased operator productivity. It also provides a single source of data and document management thanks to its integration with SharePoint.
Caroline Edwards, Development Director at Almacantar Ltd said: “We chose Microsoft and Nexer for our CRM needs due to its seamless integration into the other Microsoft products in use and its adaptability to our particular needs. The Nexer team provided us with invaluable support in mapping our existing business processes into the platform and, where possible, revising these for better productivity. The result is a powerful platform that is instantly recognisable to our sales and marketing team.”
Neil Andrews, Senior Executive at Nexer said: “By selecting Microsoft Dynamics 365 for its new CRM, Almacantar has seen increased efficiency within the sales team and has improved collaboration across the related service teams. The new platform is secure and future-proofed to support the business as it continues to grow.”
Further Reading:
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Read more about Artificial Intelligence on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/artificial-intelligence
- Learn more about Nexer @ nexergroup.com/
- Find out more more about Almacantar @ www.almacantar.com
- Follow Almacantar on Twitter @ twitter.com/Almacantar_
Aug 27, 2021 • News • Artificial intelligence • contact centre • Digital Transformation • omnichannel • EMEA • Customer Satisfaction
Circle K, part of the Global Fortune 500 retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard, selects Artificial Solutions’ Conversational AI-platform to support omni-channel customer experience in multiple languages.
Circle K, part of the Global Fortune 500 retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard, selects Artificial Solutions’ Conversational AI-platform to support omni-channel customer experience in multiple languages.
Artificial Solutions, a leading specialist in enterprise-strength Conversational AI, announced today that Circle K has renewed its agreement to run its Conversational AI deployments on the award-winning Teneo platform, to continue to provide support for customers and employees of its convenience retail outlets in the US and Scandinavia.
WITH THE USE OF CONVERSATIONAL AI, COMPANIES ARE ABLE TO SERVE CUSTOMER NEEDS MORE EFFICIENTLY
Conversational AI is used by Circle K to support customers through three solutions in North America and Europe:
- Kay, Circle K´s website chatbot, the one stop shop for finding the nearest location, deals and rewards
- Circle K US car wash app
- Voice bot for North American stores, that handles inquiries done via call lines, about fuel delivery times
“Conversational AI enables us to make our customers lives a little easier every day by serving their needs more efficiently. Working with Artificial Solutions has had significant benefits; Teneo has allowed the internal Conversational AI-team to build solutions faster, so that we can continue to focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences”, said Edgars Ozolnieks, Senior Manager - Digital Customer Service Solutions at Circle K.
For their deployments, Circle K is taking advantage of Teneo’s unique master-local feature. The main solution was built in English, and then exported to Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, repurposing 80% of the initial solution.
Circle K is one of the leading convenience store chains globally, and this partnership with a power-house retailer is a major validation for our technology,” said Per Ottosson, CEO at Artificial Solutions.
Further Reading:
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
- Read more about Artificial Intelligence on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/artificial-intelligence
- Read more about Customer Satisfaction on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/customer-satisfaction
- Find out more more about Artificial Solutions @ www.artificial-solutions.com
- Follow Artificial Solutions on Twitter @ twitter.com/ArtiSol
Oct 03, 2018 • Features • contact centre • mplsystems • omni channel • field service • field service management • IFS • Service Management • Service Triage • Software and Apps • omnichannel • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations • Managing the Mobile Workforce
Across the last few weeks, we've run a mini-series of excerpts of from the latest white paper from IFS we take a look at how communication is changing and technology is evolving.
Across the last few weeks, we've run a mini-series of excerpts of from the latest white paper from IFS we take a look at how communication is changing and technology is evolving.
In the first feature in the series, we looked at how when it comes to communications, Customers Want It Their Way . In the second instalment, we explored how Complexity Is a Distraction to Delivering your Target Customer Experience.
Now in the third and final excerpt in this series we discuss "How to Reverse the ‘It’s Getting More Complex and Expensive’ Trap" that so many field service companies can fall into...
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So far we have explored two points of view: the customer and the advisor. The customer’s adoption of technologies that enables an always connected, real-time responsive lifestyle has set an incredibly high bar for organisations to match. In particular, smartphones simplify the business of getting things done. An obsessive design focus on ‘one-click access has set expectations for simple, immediate engagement.
"Choice in communication channels is often offered in a fragmented way. Tactical procurement of ‘the next channel’ means they operate without the ability to orchestrate conversational continuity across channels and devices..."
However, organisations are yet to match this sophistication. Choice in communication channels is often offered in a fragmented way. Tactical procurement of ‘the next channel’ means they operate without the ability to orchestrate conversational continuity across channels and devices.
A similar fragmentation has also occurred with enterprise CRM deployments. These have an enduring reputation for being hard to deliver. Scaled down ambitions then tend to target a more pragmatic focus on the individual needs of functional teams. This makes personalised service a much more complex task for advisors who are still expected to be knowledgeable about any event across a customer’s lifecycle.
Organising customer data by functional priorities has meant CRM is failing to keep pace with expectations for informed, low effort customer service engagement. Operationally it is just too hard for advisors to locate and assess the context of a customer’s situation on the fly. Both customer and organisation suffer in terms of poor customer experience and ROI.
Instead, this is how customer data should be used.
At the point of initial customer contact, a rich mix of relevant data is used for automated decision making. The aim is to direct customers to their ‘best’ resource. In an omni-channel context, this could be live assistance, self-service or proactive service. The triggers for selecting the ‘best’ resource will depend on the demands of each customer journey and how each customer reacts during that journey.
As a rule of thumb:
- Repeatable customer needs at definable points of a journey can be anticipated and therefore offered as a proactive service.
- Whenever things typically become complex, emotional or require some form of relationship nurture, live assistance is best.
- Anything else is a candidate for 24x7, instant self-service.
As far as live assistance is concerned, the ‘best’ advisor experience is that data and workflow is proactively pushed to them at the right points during each customer journey. The function of an effective unified desktop is to make the complex look simple. As a result, advisors are less distracted and can remain in full rapport with each customer and their needs.
This simplification demands a single screen of information that will adapt as the conversation flows. What previously required toggling across multiple screens is now condensed into a single overview - with duplicated and inconsistent data entry a thing of the past.
Some of this design intent is achieved through visual layout: for instance just one inbox for all voice and text enquiries, one view of interaction and transaction history etc. All of which makes for the kind of intuitive user experience that advisors already expect from their mobile technologies.
However, there is also some clever stuff that happens before any customer information is brought to the advisor’s attention. In the design quest of presenting only the most simple and relevant view, an advanced unified desktop will combine many data sources into a single stream.
As previously mentioned, holistic customer insight is seldom held in one system of record or offered by a functional view. And hard-won experience tells us that the ‘rip and replace’ strategy of turning many legacy systems into a single consolidated version seldom works out as planned.
"Modern ‘digital glue’ such as data aggregation models and APIs can ‘mashup’ multiple data sources and present the advisor with everything they need..."
Instead, there are less risky ways of achieving the same goal. Modern ‘digital glue’ such as data aggregation models and APIs can ‘mashup’ multiple data sources and present the advisor with everything they need.
Sometimes an even greater focus is needed around how customer information is organised and displayed. What about those instances when first-time resolution does not happen within a single session? Maybe the process that supports a customer journey inevitably takes time, such as making an application or a claim or trying to recover lost property. Maybe the customer or organisation has to find more information or do something else to reach a decision. All of which takes more time.
This is where case management comes into its own. It draws boundaries around this type of customer situation and attributes the relevant data, interactions, transactions and workflow for easy ongoing reference. This is especially important when there are multiple points of customer contact, which are progressed by different employees, who need to easily reference previous steps in the customer journey without expecting customers to provide the narrative.
This form of grouping is enabled by one of the defining functions of an omni-channel framework. So-called ‘universal queuing’ will organise all voice, text and workflow items into a single management system instead of treating them as separate queues. As a result, integrated views of activities over time are automatically generated and presented to the advisor, saving time and effort for all concerned. This ability is however untypical in a CRM centric approach.
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Sep 26, 2018 • Features • contact centre • mplsystems • omni channel • field service • field service management • IFS • Service Management • Service Triage • Software and Apps • Managing the Mobile Workforce
As part of a new mini-series of excerpts of from the latest white paper from IFS we take a look at how communication is changing and technology is evolving.
As part of a new mini-series of excerpts of from the latest white paper from IFS we take a look at how communication is changing and technology is evolving. In the first feature in the series we looked at how when it comes to communications, Customers Want It Their Way .At the end of that article we asserted that in truth, we live in a world of five generations of consumers and employees. The choice of communication channel is ours. We pick whichever works for us. And by the way, if you think letter writing is dead just ask any complaints team!
So what does this mean? Does it condemn organisations that want to do the right thing by their customers to every increasing cost? The answer depends on what generation of infrastructure you are using...
Are improving your communication channels a key issue for you?! The full white paper on this topic available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Click the button below to get fully up to speed!
Sponsored by:
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While a choice of voice and text has been available to all current generations, their accessibility and immediacy has been transformed over the last forty years: from landline to smartphone, from letter to instant messaging. Our preferences tend to be based on the dominant channel(s) within our peer group.
But before we start to look at that, there is another stakeholder’s point of view that needs to be included beyond that of the customer. No prizes for guessing that the advisors’ experience matters in equal measure. Once routing and triage business rules have matched customer need with the best qualified, available person, your advisors assume prime responsibility for the quality of outcome and the customer’s retained memory of the service experience.
That’s a lot to get right, especially with five generations of customers and personas to take into consideration. In fact, it requires single-minded concentration and attention on the unique needs and expectations of each customer to nail those deliverables consistently.
While we might imagine that multi-tasking is the obvious way through a busy day, it has a price. Our attention span is finite. Split it too far amongst competing tasks and something has to suffer. More often than not it’s the nuances of each individual customer need that is missed when advisors find their focus and listening power distracted by the logistics of helping the customer towards their outcome.
"There are many triggers for losing focus on the customer experience. For instance, desktops can rapidly become a mosaic of overlapping application windows as information and workflow is requested and generated..."
There are many triggers for losing focus on the customer experience. For instance, desktops can rapidly become a mosaic of overlapping application windows as information and workflow is requested and generated.
Moreover, these are not consistent interfaces. They can range from mainframe style green screens to back-office ERP systems and cloud CRM interfaces. Legacy organisations typically expect advisors to toggle between half a dozen screens for certain customer jobs. There are even some sectors with double-digit complexity when additional third-party applications are used, such as customer eligibility checks.
Navigating all this is a daunting challenge for anyone just arriving at a new contact centre. They have the challenge of live engagement layered with the unfamiliarity of multiple systems and their idiosyncrasies. No wonder that much contact centre induction time is soaked up in systems familiarisation and training at the expense of customer experience skills.
On top of all that, it is not uncommon for larger contact centres to endure 20%+ annual attrition rates. Given the learning curve just described, a continual drag on performance and service reputation is created that is hard to overcome.
Finally, one of the most common complaints against the contact centre versus a typical online experience is that organisations never remember customers’ profile and history, despite asking for it multiple times. ‘Know me’ is a key mantra in digital economies.
But within the fast moving dynamics of a live engagement, advisors cannot be expected to hunt down relevant customer information in order to personalise an interaction. Even when captured in CRM, that information can remain hidden from view nestled behind multiple tabs and menus. No wonder we still hear the ‘system is slow today’ apology as the search for relevant details continues in the background.
There are multiple negatives from this way of working.
More time has to be spent on each customer, which inflates headcount costs. It then gets worse if the outcome is failure to find the right answer or get something done
immediately. Handoffs to other teams generate more work, inflate inbound queues with progress checking customers and put a big dent in the quality of customer experience for those who suffer.
Advisor motivation takes a hit too, as the pressure mounts on working harder. Command and control culture is reinforced to meet targets and the chemistry of an empowered employee culture driving positive customer experience starts to dissolve as a result. The ongoing stress of being underequipped and unable to do your best can hollow out the enthusiasm of even the most dedicated advisor.
But the good news is that it is possible to work smarter as opposed to expecting the team just to work harder. Advisors have the same right as customers to expect low effort engagement. This happens when a great desktop experience is enabling the right customer experience.
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Sep 20, 2018 • Features • contact centre • mplsystems • Paul White • field service • IFS • Service Management • Service Triage • Software and Apps • software and apps • Managing the Mobile Workforce
As humans, we communicate as readily as we breathe and eat. Whichever generation we are born into the desire to relate to the peer group we grow up with remains a constant. The difference lies in the communication technology at our disposal. in this...
As humans, we communicate as readily as we breathe and eat. Whichever generation we are born into the desire to relate to the peer group we grow up with remains a constant. The difference lies in the communication technology at our disposal. in this the first part of a new series of excerpts from the latest white paper from IFS we take a look at how communication is changing and technology is evolving.
Are improving your communication channels a key issue for you?! The full white paper on this topic available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Click the button below to get fully up to speed!
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While a choice of voice and text has been available to all current generations, their accessibility and immediacy has been transformed over the last forty years: from landline to smartphone, from letter to instant messaging. Our preferences tend to be based on the dominant channel(s) within our peer group
Generation Z parents famously wonder why voice has become such an alien channel to their children. Millennials can still manage a weekend catch up call to parents but typically revert to texting amongst friends, even though workdays become all about email. Meanwhile, silver surfers boast an expanded repertoire of being natively comfortable with live voice and increasingly up to speed with family group messaging.
Naturally, this personal use cascades into our lives as consumers and employees. Retaining our choices is expected. We still want to communicate in ways that suit us. Adoption of these expectations is as common in B2B as in B2C markets. The technology has become ubiquitous.
The problem, of course, is that brands and employers keep finding themselves behind the curve as new channels pop up.
Take messaging for example. The absolute dominance of Tencent’s
WeChat within Chinese daily life is such that cash and credit cards are already in rapid decline. We now see the same payment system being offered to Western brands that recognise revenue growth from Chinese tourists requires a trusted and familiar payment interface.
In terms of ‘messaging as a platform’, enabling users to get most things done in their lives, from booking doctor’s appointments to paying bills, the West lags the critical mass of functionality that WeChat has already gained. As of 2018, we are still at the very beginning of monetising messaging as a trusted channel between customers and organisations.
Although business case logic makes us hope that the latest channels will replace existing ones, the evidence says otherwise...
From a customer service leadership perspective, this must seem like a never-ending road. Although old as an industry topic, web chat remains the next new channel for many organisations. Even those already up and running are still sourcing the best practices required to engage effectively. Besides chat, many have also had to deal with social media and now find themselves being told that messaging is the next iteration.
However, the story gets worse.
Although business case logic makes us hope that the latest channels will replace existing ones, the evidence says otherwise. It is an expanding, rather than declining set that most organisations deal with. As such, it is hard to imagine that a single channel will ever emerge as the ‘silver bullet’.
Email is often written off as a legacy channel yet OFCOM’s 2017 communications report shows it remained the single most popular channel for 16+ adults in the UK. What does that imply if you want to be a customer-centric organisation?
Voice might be declining as is often reported, and yes, there are those millennial orientated brands that don’t do voice because their customers don’t, but it remains the dominant live channel of choice by some margin. For many customers, it has unique qualities. It’s faster than text as a form of communication. It’s richer in terms of emotion. Text channels have to augment with emojis.
As the dominant channel, it also attracts negative press for the lack of sophisticated routing many organisations still subject their customers too. First contact resolution without bumps is not as common as it should be. Customers expect low effort outcomes. Even so, once the right person is found, live voice still fulfils many of the expectations customers have for what a service experience should be.
In truth, we live in a world of five generations of consumers and employees. The choice of communication channel is ours. We pick whichever works for us. And by the way, if you think letter writing is dead just ask any complaints team!
So what does this mean? Does it condemn organisations that want to do the right thing by their customers to every increasing cost? The answer depends on what generation of infrastructure you are using.
Want to know more? The full white paper on this topic available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Click the button below to get fully up to speed!
Sponsored by:
Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this content.
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Sep 03, 2018 • News • contact centre • digitalisation • Digitalization • Energy • field service • field service management • Service Management • Software and Apps • utilities • Data Centres • Helen Finland • Tieto Smart Utilities • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
Finnish energy company Helen has selected the Tieto Smart Utility cloud solution to support its retail and distribution business. The new services improve competitiveness and operational efficiency by digitalizing the company’s key processes and...
Finnish energy company Helen has selected the Tieto Smart Utility cloud solution to support its retail and distribution business. The new services improve competitiveness and operational efficiency by digitalizing the company’s key processes and increasing the customer experience. This change also enables an easy connection to the data hub, the upcoming centralised data exchange solution for energy companies.
Helen is one of the leading energy companies in Finland with more than 400,000 customer sites.
Tieto Smart Utility optimises Helen’s key customer processes, such as multi-channel marketing, sales and customer service processes, as well as invoicing. This change provides Helen’s customer with a wider range of services in digital channels and makes customer service quicker and more accessible, contributing to a better customer experience.
The new solution serves Helen’s corporate and consumer operations and will be taken in use in electricity business 2/2020 and in district heating and cooling in 10/2020.
“We were looking for a solution that optimally responds to our current and future business needs. The energy market is in constant motion, and we wanted to find the best possible partner that is solution-driven and committed in the long term to developing its process to fulfil our specific expectations,” says Marko Riipinen, Senior Vice President, Sales and Customer Service at Helen.
“We are happy to expand our long-term partnership with Helen and to have this opportunity to improve Helen’s competitiveness by means of digitalisation. The rapidly changing energy market requires a high level of digitalization that significantly increases Helen’s competitiveness and enable better customer experiences. The energy industry must also prepare for future changes in the energy market, such as the transition to a supplier-centric model. Our continuously developing service range ensures that our customers reach a high level of process automation in their operations, at a competitive price,” says Olof Ferenius, Head of Energy Utilities at Tieto.
Tieto Smart Utility also boosts measuring and market data exchange processes in network operations and offers the functions required for the construction of network connections and the management of field activities.
Tieto Smart Utility is a modular Software as a Service solution designed for Nordic energy companies. It meets the requirements set out for the energy market in current and future regulations. The scalable cloud service also meets strict information security requirements by using Tieto’s Nordic data centres.
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May 28, 2018 • News • contact centre • Future of FIeld Service • omni channel • Zero-touch • zero-touch experiences • Ericsson • Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab • field service • Service Management • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
Consumer & IndustryLab released its latest Insight Report today - the Zero touch customer experience – exploring the future of customer interactions with mobile service providers.
Consumer & IndustryLab released its latest Insight Report today - the Zero touch customer experience – exploring the future of customer interactions with mobile service providers.
Today, smartphone users interact with operators across multiple touch points: from discovering offerings and signing up to services, to requesting support for ending a contract.
The report highlights consumers’ current frustrations at their interactions with their mobile service provider, taking on average 2.2 attempts and 4.1 days to successfully complete an interaction. This high customer effort impacts negatively on satisfaction levels.
Digitally leading brands offer the minimal effort interaction consumers prefer. Smartphone users now expect the same hassle-free, one-click digital experience from operators. The report highlights that mobile service providers can leapfrog to a zero-touch customer experience future by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics:
- Enabled by AI, telecom service providers could use data from earlier interactions and consumer behaviour to predict what consumers need before they even contact them for support. More than half (56 percent) of smartphone users expect operators to anticipate their needs even before they realize what they are.
- While we have grown accustomed to typing, clicking and swiping on our devices, new zero-touch methods are emerging based on voice, gestures, and augmented or virtual reality.One in ten households in the US already has a voice-enabled home assistant device such as Amazon Alexa. As voice assistants become more prominent in consumers’ everyday lives, they will expect integration of support interactions over those platforms too.
Digitally leading brands offer the minimal effort interaction consumers prefer.Pernilla Jonsson, Head of Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab, says: “Consumers believe telecom service providers treat touchpoints like isolated interactions."
"Siloed focus means they miss the bigger picture. Interestingly, telecom service providers could leapfrog one-click and move from multiple-click to zero-touch by deploying future technologies in their customer offerings. The zero-touch customer experience report shows that zero-touch experiences are now an expectation of their customers.”
Read The zero-touch customer experience’ Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab Insight Report here.
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Aug 01, 2017 • News • contact centre • Mergers and Acquisitions • mplsystems • end to end service • Field Service Management Ltd • IFS • Software and Apps
IFS, the global enterprise applications company, today announces it has completed the acquisition of mplsystems Limited and Field Service Management Limited.
IFS, the global enterprise applications company, today announces it has completed the acquisition of mplsystems Limited and Field Service Management Limited.
mplsystems Limited is a provider of omni-channel contact center and customer engagement software that, together with IFS’s leading Service Management offering, provides a complete end-to-end customer engagement solution. Field Service Management Limited, an implementation specialist of Field Service Management solutions in the UK and Ireland will bolster IFS’s Service Management sales, consulting, and support organisation in the region.
UK-based mplsystems Limited develops and implements omni-channel contact center and field service management solutions at some of the UK’s most well respected brands, including: Babcock International, HomeServe, Ecomaster, ENGIE, and Iceland. The company is recognised as a Visionary by Gartner in its Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service for Western Europe (published 24 October 2016) and a Niche Player in its Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center (published 8 May 2017), primarily thanks to its investment in innovation that has resulted in a flexible, integrated and easy-to-use contact center management platform.
Businesses around the world who want to deliver the best customer service from the moment a customer makes an enquiry through to an issue being resolved, now have the most complete and connected service management proposition available on the market
Commenting on the acquisitions, Fredrik vom Hofe, Group Senior Vice President for Business Development at IFS said “IFS is already recognised as a global leader in the Service Management sector, which we are extending further with these two acquisitions. The opportunity resulting from the acquisition of mplsystems will mean that businesses around the world who want to deliver the best customer service from the moment a customer makes an enquiry through to an issue being resolved, now have the most complete and connected service management proposition available on the market’.
Paul White, CEO of mplsystems Limited, stated “The team at mplsystems is delighted to be joining forces with IFS. We now have a great opportunity to take our award winning omni-channel and customer engagement solutions onto the world stage”.
Alex Stratis, research analyst at IDC, commented: “IFS is not only extending but also strengthening its Service Management proposition with the acquisition of mplsystems. The combination of IFS’s existing capabilities in managing field service with mplsystems’ ability to connect to service recipients via contact center, web, text, and mobile interfaces means customer engagement can be managed in a more integrated way. Both companies share similar values in innovation and a customer centric mindset which is important for the businesses to effectively integrate.”
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Jul 12, 2016 • News • contact centre • Contact Centre • Frost and Sullivan • Software and Apps • Teleopti • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
Based on its recent analysis of the workforce management (WFM) solutions market, Frost & Sullivan have recognised Teleopti with the 2016 EMEA Frost & Sullivan Award for Customer Value Leadership.
Teleopti's pioneering work in the WFM market, backed by the outstanding customer value of its full-featured product set, has earned it an eminent position in the market. Its commitment to product innovation is highlighted by the richness of its features in all areas, from forecasting and scheduling to performance management and agent enablement.
Teleopti was an early mover in the WFM market, and is now one of the last of the pure-play WFM providers, allowing it to focus on improving WFM and not spread resources over the other areas of agent performance optimisation (APO). It has a powerful, flexible, versatile, best-of-breed WFM solution that meets the diverse needs of European and global markets. Its solutions are available on-premise and in the cloud, allowing companies of all sizes to choose the option that best fits their budgets.
"Being able to deliver its solution on-premise, the company has an advantage in countries that are reluctant to move to the cloud. However, as with the rest of the industry, Teleopti provides cloud-based alternatives as well,”
Being headquartered in Sweden, in a region with numerous countries and various labor laws, has given Teleopti knowledge of specific needs across different regions. For instance, for the Middle East market, Teleopti created a prayer planning function within its product that inserts breaks at the required times. The agent screens also accommodate differences in language — including reading from right to left — and regional calendars.
The company differentiates itself through its consulting model and staffing tenured consultants with expertise in contact centres.
Customer engagements start with pre-installation analysis, but a critical component of the engagement is that the consultant sticks with the customer for the first half year after implementation, before handing off to a post-sales support team. This model tends to be expensive, but it has paid off for Teleopti by ensuring long-term customer satisfaction.
"Teleopti has been successful in its attempts to deliver top-class ownership experience, as evidenced by 9 out of 10 of Teleopti’s customers recommending the solution to others,"
The company also places due emphasis on employee satisfaction, providing easy-to-use and visually appealing access for agents on mobile devices, supporting shift trading or requesting time off no matter where they are. Gamification is another key area designed to keep employees motivated and engaged.
Significantly, the company’s offerings have attracted notable partners, including system integrator and value-added reseller partners normally found in the ranks of well-established contact centre players. Longstanding partnerships with companies such as ZOOM International, ASC, and Telstrat enable Teleopti to go head-to-head against the more entrenched WFO suite providers.
Overall, strategic partnerships and a rich product line have ensured customer loyalty and profitability for Teleopti, making it a name to be reckoned with in the EMEA WFM market.
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in implementing strategies that proactively create value for its customers with a focus on improving the return on the investment that customers make in its services or products. The award recognizes the company's inordinate focus on enhancing the value that its customers receive, beyond simply good customer service, leading to improved customer retention and, ultimately, customer base expansion.
Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for outstanding achievement in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research.
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