Month: November 2023

 Customer experience also known as CX can be defined as our customer’s holistic view of their experience with the business. It is the sum total of all the interactions leading up to the final business transaction. It could mean interactions on phone, e-mail, chats or on person ones. Every Interaction counts towards customer experience and excellent customer service needs to be delivered every step of the way. When we talk about CX we refer to the collective experience, the totality of all the interactions.

Chatbot is ever growing in the customer CX strategy.AI is the propeller that is helping in enhancing the CX experience, making it popular in the current Indian BPO companies. The phenomenon is just entering the Indian market but has already taken the business outsourcing world by storm.

AI propelled chatbots are all the rage now owing to the fact that they aid companies of all sizes and businesses to build a digital, automated customer service and enhance customer experience. More so relevant in BPO’s and KPO’s where chatbots are currently used with great panache.

Customers need hands on services now a days. Everything a click away. Quicker solutions, quicker resolutions and quicker deliverance is the name of the customer service game. Customers constantly use multiple channels to access customer service. Survey’s worldwide have indicated that customers prefer automated and self-service options as compare to actual personal interactions which tend to be more time consuming and at specific times. However, the automated interactions need to be convenient and easy to understand. The only time customers seek out the human interactions are the ones wherein things are too complicated and crucial to deal with machines.

AI induced technological enhancements are being embraced world over with much fanfare as they definitely do make life easier for all involved as well as make the CX experience more versatile. Customers often look at AI induced technology with suspicion when compared to the human interaction. Hence the best approach is the mixed or hybrid approach with AI induced technology /tools for routine, repetitive customer inquiries and human interaction for more complex and critical situations.

Chatbots are using a combination of natural language processing, voice recognition, traditional analytics. This can get really close to providing some classy CX experience.

AI is the propeller or enabler and not an end in itself .AI is everywhere then why not BPO’s and KPO’s? Just like any sound business planning, firstly the company must have proper CX goals and planning to attain them.

The business ethics, goals and basic culture can have a solid say in AI adoption.

STEP 1: DEFINE YOUR CX VISION 

Need to define your CX vision. This is a must and first step towards AI adoption. Where are we going?  what are our key goals vis-a-vis AI driven technology? These are some relevant questions to be worked on before making the AI driven move.

STEP 2: IDENTIFY CRITICAL MICRO-MOMENTS AND ASSOCIATED SERVICE NEEDS

Businesses need to have detailed understanding of the kind of requirement from the customers end .This is very critical because all things follow this .We are looking at enhancing CX experience and it’s the customer who is at the receiving end  .One false step can make or break the CX .Start by identifying micro moments wherein compliments floated , customers were delighted , empathy ruled .Customers loyalty is earned and what happy interactions built  that trust ?Alternatively what ruined an interaction .Seemingly nice interactions due to a small slip turned sour and ruined a great CX .Look closely at those slips , they can be a great eye opener and study in CX .Disappointments , frustrations leading to a bad CX and compliments and delights leading to a great CX .every emotion counts .

STEP 3: EVALUATE AI TECHNOLOGIES BASED ON DIFFERENT SERVICE NEEDS

Now once businesses have decided to opt for AI technologies, how to choose the relevant one? With so many AI vendors around and so much on offer how to choose the one which suits the business most. More and more Indian BPO’s are opting for AI based technology by synchronising their goals with the essence of the AI tools.

The best bet is to go for a mix of AI technologies that can cater to our specific needs and also prove value for money .How closely the AI technology can align with our specific business aspirations and goals can have the final say.

STEP 4: DEVELOP A CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION PLAN ON HOW AI WILL ‘AFFECT ME’

Customers are at the receiving end of all this exercise hence a proper communication plan needs to be in place .Customers should be aware how the AI induced technology will impact them and what to expect out of them at all .Customers can have a wide spectrum of queries on this namely how this will impact them? What all will be different and how they can access it etc.

STEP 5: PILOT, MEASURE, REFINE, ROLL-OUT

All the automation happening is definitely to enhance CX and not hamper it .AI and chatbots are all but propellers for CX .How this will impact our customers in the long run is still too early to say as this is still in initial stages .But the crux remains the same that chatbots and AI are all embraced with the intent to enhance and not hamper CX in any way .Proper planning , goal setting , visualising , measuring the results and rolling out the best one’s are the idea behind embracing AI tools like chatbots .

BPM or Business process management ensures that a management process is in place for setting goals and policies, practices, procedures, organisational structure, roles to ensure enterprise goals will be achieved.

BPM can help monitor & optimize processes for Insurance companies, agencies & carriers while maintaining their market share & profitability.

BPM software helps companies to identify and define the various steps required to complete each business task. It then amalgamates these steps onto existing business processes. Streamlining the processes wherever possible to create a more efficient and robust one.

Let’s look at the benefits of BPM:

• Helps in streamlining the business current processes.
• Ensures creation of business processes spanning various departments across varied locations
• Helps in creating and strengthening the business processes
• Helps in integration into the existing business processes
• Enhances productivity and efficiency
• Helps in increasing new businesses

In short BPM system helps in designing, execution, maintenance of business activities. This can be done across locations and departments.

BPM can actually be a big support when it comes to optimization in various BPO management. As it helps in optimizing the business processes for greater efficiency.

BPM role in insurance market:

BPM is set to become major player in insurance market. BPM market is expected to grow at a very fast pace and is set to become a major force in insurance worldwide and in India as well. More and more insurance companies have opted for BPM.

Standalone implementations of BPM has numerous advantages which can’t be ignored by the insurance companies. While most of the challenges faced by insurance companies are similar to one faced by any business but few like managing risks remain attributed mainly to this sector.

BPM is used in various insurance arenas like claims, underwriting etc.

In extremely competitive market like insurance differentiation through innovative technologies like BPM is very crucial and profitable way to enhance productivity and efficiency in insurance processes across locations and departments. By implementing BPM insurance numerous qualitative and quantitate advantages can be achieved.

In nutshell below are the profits of BPM in insurance sector:

• Helps in increasing market share.
• Helps in increasing profitability.
• Improves and optimizes the insurance process without compromising on the quality aspects.

BPM can be applied on claims entries, claims follow up’s claims status updates, claims close outs and reporting the data. Currently in India BPM is being incorporated in claims handling, policy servicing, accounting, claims renewals, quality assurance etc.

In today’s competitive business environment role of BPM has been in frontline more than ever. To gain an edge over the competition and ensuring high efficiency and productivity along with innovative techniques invariably involves BPM.

All the insurance companies are vying for being the top-notch service provider this goes without saying -How BPM is supporting this is a study in point. While seeking to increase effectiveness and productivity of management they invariably face challenges in the form of providing faster responses , reducing operational costs ,ensuring satisfying solutions to the customers, retaining customers , quick responses to regulatory issues .As is evident insurance sector is also one sector which grapples with high volumes of data , excessive manual processes, higher error rates in the processes .Various surveys conducted worldwide has put one important point in focus that BPM application has had a positive impact on the insurance sector.

In a nutshell BPM in insurance sector can have tremendous potential as its implementation can prove to be an effective way to process claims and simultaneously manage risk. BPM can significantly reduce overall claims processing time.

BPM has definitely helped companies in India as well as abroad maintain a competitive edge by

Enhancing and optimizing their business processes without having to compromise on efficiency, quality and the response time .BPM is definitely set to become a force to reckon with in the insurance sector .Surveys worldwide have indicated that BPM is currently the most readily implemented or in the to do list plan .BPM enables companies in analysing    numerous benefits related to operational efficiency as well as business innovation.

Many firms worldwide have concluded that they almost received 100% return on their BPM implementation

BPM has also helped companies in maintaining consistency in the process as well. The manifold benefits and BPM emerging as a force to reckon with has prompted many Indian insurance BPO’s to opt for BPM.

While BPM is definitely seems very promising and emerging as a toast of the town kind of procedure still it has also few shortcomings which need to be catered to. BPM implementations require coordinated and committed team for smooth implementations.

BPM are also viewed as that extra edge to the highly competitive market scenario as it helps in getting a company to stay ahead with its clear competitive edge that it provides to the companies.

In the intensely competitive insurance market, differentiation through innovative technologies like BPM is an important and effective way to maintain or increase market share and profitability in the sector. Insurers can achieve numerous qualitative advantages by opting for it.

Outbound customer satisfaction campaigns entail calling customers with the intention of making sales. If we were to add customer satisfaction then it involves calling with the intent to get data on customer’s experience with the sale made .To do so , is very crucial task as it can ultimately lead to gathering important data as to customer’s satisfaction , generating further leads, marketing and promoting the product .

Now Let’s look at the factors which are making outbound customer satisfaction fail:

1 Lacking relevant customer Data insights

Decisions can be based on customer’s preference only when we are fully aware of their preferences. So businesses need to focus more on data driven approach to ensure accurate data collection and acting on them. This would result in much better interaction and better prospects of gaining customer’s attention and CX  data .Currently this is one of the major reason for an outbound satisfaction campaign to fail .

2 Multi channel calling of the customer and not using omni channels for communication 

Multi-channel calling entails using various channels for making outbound interaction .This includes Direct calls to the customers , reaching customers via emails , live chats , websites etc .However all of these channels work in isolation and centralised collection of data is not there resulting in callers taking up fresh calls each time they reach customers .They are not able to pick up from the last interaction .This is one of the major reasons why an outbound customer satisfaction channel fails .With omni channel multiple channels are also offered but the experience is more seamless as all the relevant information is centrally stored and accessible to the agent and hence enabling them to pick up from where they left last time .Resulting in more fruitful and satisfactory interaction as the agents are able to access all the previous interactions and appropriately offer solution to the issue .Customers are also happy and satisfied as they don’t have to repeat  the previous history again .

3 Not analysing customer sentiment 

Now a days sentiment analysis tools are all the rage .These tools help in gauging the various moods of the customers Extremely relevant in the case of outbound customer calling for gauging CX .Survey’s have indicated that an incensed or not satisfied customer can reach out to an average of 16 people with the tarnished image .This can result in some serious damage to the image of the business and CX can never be attained if this remains the case .Gauging customer sentiment has always been important for any interaction with customers especially the one involving personal contact via phones .Agents are not equipped and it is also not fully possible to gauge the customer mood on the call always resulting in some seriously dented calls and making CX go for a toss .There is only so much that Trainings of the agents can do .Now it is all about AI and machine learning which can tackle the issue .

Sentiment analysis tools make use of AI technology and analyse customer moods with help of CX interactions. Customers speech patterns and tone are used for analysis .Currently not been able to do so is one of the major reasons why the CX outbound calls fail because agents are not able to gauge the customer’s sentiment accurately and on wrong footing causes them to land in soup .With trepidation, callers have to proceed on the call and accordingly respond which is easier said than done.

4 Not utilizing Social media effectively 

Gone are the days when outbound calls entailed calling up customers and getting the job done .Now outbound campaigns are not just about traditional communication  tools like phones and emails .These have been revamped As per a survey conducted average customer spends at least 2 hours and 24 mins on social media  which is inclusive of Twitter , Face book, What’s app, LinkedIn etc hence making these the ideal platform for CX interactions .Currently if we need to stay ahead in the game, these platforms need to be utilized to the fullest to reap good results where CX outbound calling is concerned .And customers also prefer being reached out via these modes .Not focusing enough on social media platforms has become one of the top reasons why an outbound CX campaign tend to fail .

5 outbound calls   no longer favoured by the customers 

Calls and text scams are rampant everywhere .This has made customers wary of picking up CX calls .reaching out to the customers via calling has in itself become a tough nut to crack .Inflexibility in out bound calls need to be fixed for effective CX campaigns .Customers are preferring other ways of reaching out to them as calls invariably results in long hold and catching them at wrong time .Customers unwillingness to respond on phones is also major reason for cx calls campaigns failing.

In this digital-driven world, we are becoming tech-savvy to the extent that our lives and business operations depend entirely on technology. Treading on the path of digitization, businesses enjoy a competitive edge in the market as well as are able to offer high-end customer experiences.
Amidst the present turbulent times induced by the pandemic, the customers’ preferences and behaviors are also undergoing a huge shift. They now demand high-end experiences. Hence, tech deployment especially AI adoption is a viable solution for organizations to cater to the rising and diversifying demands of their customers.

Conversational AI: The new-age solution
Conversational AI in simpler terms refers to the form of the program where the interaction between the human body and the computer in the form of speech and text can be settled. The technology works to recognize the type of text and respond to it automatically or manually through inbuilt programming.
Artificial Intelligence is not just an autonomous solution. It has a significant impact on the organizations as a tool. This new-age technology has various applications in businesses across industries. Chatbots are one such prominent example. They help simulate a human-like conversation with natural language through the use of Artificial Intelligence.
According to the report by Markets and Markets, the global Conversational AI market is estimated to grow up to $18.4 million by 2026 and CAGR at 21.8% during the forecast period of 2021-2026. The major factors driving the growth of the market are the increasing need of AI for customer service, elevated omnichannel strategies as well as chatbot production. In India specifically, AI is adoption is still in its nascent stages but this trend will pick up pace in the times ahead. It will be primarily used by the businesses for enhancing customer experiences.
How AI Benefits Business
AI assists to promote the business of every sector and drives its growth. The solution helps by putting the business model at the forefront and backing it up with technology. For instance, chatbots are cost-effective solutions utilized for enhancing customer service and ensuring competitive intelligence as well as smart cyber security.
AI can build the robust foundation to improve the experience with the customers on a wide and transverse channel to execute the brand’s omnichannel strategies. In particular, technology is now the center of attraction of every organization, and if we follow the trend, we can conclude that AI is an essential and extraordinary technology of this generation to solve any technical issue. Because it offers a plethora of benefits to businesses; it is gaining prominence!
For organizations, developing an advanced omnichannel model, the strategies are the main concern. It’s not about being able to operate all the channels; the concept encompasses one unified brand and seamless experiences.
For businesses to achieve success, merely offering premium products and services isn’t sufficient. They need to step up their game and go a notch higher by focusing on ensuring customer satisfaction. This is where omnichannel strategy driven by AI steps into the picture!
Omnichannel Capabilities
Omnichannel refers to the multichannel approach that is inclined to focus on providing an effective customer experience at multiple touchpoints such as phones, laptops, or desktops. There are various BPOs present in the market that offer next-gen conversational AI solutions and help elevate the omnichannel capabilities of their clients.
Omnichannel capabilities such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Human Resource Management System (HRMS), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) need AI for development. Backed by AI, these omnichannel tools offer quick time response times, reduce operational costs, optimize sources, and ensure better business outcomes. They also help businesses stay connected with their customers and offer them seamless experiences.
According to a recent study by Accenture, 89% of customers used at least one digital platform to go through their favorite brands in 2020. This trend was witnessed because of the sole reason that the consumers prefer interacting with their favorite brands to explore exception offers and promotional deals in the online space.
India has a list of leading BPO service providers that specialize in providing technical support to businesses all over India. ICCS however, stands out from the rest with its ‘Partnership Approach’ and vision to help businesses achieve their goals. The organization offers a diverse range of services such as Customer experienceSupport, customer acquisition and revenue optimization Hardware, and Product Support, Technical Support, IT Support, etc. just to mention a few!
The bottom line
By leveraging the power of conversational AI, interaction across various channels has become efficient. The technology has indeed upscale the omnichannel capabilities of businesses. BPOs in such a scenario step in as a blessing in disguise, offering the requisite support to businesses and helping them tread on the path of digitization in the truest sense!

Fostering relationships with customers, vendors, and employees is an essential element for businesses. This will help in not only help in building a positive work culture but will also ensure smooth operations and increased efficiency.

Communication is the key to the success of any business. It is equally important for your relationships with your customers, stakeholders, other partners, etc. For an organization, all three are pillars and form its very core. Hence, having meaningful relationships with all these parties is imperative. Interacting with them helps businesses understand their needs and serve them better.

Enterprises communicating with customers, employees, and vendors

In the present scenario, as digitization has picked up pace; enterprises can gather insights and data about the customers’, employees’ and vendors’ preferences. This further enables organizations to personalize their operations and modify them for the betterment of the firms. Even if the interaction happens online, developing connections is important.

In order to make them feel valued, enterprises must know how to utilize readily available data to connect with them. Since doing this in-house isn’t possible, enterprises are considering associating with Business Process Outsourcing firms for building connections with these parties.

BPOs take over various roles of sales processing, accounting, payroll, HR, IT, Operations Management, etc., and relieve the employees from mundane tasks thereby allocating them time for core functions. They ease out the ability of managing operations by reducing the workload of employees. With BPOs, enterprises can enjoy a competitive advantage over the other players in the market.

Customer servicing

The well-established enterprises have a large workforce with their specific job roles and responsibilities. They have to deal with a large volume of customers and hence ensuring effective customer servicing is important.

Customer servicing is one of the essential ways of establishing a relationship with your customers. BPOs offer a variety of customer servicing solutions. Technical support, payment processing, after-sales service, feedback, etc. are some of the primary services. Other offerings such as live email and chat support, accounting, back-office solution, telemarketing services, data entry, market research, and analytics, offer a versatile experience to the customers enabling them to connect via their preferred modes. These services help build up customer experiences and a strong customer base as well as create trust amongst businesses.

Knowing your customers, their needs, and how to interact with them is your responsibility. If you are considering outsourcing customer service; then, you should know their preferred channels of contact.

Having a thorough understanding of your customers’ profiles and their past experiences will give you guidelines in determining what services to contract and who will be the most reliable partner.

Employee management

Developing a relationship with your employees is another critical element paving the way for the success of your company. The most powerful way to build a relationship with employees is by valuing their opinions and asking them regularly how it is going. It’s always nice to compliment a loyal employee and encourage them for their hard work and value addition to the firm.

Every connection requires proactive honesty. This is especially true in organization-employee relationships. Honest and transparent communication is essential for building relationships with your employees.

The workforce should also be appreciated for their work. They have to be reassured that their efforts are meaningful and are valued by the organization! On an individual and team level, expressing gratitude for a worker’s efforts goes a long way toward increasing employee engagement and driving their loyalty.

Connections with vendors 

It is paramount to a company’s success to build long-term relationships with vendors, and effective communication will help to strengthen those bonds. Vendor relationships are a two-way street. When speaking with a vendor, you should share all the information regarding your products and get to know about their services as well. Take the initiative of leading the conversation. Always keep in mind that you’re conversing with a person, and each conversation has an impact on future associations.

It is important to have the required reliable knowledge about the vendor’s background. Ask them questions and give them to come back to you with the best deals. Communicate with the suppliers when their product or service was a success and be specific about what they did well when appreciating them. This kind of affirmation will help them figure out how to best serve you in the future as well. Set your expectations and communicate them with your vendor so that they can serve you better.

The bottom line

Consistent and effective communication is the key to any organization’s growth. Customers, employees, vendors are all important pillars of firms driving their growth. Hence, the need is to meet their demands and communicate your requirements effectively. This will help in fostering meaningful relationships that will last longer and will contribute in the enterprise’s growth.

With the advent of technology, we are evolving into a digitally-driven world where we are increasingly becoming tech-savvy together with our lives and corporate operations being fully dependent on technology. Companies that follow the path of digitization have a competitive advantage in the market and are able to provide high-end customer experiences to support their journey. They now expect first-rate service. Customers’ preferences and habits are changing dramatically as a result of the current pandemic-induced upheaval. The consumer services business is a constantly changing market that is experiencing exceptional expansion. It is projected that India would emerge and surpass the United States as the world’s largest consumer market.

Omnichannel-For Customer Experience 

 

An omnichannel customer experience is composed of numerous customer touchpoints deployed over a range of channels that seamlessly interconnect, allowing customers to pick up where they left off on one channel and continue the encounter on the other. Companies nowadays can offer several channels of consumer engagement—web, call, digital, email, and others—but that is only half of the customer experience. Bracing diverse communication channels within a single meeting allows for the complete omnichannel customer experience that today’s customers want.

The omnichannel customer experience (CX) is critical for businesses that include BPOs sector to deliver the right insights into consumer interactions and behavior across their life cycle. The most effective omnichannel customer strategies keep a large percentage of their customers.

With the advent of Omnichannel during the pandemic-fueled, e-commerce is largely a transitory fad. Furthermore, consumers have high expectations: throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, convenience and value were frequently listed as top reasons for shopping at a new merchant. While omnichannel continues to provide added convenience for consumers, grocery companies’ profitability remains an issue. Sales have risen exponentially, particularly during the pandemic’s lockdowns, but so did prices. In fact, the positive or negative experience customers have across multiple touchpoints is now what defines the brand. Despite the fact that omnichannel is here to stay, retailers must figure out how to profit across all channels.

 

Key in the Evolving landscape 

 

In an expanding market, omnichannel experience is essential for the potential growth of the business across sectors, and the grocery industry is no different. In recent years, the well-known process of driving to the grocery store, grabbing a cart, loading it with food, and checking out at a register has transformed. Grocery shopping is now taking place both online and in physical places, giving new potential and capacity to deliver omnichannel experiences—whether buyers are carrying grocery bags home from the store or having them delivered straight to their doorstep. Furthermore, grocery shopping will continue to be done both online and in physical places. By developing new ways to engage customers, brands can be present across their omnichannel buying journeys.

Customers currently expect a seamless experience when buying. This means that brands should think about meeting customers’ increased expectations no matter when, where, or how they shop for groceries. Consumers now purchase on their own time, throughout the day, all year round, thanks to the changing era. Brands can stay present during these everyday times by delivering important information before, during, and after the supermarket trip to help inform purchasing decisions. To establish consumer relationships and bonds, however, every organization takes a customer-centric approach.

ICCS- Paving the way 

With the current situation, omnichannel assistance or customer experience is being implemented or is being adopted in various businesses including BPOs and changing the landscapes across industries. The BPO value proposition, which was formerly based on labour arbitrage and economies of scale, has evolved to match the needs of the omnichannel client toward the trajectory.

ICCS is a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firm that specializes in HR automation. They help businesses stand tall by providing external assistance to the company’s employees. To reap the benefits of cost savings, ICCS deploys world-class recruitment strategies and market knowledge reductions and scalability, as well as process perfection, are required in order to provide tailored services to assist in meeting end-to-end requirements

Technology is the single unifying element that is revolutionizing everything in today’s world, from the way we carry out routine, critical chores to the way we work, discover, and interact. If emerging power was the driving force behind the industrial revolution, then advanced cognitive automation is the driving force behind a business’s digital transformation.

Whether we’re talking about fully or semi-automatic machinery that assembles automotive parts or heavy-duty machinery that has permanently changed the manufacturing process, automation has optimized operations and productivity across all sectors of the manufacturing industry. Similarly, enhanced robotic automation has altered the way we acquire, manage, and process enterprise and business data in order to produce actionable insights for better decision-making.

Automation is one of those popular buzzwords that has been catching more and more. Automation is a result of new-age technology in business processes, applications, and data. The ultimate goal is to improve the customer experience and empower the productivity of employees.

Empowering Employee Experience with Automation 

We have ushered in a new era of rapid technological advancement and societal upheaval, which has left people disconnected, agitated, and disoriented. This not only affects work engagement, but also the general well-being of employees. According to McKinsey’s study, development activities, such as working remotely and partnerships, that executives estimated to take 15 months, occurred in considerably less than 11 days, with a factor of 43 accelerated. In several cases, businesses that declared and implemented these adjustments did not use effective change management tactics throughout and, more importantly, after the changes.

As a result, employees felt lost, overwhelmed, alienated, frustrated, and anxious as a result. Furthermore, communication has dropped and the way in which it is communicated has evolved. In many situations, employees did not receive direction or support on how to continue meeting job requirements or how they would be judged outside of the generalized instruction to work from home or use specific technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc. Just a few examples!

According to International Data Corporation (IDC)’s recent survey, 60% of employees collaborate with bots for work. Results from recent Asia-Pacific surveys, including India’s Future of Work and Employee Perspectives Survey 2022, reveal that automation is increasingly integrated into daily work. The report further highlighted that automation is changing how individuals approach their jobs, and there is a greater need for enterprises to accelerate their automation strategy and deployment plans. As a result, implementing a smart automation programme is a means for organizations of all sizes to increase employee engagement and recognition.

Engage your audience instead of Monotone

Doing the same repetitive, manual operations raises the likelihood of errors, which can result in costly penalties or even contract termination. In short, employees who perform these jobs become bored and disengaged. This is where automation might be a wise choice since it can manage both simple and complex tasks across the organization. Employers can move employees to learn new skills and undertake higher-value work when they adopt automation.

Contribute to the achievement of growth and sales targets.

Automation offers more than simply eliminating manual tasks. It greatly lowers costly errors, resulting in significantly decreased risks and increased client trust. Companies can achieve scalable growth by boosting productivity with automation to acquire more output from the same resources. As a result, educating, training, and upskilling the existing workforce should be a top focus right now. Employees are given more responsibility for their own achievements.

Accelerate growth.

The significance of new skill development and re-skilling programmes cannot be overstated – now more than ever. We are all aware that automation, rising technologies, and digital transformation in general are producing new positions that will necessitate the acquisition of new skill sets by individuals.

Increase ROI 

The simplest method to enhance return on investment is to educate the workers on the proper use and maintenance of automation (ROI). Investing in training the workforce in the proper use, troubleshooting, and maintenance of the automated system will reduce downtime, lower the risk of damage due to improper equipment use, and even increase the amount of turnover in the business. It is also less expensive. Additionally, adopting automation in business might help to boost total ROI now and in the future.

Automation provides significant benefits, such as enhanced efficiency and a reduction in monotonous or tedious work, resulting in less time spent on fact-finding and more time spent on insightful and extensive discussions. One big downside is the lack of human touch, which can lead to low employee engagement. Employees are not allowed to connect with customers or coworkers. They lack a physical or metaphorical common area, a place in the office where employees can gather for informal discussions. New digital technologies are required for the present paradigm of digital workspaces, where individuals are geographically separated. While the workplace has transformed dramatically, many firms are battling with how to establish connections with people and keep employees energized.

ICCS is a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firm that delivers automation services to boost ROI, find new ideas, and empower individuals in the workplace. They help organizations stand tall by providing cutting-edge technologies for the firm and its workers. ICCS leverages world-class recruitment strategies and market insights to capitalize on the benefits of cost savings, scalability, and process perfection in order to provide tailored services that can help fulfil end-to-end needs. In addition, the company contributes in a well-defined manner, bringing forth all of the knowledge and talents to produce major results that can help firms greatly boost their revenue and reach.

Over the last two decades, the way businesses communicate with customers has changed significantly.
Remarkably high-end experiences are something that every customer desires. For every business, the
customer is the king and hence they work with a customer-centric approach. The primary strategy is
customer engagement in which the content is made available as per the requirements of the
prospective customers to grab their attention. However, they now demand customized experiences as
well. Today’s marketing style focuses on providing seamless experiences throughout the customer
journey and delivering products according to their needs. In addition, this has been possible through the
implementation of omnichannel interactions. This strategy is now becoming a trend by surpassing the
initial phase of experimentation. Omnichannel interaction contains lead generating and customer
engagement techniques that use multiple platforms to deliver information about products and services
to the prospect. Now, companies can significantly understand the prospect and generate strategies for
winning in the markets.

Multiple choices for Customers
To have a competitive edge in the market, companies need to be present phygital (both physical and
digital platforms). Today, the customers are present everywhere and with access to smartphones and
the internet, they can access every platform with a single click. Thus, it becomes imperative for brands
to be present where they are so that they can reach out to their customers. At this stage being
omnichannel will give an advantage to the brand as wherever the customer wants to connect, they can
get accessibility in a hassle-free manner. According to a report by McKinsey & Company, personalization
increases revenues from 5% to 15% and also accelerates marketing efficiency up to 30% collectively,
omnichannel is a process of providing a unified experience with the help of multiple channels. Also,
when the customer can communicate with the company on multiple platforms, there is a chance of
gaining higher retention rates.

Customers prefer the companies who know their preferences
When given a chance to select between two companies, one is asking too many questions and the other
showing the relevant information to the customer, they generally reach out for the second option. The
companies following the omnichannel approach generate a sense of confidence and trust in the
customer. According to Harvard Business Review partnered with Maritz Motivation Solutions, when
customers were catered with personalized ads, the click-through rate (CTR) increased by 11% and
revenues increased by 38%.
To know the preferences of the prospect, companies need to follow an analytical approach. Data and
information are two prominent aspects of evaluating and understanding the customer base. But
companies should also stay aware of the analysis-paralysis phenomenon where the company assesses a
lot of information and is uncertain about the predictions.
Companies get better control over customer touchpoints
There can be multiple touchpoints through which the customers can connect with a brand or a
company. But the companies must also need to understand their touchpoints to improvise the rate of
customer satisfaction. They can start by devising strategies in terms of pricing, customer feedback,
content, integration, and implementation. The customer journey can be divided into three categories
that could help identify touchpoints that are before purchase, during purchase, and post-purchase.
Before purchase, a customer comes across a blog or an advertisement to know about the product or
brand. This primary stage introduces the brand to the prospect. During the purchase phase, if the
customer adds the product to their cart or Wishlist, the companies can use targeted advertising and
email marketing for customer acquisition. At this stage, the customer is likely to get converted and can
communicate effectively with the brand. Lastly, for the post-purchase phase, the roadmap must include
customer feedback and customer support. In this phase, if the customer has issues with the product quality or delivery experience, they must have the means to contact the company easily and get their grievance resolved in real-time.
In such a scenario, the customer communication process can be facilitated by the usage of the latest
technology such as AI chatbots for primary contact and automation for content dispersion.
Improvised brand promotion with higher satisfaction
When customers contact support, they expect businesses to listen to their grievance and solve it
effectively. Also, they expect a quicker response with ease of accessibility to the customer support
executive. When the customer experiences satisfaction with the services, they tend to stay connected
with the company and eventually stay loyal. This process creates a positive impact on the prospect and
they eventually end up referring the brand to their family and friends. Omnichannel interactions
improvise brand promotion as the customer expects companies to behave similarly on every platform.
The strategy can include optimizing websites and applications to the customer’s expectations. In
addition, brands must also work on the user interface (UI) to simplify the interaction process and to set
a clear brand identity.

Uniting various functions of a company
Following an omnichannel approach means incorporating a myriad of departments to work on a single
goal. This can be only possible with crisp communication between all levels of the stakeholders and the
employees. To deliver excellent results, marketing, sales, tech, PR, customer support, and many other
departments should land on the same page. The omnichannel approach reduces pain points, unifies
touchpoints, integrates platforms, and accelerates the buying process for the customers.
Final Thoughts
To stay ahead in the market and create seamless experiences for the customers, companies need to
focus on devising omnichannel strategies. A customer prefers personalization in terms of shopping
experience and an omnichannel approach can place the product in the right market as well as on the
right touchpoint of the prospect. Adapting technological solutions leads to better customer data
extraction and thus resulting in precise analysis. This data-driven and analytical approach further paves
way for devising customer-based strategies.

Today customers demand instant solutions to their problems as well as high-end experiences and the
omnichannel interaction provides the frontline support. Overall the prospect expects the companies to
be present everywhere, whether it is brick and mortar or a website and omnichannel interactions
facilitate this process. Due to the plethora of benefits, it brings for businesses, it is emerging to be a major
component of organizational strategies and is expected to be the future of marketing.

Five Implementation in the Transition to Omnichannel Sales

Most sales businesses struggled to stay viable during the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous others were able to maintain and grow their presence. Businesses with the most sophisticated digital capabilities were the winners. Rising customer expectations complicate digital selling and put existing infrastructure to the test.

Sales platforms, on the other hand, are incapable of identifying, reaching out to, and communicating with customers across numerous channels. As a result, the firm’s ability to provide differentiated consumer experiences or satisfy global expansion objectives is hampered. Marketers must be able to reach out to customers through several channels, leveraging process optimization to meet consumer expectations while addressing back-end concerns. Hence, having an omnichannel presence has emerged as a critical need of the hour in moving.

OmniChannel Sales-The Factor for Moving Forward

The terms omnichannel communications or contact centre refer to a channel in which client interactions are smoothly blended into one. This covers communication from physical stores as well as channels that are outsourced. They can take the form of email, SMS, phone calls, or chats. Agents can switch between interfaces without losing consumer information obtained during a previous contact.

In a company’s customer service interface, omnichannel is sometimes conflated with multichannel systems. Omnichannel uses a single database to store consumer information. When one agent receives a call from a customer, the information is maintained in the same database so that if the company needs to contact the same individual again, they can easily pick up where they left off.

 Factor shifting to OmniChannel Sales

Successful migrations from a multichannel model, in which multiple channels coexist, to a fully integrated omnichannel model have five components.

Customer Communication

When considering omnichannel sales, it is common to overlook customer communication. It is critical to communicate the status of an order in a timely and straightforward manner. The more information customers have throughout their experience, the more likely they are to become repeat customers through fulfillment. Even apparently minor differences have a significant impact. Timely communications that bring clients up to date on the status of their order go a long way toward instilling trust. Customers should be kept up to date from the time they place their order until they safely pick up their goods. And once they’ve completed the pickup, the company should not only thank the customer for their business, but also keep them engaged with promos and upsell offers.

Proactive management of channel conflicts

Many companies report increased channel rivalry as a result of field sales jobs working from home, comparable to inside sales, and they are particularly concerned about their connections with distributors, which has impeded e-commerce advancement. Channels deal with it proactively, using segmentation to discover the best combination of clients, products as well as services. The omnichannel taskforce at the organization was able to recommend particular channels for various items and consumer segments.
Enhanced Digital Route 

The first step in adopting any successful omnichannel plan of action is to use a digital route that gives near real-time accuracy. In certain cases, IT systems have proven unable to satisfy the demands of their omnichannel objectives. A well-functioning system is essential for any sales. A system that interfaces with other systems allows you to accomplish things that customers can know what is available to purchase at the website. This type of approach provides you with rapid insight into which orders can fill. Any brick-and-mortar business must consider digital exposure as a fundamental.

Cross-functional collaboration 

Successful firms use agile ways of working across commercial and growth functions. Attracting or developing the right talent, as well as bringing people from diverse backgrounds together, is critical. This entailed forming cross-functional agile teams comprised of developers, designers, product and business managers. Furthermore, constant communication between the marketing and commercial departments ensured the development of a cutting-edge platform.

Strategic Approach 

Rather than opening all of the sale networks to omnichannel fulfilment, it is worthwhile to do a network architecture analysis. A network optimization model can be used to determine the role and capacity of each location. This decision will not be made on a daily or weekly basis, but it may be altered numerous times over the course of the year. The capacity for fulfilment could be selected in order to better service to offline clients.

Many industries, including BPOs, have integrated or are integrating omnichannel support. The value proposition of BPO has transformed to meet the needs of the omnichannel, which was previously focused on labour efficiency and economies of scale. Hence, the factors for moving to omnichannel sales are effective and efficient in the growth trajectory of firms.

In the digitally-driven economy, the need for ‘personalized customer outreach’ and ‘individualized customer outreach’ has shown prominence growth significantly over the years. However, some of the industries are still trying to figure out the new paradigm of automation to adjust to.

Automation or Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the new way to transform businesses and industries across sectors. Nevertheless, these technologies are not new in the digital era, but the advancement is putting them in the picture as a frontier of what machines can do. Machines are now transforming the operations and the workplaces themselves. They can go beyond and deliver exceptionally, something which humans might struggle to achieve. Hence, AI helps in boosting revenue generation via collaboration and productivity.

The technology is already generating value in various products and services by limiting the time for production. However, time is the most valuable resource of mankind, and by managing this, the businesses can explore new growth opportunities.

To benefit from the new potential, sales and marketing organizations must change their working practices as well as their digital platforms so as to ensure that sales agents, marketing agents and automation solutions operate together. In the process of involvement, sales and marketing have always been in search of new tools and in this picture, automation comes as a blessing in disguise.

With the collaborative sales and marketing team along with the right Customer Relationship Managers (CRM), businesses can track leads and boost team productivity.

Automation in Sales and Marketing

Sales automation is defined as ‘any technology that can inmate human capability, such as logical thinking, pattern recognition, and so on, therefore reducing manual labor.’ It can save sales costs by freeing up the time spent on administration and reporting along with generating additional income. However, many decision-makers are unaware of the value that sales automation can provide to an increasing number of use cases, or they have not yet taken advantage of it.

Marketing automation refers to ‘the utilization of software and Web-based services to implement, manage, and automate marketing tasks and processes. These tools make it easier to track and forecast audience behavior, engage with clients, and create relationships with the audience, as well as increase customer satisfaction and responsiveness. Typically, marketing tasks involve attracting prospects, qualifying them based on their behavior, and forwarding proficient leads to the sales team.

According to VentureBeat, 80 percent of marketers that utilize lead generating tools have seen an increase in the number of leads they create. Hence, it would be appropriate to say that when aligned together, marketing and sales automation can both be leveraged to create an efficient customer experience by building direct contact with clients.

Lead Generation

Lead generation is a time-consuming process that starts with acquiring contact information and ends with planning clever sales and marketing campaigns. If these leads aren’t cultivated, the efforts might be fruitless. Automation helps focus on transferring potential leads into actual conversions. Sales and Marketing companies are inclined toward the goal of generating leads, which means more opportunities and eventually expansion of the customer base.

Benefits of Automation

Over the years, the transformation by automation has been significant-

● Reduce lead time: When opposed to outsourcing or moving offshore, automation can keep your process in-house, improve process control, and dramatically cut lead times

● Reduce the workload: The robots can streamline mundane tasks easily and manage these activities so that they can focus on core areas of organizational growth and development

● Save the cost of labor: The machines can do a lot more than humans. Hence, working with machines reduces the need of human labor. Hence, it is both labor saving and cost efficacious solution

● Improved work safety: Automated machines reduce labor work and prevent them from any on-site danger.

● Increase production output: The capability of the robot is unmatched and can work 24*7. Therefore, new products can be produced easily and seamlessly!

Summing Up!

Companies across sectors are already putting automation and artificial intelligence to use in order to address a variety of societal issues, streamline workflow and ensure conversions. Additionally, interactions with customers at multiple touchpoints channels have become all the more efficient thanks to automation. Businesses are implementing this technology to foster efficiency, lessen labor costs, enhance quality of production, and reassign workers from lower to higher-value tasks.

Thus, effective implementation of automation can transform the businesses significantly, boost their performance as well as accelerate the speed of the lead and revenue generation. In such a circumstance, BPOs step in a blessing in disguise providing the necessary support to organizations and assisting them in automating their functioning in the truest sense!