In our last post we talked about how using a “Contact Center as a Service” (CCaaS) may be a better use of resources as opposed to purchasing and maintaining contact center technology in your own data center. A CCaaS offers greater financial flexibility and eliminates costs associated with ownership and obsolescence.
The final question in our decision framework is “What does success look like and can I quantify it?"
The recommendation here is to tie solution requirements to those contact center improvements that will drive measurable business outcomes. This will put the focus on those features and capabilities, which have the greatest potential to directly reduce cost and/or improve revenue. This also has the added benefit of helping you make and present a convincing business case when the time comes for recommending a solution for approval.
Here are some tips:
- State the business objective(s)
- Link objectives impactful KPI’s
- Explain why KPI’s are currently not being met
- Explain how a contact center upgrade will improve KPI’s
- Illustrate the financial impact of improved KPI’s
- Show the net value of improved business objectives
Here is a quick example.
We need to lower contact center operating costs. One way we will accomplish this is by improving our call Average Handle Time (AHT). Today, AHT is high because it takes agents too much time interacting with non-integrated systems, like our CRM, to quickly answer and document calls. By integrating our contact center with our CRM we will reduce AHT by 21% (or 2 minutes per call). This will increase our annual effective capacity by 27,300 calls or allow us to reduce wages by $45,000.
By taking this approach, you will focus on clear objectives, which in turn will help prioritize requirements, evaluate capabilities and demonstrate why your recommendation will deliver business value. It also goes without saying the when you combine multiple cost saving or revenue enhancing use cases, your business case becomes even more compelling.
So, in summary, this decision framework can dramatically simplify your solution search by:
- Clarify solution requirements and reducing scope and cost – especially when you chose to focus on a contact center specific solution as opposed to a new phone system
- Determine whether the potential financial benefits available from Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) is right for your organization.
- Focused solution requirements specifically on the problems to be solved and then demonstrate the financial value of your recommendation
- Using analysts to save time identify the most relevant solution vendors
If you want more information on this framework or to review it in more detail, please download this paper.
