{"id":38920,"date":"2017-07-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/the-benefits-of-customer-experience-with-collaboration\/"},"modified":"2025-03-13T06:02:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T13:02:42","slug":"the-benefits-of-customer-experience-with-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/the-benefits-of-customer-experience-with-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Transformation Series: The Benefits of Customer Experience with Collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s a given that technology is constantly evolving, with new innovations coming to market every day. Some of these new solutions become the latest trend du jour, and businesses need to carefully evaluate the overall value and benefits of deploying these solutions in their enterprises. The truly disruptive technology is driving the digital transformation that is improving the way many companies operate. That said, there\u2019s some uncertainty in understanding what digital transformation means to different companies. To make it more relevant for both IT and end users in the workforce, this series of blog posts will break it down in terms of specific benefits to businesses from SMB to enterprise.<\/p>\n

The underlying technology driving digital transformation is both exciting and complex but requires a very different analysis from the scope of my previous blog posts<\/a>. Decision makers need to understand the applications, processes, and outcomes that come with digital transformation and how they translate into business value. I\u2019m going to address three prime examples in this series, and in each case, cloud-based collaboration platforms play a key role.<\/p>\n

My analysis begins with perhaps the hottest topic in the collaboration space: customer experience (CX). This may not be the first thing you associate with collaboration or digital transformation, but it certainly resonates strongly with management. To illustrate, here is a graph from a recently published report produced by Dimension Data.<\/p>\n

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Additional industry studies reflect a similar sentiment about the importance of CX. There are two reasons why this should be the top consideration when evaluating how collaboration solutions can support your broader plans around digital transformation.<\/p>\n

Before addressing those reasons, the connection between CX and collaboration needs to be clarified. Traditionally, contact center<\/a> interactions haven\u2019t been very collaborative at all; they\u2019ve mostly been just a dialogue between customers and agents.\u00a0Contact centers that are still based on legacy technology are falling further behind the digital applications that customers are using, and this model is putting agents at a disadvantage; they simply don\u2019t have access to enough resources or expertise to resolve customer issues in real time.<\/p>\n

As far as collaboration in the workplace<\/a> is concerned, enterprises have typically viewed these solutions for use by internal teams, but not for agents because they\u2019re customer facing. Today, a new opportunity is emerging that enables collaboration platforms to integrate office-based workers with contact center agents<\/a>\u2014not for working on internal projects, but rather for ad hoc collaboration to solve customer problems as they happen in real time. This delivers strategic value to the business and enables contact centers to resolve problems faster than previously possible; and that\u2019s a powerful way to deliver a better customer experience.<\/a> In addition to the two reasons cited above, several CX characteristics are measurable, such as customer satisfaction, contact center performance, purchasing history, etc. Integrating collaboration solutions with these characteristics can drive better results, particularly customer resolution times, by communicating answers through the customer\u2019s preferred mode of communication. Customer satisfaction and loyalty will increase.<\/p>\n

Based on the maxim that \u201cyou can only improve what you can measure,\u201d these metrics will be greatly interesting to management, and the business case for this transformative technology becomes very compelling.<\/p>\n

In addition, you and your management team will gain a more holistic understanding of digital transformation by starting with CX. The impact will be felt internally across the organization, especially in terms of improved business processes and everyday workflows. The digital transformation derived by collaboration CX applies equally to your customers; and as their expectations change, your external workflows will evolve, especially in the contact center. To effectively adapt through digital transformation, you need to appreciate its impact both internally and externally.<\/p>\n

Cloud-based collaboration solutions: taking CX to the next level<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s customer expectations<\/a> are for greater immediacy and shorter time frames to place orders, get answers, etc., and companies need to elevate CX beyond what they are doing today to meet those expectations. Unless you plan to rely solely on a self-service model for customer support<\/a>, your agents are going to need better tools to both engage across multiple channels and collaborate internally to get information and answers in real time.<\/p>\n

Technology isn\u2019t the only way to improve CX, but if you continue using legacy technology or communications applications<\/a> that are not tightly integrated, it will be impossible to keep pace with changing customer needs. As digital transformation capabilities progress, CX will increasingly be defined by attributes such as the following:<\/p>\n