In a digital world, people engaging with brands increasingly want to be able to have synchronous conversations across multiple channels, in real time. However, without the right integration, this results in a fragmentation of engagements and a lack of visibility resulting in businesses not being able to measure whether they are achieving their service level agreements or not, and more broadly a degraded experience for customers.
This was a far simpler prospect in the past when the only way to contact an organisation was to dial a single number that led one to a switchboard operator, who would then transfer the caller to the right people or department, where the call would be logged. Today, a customer could follow up on a query via a WhatsApp chat or a chat widget on the company website; how does a business keep track of this, and ensure that the relevant service ticket is logged or updated?
With the fragmentation in conversations across channels already posing a challenge for customer service teams, the last thing that is needed is a fragmentation in tools as well, which will lead to an increased workload for personnel who now have to manage and monitor multiple accounts and logins. What is needed is a robust integration layer that makes use of Open APIs to ensure that all of these communications capabilities – and much more – are available in a single platform.
Telviva Engage, which is available as an add-on to Telviva One, gives businesses access to these ‘omnichannel lite’ capabilities in a far more cost-effective manner than having to invest in dedicated contact centre solutions. In essence, Telviva Engage enables any customer facing team or staff members – whether they are part of a small or large business – to easily add more digital channels to their communications.
Examples of Telviva Engage channels include web chat, browser based voice calling, WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook Messenger and more. This in turn opens the door to improved customer service and experience as a result of giving them the choice of engaging, in real-time, using the channel of their choice.
In any conversation, establishing the identity of the person interacting with the business is crucial. While there are solutions that make use of caller line identification (CLI), this just provides the employee with the name of the caller and does not link to any further business systems of record.
Using the same Open APIs – which enable tight integration between voice, video and chat, as well as Google and Microsoft address books and calendars – Telviva Engage is able to integrate with a business’s customer relationship management (CRM) system, meaning that whoever is handling the query now has the identity of the customer and their past history of engagements, thus adding more context and enabling better quality (and more personalised) conversations.
Telviva Engage also gives customers interacting with brands the flexibility to ‘upgrade’ their conversations; web-chat functionality, based on WebRTC, means that website visitors can initiate text-based conversations with customer service teams, and then switch to audio without having to engage through a different means. Eventually in the future, website visitors will even be able to upgrade text-based chats to video calls should they want to have a face-to-face engagement with a company representative.
However, it’s crucial that technology also helps minimise the load on customer service teams by taking care of the mundane without any prompting from humans. Web chat opens up the possibility for chatbots, and with it comes a certain level of automation. For example, a chatbot can be programmed to answer frequently asked questions so that web visitors can get an immediate response to their queries. Or, it can be as simple as asking the visitor for their policy number, order number or any other reference number to help prepare the service personnel by pulling up the right information.
Beyond the speed of service, chatbots also ensure consistency and language and tone of voice when it comes to providing advice or information on popular queries. Of course, the visitor should always have the option to chat with a human should it be required. Telviva’s integration means that all of this is aggregated into one platform, and works in unison, with any relevant information being passed to the company’s CRM system.
The availability of these ‘omnichannel lite’ capabilities at an entry-level price point means that every back office user within the organisation can be included, with Telviva helping businesses to set up the website widget, the Telviva Engage environment and the teams in order to determine which employees will receive incoming calls or chats.
Being a locally based company, Telviva has the agility to work with businesses to develop solutions that address their specific business challenges. For customers, it means access to local support, the ability to contribute to future product development, and not having to worry about exchange rate fluctuations.
Are you looking to give your business the advantage when it comes to seamless customer service and a more personalised experience? Contact us today to find out how Telviva Engage can help you.
By Clara Wicht, Senior Product and Marketing Manager, and Rob Lith, Chief Commercial Officer at Telviva
