Key points for designing an Omnichannel Contact Center

Key points to be considered,when designing an Omnichannel Contact center.

1. Gather High-level Requirements.

• Inbound Contact Centrer with self service & Conversational AI?

• Outbound Contact Centre with an Auto Dialler & Agent transfer?

• Blended CC Operations with Both Inbound & Outbound?

• Digital Channels are required ( WebRTC, Webchat, WhatsApp/SMS, Social Media etc)?

• Virtual Queuing & Call back Assist functionalities?

• FFCR (Fast & First Call Resolution) & Customer Journey Displays?

• Skill-based routing, Priority, Queuing, Predictive Routing

• Single cloud for UC, CC, WFM, QM.

2. Current Pain Points/Issues in Customer Engagement platform?

• Lack of Digital channels (Inbound & Outbound)?

• Understand top five Customer concerns?

• Understand CSR (Customer Service Representative/Agent) issues?

• Not achieving organization Service Level?

• Supervisor Issues/complaints?

• Any Customer's Call Routing Issues (Voice/Chat/Email/SMS others)?

• Availability issues?

3. Understand the client's approach & budget for technology investment?

• OPEX Based/Fixed Monthly/Annually

• Pay as you go/Consumption Model.

• CAPEX Investment/Perpetual ownership of Licenses & Infrastructure.

4. Understand organization’s IT (Information Technology) strategy?

• Infrastructure/Security Guidelines?

• Inhouse Cloud/Virtual/DevOps IT team?

• In-house development team?

• Who can manage changes in IVR scripts, business flows etc?

5. What are High-level features required for Customer Engagement?

• Voice Calls queuing & handling (Inbound/Outbound, Both)?

• Virtual Queuing?

• Call back Assist Functionality?

• Web chat handling with Co-Browsing?

• Emails Handling?

• Social Media interactions?

• Mobile App interactions handling?

• SMS/WhatsApp inquiries handling?

• Other Digital Channels (Apple Business Chat, Wechat, QQ, Snapchat, Viber)

• Priority treatment Mobile callers.

• CRM platform integration?

• Knowledge base for agents

• WFM, QM, Forcasting

6. Types of Automation Required?

• Voice calls - Conversational AI (for self Service IVR)

• Web Chat - Chat Bot

• Email automation

• SMS Bot

• Fall back to Expert Agent.

7. Understand Self service (IVR functionality) required?

• Inbound self service IVR menus (One level/ Two level/ Three levels)?

• IVR Integration with Databases/Web Services/CRM Systems?

• Need Conversational Artificial Analytics?

• Call back Assist or Virtual Queuing?

• Speech Biometrics?

• Outbound Dialler capability with Expert Agent Transfer?

• Post Call Surveys?

8. Requirement for Forecasting/Scheduling/Quality and Adherence?

• Work Force management system (forecasting/planning/Scheduling)

• Secure Voice Recording

• Secure Voice & Screen Recording

• Speech Analytics (Historical & Real Time), key word monitoring.

• Sentimental analysis

9. How CSRs will operate?

• Office Agents using Desktop ( windows/IoS).

• Remote Agents. (Virtual (VDI), Mobile, Desktop, Hard-Phone)

• Home Agents

• Mobile Agents (Using Mobile App)

• Outsourced Operations in a different Geographic Location.

• Outsourced Quality/WFMS operations.

10. Geo Redundancy/Local Redundancy Required for Contact Center?

• Rainy-day scenarios and Requirements?

• Sites needing geo Redundancy.

• Sites needing local Redundancy.

• SBCs (Session Board controllers) & SIP Infrastructure (SIP Trunking/SIP Routing gateways) redundancy?

• Agent/CSR Registrations back up?

• System Management back up?

• Active-active Trunking set up?

• IVR/Self Services back up?

• Chat Infrastructure back up?

• Email Infrastructure back up?

11. Infrastructure deployment Options?

• On-Prem – Hardware based Appliances/Own servers

• Virtualized Options – VMware/Nutanix/Citrix/Hyper-V/Oracle/Others

• Cloud Options – Public/Private/Hybrid

12. Calculating current Capacity & Sizing related requirements?

a. Trunks Sizing for CC ( Inbound & Outbound).

• What is current traffic?

• What is expected growth in next 1-3 years?

• What is Busy Hour Traffic & AHT in busy hour?

• If your IVR is Front ending the Agents, then how much % call completions in IVR?

• Do you need Centralized SIP Trunks or SIP trunks at each site?

• Do you need E1/T1 Trunks for business continuity in case of WAN outage?

b. Agents Sizing for CC.

• Service levels?

• Desired Agency Occupancy?

• What is ACW (After Call work) duration in your operations?

• Voice

• Chat

• Email

• What is Agent working shift duration?

c. Mobile & Remote Agents

• How many remote Agents?

• Features required by Remote users.

• How many Mobile Agents?

d. Overage Requirements (Trunking, Spare Capacity, slots, resources etc.)

13. Type of CC Agent Endpoints/Workspace/Phones Required

• Secure Web Based Client (Agent work space) with integrated Voice & Digital Channels ( SMS, Chat, Social Media, Emails?

• Thick Client with integrated Voice & Digital Channels (SMS, Chat, Social Media, Emails?

• Web based Client with Soft Phone/Hard Phone (Remote Agents)

• VDI Agents with End to End Encryption

14. Reporting Requirements

• Historical/Real Time/Integrated Reports

• Universal ACD Queue Status (All Digital Channels)

• Digital Channel performance/comparison Reports

• Detailed Navigation Reports (IVRs)

• Agent Performance, Group Performance, Skill performance

• Service level reports

• Customer Journey Reports with Detailed analytics

• After Call work, Quality Adherence, Sentimental Analysis Reports

• Others

15. Most Important & Finally – To calculate RoI (Return on Investment) for Customer

• Current CC Operational expenses?

• Current CC Capital Expenses?

• Current manpower expenses estimate?