Use the combined power of human-focused design, data, and intelligent automation to deliver an omnichannel experience

The highest performing companies in the Global 2000 want to use customer experience (CX) as an enterprise growth driver. But siloed data, a lack of speed and agility to implement new ideas, and a lack understanding of customers’ journeys can be roadblocks.

To engage meaningfully with customers and improve customer experience, CX leaders need to start with a human-focused design strategy and then leverage the power of data and intelligent automation to deliver on experiences seamlessly and intelligently. At a recent visit to Sutherland Labs, HFS saw the potential of human-centered design in action as well as an on-demand solution that enterprises can use to become more agile with their omnichannel efforts.

Human-first design is the essential first step to omnichannel success

Many client engagements start in these incubation hub labs, not just for Sutherland and its clients but also for the technology ecosystem that empowers collaboration for business outcomes. The design studios are a place for Sutherland to showcase industry-specific case studies where its design-focused approach has been successful and then to dig in with new client challenges. The sessions can include customer journey mapping, where all potential outcomes and pain points are mapped out to provide a clear vision of various customers’ journeys. It can also include in-depth market research and focus groups with customer interviews, which inform a data-driven persona segmentation exercise. These design activities are the starting point to re-designing and transforming a customer experience strategy.

Where the right brain and left brain synergize for better CX

While the initial design exercises tend to focus on people and process, once you determine a path forward, you need technology to deliver on the plans. In an adjacent building to the original Sutherland Labs, a joint lab with Google Cloud provides the “left brain” side of the equation to tackle the technology required to execute the design. This Sutherland Connect solution, one of 16 focused technology + process + people solutions this joint lab has developed, was a feature for this visit. Sutherland Connect is an omnichannel interaction platform powered by Genesys on premise contact center technology and infused with intelligence from Google’s Contact Center AI (CCAI) framework.

Sutherland Connect: an on-demand solution uses data real-time to enable agility

The top factor driving enterprise digital initiatives is improving the quality of data and its degree of integration (exhibit 1).  The greatest challenge in the design of customer journeys is bringing together fragmented data across siloed channels. A vast majority of organizations are looking to solutions that can integrate diverse sets of data and drive the kind of real-time view of its customers and the ability to nimbly react to customer requirements. Sutherland is leveraging its Genesys investment by offering Connect in a subscription- based model on a per agent, per month, per feature, either purely as a technology solution or alongside Sutherland’s agent focused BPO services.  The Sutherland Connect platform can be leveraged for any agents, whether Sutherland’s, the organization’s own, or from other service providers. 

As Genesys experts, Sutherland provides the integration with existing systems like customer relationship management (CRMs) and workforce management (WFM) tools; Sutherland Connect is the single pane of glass through which enterprise leaders, managers, and agents can view the customer journey. Customers leveraging these capabilities can enjoy significant cost and speed-to-market advantages in a secure environment—and not be held back by old technology and complex integrations.

Exhibit 1: The top factor driving enterprise digital initiatives is improving the quality of data and its degree of integration

Source: HFS Research, 2019, n= 252 enterprise leaders

The single pane of glass is not enough; an omnichannel platform needs intelligence to engage meaningfully

The data integration is just the starting point. Building on that foundation, Sutherland selected Google Cloud as the premier partner for its CCAI capability, particularly for Duplex AI and Agent Assist. Embedding Google’s engineering expertise into the platform enables additional functionality and intelligent automation, including cognitive assistants with an empathetic capability, skills-based routing, and call and chat analysis. Many of these functions are add-ons, wherein Sutherland customers start with the baseline solution and then add more intelligent capabilities (often as they reap cost savings from the initial results). Here are some of the ways that the Sutherland Connect platform has enabled a more intelligent omnichannel capability for its clients:

• Using customer data to understand and capitalize on buying behavior. By using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models to analyze data on the Connect platform, retailers are uncovering useful nuggets like the value of an upsell or the value of orders recovered from an abandoned basket; using those increased loyalty and retention. One retail-specific capability, Storecast, is an analytics solution that identifies the digital and operational drivers to drive in-store sales. By evaluating 100 internal and external variables, as well as online and offline sales, retailers are using Storecast to assess future sales potential.
• Employing cognitive assistants to manage scale and improve security. One gaming company has used the Sutherland Connect cognitive assistant capability to manage a doubled volume of chats while maintaining the same headcount of chat agents. Analytics has also made interactions more secure by using speech and text analytics to identify potentially fraudulent interaction.
• Implementing gamification techniques to improve agent productivity and satisfaction. The analytics layered into the Connect platform allows for more targeted training and gamification models, which incentivize agents for greater productivity. The Connect knowledge base helps inform training to reduce attrition and improve employee satisfaction.

The Bottom Line: To power up your intelligent omnichannel, start with human-focused design

We’ve heard about “contact center in a box” for years; at this point, having a multi-channel platform and smart routing is table stakes. What enterprises looking to use CX as a growth driver need is more sophisticated, and starts with a human-centered strategy for both customers and employees, with the right technology to execute on it.

The Sutherland Connect solution is one example of how companies are partnering across the service provider and technology ecosystem to bring intelligent customer engagement to life. It is time for CX leaders to look beyond cost-cutting initiatives and see the contact center for the real treasure chest of data that it is. Savvy organizations will use a design exercise to figure out first where self-service and automation could be implemented, and then re-invest the savings in intelligent capabilities that make customer experience a differentiator and a driver of enterprise growth.