Aspect Software Takes On the Emerging Customer Experience Challenges of
Multi-Channel and Social Customer Service with Extension of Unified IP 7
Platform
Date: 09/10/2012, Chelmsford, Massachusetts
. Unified IP 7 release family delivers simple and flexible interaction
management, creating a highly differentiated multichannel, multi-choice
customer experience
. Unified IP 7.1 includes new capability for compliance in proactive
outbound outreach to mobile customers
. Strengthens and tightens integration with Aspect’s Workforce
Optimization solution
Aspect Software, a leading provider of customer contact, enterprise
workforce optimization and Microsoft platform solutions, today announced the
launch of Unified IP 7.1, codenamed Tiger Shark, which is an extension of
the Unified IP 7 family that powers Aspect’s multi-channel interaction
solutions for customer contact. Aspect’s Unified IP 7 family includes
features that address what many companies say is the most challenging
business capability – effectively managing and delivering a differentiated
customer experience in the light of consumer demand for expanded choices in
communication channels such as social.
A feature of the Unified IP 7 platform, Aspect Social Media Channel
Integration, allows companies to bring social dialogue into the contact
center and apply workflow rules, call center performance analytics, and
workforce optimization capabilities to social media-based communications.
The 7.1 release brings additional flexibility and efficiencies for inbound
multichannel contact handling to minimize customer time and effort, making
engagement simple. The solution allows customers to deliver consistent
experiences across all communications channels creating a single experience
continuum from self-service through assisted service. According to a
commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Aspect,
58% of enterprise customer service strategy managers rate their
organizations from poor to average in this area, admitting that in
comparison to other business capabilities social media is where they are
least proficient.
The Forrester study states “Today’s contact center managers recognize the
competitive challenges and opportunities that delivering consistent service
across channels presents. Customers expect consistent, value-added answers
across all media types. They also expect to be able to start an interaction
using one media type, and complete it on another without having to re-start
the conversation. 32% of surveyed contact center agents say they don’t have
access to the right content to answer customer questions consistently.”
Increasing Agent Productivity through Dynamic Skills-Based Routing and
Contextual Information Analysis
As companies address consumer demand for higher levels of service, many are
implementing personalized approaches to ensure customers come in contact
with agents who already know or have access to their unique situation and
history. In fact, the Forrester and Aspect research found 64 percent of
respondents say routing inquiries to the right contact center agent in the
most streamlined way is an important priority. The Unified IP 7 family
includes turnkey features for dynamic inbound, skills-based and rules-based
routing to ensure the right agent is matched with the right customer for a
consistent customer experience and increased agent productivity. This
capability is now expanded to voice mail routing giving companies the
ability to cue, prioritize and route messages as if it were a call.
“As an Aspect application service provider, we’ve been very impressed with
the easy upgrade and the improved usability of Aspect Unified IP 7.1,” says
Rocky Livingston, CIO at USAN. The advanced capabilities such as the
skills-based routing feature and dynamic inbound services in this release
have been instrumental in helping us close new business opportunities for
USAN. These features particularly have been a big selling point to our
customers looking for a feature-rich, geographically redundant hosted
solution.”
“Why the code name Tiger Shark? With the ability to keep customers agile and
moving forward, Unified IP 7.1 is an interaction management solution that
enables organizations to shrewdly navigate the challenges of effective
customer interaction management,” says Michael Regan, senior vice president,
research and development at Aspect. “Aspect Unified IP 7.1 comes with a host
of enhanced features that fully leverage its highly available, scalable
architecture. But Tiger Shark is not just about the sheer number of
next-generation capabilities; it’s also about the quality built in to each
and every one of them.”
As contact centers grapple with increased demand from consumers for
seamless, multichannel interactions, Aspect’s aim is to offer enterprises a
solution that allows them to provide exceptional customer experiences.
Many new capabilities have been added to Aspect Unified IP 7.1 including:
. Expanded compliance capabilities for proactive outreach which will
help our clients to comply with recent government regulatory requirements
and avoid costly fines.
. Aggressive quality and performance investments which will help
satisfy customer expectations for product stability and resiliency.
. Enhanced inbound capabilities to deliver differentiated high-touch
service which will help drive better customer experiences.
Aspect’s Unified IP 7.1 is available globally. For more information on
Unified IP 7.1, click here.
About Aspect
Aspect builds customer-company relationships through a combination of
customer contact software and Microsoft platform solutions along with
workforce optimization for the enterprise. For more information, visit
www.aspect.com.
Follow Aspect on Twitter at @AspectUC. Read our blogs at
http://blogs.aspect.com.
# # #
Aspect, Unified IP and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered
trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other
countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be
the trademarks of their respective owners.
