How to improve service in a multichannel world
Every organization wants to undergo a digital transformation. Many companies think that they are there already, that the revolution has already begun or that the transformation has already taken hold in their company. As far as we are concerned, digital transformation is a transformation from the old world to the new world – and it’s a journey. Many books have been written on companies that failed when they didnt move forward to meet their clients, or understand the changes that were occuring in the market. The key components in the digital transformation are about connecting with the client: connecting with clients through many different channels, as well as undertaking to gain a deep understanding of what a client wants and deepening the actual connection with the client are each important elements, according to Ronit Ated CEO of Elad Systems.
Ated spoke at the opening of the Future of Omni Channel Conference, produced by People and Computers, which took place today, Monday, in Stucco, an event hall in Tel Aviv. It was attended by over 200 of the company’s clients.
Ated began her speech with the story of Yan Kum, a young jew who was born in a far away village in the Ukraine that was rife with anti-semitism. When he turned sixteen, he immigrated to the United States with his mom and grandmother. He finished high school, registered for college and then dropped out shortly afterwards. By day, he scrubbed large containers to make a living and at night he studied communication networks and computers. He was hired by Yahoo! in 1997, where he worked for a decade. After leaving the company, he wanted to work at Facebook. He built an application that provides statuses on a telephone – like “I am awake”, “I am busy”, and the application failed. Kum understood that he had missed the actual market need, and he understood that it was a communication network between telephones that did not require identifying yourself with personal details. And so, he built an application that did just that: WhatsApp. He recruited 60 million dollars and after 5 years, in 2014, the company was bought by Facebook for 19 billion dollars. His story is inspirational because he insisted on seeking out the real need.
Continuous connection, that is identical on every channel: no dependence on any one channel
Remarking on customer service centers, Ated commented, “They are an opportunity for organizations to meet their clients. But organizations face a dissonance with regard to these centers: on the one hand, they wish to decrease the operational costs of these centers. They can accomplish this by reducing the conversations. Yet, on the other hand, they have a desire for more connection with the clients. This discrepancy of needs is coming with the backdrop of an era when the total number of calls is increasing due to the customers’ use of a rising number of communication channels. “Organizations are looking for ways to minimize the number of conversations that reach the call center, shorten the call times and complete communication in one call,” Ated added. “Elad specializes in establishing complex CRM systems and providing digital solutions that have a definitive business value. We understood that we needed to develop a solution that offered particular value to the multi channel arena; a product that would provide a solution for the client’s desire to meet the organization where they want and when they want, using the channel that is convenient for them and at the time that they choose. At the same time, the product needed to support a multi channel communication that was both unified and continuous: they would be able to receive identical results on any channel, even when the communication switched channels. “In order to achieve this,” she explained, “we established a start up from within the company. We began with product definitions, components, timetables, marketing and sales plans, and a plan to reach international sales. We recruited our best experts for this unique project and development took about a half of a year.”
The result of the project was a solution called SimpleChat. According to Ated, it is an omni channel product that is integrated as a native addon to an organization’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “This product,” she added, “is the beginning of the real digital transformation within a company. The solution is empowered by artificial intelligence that allows the organization to upgrade to multi channel communication. With SimpleChat, an organization can answer customers on the channel that each prefers and at the time that is convenient to them. The product allows for a unified customer experience, regardless of the communication channel: WhatsApp, sms text, chat, social media monitoring, as well as Facebook private messaging or twitter. All the communications are accessed and documented on the same text screen in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM. We already have several clients using SimpleChat, including Assuta Hospital, Shlomo Sixt Group, The City of Ramat Gan, Altman and more.
According to Ated, “The product includes a business bot that incorporates an automatic responder. This responder can provide any message you require, based on the services and products of each individual organization. All this is accomplished from within the CRM, without requiring the involvement of a human representative.”
“We proved that it is possible to create a start up from within an organization.” Ated added. “Our projection for 2019 is that we will have grown to some tens of organizational clients because SimpleChat provides truly unique value to clients looking to progress to omni channel service.”
Our motto is 361 degree customer engagement. 360 signifies the entire circumference that surrounds the customer. The extra 1 degree is the added value that we, at Elad Systems, provide. Organizations need to internalize that omni channel and customer experience are significant issues. It is possible for organizations to substantially improve the service they provide. And indeed, in today’s market – it is required that we do so. Today, organizations can meet their clients anywhere, at any time and on any channel.
The article published in PC magazine by Yossi Hatoni