Real-World Lessons to Smooth the Journey for Contact Center Modernization

If you’ve been following our summer Customer Experience Transformation webinar series, you’ve heard some expert guidance on how to assess the economic impact and identify hidden risks in your current contact center technology that can severely limit your business’ ability to serve customers. And you might recognize some of these things happening at your company.

Pursuing and realizing a modern customer experience vision can seem like an impossible, never-ending journey. But it doesn’t have to be—Genesys can help. We’ve already helped hundreds of companies achieve successful contact center modernizations. And during the August 1st webinar, Nicole Thomas, AVP, Service Solutions, Coca-Cola Business Services North America LLC, will share her real-world journey of contact center technology and business transformation.

The Journey to Modernization

No two businesses are alike, which is why no two businesses will follow the same linear path when modernizing a legacy contact center. But one thing should be consistent—you need an experienced guide with you in the process. The following story, called “The Quest,” documents the experiences that many companies encounter—and overcome—during a contact center modernization.

Chapter 1. Identify the Problem

There once was a business who wanted more than anything to be the best in their industry—with strong customer loyalty and lifetime value, engaged employees, and satisfied stakeholders. They wanted to make their customer experience vision a reality. But feedback from customers, employees and other stakeholders showed that their experiences were disjointed and frustrating.

With dramatic changes in customer and employee expectations and behaviors, there was more at stake than ever before. Inflexible, outdated and legacy technologies carried a higher cost than just maintenance fees; customer retention suffered and the business couldn’t easily roll out new services to capitalize on new sales and marketing revenue streams. So, despite having a great product and brand, they were limited in their ability to meet customer, employee and internal stakeholder expectations.

Decreasing customer satisfaction and rising TCO prompted stakeholders to ask tough questions. Our hero realized there must be a way to escape the oppression of the status quo that threatened the business. Something had to change—fast.

Chapter 2. Navigate the Terrain and Take Action

To enact profitable, sustainable change, our hero committed to finding a solution by the end of the year and got to work researching options for the best way forward.

Along the way, he encountered stories of other companies who had undertaken this same type of quest for contact center modernization. He found the ones who prevailed did so with expert guidance. They didn’t go it alone. Instead of looking for a customer experience vendor, our hero recognized the best guides were customer experience providers who became partners and who were invested in his success from Day One.

Without the right guidance, the buying journey is fraught with peril; the terrain is hostile and unfamiliar. And navigating it is daunting—there are internal assessments, budgetary considerations, solution exploration, building requirements, and supplier selections. He had to choose a migration plan and evaluate cloud and on-premises options.

Fortunately, he found the right guide and, together, they developed a plan: Review the existing environment, map your vision and identify gaps, and then create a realistic migration strategy. The plan would achieve not merely a technology migration, but also specific business outcomes.

At every step, our hero had to assure validation and consensus building, so that things kept moving forward. The trusted guide helped by evaluating his needs, pinpointing any gaps in the plan, and using proven tools and expertise to smooth the journey.

Chapter 3. Overcome Obstacles

Later in the journey, our hero discovered that choosing the right contact center platform would not fulfill their customer experience technology vision. The new technology had to be successfully implemented in the business environment. He was confronted by terrifying new obstacles of implementation timelines and risks of business disruption.

But with the help of his trusted guide, with the right plan, our hero triumphed—overcoming these obstacles with commitment, responsiveness and a true spirit of partnership. They planned their work and then they worked their plan.

They managed dates, executed on them and remained flexible throughout the process. They applied proven strategies to simplify the migration process, minimize risk and disruption, and proceed at our hero’s pace. Remember: Every organization is unique; a one-size-fits-all migration strategy is not the answer.

Chapter 4. The Final Test

Our hero conquered the technology challenge, faced down process obstacles and then had to contend with the final test to realize the modern customer experience technology vision—transforming people. Employees that support contact centers also need a migration strategy to ensure their skills keep pace with the ever-changing customer experience environment.

Again, our hero was able to rely on his guide to partner for success, ensuring employees could assess their knowledge, and stay current with free interactive courses full of best practices and real-world examples.

Chapter 5. Capturing the Prize

You’re probably wondering how the story ends. You might wonder if our hero achieved the desired business outcomes of lower TCO, and a modern customer experience platform with simplified contact center architecture. And maybe you also want to implement new features that exceed customer, employee and stakeholder expectations, and support new revenue-generating services. Stop wondering—hear one hero’s real-world story of the quest for contact center modernization.

Register for our webinar, “Customer showcase: Real-world lessons from legacy contact center migrations,” featuring Coca-Cola—delivering on “brand promise” through customer care innovation. During the session, Nicole Thomas, AVP, Service Solutions, Coca-Cola Business Services North America LLC, shares her journey of contact center technology and business transformation.

Get your migration kit and additional resources on migrating legacy contact centers.