Customer Service Without a Contact Center?

[jefcampb]

Modern presence technology can allow incoming customer calls to be intelligently routed to enterprise "experts" for problem resolution and assistance, with or without formal contact center agents in the call flow. In the latter case, this can allow businesses to provide customer service without a traditional contact center. Is this a good thing, or a disaster waiting to happen? Could your business benefit from "agent-less" customer service?  If so, what use-cases make sense to you?

[gmcgill]

I am sure it will depend on the business but most enterprises have a very formal training routine for their Customer Service Agents. The agents are monitored for compliance with the many regulations and operating policies. We record 100% of the audio, 100% of the screens and 100% of the keystrokes for every CSR interaction. We are forced to do this because some customers will 'opinion shop' the agents, looking for one that will provide the desired answer. It is expensive but we are able to provide consistent information to our callers and back up our responses.

In short, let me know the company that tries customer service without strict procedures so I can call them and have some fun

[jefcampb]

Good point, Greg, and I concur ths most large businesses--spurred by the regulatory environment if nothing else--will want very formalized contact centers.  The scenario I presented is probably most suited for the SMB space, where regulations and formality can often take a back seat.  And just as an FYI, Cisco Unified Expert Advisor, even when deployed without a formal contact center, has reporting capabilities that can still provide accountability and help bring a level of consistency to Experts' interactions with callers.