W H I T E PA P E R

Make Your CX Efforts Sing

with Channel Orchestration
4 keys to successfully integrating traditional and digital
channels for CX and operational excellence.
 W H I T E PA P E R

Overview
Companies get it. Customers want fast, convenient, and frictionless support.
That’s why businesses are investing in digital transformation initiatives that
improve the customer experience. From social media and mobile apps to chat,
video, and voice, there are many ways for businesses to support customers.
However, it’s not uncommon for customers to miss or ignore some of these
tools. A focus on channel orchestration that aligns the best channels to the right
interactions is at the core of a successful digital transformation.

The good news is there are ways to solve these issues with robust data analytics
and a deep understanding of customer needs and behavior.
A focus on channel
orchestration that aligns
Read this whitepaper to learn:
the best channels to the
Why customers continue to make voice calls—even when better
right interactions is at
options exist
the core of a successful
How channel orchestration enables companies to balance customer
expectations with business needs
digital transformation.

How a financial services company used channel orchestration to save

nearly $3 million annually

How to successfully apply channel orchestration to your

organization’s needs

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Work smarter, not harder......................................................... 2
How channel orchestration can help....................................... 3
4 keys to successful channel orchestration............................ 4
Channel orchestration in action………………………………………... 5
A note about metrics................................................................ 5
Harmonious support hinges on customer understanding .... 8
About TTEC............................................................................... 9

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Work smarter,
not harder
Though voice calls are still the most common But it can be equally frustrating to wait several minutes
route for a majority of customer service and other just to ask a quick question or be forced to repeat
brand communications, customers just want their questions multiple times.
problem solved quickly, regardless of whether they’re
This leaves companies with an undesirable scenario:
communicating with a human or a bot. Yes, some people
spending a lot of money to deliver a poor experience
prefer human touch, but others are fine with as little
to the customer. What’s more, numerous studies have
human intervention as possible. That’s why bots and self-
shown that consumers will switch providers after just
service options are on the rise.
one bad customer service experience. More companies
However, bots have limited uses—the average bot can are therefore coming to the realization that they need
only respond to straightforward questions and perform to overhaul their customer experience and provide
simple tasks. As a result, many customers turn to what’s customers with the right kind of support, in both digital
familiar: making a phone call. This tendency isn’t limited to and traditional channels.
Baby Boomers, either. In fact, millennials call their bank at
nearly three times the rate of older customers, according
to a study by Bain & Company. However, bots have limited uses—
the average bot can only respond to
straightforward questions and perform
simple tasks.

2 ©2019 TTEC. All rights reserved.

 W H I T E PA P E R

How channel
orchestration can help
Adopting the latest contact center technologies
and tools to modernize the customer experience
is one thing, but it’s another to create a seamless
experience that effectively integrates multiple
traditional and digital support channels to balance
customer expectations and business needs.

Just as an orchestra is composed of various

instruments, channel orchestration brings
different interaction channels together to perform
harmoniously for the customer. As a result,
customers receive faster and more effective service.
What’s more, adding operational efficiencies
eliminates extraneous uses of company resources
and employee effort to increase savings.

Channel orchestration
leverages customer
preferences for different
channels while driving down
costs and improving the
quality of the experience.

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4 keys to successful channel orchestration

Partnership
Collaboration and open dialogue between various stakeholders across channels and lines of business is
important for developing initiatives in which everyone feels ownership. Appointing a dedicated change
management team or point person to provide focus and keep track of the initiative’s progress is also important.

Contact center operational expertise

Associates are at the heart of any changes made to the customer experience. A deep understanding of
associate workflow, tools, and challenges is essential to ensure initiatives fit into the associate’s daily flow and
has a minimal impact on average handle time or call resolution.

Rigorous test-and-learn design

By addressing a measurement plan at the beginning of the process and designing a solid test-and-learn
methodology, brands will be able to gain valuable insights during the pilot period and deep drilldowns at the
end of the initiative to inform future efforts.

Detailed rollout plan

Providing a data-driven prioritization of future efforts and a fact-based business case based on quantitative
insights helps gain senior leadership buy-in. The goal is to have all necessary parties ready, willing, and able to
go live with the initiative and begin realizing the benefits as quickly as possible.

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A note about metrics

Identifying the metrics to guide a channel orchestration These questions will help determine the scope and direction
strategy and measure its success is also critical. Before of the initiative. Additionally, channel orchestration metrics
deploying the initiative, there are several key questions to are becoming more personalized and outcome-driven,
consider: Which channels are my customers using? What versus being solely focused on operational effectiveness.
would constitute success? If the goal, for example, is to For instance, in addition to focusing on average handle time,
transition customers to self-service, what percentage of service level, and other operational metrics, companies
customer transactions are already completed in self-service are increasingly asking about outcome-based metrics like
versus other channels like voice? And what percentage of customer effort score, NPS, and customer satisfaction.
those phone calls could be resolved through self service?

CLIENT STORY

Channel orchestration in action

A financial services client was experiencing high call volumes in its contact center, despite efforts to digitally transform the
customer experience. Although the firm offered robust mobile and digital self-service options (SSO), there was a group of
frequent callers who continued to rely solely on the phone to handle all their banking needs.

To address the problem, we started with an evaluation of the call volumes. The analysis helped identify four customer
segments, each with a different reason for calling. The four segments were: No self-service option; not aware of self-service;
tried self-service unsuccessfully; and aware of self-service option but didn’t try it.

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Figure 1: Different strategies for unique customer segments

Customer segment Percent of frequent callers Strategy

No SSO for call reason 33% Identify opportunities to create new SSOs

Not aware of SSO 20% Educate about SSOs available to them

Identify reasons for SSO failure and

Tried SSO unsuccessfully 29%
opportunities to improve current SSO offerings

Aware of SSO but didn’t try it 18% Explore reasons for reluctance to use SSO

Source: TTEC

Our next step was to launch a test-and-control pilot to identify the segments that were most likely to respond to a
customer education program on the benefits of self-service channels.

−− Frequent callers were directed to pilot or control associates. Control associates performed their duties as usual, but the pilot
associates offered the caller information about the self-service options.

−− The primary objective of the Caller Education Inbound Pilot was to deflect future frequent callers (digitally active and non-
digitally active) to self-service/digital channels through a series of bundled communications and call treatments. This pilot
provided frequent callers consistent, enhanced service throughout the pilot period.

−− Pilot associates educated callers using advanced features such as co-browse, simulator, and other personalization methods.
Associates also followed up with a personalized email to customers to reinforce the self-service functionality, or walked the
customer through a demonstration of the self-service IVR.

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Figure 2: Caller education pilot program steps

1. Pilot experiment design – Rigorous test vs.

control design for pilot program(s) to ensure
readable and statistically significant results.

2. Data fusion – Automated data ingestion and

integration of key data elements form disparate
sources.

3. Automated insights – Near real time visualization

of results highlighting collaboratively identified KPIs.

4. Advanced analytics – Deeper dive into insights

beyond base KPIs into the who, why, what, when,
and how often as well as potentially combining
unstructured VOC data.

5. Business case development – Financial impact

assessment and go-forward recommendations.

6. Enterprise rollout – Enterprise-wide

measurement design, recommendations for
additional visualizations and recommendations for
Source: TTEC Digital ongoing data fusion and measurement.

Having a test-and-control framework enabled us to drill into the data and produce insights that would have been impossible
to produce otherwise. For example, we determined that caller education helped reduce call volume for only certain call reasons.
This finding helped reduce the AHT impact of the program because associates only offered education where it reduced
call volume.

Results
The Caller Education pilot helped reduce the 30-day callback rate by 18 percent. These improvements were sustained in 60-
day and 90-day call back rates. Supported by these findings, we developed a data-driven rollout plan (prioritized by call reason)
that provided close to $3 million in annual savings for the company.

By analyzing the reasons customers were calling and developing a test-and-control model to refine those insights, we identified
the most effective way to address the problem—unnecessarily high call volumes—and direct callers to other options that
better met their needs. This also enabled associates to focus on more complex consultative calls or account issues. As a result,
customers received better service and the client reduced unnecessary costs (e.g., employing associates to answer tier 1 or
rote questions).

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Harmonious support hinges on

customer understanding
Just as an orchestra depends on the collaboration
and synchronization of its musicians, customer
support channels must be aligned in order to provide
optimal service. And if implemented correctly,
channel orchestration can help companies meet
customers’ different needs in a harmonious—and cost
effective—system.

Contact TTEC today to learn more about how to align the right channels
with the right interactions to create a harmonious customer experience.

8 ©2019 TTEC. All rights reserved.

ABOUT TTEC
TTEC (NASDAQ: TTEC) is a leading global customer experience technology and services company focused on the design, implementation and delivery
of transformative customer experience for many of the world’s most iconic and disruptive brands. The Company delivers outcome-based customer
engagement solutions through TTEC Digital, its digital consultancy that designs and builds human centric, tech-enabled, insight-driven customer
experience solutions for clients and TTEC Engage, its delivery center of excellence, that operates customer acquisition, care, fraud prevention and
detection, and content moderation services. Founded in 1982, the Company's 52,400 employees operate on six continents across the globe and live by a
set of customer-focused values that guide relationships with clients, their customers, and each other. To learn more about how TTEC is bringing humanity
to the customer experience, visit www.ttec.com.

solutions@ttec.com
800.835.3832
ttec.com

71405 3/19