Attended vs. Unattended RPA: It Doesn’t Need to be an Either-Or

At a time when customers want great experiences at an increasingly faster pace, automation plays a crucial role in helping brands deliver.

When done right, automation creates effortless experiences for employees and customers alike. And, while some customer service associates may initially fear automation – perhaps worrying it will take over part or all of their job – smart automation actually prepares employees with the tools they need so they’re ready to hit the ground running when volume surges hit.

Robotic process automation, or RPA, which uses automated tools and software to complete repetitive and simple manual tasks, is quickly gaining popularity in both front and back offices. It streamlines operations and frees customer-facing employees up to focus on more meaningful interactions with customers. In short, it’s helping brands work smarter, not harder.

But which one is the right choice: attended RPA, where applications work in tandem with associates; or unattended RPA, which needs no human interaction once it’s up and running? Most likely, the answer is: both.

It’s important to know the value each brings to a brand and the best ways to use them to complement each other.

Streamlining Efficiency

Both attended and unattended RPA can take many mundane tasks off associates’ plates, letting them focus on other priorities.

With unattended RPA, software with artificial intelligence and machine learning handles common, high-volume, repetitive tasks such as invoice processing, claims management, and patient scheduling. In short, it refers to bots that imitate human tasks. Once an unattended RPA program is running, no further human interaction is required.

With attended RPA, the same sort of behind-the-scenes task handling is automated, but the information gleaned from that process is eventually handed off to an associate who uses it during customer interactions.

When it comes to attended vs. unattended RPA, the case for each is strong. By automating simple tasks and taking them off employees’ hands, both forms of RPA help brands realize business outcomes more quickly. RPA lets associates focus on more worthwhile tasks: improving customer experience, driving bottom-line results, and reducing turnaround time – all with the capability of completing processes and requests around the clock and eliminating human error. And deployment of RPA software “bots” typically has minimal, if any, disruption to organizations.

Improved Customer Interactions

It may seem counterintuitive, but well-used RPA can actually offer customers a more human experience because associates, no longer bogged down by menial tasks, can devote their efforts to delivering higher-quality customer interactions.

Attended RPA, in particular, helps associates work faster by automating various tasks that, in the end, helps associates move the process along. By the time associates speak with a customer – by phone, email, text or in an online chat – they have the necessary information at their fingertips. This results in faster resolutions for customers, better overall experiences, and increased productivity.

Automation makes it easier for employees to go through information and resolve issues. Hassles like multiple log-in screens, forms, and call disposition processes may seem like minor inconveniences, but those things are often barriers that prevent employees from getting to the heart of a customer’s issue. Streamlining employees’ processes makes them more productive and, in the end, leads to better customer experiences.

Industries that can particularly benefit from automation run the gamut: retail, healthcare, automotive, government, communications, travel and hospitality, financial services, and insurance. And RPA can help employees across the board in an organization: customer care, sales, finance, HR, supply chain, IT, and procurement. Well thought out business process automation benefits the entire organization.

The purpose of automation isn’t to phase out humanity; it’s to make people better at what they do and deliver great customer experiences. When looking at the benefits of attended vs. unattended RPA, consider a strategy that uses – and brings out the best in – both.

To learn more about the benefits of automation, here are additional resources:

Beyond the Bot Buzz: Balance Humans and Automation: There are plenty of buzz-worthy discussions happening in the customer experience space around automation, AI, bots, and the like. But just because you can automate something, doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

A Humanized Approach to Automation Yields Positive Results: The Covid-19 pandemic thrust the necessity of automation into the spotlight. Successful brands are those which take a thoughtful, humanized approach.

3 Unique Ways Automation Is Winning Customer Moments: Some may fear that automation removes the human touch from customer interactions, but when done well, it can make for some amazing experiences.

Contact Center Automation = Good, Fast AND Valuable: Automation is a natural fit in the contact center and across the customer experience. Brands can achieve triple digit ROI from RPA and other CX automation tools.

CX Leaders Share Insights into Transforming the Government Customer Experience

At a time when more people than ever are demanding an excellent customer experience (CX) from the private sector, federal agencies are increasingly focused on improving the government customer experience. Customer experience officers, directors, and industry experts recently gathered online at the 2021 Government Customer Experience Virtual Conference, hosted by Digital Government Institute, to share lessons and insights for delivering a better CX. Here are key highlights from the conference.

“There isn’t a single path to CX”

Four customer experience experts representing different federal agencies shared advice gleaned from their experience establishing a CX department at their respective organizations:

“CX management should be a pull, not a push,” said Stephanie Bogan, chief customer experience officer at the Director of Customer Experience Division in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). “Know your audience, use plain language and don’t assume everyone knows what you’re talking about.”

Chelsea D’Angona, customer experience administrator for patents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recommended finding a partner to bolster a CX initiative. “Maybe they’re in a different discipline or area of the organization,” she said. “As the saying goes, if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go with others.”

When collaborating to improve CX across an organization, it’s important to keep in mind that “there are different stakeholders who may view their work differently [from you]” said Eric Bruce, head visitor of experience and evaluation at the National Gallery of Art. “Connect with empathy and you’ll be successful.”

David Wernecke, chief experience officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), said, “There isn’t a single path to CX. It also takes time. A lot of us were put in place to improve something right away, but when we’re gone, the service should continue to be improved—that’s where the real value comes in.”

Reframe and identify root problems

Barbara C. Morton, deputy chief veterans experience officer at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, who, along with several agency partners, developed a Customer Experience Cookbook that serves as a resource for CX practitioners across the federal government, shared examples of how the VA has worked to improve the veteran experience.

For instance, when the VA realized that veterans were having a hard time navigating the agency’s many benefits and programs, the agency “tied insights to actions” by creating a VA welcome kit, Mortan said. “The kit showed them how to get started, mapping the veteran’s life journey and showcasing where VA fits into their life cycle,” she said. The agency also took veterans’ feedback into consideration when deciding that VA.gov would be the so-called front door or main way for accessing the VA virtually. Customer satisfaction has increased 25% since these changes were implemented, Mortan said.

Journey maps, she added can also be helpful internally when “people see a problem and have a hard time knowing that they’re solving the right problem. [Journey maps] can reframe and identify certain problems.”

Assess and address CX Gaps to build resilience

TTEC’s Andy Martin, Group VP of business development, public sector and Steve Parowski, Group VP, public sector discussed the challenges that many private and public organizations faced in responding to the demand for customer support at the onset of the pandemic.

“We saw a decade of digitization in 6 months,” Parowski said. “Legacy systems couldn’t keep up…COVID-19 exposed the digital gap between systems, whether it was on premise or smaller cloud-hosted solutions.” Companies that are seeking to address those gaps are updating and expanding their resources with artificial intelligence and automation as well as “optimizing the way they hire, train, and equip their workforce,” Martin continued.

Parowski and Martin shared several best practices for building resilience in a contact center:

Tie solutions to agency objectives: Avoid implementing new technology solutions for technology’s sake by keeping agency outcomes in mind. What do you want to achieve by implementing this technology?

Training: AI can train and onboard more agents faster than traditional methods by allowing agents to practice their skills with the AI at any time and provide instant feedback.

Security: In addition to seeking partners that adhere to national security standards, secure calls, texts, and emails to your contact center or remote associates by making sure they’re encrypted and associates are unable to retrieve data on their own.

Accelerate information access: Migrating applications to cloud services gives citizens faster and easier access to information.

Extend resources: One advantage of a cloud-based contact center is the ability to quickly activate other technologies to alleviate surge volume. For example, an AI-powered bot can screen and/or deflect calls, allowing agents to focus on assisting the caller.

Ultimately, “that connective tissue between agency objectives, the citizen experience, and the technology is really what pulls all this together,” Martin said.

The main takeaway is that while most government agencies have been slow to adopt, much less prioritize CX initiatives, that is changing. More and more government agencies are embracing CX best practices, methodologies, and techniques to truly bring the citizen experience into the 21st century.

Click here to watch Andy Martin and Steve Parowski’s full session, Responding to the CX Mandate.

Captive Center vs. Outsourcing: How to Pick the Right One for your Customer Service Needs

There’s no overstating the importance of having high-quality contact centers. These centers are often where customers interact with a brand more directly, and their experiences can bring swift consequences: positive experiences can lead to sales and repeat business, while negative ones can turn customers off a brand for good.

Research shows 70% of shopping experiences revolve around how a person feels they are treated. In this respect, contact centers are on the front lines. But when it comes to captive centers vs. outsourced ones, which is the best way to take customer service and sales to the next level?

Captive centers, those that are client owned and operated, provide resources directly to their organization. The associates working in the centers are employed by the company, not a vendor. This may seem like an attractive option for brands that want to retain control of center operations, and ensure all associates remain on-brand and embrace the corporate culture.

Hiring the Right People

These days, more is expected of service and sales associates than ever before. Today’s workforce must possess complex problem-solving skills, excel in people management, coordinate well with others, and have high emotional intelligence. In an era when so many simple tasks are being handled by AI, the complex problems are left to the people – so finding the right ones is key.

Finding contact center employees with the right skillset can be difficult for brands to do efficiently. But an outsource partner, which has experience and expertise in this area, can take the burden off the brand so that it can focus on its core business mission.

With the right associates, everybody wins: employees feel empowered to make decisions that benefit both customers and the company, customers have positive experiences, and companies’ bottom lines will benefit as a result.

Becoming More Efficient

Business takes place in the global marketplace 24/7 these days, and customers expect to be able to access brands whenever it’s convenient for them. This means companies must be ready to offer support at any time, on any channel, in any language. Associates who don’t meet these expectations risk a frustrating and disconnected experience.

While this can be challenging for a captive center, a benefit of outsourcing vs. captive centers is that an outsource partner has resources around the world – with physical space, technology and staff at the ready. Partner experts know how to act quickly and move to the next objective. Tasks get completed faster and more efficiently.

Faster and More Effective Training

When closing sales, speed and efficiency are the names of the game. An outsourcer can help you get there by training more contact center associates faster and more effectively. Well-versed in industry best practices, outsourcers are equipped to use the latest technology to boost productivity and bottom lines – like TTEC’s RealPlay Bot, which lets associates practice with and get real-time feedback from a bot that acts like an AI-powered customer.

An outsourcer can work to make sure employees are motivated and equipped with the right skills to deliver great customer service experiences during each interaction. In giving the right tools and training, they help brands build a workforce that is competent, collaborative and connected.

Tapping into Expertise

Too often, customer service serves a secondary function because brands are so focused on their products and services. This doesn’t bode well for those brands since, more and more, customers are looking to customer experience as a differentiator, even ahead of products and price in some cases.

The right outsource partner, on the other hand, lives and breathes customer experience. They specialize in end-to-end CX capabilities, can leverage digital and next-gen strategies, provide operations rigor, and hire and retain world-class associates who serve as brand ambassadors.

The expertise a brand may lack in-house can be found in the right partner.

Optimizing Digital

Not surprisingly, digital plays a strong role in contact center success. Another difference between captive centers vs. outsourced ones is that outsourcing partners can give brands the digital edge.

Customers want more digital and technology options, meaning brands must provide multiple channels of support. Not only that, but they also need to understand which channels work best for various types of interactions.

A strong grasp on AI, in particular, is becoming increasingly important; Gartner predicts that this year 15% of all customer service interactions will be completely handled by AI, a 400% percent increase since just 2017.

A captive center may make sense for organizations with low customer support volume and simple customer requests. For organizations that seek to differentiate themselves with a great customer experience, working with an experienced partner is key.

The right partner will bring expertise and tech know-how in digital channels, and balance people with technology in a cost-effective manner – all in a way that frees brands up to focus on their core business mission.

To learn more about choosing the right outsourcing partner, here are additional resources:

Sales Outsourcing: 11 Benefits to Outsourcing Sales: Among its many benefits, sales outsourcing can help brands tap into underserved markets, leapfrog technology constraints, break out of silos, and overcome other obstacles.

4 Questions to Decide if Contact Center Outsourcing is Right for You: When done right, contact center outsourcing is an opportunity to gain specialized knowledge and resources, along with other benefits. But not every organization needs a contact center partner. Does yours?

Organizations Need Sales Outsourcing When It’s ‘All Hands on Deck’: When scalability, speed, and focus are essential, outsourcing sales is a proven way for companies to quickly acquire reinforcements while focusing on core endeavors.

Customer Experience Outsourcing: 5 signs you need it and 5 signs you don’t: To help guide your business through the captive center vs. outsourcing debate, we’ve identified the top reasons not to work with an outsource partner – and the top reasons a CX outsourcing partner might be a good next step.

Chat Vs. Messaging: More Than Meets the Emoji

Customers live on their phones, but not in the same ways they used to. Prior to COVID-19, chat and messaging capabilities catered to users always on the go, then it played a vital role in servicing those who were mostly homebound and needed essential services from groceries to healthcare.

Chat and messaging both play an important role in servicing your customers, but these services are not identical, and we see opportunities for innovation in the latter. Let’s explore their differences and how they can best assist users.

What is chat?

Chat is a dedicated interaction session that pops up on a brand’s website and/or mobile app. In most cases it’s an artificially intelligent virtual agent that greets you in the corner of the screen with the option to continue the conversation with the AI or transfer to an agent.

Chat serves an important purpose in the omnichannel ecosystem, but it’s not without its limits. These platforms often keep the customer glued to one channel. Users typically wait for the window to open for the agent to respond, and if anyone closes the window, the session is canceled with the interaction history lost. Information is not saved on the customer side and may or may not be saved on the agent’s side.

What is messaging?

Messaging is a text-based, one-to-one conversation that usually occurs on a mobile device or platform like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS text messaging, or within an app. Unlike web-based chat that occurs in a pop-up screen where both parties must be logged in, messaging is asynchronous, meaning the customer doesn’t need to stay in a session to send or receive messages.

Messaging takes the idea of web chat and moves it to where consumers already spend their time – on SMS, in apps, or on third-party communications platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, or Apple Business Chat. Messaging is convenient, provides context, and allows conversations to be more personal with emojis, gifs, and links to information.

Create effortless experiences anywhere, anytime

Customers want personalized service that is quick and personalized. Chat and messaging capabilities both have the capabilities to serve these needs, but businesses need to understand where it’s appropriate to deploy each channel.

To learn where chat and messaging will be most effective, explore these resources today:

6 Proven Ways to Win with Messaging: Discover and explore why your customers want to message you, the best ways to implement the evolving channel, and 6 key steps to achieve CSAT success.

What is Asynchronous Messaging?: Learn how asynchronous messaging differs from synchronous forms of communication and learn the benefits of utilizing asynchronous messaging as a customer communication channel.

8 Messaging Myths Debunked: It’s important to spot the fiction from reality when it comes to delivering great messaging experiences. We’ve debunked some of the most common messaging myths out there.

Top 5 CX Gaps in Messaging and Chat: We mystery shopped some famous brands. In this infographic, see what we learned about their chat, messaging, and texting conversational experiences.

Meet the “Chat Avengers: Who are you going to call when you want to deliver a great customer experience with chat? Meet TTEC’s “Chat Avengers” – a super force of experts whose mission is to create amazing chat sales and service interactions for consumers and brands.

5 Tips for Messaging Success: Learn the 5 keys to getting ready for Apple Business Chat and messaging, including differences from established chat channels, how to recruit and train the right talent for messaging, and how to map out the customer journey across messaging channels.

Alexa, what is the ROI of Voice and Chat Assistants?: New research finds that customers increasingly want their voices heard by brands, literally.

How Well Do Brands Use Mobile Messaging and Live Chat?: When customers reach out to a brand with sales or customer service questions, they increasingly do it from their mobile devices. Whether it be voice, chat or SMS messaging, digital-first mobile customer interactions are growing fast.

How to Deliver a Customer-Friendly Vaccination Experience with Messaging

Everyone over age 16 in the United States as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia is now eligible for a coronavirus vaccine. Yet for many, the vaccination experience journey is still broken and confusing. What’s more, consumers will most likely need to repeat the vaccination process next year whether it’s to receive a new dose or a booster shot.

In a recent Drug Store News (DSN) webinar, “Leveraging Messaging and AI to Deliver an Effortless Vaccination Experience” customer experience experts Paul Ignasinski of TTEC and Adam Canter of LivePerson explained how retail pharmacies and healthcare providers can deliver an efficient, proactive, customer-friendly vaccination experience by utilizing the same messaging channels their customers use to talk to friends and family.

Solving the pain points with messaging

While the process for making a COVID-19 vaccine appointment and receiving the shots is improving, it has been largely marked by confusion and frustration. Many consumers have been confused about where and how to sign up for an appointment and frustrated when few slots were available.

“When we think of the ideal vaccine experience, it needs to be built to scale,” Ignasinski said. It’s about generating proactive awareness of the vaccine, reaching people where they are, providing consistent information, and making it easy for consumers to get answers to their questions, he continued.

Mobile messaging is an ideal solution given that many consumers are already comfortable communicating via SMS or on a messaging app, agreed Canter. And rather than wait on hold, consumers welcome the opportunity to quickly get their questions answered over messaging. “Some of the ways pharmacies solve this [overwhelmed phone lines] is after intent has been detected, such as ‘press 5 for vaccine info’ they automatically send the consumer into a messaging experience,” he said. As a result, the phone lines are freed up and consumers receive faster support.

Canter also shared a few best practices for adding messaging to a brand’s channel mix:

Save time with automation – Use automation to proactively answer questions that consumers may have about messaging and what to expect from the vaccine appointment.
Leverage messaging FAQs – For people who are not familiar with communicating with brands via text, provide messaging FAQs across all of a brand’s digital properties as well as a short explanation on the IVR system.
Don’t try to do everything at once – It’s not necessary to roll out a full-featured messaging suite at once. Start with one feature, such as IVR deflection, and add more features as consumers get comfortable.

Plan for a long-term solution

More and more vaccine experts, scientists, and public health officials are warning that the COVID-19 vaccine is not a one-time event. “We don’t see this as a 2021 exercise, COVID will be with us for a while.” Ignasinski noted. As a result, he added, retail pharmacies and healthcare organizations will “need a longer-term solution to get the experience right.”

A long-term approach to administering the COVID-19 vaccine could look like the flexible approach that pharmacies use for a seasonal flu vaccine. During the off-season, pharmacies could focus on awareness and education, and ramp up on staff when it’s time to administer the vaccine. Healthcare organizations should plan their support around different types of intent, Canter said. “Just like in the summer, there’s lots of intent on when is flu season? Followed by, should I book my flu shot now?”

Delivering a smooth and effortless vaccine experience is also essential for driving customer loyalty, Ignasinski added. Especially at a time when consumers have been experimenting with new brands and channels, it’s imperative that pharmacies and other healthcare organizations solve their customer experience issues before a competitor swoops in.

Indeed, retail pharmacies are “becoming less and less transactional,” said DSN Publisher John Kanlon, who moderated the webinar. “Healthcare services are becoming a bigger part of it and what do people want—convenience, affordability, and high-quality care done in a very modern way.”

Learn more about how to effortlessly coordinate vaccine management operations here.

3 Ways to Bring your Sales Game to the Next Level

A good salesperson doesn’t settle on satisfactory, they’re always on the lookout for new challenges and insights. To better understand how a salesperson can expand their playing field to the next level we met again with TTEC’s chief revenue office Judi Hand to explore 3 strategies your team can apply now.

Act on urgency

Buyers act on urgent, they don’t act on important. A successful salesperson already understands the buyer persona and the solution they are selling, going to the next level means acting on critical and timely services when needed.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a defining example of this strategy. In the length of one year, salespeople had to take a step back to better understand what needs are urgent to their clients and prospects.

Success rides on being nimble and adaptive enough to adjust solutions and pitches to address timely needs that moments ago weren’t on the radar.

Know the ins and outs

A deep understanding of the business you serve and how it can grow alongside modern-day challenges is instrumental. The best sales is a student of their customer’s business so staying on top of industry trends allows you to hop on key issues right when they arrive on their doorstep.

The ability to break through and expand within any given industry can help solve the urgent needs discussed in the first strategy. Focus on the challenges that are relevant to your client, the product you sell will then fall in naturally.

Succeed, and fail, as a team

The salesperson role is often seen as an individual contributor, the lone wolf. While this is in part due to the day-to-day accountability of themselves, in the end team wins the sale and vise-versa the team loses the sale.

The best salespeople understand that collaboration between the various teams: pricing, solutions, delivery, launch and more, all come together to tell a product and brand story. Leaders need to give clear and concise directions on the objectives and information needed for everyone to succeed. Winnings or failures, discuss the learnings and discover how the team can succeed next time.

Achieve the next level, together

The ability to up your sales game relies not only on the individual, but the team’s ability to recognize and act on change together. At TTEC we recognize that sales are now a team sport, there are unique skills needed for each part of the sales process. That’s why outsourcing is growing as an effective way to work smarter, not harder. Explore our white paper Sales Outsourcing White Paper 11 Ways to Transform Your Business with Inside Sales Outsourcing to learn more today.

This concludes the first season of The Ultimate Sales Conversion, we hope you’ve learned a lot from our incredible guests and enjoyed the ride!

Here’s why this Entrepreneur is Excited about CX

Open Sign — Store open sign hanging on the window

Businesses across the spectrum from multinational firms to startups have had to quickly innovate in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Zain Jaffer, an entrepreneur and investor focused on startups and property tech, provides insights into the businesses that are not only surviving, but thriving during the pandemic, and predicts which innovations and trends will reshape the customer experience (CX).

Let’s start by talking about startups. Since Zain Ventures invests in a wide range of startup businesses, what e-commerce startups have you been watching that have an interesting approach to customer support or the overall customer experience?

Yeah, so Zain Ventures is my family office. And I also run a venture capital fund called Blue Field, which invests in a segment of startups in the PropTech sector. And I did this after selling my own company, I had an exit in 2019, sold in my mobile advertising startup for $780 million, and wanted to diversify. And I’m a very thematic investor, I focus on trends. So a lot of the startups I look for, especially through the pandemic, are seeing a lot of acceleration in the core trends that they’ve been targeting. Of course, there’s also a category of startups that have gone to absolutely zero because the pandemic completely crushed them. I think a couple of cool startups that I personally invested in, or I’m looking at, one of these companies is Order For Me. And I invested in Order For Me prior to the pandemic. Order For Me is trying to really change the restaurant retail experience.

And in what way?

Listen to the full interview at the CX Pod.

Offshoring, Onshoring, Nearshoring: So Many Shores, So Little Time

The growing remote work culture has business leaders looking for the best talent not only in their locality but across continents. The rise of the open talent economy, remote work, and globalization has leveled the playing field: now you must decide which outsourcing option is right for you.

What is onshoring?

We begin right at home. Onshoring is when an organization outsources services and functions from within its own country. Outsourced associates share similar experiences with your consumers and are aware of local customs and issues. Meanwhile, data privacy, security, and sensitive information are more easily monitored and retained in a home country.

Onshoring pitfalls are that operating within the company’s home nation will likely be the most expensive option, and labor pools are limited. It may be difficult to find enough employees with the right skills or to quickly scale, such as during surge-related events.

What is offshoring?

Now we look to the horizon. Offshoring is outsourcing work to overseas countries to access a lower-cost labor market while retaining, and often increasing, the quality of skills. It’s also an opportunity for an organization to establish a business presence in a foreign country. Offshoring serves the dual purpose of reducing costs and tapping into a wider talent pool. For example, many companies offshore customer service operations to third-party associates in other nations.

What is nearshoring?

Sometimes help is right next door. Nearshoring operations is when an organization recruits employees from neighboring countries to complete services. This type of outsourcing combines the best of both worlds, linking together cultural similarities with the hiring country while maintaining the cost efficiencies that aren’t found at home.

Simply put, the cost of business is lower but you are retaining the sense of familiarity that helps deliver empathy and connections to everyday conversations. It’s a great way to dip your toes into outsourcing and assign niche services to specialized groups found elsewhere.

Look for the right outsourcing partner

Whichever outsourcing option you select, working with the right partner is critical. Look for a partner that aligns with your company culture, social values, and collaborative process. For example, when working with a new client, TTEC focuses on understanding the company’s culture, social values, and mission to ensure a seamless integration that drives ongoing success.

Explore a world of opportunity

Choosing the right outsourcing solution doesn’t have to be difficult. It’s important to remember that you are never limited to only one of the three options above. Different operations work best in different environments, the ability to mix and match gives organizations the opportunity to be nimble and flexible with how they deliver amazing customer experiences.

To learn more about choosing the right outsourcing partner, here are additional resources:

Outsourcing: Which Shore is right for you: There are many ways to outsource your customer operations. The hard part is deciding which contact center solution – offshore outsourcing, onshore outsourcing, at-home, or a combination of them all – is right for you.

11 Ways to Transform Your Business with Inside Sales Outsourcing: These days, sales is a team sport. There are unique skills needed for each part of the sales process. That’s why outsourcing is growing as an effective way to work smarter, not harder.

Why and How to Outsource Your Contact Center Operations: In this guide, learn the pros and cons of the different types of customer service and sales outsourcing options available to brands.

Land Ho! The Ins and Outs of Nearshoring Explained: While offshoring continues to be a cost-effective way for many companies to increase output, certain circumstances and needs could make nearshoring the better option.

An Inside Look at COVID-19 Vaccine Strategies that Work

State and local healthcare organizations are facing multiple challenges in getting COVID-19 vaccines to communities. Andy Martin, group vice president at TTEC, shares insights and best practices that he and his team have gathered from their work helping public and private sector health organizations address those very challenges as the vaccine rollout continues.

Check out our podcast, “CX and COVID-19: Vaccine Strategies that Work” for more information about CX and vaccine management.

Learn how TTEC ensures an organized, demand-based, safe consumer vaccination experience.

We know that for many people just signing up for a vaccine appointment is a confusing and frustrating process. What are you hearing from health officials in terms of the key challenges that they’re facing in getting the vaccine out?

Yeah, that’s a great question. I think we’re seeing some consistency across the board at both the state and the local level. Each state of course, is handling the process a little bit differently, but I’d say there are three main things that they’re facing in terms of challenges. One of them is around just the communication. And you mentioned that upfront. How are we communicating with the citizens?

The other is increased call volumes—unexpectedly high call volumes into these states and local health [organizations] that frankly, they just weren’t prepared for. So large call volumes are a big piece of this. And the last one is struggling to report accurately, whether that is vaccination supply or what’s going on with the scheduling, that’s a challenge. And I can go into a little bit of detail on each. As you think about communication planning, many states, state governments who received the vaccine simply sent those vaccines out to what we call points of distribution.

Those could be pharmacies, local health communities, or hospital systems, but those points of distribution were responsible then to communicate with their respective constituents on how, when, what’s the availability, et cetera. And what we found was there was really not a centralized approach from the states to really manage the expectations of the citizens. And I think that lack of a communication plan, a structured communication plan, can really create a challenge for some of the local state and health officials.

The other one thing that I mentioned was increased call volumes. And just to give you a sense, probably about four weeks ago now we worked with a point of distribution within the State of Texas for example, that happened to be a pharmacy in this case. But that pharmacy had folks answering the phones that were actual pharmacists, the phone was ringing off the hook to the tune of roughly 22,000 calls a day that were coming in.

And they just didn’t expect that kind of call volume and it created some real challenges for them. So I think anticipating that this is an unprecedented event and that you will be receiving much higher call volumes than you might expect, with questions about efficacy, questions about availability, those will happen and you have to anticipate that.

And the last one was accurate reporting, and that is a centralized registration and scheduling system in many, many cases in most states. In fact, they’ve left that up to the points of distribution to create those registrations. And as a result, they’ve delegated that out and there’s limited visibility at the states and even at the local health community level on how to report accurately, whether that’s again about availability, or about schedules, about who’s been vaccinated and who hasn’t. And that becomes really, really important to get, when you’re using myriad systems to try and get consistent information and data, it can be a real challenge.

Customer Acquisition vs. Retention: The Perfect Balancing Act

The art of attracting and keeping customers is a balancing act, and the pandemic was an anvil thrown onto the scale. The brands that survived the shift in everyday life knew how to not only bring in new customers, but nourish the relationship with empathy and personalization.

To better understand this, we need to consider the fundamentals of customer acquisition vs. customer retention. Both strategies are essential to keep a business going, and one cannot be completed without the other.

What is customer acquisition?

In short, it’s your ability to acquire new customers. But customer acquisition is more than securing a purchase, it’s about creating a sustainable recruitment strategy that can evolve with new trends and changes.

Successful brands know how to optimize buying journeys to gain new customers, while leveraging technology and analytics to deliver personalized experiences that stand out from the competition. Maturing your customer acquisition strategy means engaging customers with relevant offers delivered through the right channel at the right time.

What is customer retention?

Establishing a strong relationship from the first interaction is key, but it is equally important to nurture that relationship over time. Customer retention is preserving an individual’s continued services with your organization through an extended and sometimes life-long journey.

Fostering a strong customer relationship is about showing customers that you know them. Individuals stay with brands that understand their needs now and in the future. Customer experience journey mapping and churn prediction analytics explore purchase cycles and implement steps to prevent an unpleasant experience. Healthy omnichannel retention and upsell programs can reduce attrition and build relationships that last a lifetime.

The art of perfect experiences

A great experience starts from the beginning to the end. Customer acquisition and retention strategies, although at different parts of the journey, rely on providing authentic experiences with individuals at every touchpoint, across every channel.

We believe that small gestures can speak volumes about your brand; look for opportunities to provide empathy in your customer experience and give your employees the right tools to make it seamless and efficient.

Likewise, utilize customer data to understand current and future needs and expectations. Fostering brand loyalty, an understanding of past activity, can increase total lifetime value and encourage people to invite friends and family to do business with your brand.

Hardships such as the pandemic and economic difficulties have made the above strategies more crucial than ever, and the impact of successful relationships more meaningful.

Learn more

Here are additional resources on creating meaningful customer relationships at every point of the journey:

Customer Loyalty and Retention Strategies: Keep customers happy and hit key business goals by investing in existing customer relationships.

Customer Acquisition as a Service: Our customer acquisition services help you find customers and personalize experiences across all channels in order to drive revenue and increase loyalty and lifetime value.

Five Keys to Set the Stage for New Customer Acquisition: Sales teams have always had their work cut out for them. But in a competitive economy, where the differentiators between organizations are getting slimmer, the challenges that sales teams face for new customer acquisition increase exponentially.

Personalization Drives Customer Acquisition and Retention for Insurers: Our always-on digital world is transforming consumer expectations and the way consumers interact with businesses.

Data Insight Reduces Churn and Decreases Costs: It is not enough to calculate churn rates. By utilizing data insights, this company identified key pain points leading to churned customers and was able to proactively improve the customer journey and customer retention rates.

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