Jodo Digital Command Centers to replace legacy Contact Centers
Once upon a time… the telephone was the only means of having a long-distance, real-time conversation. In those simpler days, businesses had banks of operators taking calls from customers, transferring them around the enterprise, and keeping everything moving. Then came the power of local telephone switches (PBX) and those banks of operators merged into business units, combining resources to support customers, instead of routing them. Not long after, automated call distribution (ACD) meant that customers could automatically be routed to a team or department based on the number dialed – and the long road to full automation began for what was known as the Call Center. A few years later, computers began to take the more complex task of caller routing, bringing it to another level via a Computer Telephony Interface (CTI) and rudimentary caller-selected routing through static Interactive Voice Response Systems (IVR). Then computing really came into its own as the Internet grew – and everything happened a lot faster!
SMS, email, video, multimedia, web chat, IM, Social Media… chatbots, AI, Big Data, IoT… suddenly there are hundreds of methods of communicating via thousands of provider and vendor channels. The Call Center became a Contact Center and immediately struggled to maintain a presence across those ever-expanding channels. Unified Communications (UC) became the buzzword for combining so many of those streams of customer interactions, data, accounts, conversations, transcripts, media, and information. Today, Contact Centers maintain as many channels as they are able while keeping the line open for callers… but what about tomorrow?
When conversations can take place over any medium – at any time – anywhere in the connected world – those interactions need to be orchestrated, quantified, categorized – and responded to. A new layer is emerging within the same space – with IoT automated devices also providing channels of communications supporting consumers’ needs. Health monitoring, security, tracking, location, and GPS services are becoming more commonplace elements, feeding information into customer relationship tools. The Command Center is the next most logical step in the evolution of Unified Communications for the consumer industry:
Combining data and services from any channel and connecting the rights services, resources, or automated responses places a new onus on the Command Center. Connecting consumers, patients, clients, citizens, equipment, devices, monitors, and other connected elements – not only to in-house resources but to experts and professionals external to the organization in real-time means automation and orchestration on a massive scale.
The evolution of the Contact Center to the Command Center is already underway – why not let JODO Cloud show you how to be ahead of the crowd – because #NowYouCan!