Carousel Outlines How Companies Can Use Analytics to 'Get Closer to Customers'

EXETER, RHODE ISLAND, March 28, 2014 (Press-News.org) Last month, Carousel Industries, a leader in mobility, data networking and converged communications, held a three-part webinar entitled 'Closer to Customer", focused on building stronger brand-customer relationships. Part One of the series, which featured Blair Pleasant, president and principal analyst of COMMFusion LLC and co-founder of UCStrategies as well as subject matter experts from Carousel and Avaya, focused on analytics: how companies can turn raw data into fresh insights to improve the overall customer experience.

The Role of Analytics in Driving Customer Loyalty:

Analytics present a powerful opportunity to better understand customers, while improving agent and contact center productivity and effectiveness. According to research Pleasant presented in a recently conducted survey, many companies use analytics within their customer service and call center environments, but most are either new to the practice of using analytics or not using it to its full potential. "There is a renewed focus on the customer experience, and poor customer service can cost companies a lot of money if customers choose to take their business elsewhere," said Pleasant. "If business is lost, it is expensive and sometimes it is not possible to gain back the customer." She cited the following sobering statistics:

• $83 billion dollars is lost each year due to poor customer service
• 90 percent of consumers will purchase a product or service from a competitor after a bad customer service experience
• 71 percent of consumers will abandon a purchase due to poor customer service

The New Ecosystem of Analytics:

During the webinar, Pleasant illustrated that there are many possible aspects to consider in measuring the success of a customer engagement. These include, among other things, analyzing data from recorded phone calls, IVR surveys, chat sessions, Twitter, Facebook and online forums. Using 'big data' tools available from Carousel and Avaya, customers can now capture information at every stage of the customer journey in order to improve performance and operations.

"The key is using analytics not only to understand the information itself, but turn it into actionability," said Pleasant. "You want to apply the information the analytics provides to improve the customer experience and improve the contact center performance, while fine tuning operations and improving process -- which includes staffing and agent training."

As the contact center evolves, companies focused on successful customer engagement are using analytics to find the root causes of issues and attempting to solve in real time. According to Pleasant, some of the new job titles at these companies include Chief Customer Experience Officer, Chief Customer Officer, Director of Customer Engagement' and 'Director of Consumer Insights and Strategy. Each of these roles depends on analytics to understand the customer issues, she says.

Incentive to Get the Analytics Right:

By listening to, capturing and applying data from across channels, companies stand to gain substantial rewards. According to research from Accenture, a typical $1 billion business can add $40 million in profit by enhancing its methods for turning customer information into insight by just 10 percent. This is where analytics can help, Pleasant asserts.

Following are some of the results businesses can realize by changing and improving business processes around customer service, which ultimately drives customer relationships and brings companies 'Closer to Customers,' concludes Pleasant:

• Improved agent performance
• Reduced costs / increased revenues
• Ensured compliance
• Enhanced customer experience
• Improved business processes
• Increased revenue
• Increased customer satisfaction

To learn more about Carousel's Closer to Customers webinar series, which includes Dive Deeper - Part 1; Move Faster - Part 2; and Think Bigger - Part 3, please visit http://www.carouselindustries.com/email/get-closer.

About Carousel:

Carousel Industries consults, integrates, and manages technology solutions that solve business problems and contribute to your organizations' growth. This includes unified communications, managed services, virtualization, Voice over IP (VoIP), video conferencing and collaboration and data infrastructure solutions.

Today we have over 6,000 customers, including 35 of the Fortune 100. Carousel has been recognized by both VAR and CRN Magazines as one of the top technology integrators in the US and we've been listed in the Inc. 500/5000 seven times. Carousel is headquartered in Exeter, RI, with over 1,000 employees working from offices in 30 locations across the US, including over 250 service technicians deployed across the country. For more information visit: http://www.carouselindustries.com.