Tech has put customer in position of power: Aspect Software's Sanjay Gupta

It's no surprise that technology has put the customer in a position of power. New social mediums have enabled customers to voice their opinions in a way that brands can't control.

These quick shifting dynamics have stumped most companies, and forced them to change the way they approach customer experience. In this regard, the contact centre also has to mature in order to align itself to the increasingly social demeanour of its customers.

Today's consumers have taken control of the conversation, expecting to be able to choose where, when and how to connect.

With the growing millennial and cyber savvy population in India, communication channels are expanding beyond more familiar choices like voice, chat and email to include SMS/text messaging modes, social networking, and access to contentrich, user- directed, self-service experiences through the Internet.

Indian enterprises need to transform their current contact centre infrastructure. Creating a consumer engagement experience that works in silos from the other means of interaction is something that will widen this gap. This therefore needs to be addressed with an all- encompassing, integrated approach that improves the responsiveness of the brand in a well- thought out manner. In this regard, unified communications and collaboration technologies provide the foundation for the next- generation contact center, where organizations can leverage the varied skill of its employee's to deliver timely solutions to its customers.

(Sanjay Gupta, Managing Director, Aspect Software, India, Middle East and SAARC)
(As told to Business Today's Sarika Malhotra)