Livewire

One of the basic tenants of large, consumer-centric companies in the information age is that you require investment in call centres.  These call centres may be outsourced, multi-tenanted and cost-efficient but they invariably require large investment in infrastructure, people and desktop based applications.  But what if these permanent investments were no longer required?  What if inbound and outbound customer interactions were serviced by a unique combination people, services and technology?

This is one of the promises of new technology enabling the delivery of enterprise application user experiences to mobile devices.  Many front-of-house user experiences have been moving to web-based for PCs and mobile devices are now capable of adapting these interfaces based on device capabilities, user preferences and presence information.  I’m not going to delve into this topic now but full mobile browsers, content translation middleware and new mobile operating systems are all aspects of this enabling set of technologies.

So what are some of the implications for companies?  I have a couple of scenarios I would like to explore.

Scenario 1 – Selling a new handset and mobile service in a bar -

Many of you will be familiar with the concept of viral marketing for consumption products such as the cute girl at the bar who convinces you to try the latest mixed drink offering and offers to buy you one. 

Now imagine you see the same girl at a bar with a great looking phone and you comment on it.  They turn around and start telling you how good the phone is, show you how they watch TV on it, tell you all about the fantastic coverage, etc.  She says there is a deal now and you can sign up online, in fact you can use her phone.  She starts the process for you and talks you through it.  She asks if you use a phone much for work.  You do.  She upgrades you to a business plan.  You go through the last steps to confirm your purchase and pay for it.  Five minutes later the girl has moved on and a few days later the phone arrives via post at your nominated address.

What enabled this scenario?

• The girl was registered as virtual marketer for a phone company.  She receives training online at home and receives commission on every sale.  There are no direct costs to the phone operator.
• The phone companies CRM system had a mobile user experience with the basic necessary process for sign up and ability to suggest up-sell offers.
• Order was fulfilled and billing triggered the same as orders through the call centre.

Scenario – Crowd-sourcing field force for support -

The crowd sourcing concept has been around for a while, particularly in the area of IT and home entertainment support.  But the crowd-sourcing concept is primarily a hand-off concept.

In this scenario, a customer having support problems with their internet connection can use their mobile phone to ask for assistance.  Based on their location information, a list of registered, available helpers are provided.  The customer can initiate an SMS, voice or IM conversation with these crowd-sourced helpers based upon preferences.  The helper can agree an appointment to come and check out their on premises equipment.  Based upon their registration details, level of completed training and reputation with the provider, they have access to a restricted set of enterprise application functions.  They assist the customer with problem resolution, making incident notes on their mobile device into the provider systems.  They are able to see that the provider service in that area has scheduled maintenance which is due to finish in an hour.  The helper returns to their home and updates the incident with further details via a richer PC based experience.  He sends a notification to the customer when the maintenance work is completed to check if the internet is available again.  It is.  The customer problem is resolved, the registered helper charges an agreed fee for the service.

How was this scenario achieved?

• Helper registered on a crowd-sourcing site from the provider and proceeding through appropriate training for levels of certification.
• Availability information and preferences of helper were registered with the provider.
• Diagnostic and support ticketing systems were exposed as a mobile based on helper’s role and privileges

Extension scenarios

These are just some basic ideas for how the traditional notion of fixed, large call centres can be broken down through mobilisation of enterprise applications.  Large investment and operating costs can be moved to flexible, demand based cost.  These scenarios can be carried further with some minor extensions including;

• Reverse auction sites to bid for available crowd-sourced opportunities;
• Leverage advertising models to offset the cost to enterprises and crowd-sourced helpers; and
• Combination of wireless access and near-field communications devices to enhance the customer experience in stores or entertainment venues.

Hopefully companies can take advantage of these possibilities to deliver benefit to both shareholders and customers without being sold something every time we chat to a stranger in a bar.