The customer experience challenge met: Genesys Lab

PG Note: This is Genesys Labs' response to the challenge. So far, we've seen SAP, GetSatisfaction, Allegiance and KANA and now Genesys Labs. Pete Wermter, the VP of Corporate Marketing and Communications is the respondent. I've never had the pleasure of meeting Pete, so this is my (and I presume your) way of getting to know him and why Genesys Labs can claim customer experience as their message.

Take it from here, Pete. Genesys Labs in on the podium

_________________________________________________________________

I wanted to take this opportunity to respectfully respond to your request and detail Genesys’ position.  Our hats off to you for calling us vendors out on these claims…

Let me first state that Genesys has never claimed to be a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) vendor, as we’ve always partnered and integrated with these systems to positively impact the customer experience. That said, we believe Genesys can have a tremendous impact on customer experience with our core value proposition being around helping companies and organizations deliver great customer service. We do this with by working closely with our customers and delivering leading contact center solutions, as well as supporting areas like Web Customer Service, Mobile Customer Support, Social Customer Service, and Workforce Optimization, which empowers agents to deliver great service.

At Genesys, we believe the nature of how customers engage with companies has dramatically changed.  When it comes to engaging their favorite brands, consumers are extremely sophisticated and have increasing demands for fast and simple service – a bad experience can damage a company’s brand, and this can often make its way into social networks for other customers to see. In the end, customers want efficient and personalized experiences, and when it comes time for service, most simply want their problem solved – quickly, without the runaround.

That’s where Genesys comes in. There’s no doubt that “customer experience” has its roots within CRM, as well as customer service and support, and contact center solutions.  But, today’s complex customer relationships and multiple ways of communicating – including social and mobile - have blurred the lines between traditional CRM systems and other enabling technologies that have a direct impact on customer engagement and service.   As a result, we believe that “customer experience” solutions have expanded beyond the foundational context of CRM to now include a broader range of solutions and technology, including those mentioned above.

At Genesys, we are driving the evolution of the customer experience in the following ways:

Delivering Cross-Channel Customer Conversations: Today’s customer conversations are complex – especially when it comes to customer service.  These conversations happen over the phone, web, social, mobile and self-service. Often one service request will take place across multiple channels – with agents asking customers the same questions over and over.  Genesys helps companies navigate the challenges of “cross-channel conversations” so that consumers are having one conversation a company.  In addition, by knowing the customer’s history, context and preferences, Genesys can better anticipate customer needs at the moment they contact a company.  This engagement and ability to deliver a seamless customer conversation helps foster brand loyalty and ultimately an efficient and consistent customer experience. 

Empowering Customer-Facing Employees:  Every day, agents and experts are on the front lines servicing customer requests – in the contact center and increasingly across the enterprise in places like the back office.  Many studies have proven that there’s a direct correlation between agent satisfaction and customer satisfaction.  A poorly performing agent will naturally contribute to a negative customer experience – and visa versa.   Genesys helps optimize agent resources through quality monitoring, training, feedback/surveys, consolidated data and desktops, scheduling and other capabilities. At the end of the day, the performance and efficiency of front-line customer service agents can make or break the customer experience.

Enabling Enterprise-Wide Customer Service:  Delivering customer service today has expanded beyond the four walls of the contact center. The back-office, as well as field and branch locations, have a direct effect on the customer experience.  A customer filing an insurance claim might have a pleasant experience with the contact center agent.  However, once that application becomes mired in the back-office, that experience can go bad very quickly due to slow processes and inefficiency – this greatly impacts the customer experience.  Genesys helps create a seamless customer service chain between the front office and back office.  By prioritizing and assigning customer service work items or processes (such as the insurance claim) to the right resource based upon pre-defined SLAs, the overall customer experience will meet expectations and deliver an efficient outcome for both the company and customers. 

But don’t take our word for it – see the video below from our recent Genesys G-Force customer event in Barcelona, Spain. It features leading brands like Emirates Airlines, telling how they are improving the customer experience and how Genesys is helping them do it (customer piece starts at about 5 minutes into the video):  http://bit.ly/ZiEbse

Finally, when it’s all said and done, it ultimately comes down to the end customer and what they really want. Will they say good things or bad things about a company’s service on social media? We talked to some end customers on the streets of Sydney, Australia as part of our APAC G-Force event this past August, here’s what they said:

See video at:  http://tinyurl.com/aj3734f

We hope the above clarifies our position and the value we provide, and that we can continue to share insights and ideas about today’s customer experience. We believe it’s all about great customer service, that’s what enables companies to set themselves apart when it comes to customer experience.