Integrated Customer Service Knowledge Management Needs to Span Self-Service, Assisted Service, Case Management, and Contact Center Solutions

The Web and the contact center are the two critical channels for cross-channel customer service—the Web for self-service and the contact center for assisted-service. Customer portals are the mechanism for delivering self-service on the Web. Agent desktops are the mechanism for delivering assisted-service through the contact center.

Knowledge management-based customer service offerings can be the key to delivering customer service across both these channels. For Web self-service, they typically offer portal-like UIs. For contact center-based assisted-service, their integration with the case/incident capabilities of the agent desktops in contact center offerings can be the key to helping agents/CSRs deliver more effective, more efficient, and more consistent customer service. InQuira iConnect provides that integration between its InQuira 8 knowledge management offering and leading contact center products.

Announcement: InQuira iConnect for Siebel Contact Centers

On October 12, 2009, InQuira announced iConnect for Oracle's Siebel Contact Center, its first iConnect offering. iConnect is the latest in recent offerings designed to improve assisted-service through the contact center, but InQuira is not the first KM-based customer service supplier to integrate its offering with contact center software. KM offerings from Consona, eGain, and IntelliResponse, for example, also integrate their KM offerings with external, third-party contact center and case management solutions. And, given its large installed base, Siebel Contact Center has been a prime integration target. But iConnect has capabilities and features that differentiate it from competing contact center integration approaches:

• iConnect tightly integrates InQuira 8 within the Siebel Contact Center agent desktop UI. Agents/CSRs access search and knowledge management capabilities through a "Find Answers" tab within the Siebel Contact center "Service" window.
  
• iConnect helps agents/CSRs find the best answers and solutions by generating search queries that include terms from key information in the Siebel Service Request, product data, request summary content, problem area, and sub area, for example.
  
• Agents are on the front line for learning about new problems and new issues. They're often the best source for new knowledge. iConnect gives them the capability to create and add items to the knowledgebase.
  
• iConnect lets agents include knowledgebase content or links to knowledge items within service transcripts, promoting faster and better customer service for customer calls with the same or similar issues and improving knowledge available for self-service.

iConnect for Siebel Contact Center is the first of InQuira's iConnect offerings. The firm plans to integrate its KM-based customer service offering with the contact center offerings of the leading CRM suppliers and has already established a partnership with Genesys. So we can expect iConnect for Genesys pretty soon.

iConnect for Siebel Contact Center is available now. Its price varies with the size of the implementation. InQuira expects the average price to be in a range of between $50,000 and $75,000.

iConnect is going to help InQuira reach and sell to more organizations. It's going to enhance Siebel Contact Center with capabilities that help agents answer customers' questions and solve customers' problems faster, more completely, and more consistently.

Comments

[buy acai]

Just wanted to let you know that it’s not showing up properly on the BlackBerry Browser (I have a Pearl). Anyway, I’m now on the RSS feed on my laptop, so thanks!

Regards

[Customer Call Center Software]

Some excellent ideas here I don’t have a news blog as such but there are some great tips that I plan to use.

[Alex Lee]

Indeed, there are so many good insights about customer service, especially now that the outsourcing is one of the solutions being considered for a more cost-effective strategy.