Contact centers looking to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment are under constant pressure to deliver better customer service for callers while also improving operational issues and controlling costs.

To help solve challenges like reducing turnover and improving agent effectiveness in the call center, customer interaction management “CIM” technology brings together complex customer care processes using advanced solutions.

Aria offers CIM services called “CIMplicity” based on Genesys (News - Alert) Customer Interaction Management software and is described by the company as a, “systematic approach to ‘orchestrate’ a client’s many complex customer care processes for maximum business performance.”

From strategic consulting for planning, simulation and analysis, and deployment and management services - to repeatable services and methodologies, software and documentation templates, software products and other Aria (News - Alert) intellectual property, the “orchestration” enables clients to improve customer service, increase revenue and reduce costs, all while using a common solution. 

I recently caught up with Jamie Coutts, Vice President, Client Relationships and Marketing at Aria, to find out more about the company’s solution, what it offers for the IP contact center, and their relationship with Sangoma.

Our exchange follows.

Please provide a quick background on Aria the company.

Aria is a Canadian company founded in 1986 and is privately held.  We have worked with numerous Fortune 1000 companies and government organizations throughout North America. Aria has successfully completed over 600 customer care software projects.

How is Aria positioned to assist contact centers as they make the switch from TDM to IP?

Aria’s consultants have gained considerable knowledge at implementing IP based contact center solutions for medium and large customer care organizations.  We offer a customer care roadmap service to evaluate a customer’s legacy TDM technology and applications and make recommendations for best-in-class IP platforms and applications to best meet their business goals. In deploying the IP solutions, we provide application, server and network interface services to ensure high availability.

As call centers make this transition to IP, are there difficulties when bringing CPA technologies on board? How does your relationship with Sangoma help with this?

Deploying a proper IP infrastructure requires best-in-class CPA technologies and services in order to ensure quality customer service.  In that regard, Sangoma is the right choice.

Can you talk a little about CIMplicity services and products - what they offer and how clients can maximize value using the offering?

Aria’s CIMplicity offerings are based on Genesys software, recognized as the world leader in providing customer care solutions for contact centers and associated back offices.  They include repeatable strategic consulting and deployment methodologies and services, and documentation and software templates.  By using CIMplicity, customers get more business benefits from their Genesys system, such as improved customer experiences, increased revenue and reduce costs.  Our CIMplicity offerings also reduce the cost to deploy Genesys and make it easier to support and grow.   

How are IP technologies being used to improve caller experiences in the contact center?

IP technologies improve how applications are integrated together, therefore giving callers more consistent experiences.  They also provide more accurate reporting so that management can make improvements on how their contact centers work.

Can you talk a little about the benefits of CIM technology and how they help call centers to simultaneously increase service while also reducing costs?

CIM technology provides self-service capabilities such as IVR/speech which can automate calls at a fraction of the cost of live agents and provides immediate response for inbound call routing based on numerous configurable parameters to get each customer to the right agent at the right time. 

It also maximizes agent productivity by ensuring every agent is properly utilized according to their skills and availability.

In addition, outbound calls for agents or IVR and SMS messages keep customers better informed and automatic call backs can be used if the wait time exceeds a defined threshold.

Routing of emails and chat interactions as well as routing of back office tasks to maximize performance and service levels in back office staff is made possible with CIM technology.

For agents, a softphone with easy to use call control and screen pops of backend CRM and other IT systems, call reason codes, statistics, can be used.

Also, reporting on interactions from cradle to grave is possible along with data warehouse for ad hoc inquiries, historical and real time data integration to workforce management systems and integration with quality monitoring.

For more, check out www.ariasolutions.com