I think we can all agree that 2020 was, hmmmm…enlightening? (fill in your own descriptive word!) Some scenes in the customer experience world flashed a scathing message of "Agents MUST work from home" and "Self-Service could save your business" that made us all wish we could put 2020 behind us. Hopefully the lessons learned will become the catalyst for ensuring that In 2021,we will start acting on those instincts to have the right tools in place to drive our ability to pivot when an unsuspecting jump scene shows up.
With that said, you are in a safe space here. This Omnichannel blog series will focus on our intention to provide a resource to progressively tackle some of the topics that might have been in your dark corner and shed light on how we can simplify the agent and customer journey using tools that are easy to implement and drive positive, consistent impact in your service center.
For this series, I've teamed up with one of our long-time partners who has been trailblazing not only CTI applications but the cloud contact center space with ServiceNow for years: 3C Logic. Much of this series will have 3C Logic as a highlight reference point for the topics you can look forward to learning in detail. Some of the topics we are considering exploring over the next six weeks or so are: CTI 101; IVR/IVA; Voice/Chat Bots, AI, and ML; Routing + Queues; Speech Analytics, Dashboards, & Reporting; Workforce Optimization; (just to name a few).
Today, we'll start with the basics of Computer Telephony Integration (CTI). Let's start from the beginning and define for you the components that enable CTI as part of the ServiceNow product suite.
First, let's get on some common ground around CTI. Many people think of CTI as a screen pop of a customer record, plain and simple. Most of the time, CTI will involve pulling metadata from a customer application in order to identify who a caller is based on the phone number they called from (known as the ANI, or it's more well-known depiction as "Caller-ID"). This is a number that is tracked and passed as a useable piece of unique data to identify a caller. The other number that is typically used from a triage and routing standpoint is the DNIS (AKA, the number dialed by a caller) which is used in the initial treatment of a caller into an IVR, IVA, call flow, etc. So how do you start utilizing CTI within the ServiceNow ecosystem and your existing telephony/contact center provider? Let's jump into how ServiceNow has empowered our partner ecosystem with the tools to build amazing integrations and connections, delivering the single UI that customers consistently describe as "essential".
ServiceNow uses a few components to empower partners and customers in building elegant and smooth integrations. The main components of this toolkit include the following: OpenFrame, Cloud Call Center (Operation Handlers, etc.), Interaction Management System (IMS), Advanced Work Assignment (AWA), and Manager/Agent Workspaces. We will touch on each while focusing on the first two in more detail.
What is OpenFrame? OpenFrame provides a communication frame with building blocks that initiate & consume REST API requests from third-party apps, as well as provides a UI layer where partners build important functions that are typically handled in the contact centers agent console. In other words, instead of an agent having to use one screen to handle activities like making a call, accepting a call from a queue, putting a customer on hold/mute, or transferring a call to another agent or queue, OpenFrame's UI allows that agent to work in a single pane within the ServiceNow agent workspace. OpenFrame drives the ability to perform CTI functions in an easy-to-learn and native UI to ServiceNow. This capability is leveraged within a desktop-based interaction to coordinate and simplify call activity (e.g., call statistics, contextual information, etc.) with those of a system of record. In the case of ServiceNow, OpenFrame is what allows third-party providers to enable CTI functionality within the ServiceNow platform in the native UI, Agent Workspace, to allow for telephony or voice-enabled interactions to occur seamlessly.
In addition to Openframe, let's dive into an example of how a partner like 3C Logic has incorporated OpenFrame, IMS, Manager/Agent Workspaces, and AWA features inside ServiceNow to deliver a seamless integration:
Baseline Features with OpenFrame:
○ Click to call - the ability to call any phone record within ServiceNow directly from the ServiceNow UI
○ Embedded agent call controls - mute, transfer (cold or warm), conference, hang-up, associate, disposition or result codes, and notes
○ Inbound call routing and ServiceNow "screen-pop" - the ability for a call to be routed to a ServiceNow agent and automatically "pop" the relevant ServiceNow page or interaction for the agent to leverage during the customer engagement.
○ Interaction Management System - System logs each voice channel item as an Interaction for use in reporting, dashboards, and tracking of customer touchpoints from all voice and digital channels.
Advanced Features with OpenFrame, Cloud Call Center, Advanced Work Assignment:
○ Automated postings to ServiceNow Phone Log Table - the ability to associate call details (ie: call type, call duration, call recording, call disposition codes, agent name, etc.) to any ServiceNow record.
○ SSO - no need to remember separate login details. Just simply login into ServiceNow with your regular credentials and you are good to go.
○ AWA-based Presence-sync - the ability to change agent availability for calls from the universal agent state set in ServiceNow Agent Workspace, as well as the ability to auto-change agent status from "Available" to "Active on a Call" between 3C Logic and inside ServiceNow to prevent receiving more work (ie: ServiceNow Work Item, ServiceNow Case, ServiceNow Chat, etc.) while in a busy state.
As you can see, 3C Logic has been hard at work building integration points from their platform into the ServiceNow platform, driving a unified agent experience, coupled with the contextual delivery of information that an agent needs in order to best serve the customer experience desired outcome. All of our partners have access to this same framework and technology in order to deliver better customer journey experiences. It might make sense to define what Cloud Call Center (AKA, ServiceNow CTI 2.0) Framework is. In ServiceNow speak, Cloud Call Center is synonymous with a traditional definition of CTI, but with a greater degree of repeatability and extensibility than the commonly used technical term referring to the ability to integrate telephony functionality (ie: receiving or making a call or a screen-pop) within a computer browser. CCC services as an extensibility layer to drive repeatability in processes and API calls that are commonly used within the customer journey.
We would be remiss not to include outcomes and results as a key driving factor in why adoption of CTI technology, reimagined for the modern contact center. You might be wondering what value CTI/Cloud Call Center, powered by ServiceNow and its partner ecosystem, might bring to you as a customer or prospect?
Let's start with a few statistics to set the stage: Did you know that despite 75% of customer interactions originating over digital channels (email, chat, portal, etc.), over 33% ultimately escalate to a live contact center agent for additional assistance.
Simply put, as much as we thought Voice was on the decline, in real life Voice remains a key part of the customer service value chain, especially after the debacle we call 2020. However, the majority of large enterprises are still looking for cloud migration paths and/or CTI integration strategies for legacy on-premise telephony solutions (ie: Cisco, Avaya, Genesys, etc.) which often are:
○ Not integrated with ServiceNow or an organization built a custom solution for ServiceNow which is not certified and costly to maintain at the expense of agent performance and innovation.
○ Siloed and separately managed by a "voice team", rather than by the business. Those buying ServiceNow, managing digital flows, and responsible for the agents providing customer support have little to no control over the critical voice workflows and calls they are tasked with supporting without incurring long delays or heavy costs.
○ Data and reporting are separate and manual, impacting administrative performance and oversight.
○ Heavily reliant on hardware or physical desk phones which are note remote-work friendly or require unreliable/complex VPN setups to support work-from-home environments.
It's time we brought these things together for the benefit of customers, agents, managers, and overall consistency in our interrelated journeys. ServiceNow and its growing partner ecosystem are paving the way for creating an environment where customers have more choice, more useful features to drive customer experiences, and more tools for agents to become catalysts for a better customer journey.
For our next series post, look forward to learning about the world of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and how self-service has been easier than ever when you know what you have the right technology and capabilities to drive consistency across entry points as well as various channels.
If you have any suggestions or requests on further Omnichannel topics, please reach out to me, Colter Hammer (colter.hammer@servicenow.com), and I can accommodate into the series. Looking forward to your feedback.
