Customer service and support get omnichannel boost

SAP Hybris Solution: Enabling organizations to embrace the future of customer service

Source: SAP Hybris

SAP SE announced SAP Hybris Service Engagement Center, a new omnichannel cloud customer engagement solution that allows organizations to deliver convenient, contextual and relevant service experiences regardless of channel or device throughout the customer journey. This solution is now available in the United States.

Focusing on the needs of digitally connected and mobile customers, this latest addition to the service solutions in the SAP Hybris portfolio helps organizations engage with customers when it matters, seamlessly blending unassisted and assisted service with digital commerce - before, during and after the buying process.

“Customer service has obviously come a long way,” said Brian Walker, chief strategy officer, SAP Hybris. “Once considered simply a cost of doing business, it has become integral to how companies engage their customers. This will become even more evident as companies evolve from selling just a product to also selling experiences that combine connected products and services, which begins to fundamentally transform their business models. And when that is combined with customers’ desire to find answers and support quickly - in most cases, via digital channels - it requires a new type of service solution. With SAP Hybris Service Engagement Center, we are addressing this market shift with a software-as-a-service solution that simplifies how the businesses and organizations we serve can support the changing needs of customers.”

A January 2016 Forrester report titled “Trends 2016: The Future of Customer Service” found that more than half of U.S. adults who shop online abandon their online purchases if they can't find quick answers to their questions - which SAP believes is clear evidence that customer service must evolve beyond traditional postsale customer support. Today’s digitally savvy customers who buy online and prefer convenient self-service expect immediate responses at any stage of their buying journey. To meet the expectations of these customers, businesses must be able to support them with relevant recommendations, reviews, peer-to-peer advice or technical guidance, and assist with any question they may have - all before they hit the “buy” button.

A new era for the Call Center

The software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based SAP Hybris Service Engagement Center heralds a new era in the evolution of call centers by addressing the challenges that result from the ongoing proliferation of interaction channels and customer touch points. By expanding the capabilities of market-leading SAP solutions for customer engagement and commerce, businesses are now able to offer low-touch “click-to-resolve” customer support, blending unassisted and assisted service in real time, while retaining an “in-context” online or mobile customer experience. The overall customer experience - from online search to catalog browsing, from reading reviews to asking questions, from finding community answers to requesting chat support - is frictionless.

On the agent side, the solution provides intelligent routing across all supported channels, with a unified, modern desktop that allows agents to respond to customer requests while retaining the customer context of the inquiry. Service agents can respond to community posts, assist with online purchase decisions, provide updates on previously placed orders, create sales orders for new purchases, perform troubleshooting or create service tickets. And with the existing service and ticket management, knowledge management and field service capabilities of SAP Hybris Service, businesses can now take advantage of a complete end-to-end service solution.

Additionally, through an integration with the SAP Hybris Commerce solution, service agents can support the buying process and answer customer inquiries at the point of purchase. With embedded sales order creation capabilities, every service agent can become a sales representative, satisfying the needs of returning customers and new customers alike. The solution also incorporates prebuilt integration with SAP Jam™ Communities, which provides community-driven customer service, Q&A forums and community-powered commerce. Customer service agents are able to directly respond to posts and access crowd-sourced content from the communities so customers can get the answers they need quickly, accelerating buying decisions and problem resolution.

SAP Hybris Service Engagement Center provides numerous benefits to organizations and customers, including: increased agent productivity and responsiveness; improved and accelerated online buying decisions resulting in increased commerce revenue and lower return rates; and reduction of overall customer service and support costs.