Bringing flexibility and agility
Of course, all of these features depended on the successful implementation of the core telephony platform and contact centre solution.
“Last time we upgraded our system, it was a complex experience," Julian says. “We had some issues, which I think is inevitable, but they were well managed by Maintel so that there was minimal business impact. At our project review one of my colleagues, who has 40 years’ experience in the industry, commented that throughout the process he was comfortable he knew exactly what was happening – and that was the key.”
The Hillarys team enjoyed immediate improvements in tasks like reporting and real-time contact centre analytics, which are now simpler to perform and provide more accurate and actionable management information. Because complex scripts are now represented diagrammatically rather than in pages of code, it’s much easier for business managers to make changes.
“We’re also more flexible now. When we run TV adverts, it’s hard to predict the volume of calls they’ll generate. With the Avaya Aura Contact Center we can easily add remote agents if we need to, so that we can manage volume in the short term,” Julia adds.
Invaluably, these additional features have been delivered with- out changing the agent toolset: the contact centre team are using the same handsets and computers as before. This was a delib- erate choice from Hillarys, as it meant there was no time wasted as agents familiarised themselves with the new equipment. In- stead, the Avaya solution allows the business to upgrade to newer tools in the future, when there is a pressing case to do so.
With the new platform in place and providing the rich core contact centre functionality that Hillarys urgently needed, the next steps will see further enhancements to the customer experience. “We’re looking to integrate the advisor tools more closely with the SAP-based mobile app we’ve developed, and increase our multimedia capability, adding click to chat.” Other areas under consideration are social media and SIP trunking.
“For me, the great thing is that we’ve got a platform for the future that we can rely on, and a partner we trust. The Avaya roadmap is clear, and the individual components genuinely work together. That gives us the confidence to start pushing things further and faster. I don’t want a bespoke solution: I want something that’s quick, effective and painless. With Avaya and Maintel, we’re getting that.”