Cloud SaaS/PaaS Solutions Extending 'Experience' Reach

By Alok Kumar, Chief Service Delivery Officer, Aircel

Alok Kumar, Chief Service Delivery Officer, Aircel

Omni channel experience for the consumer traditionally entails the integration of self-service channels, call centers, company retail stores and web channels (internet/social media) for providing a seamless experience to customers. Missing or woefully lacking in this narrative is the ‘Sales Channel’ integration, even though consumers tend to expect service support from where they have brought their product/ service. This is true for a vast majority of companies (notable exception being the automobile/tourism sector). Disintegrated ‘sales & service’ often result in customers fending for themselves while encountering post sales issues leading to customers relying on the sales channels for help. Since these channels have limited service support resources at command; they either rely on their relationship contacts within the client organization or direct aggrieved customers to the company support channels.

Today, Cloud presents immense integrative possibilities for ensuring traditional ‘sales channels’ that have evolved to a far more comprehensive ‘sales & support channel’.

This can be achieved by developing sector specific platforms on the cloud across industries for Mutual/ Financial Product resellers, Appliance Stores, Department /Neighbourhood Multi brand Resellers, Handset Resellers or for that matter any company that has a large sales and distribution channel and require after-sales support for their products and services.

The Potential To Capture Reasons For Customer Interactions At Retailer Points Enriches Customer Insights For The Organization

Mobile SAAS enabled Query and Ticket management system (that offer increased mobile broadband speeds which lead to light weight customized KM and Ticket management systems becoming easier to develop and deploy), can be combined with a robust PAAS infrastructure developed across markets. This will result in every sales node being scaled up to becoming an effective service channel, with only incremental costs. Cloud Architecture is also capable of enabling rollout of ‘pay per use’ models by any software vendor servicing a particular sector–opening up even the SME’s market to this possibility.

This Cloud enablement provides ‘Service Distribution’ on the same scale as ‘Sales Distribution’–bringing service closer to the customer, reducing the load and cost to Call centers while creating a positive impact on brand experience and increasing retailer satisfaction.

The potential to capture reasons for customer interactions at retailer points enriches customer insights for the organization. This has a positive impact in better servicing customer needs and also helps in understanding retail support needs which can lead to relevant and enhanced information, training and process changes.

Manufacturing sector has gone through standardization from 1800-1950’s, spanning about 150 years of evolution and the cloud presents a similar potential in the service sector with regards to building standardization on a cloud architecture for each vertical of the industry. This will increase and enhance avenues for the emergence of specialized back end service providers that will include onshore/offshore as well as application of robotics/data analytics on a sectoral basis that will yield significant benefits to raise service levels. The BPO/KPO industry achieved this successfully and gained profits as well as matured as an industry. The same opportunities are possible across other service verticals which will leverage the democratization potential of Cloud.