Avaya on a roll with contact centre support wins

Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced that Avaya, a global business communications software, systems and services provider, has won a three-year strategic contract to support the RTA's 800-9090 hotline operations under a managed services agreement. The three-year contract will see Avaya partner with the RTA to deliver a richer customer experience to the residents and visitors of Dubai.

The RTA Contact Center, one of the most advanced in the Middle East, integrates mobile and web-based applications, allowing people to choose their preferred platform from voice, SMS, Instant Messenger and more, with integrated voice response (IVR), allowing many callers' queries to be addressed through automation.

The RTA is responsible for planning and providing the requirements of transport, roads and traffic in Dubai and between Dubai and other Emirates in the UAE. Ensuring customer satisfaction is a key strategic goal for the RTA in alignment with Dubai's Smart City objectives.

"As a forward-thinking organisation the RTA understands the importance of creating the right customer experience, and of working with the right partners to achieve digital transformation. By leveraging Avaya's strength in professional services and consulting expertise, the RTA will be able to focus on its key strategic goals and objectives," said Mohammed Areff, VP, Middle East, Africa and Turkey, Avaya.

Ahmed Hasan Mahboub, Director of RTA's Customer Service said, "The Avaya Professional Services team has been instrumental in the development of our Contact Center operations. Avaya has worked with the RTA from the early stages to understand our business objectives, deploying the technology to fulfill them, and helping to create a rich customer experience that delivers greater satisfaction for everybody that interacts with the RTA. We are delighted to continue and strengthen this partnership and look forward to taking our customer engagement to the next level."

The news follows a several other win announcements for Avaya. In Japan, Avaya announced that it had partnered with LINE Corporation on the Avaya contact centre solution, that will integrate with LINE’s corporate customer service support service - LINE Customer Connect. Businesses that operate a contact centre will be able to add the LINE chat capability as a channel for customer enquiries and to centrally manage communications. LINE has about 218 million monthly active users and is the most popular messaging app in Japan, Thailand and Taiwan.

While businesses pursue an omnichannel contact centre strategy that provides a seamless experience regardless of the channels used, the reality is that real-time coordination is difficult because customer histories and agents are still typically separated by channel. To address this issue, Avaya Japan supports centralised management of the LINE app within its contact centre solution. For example:

• When the IVR system responds to an incoming customer call via the public telephone network to the contact centre, it can inform the customer that support via the LINE app is available as one of the options. If the customer selects this option, a message is sent via the LINE app to the customer’s smartphone. After the customer approves the company as a friend, a chat can be started in the same way as a normal LINE chat.
• The LINE integration readily provides a complete customer history to live agents, including any chat-facilitated interactions, eliminating the time and effort needed to pull up histories and coordinate with agents that handled the chat session. Under this new integration with LINE Customer Connect, chat interactions in LINE can be instantly accessed on an Avaya contact centre system.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to partner with LINE, which boasts overwhelming superiority in the communication app arena. I want this partnership to be the first step as Avaya moves forward in facilitating the coordination between various channels and Avaya’s contact centre system. From the perspective of both increased customer satisfaction and contact center operational efficiency, we will continue to offer a contact centre solution with true omnichannel support,” said Hideki Wachi, Country MD, Avaya Japan.

In November, Siam Cement Group (SCG), the largest cement company in Thailand and Southeast Asia, also expanded its contact centre capabilities with Avaya’s customer engagement solutions. SCG implemented Avaya Aura Call Center Elite Multichannel, Avaya Aura Experience Portal and Avaya Call Management System solutions to deliver the first fully integrated data service and consulting centre of its kind in Thailand.

SCG handles more than 64,000 product items numerous customers spread across the region. Supporting 7,000 users and 120 agents, the new contact centre solution will provide SCG customers with an omnichannel experience across its online and offline channels. These include consultations via email, video streaming, mobile applications and text messages. The new contact centre has already received external recognition, being awarded the Thailand Call Center Award by the Office of Consumer Protection in Thailand.

Nithi Patarachoke, VP – Domestic Market, SCG Cement-Building Materials Company said: "With a vision to become a truly customer-centric organisation, SCG is committed to developing innovative products, services and solutions that meet the lifestyle of its customers. We aim to become a one-stop provider for our customers and we want to ensure our customers continue to enjoy a high quality of products and services. Avaya has enabled us to deliver the superior customer experience that helps build lasting relationships with our customers. From understanding customer needs at the pre-purchase stage to delivering a great experience when they engage with us along their purchasing journey, and providing exceptional after-sales customer service, Avaya allows us to respond proactively at every step of the customer engagement.”

According to a global research report commissioned by BT and Avaya, 82% of consumers today say it should be easy to contact organisations by all channels. The Avaya contact centre solutions help SCG fast track its digital transformation, leveraging big data and analytics to offer the best experience to its customers, while innovating new products and services to meet customers’ changing demands. For instance, by analysing the purchasing habits of customers and past customer interaction experiences, SCG has been able to reduce the amount of time it takes to deliver product information and shorten overall waiting time for their customers. This has in turn increased the overall sales of goods and services for SCG.

The new system also provides a Content Management System (CMS), an advanced system for storing and managing data effectively. With faster speed of information processing, SCG has optimised the efficiency and mobility of SCG employees.

“Asia is experiencing growth at a rapid rate, spelling opportunities for many players in the construction value chain. To capitalise on these opportunities, companies such as Siam Cement Group must be able to conduct their business in a much more responsive and efficient manner, responding to customers whenever and wherever they need to and delivering much shorter turnaround times. Avaya is committed to working with SCG to build the communications capabilities that their customers come to expect of a leading regional partner. With digitisation, SCG also has the opportunity to leverage data intelligence to further up-level customer engagement and in turn build customer loyalty, despite stiff competition from emerging markets around the region. We are proud to be the enabler that keeps SCG connected and relevant to the market,” said Bundhit Vongbuntoon, Country Director of Thailand, Avaya.