Let’s face it, most customers aren’t eager to contact any organization for customer service. We want to get the information we need, buy the product or services we want, and resolve issues fast and effectively with low effort. And we want that experience to be consistent and personalized to our unique needs - it’s not a preference, it’s an expectation.

Today’s customers know brands have the technologies to automate and personalize their customer experience, and may even avoid engaging with brands that have a poor reputation for service. And as leading brands continually evolve service experiences, customers expect the same from all organizations, even in B2B scenarios. Yet service is where many organizations fall short on their brand promise.

At the same time, organizational customer service is experiencing its own evolution. The concept of a company’s “call center” is becoming outdated, and service is expanding to more of an omnichannel “contact center” experience supporting modern customer needs. Organizations are also looking at contact centers less as a cost optimization driver and more as a growth and profitability engine. In fact, recent research reveals that "Sixty-four percent of customer service and support leaders report ‘grow the business’ is their most critical priority in 2022.”

New Microsoft platform makes intelligent omnichannel customer service real
The great news: Personalized, high-value service should no longer just be aspirational, thanks to new technology capabilities from Microsoft and its recent acquisition, Nuance. Announced this week during Microsoft Inspire, the Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform will be a real gamechanger for organizations as it leverages AI to deliver proactive and automated personal experiences for both employees and customers. Which, in turn, can enable organizations to shift their customer service into a strategic asset to fuel business growth. As Gord Mawhinney, Avanade’s Global Business Applications Lead, has stated, “The launch of Microsoft Digital Contact Center provides the opportunity to transform customer engagement during critical parts of the employee experience and customer journey. It fills a market need to action real-time intelligence in a way that can benefit the entire enterprise, and we look forward to using it to make a genuine impact for our clients, their employees and their customers.”

I’m especially excited that Avanade and Accenture are named as a featured partner for this platform. With our trophy case of Microsoft Partner Award wins, including 2022 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award for Dynamics 365 Customer Service & Field Service, we look forward to continue harnessing the power of Microsoft to help clients transform service and their business. For years, we’ve been leveraging technology solutions from Dynamics to Teams and low-code Power Platform to help organizations like Zurich and Heineken elevate their service experience.

So, what does the new platform offer? Read on and check out the blog from John Bolze at Accenture to learn more.

3 impactful opportunities Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform delivers to personalize service:

1. Industry journeys at speed and scale with a 360-degree view of your customers and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver seamless, personalized experiences. Accenture and Avanade’s customer engagement solutions complement the Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform with industry-specific resources, IP and tools to make it highly relevant to your organization and your customers.
2. Consistent, proactive, omnichannel conversations across an extended period and engagement touchpoints, be it SMS, chat, voice, social, or otherwise – exactly what your customers today want and expect. As organizations seek to explore this, Avanade and Accenture can meet clients wherever they are on this journey with options to accelerate value realization.
3. Advanced agent coaching that allows agents to be top performers and provide a compelling employee experience. With the support of better insights and better technology platforms, your agents will be more effective and more focused on the tasks and outcomes that matter most to your customers and the growth of your business. Avanade and Accenture boost the platform’s capabilities with advanced solutions and services to help tune and train AI to provide the best support for live agents. This enables agents to handle more complex issues and provides more enriching employee experiences that can help to attract and retain talent.

Set the stage for growth with a digitally transformed contact center
The future of customer service is looking bright with the launch of this AI-fueled high tech Digital Contact Center Platform. And with our deep industry and customer engagement transformation skills, Avanade and Accenture can help you harness this technology to transform your contact center. Not only can we help you modernize your technology and systems, but we can help you go beyond and elevate customer service to be a growth engine for your business to enhance employee experience, reduce OPEX, and increase customer value. Contact us today to learn how.