Customer Engagement Hub (CEH)

Gartner defines Customer Engagement Hub (CEH) as "an architectural framework that ties multiple systems together to optimally engage the customer." A CEH allows personalized, contextual customer engagement, whether through a human, artificial agent, or sensors, across all interaction channels. It reaches and connects all departments, allowing, for example, the synchronization of marketing, sales and customer service processes.”

Contact center became an obsolete concept with the introduction of customer engagement hub (CEH) which provides an architectural framework through which multiple systems engages with the customer. It also provides synchronization among various departments for example sales,marketing etc. so as to optimally engage the customer. With the aid of customer engagement hub (CEH), not only services are been provided to the customers but also predictive analysis been used to predict the next best information, action to engage the customer. Customer engagement hub (CEH) will force many companies to reexamine their CRM systems and to revamp them in order to offer customer engagement. Customer Engagement Hub (CEH) system will be having capabilities such as intelligent routing, personalized services and interactive media response. Companies looking to engage customers from increasing number of channels including social media, telephone, email etc. and to overcome the complexities involved in handling these increasing number of channels will force them to move towards the added advantages offered by customer engagement hub (CEH) solutions and will drive the market. On the basis of geography, customer engagement hub (CEH) market can be segmented into seven key regions namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. Among various regions, the customer engagement hub (CEH) market in North America is expected to dominate during the forecast period because of the region being a hub of companies from the field of retail, banking and IT vertical. North America region is expected to be followed by Western Europe and APEJ. APEJ is expected to drive the demand for the customer engagement hub (CEH) solutions, supported by increasing penetration of manufacturing companies in the region. Increasing complexities involved in servicing the customers from increasing number of channels supported by additional features offered via customer engagement hub (CEH) solution such as predictive analysis so as to better engage the customers are factors which will drive the demand for customer engagement hub (CEH) market. Initial investment cost involved in the implementation of customer engagement hub (CEH) solution will affect the growth of customer engagement hub (CEH) market.

The Need for Customer Engagement Hub (CEH)

The fragmented marketing stack and the data silos that accompany it are two of the biggest barriers facing the modern marketer. By deploying a customer engagement hub that takes an open garden approach, marketers are able to conquer both barriers simultaneously, empower their teams to make better decisions with more complete data, and gain an adaptable solution that will embrace innovation with new technologies as they arise. Of all the reasons to implement a CEH, three of the most powerful are:

• To orchestrate omnichannel interactions at the speed of the customer: The modern customer lives an omnichannel life, effortlessly switching between channels throughout their purchase journey. Brands need to be able to do the same. Customer engagement hubs and other open garden solutions enable that capability by creating a central point of control to orchestrate customer journeys, across both digital and traditional touchpoints. Brands that leverage a CEH can react at the speed of the customer and provide contextually relevant engagements regardless of channel.
• To integrate and operationalize customer data across channel-specific and functional silos: Fragmented technology stacks lead to siloed customer data. One of the core functions of a customer engagement hub is to provide a unified 360-degree view of customer data across silos. Brands have long attempted to do this, but traditional data management technologies such as data lakes and data warehouses are ill-suited for the demands of a modern marketing team – particularly lacking in data precision, speed, and accessibility. Such is the power of a CEH; to unify data into a central customer profile and operationalize it at the speed necessary to engage the omnichannel consumer.
• To maximize your marketing technology investment: Some Customer engagement hubs adopt what is called an “open garden approach” to marketing technology. What this means is that the CEH is installed on top of your existing technology. All your current solutions tie into the hub, which eliminates the expensive and time-consuming re-platforming of an all-in-one marketing suite. The open garden approach of a CEH also makes it futureproof, allowing you to link any future customer engagement technology into your architecture via standard or customizable API connectors.

Building blocks of the Customer Engagement Hub

Customer Engagement Hubs need to be fit-for-purpose. It should offer a blueprint and approach to integrate every channel, every enterprise application and connect it back to the core of any business – the customer. There 5 key building blocks of Customer Engagement Hub:

source: Vimal Abraham

• Get Your Design Right, First: Many customer experience challenges that can be attributed to poor design. In other words, there are gaps that exist between what customers expect and what is actually delivered to them. These gaps can be either people, process or technology related or an alignment gap caused by the interplay of these three facets within an enterprise. The first step towards building a CEH is to identify these gaps - plug them and get then customer experience design/ strategy correct. Many CX consulting vendors today offer blueprints, methods, tools, analytical models, and best practices that help enterprises to design future-proof Customer Engagement Hubs.
• Get Started with Contact Center Analytics: More than half analytics project fail because they don’t deliver the features and benefits that are agreed upon. Contact center analytics projects are no exception. Many lack the basic ability to integrate multiple channels and connect it back to core enterprise applications such a CRM &Data warehouses. When the foundation is not correct - it would be utopian to expect holistic insights! Therefore, the second step would be to invest in a suitable contact center analytics platform that integrates data from multiple customer channels and enterprise systems. It should offer a 360-degree view of the contact center with a dashboard of all critical contact center metrics and enable informed decision making.
• Go Omni-channel: Omni-channel customer experience is no longer nice to have. Having said that, creating a consistent, seamless, and hyper-personalized experiences across multiple channels and touch points is not something easy. Customers often navigate between channels and expect to take-off from where the left before they switched channels. Even at the hint of slightest frustration, the customers are quick to react and they take their business elsewhere. The third step would be to invest in an omni-channel customer experience platform that helps enterprises gauge customers’ intent and optimize their journey for better outcomes. An ideal omin-channel platform should be able to integrates data from all enterprise channel applications such as chat, voice, website, mobile, email and video and drive personalized, consistent and contextual customer experiences. It should also enable enterprise to offer Next Best Actions - on the right channel, at the right time.
• Focus on The Core, Outsource The Rest: Contact centers are made up of a diverse group of people, processes, and technologies. Bringing these disparate components together, and making them work in harmony takes a concerted effort. Lets accept it, keeping pace with technology advancements, increasing CX demands from customers and manage growth while keeping costs predictable. Often, operational challenges come in the way of delivering an outstanding customer experience. Many forward looking enterprises have started to leverage managed service providers to run their day to day operations. This gives them the freedom to to focus on the customer instead of worrying about daily operational challenges. There are plethora of services available today - right from basic support services and change management to comprehensive service delivery management, advisory services, and value-added services.
• Leverage The Clout of The Cloud: Moving your Customer Experience Management to the cloud promises to yield huge benefits to any enterprise, yet many are cautious to make the shift. Perceived high costs of migration, challenges in integration, lack of skills and the overall impact on IT organizations contribute to businesses being wary of the cloud. However, there are many cloud-based customer experience platforms that are available today that makes adoption effortless. The flexibility of cloud computing makes it a tad easier to engage with customers in meaningful conversations, and provides a consistent, contextual and omni-channel experience, using the customer’s preferred channel.