W

ith the introduction of hot

desking and working from home,
it has become increasingly
important to keep in contact with colleagues
using the proper means of communication.
This has led to a quick succession of
technological developments. A lot is possible
from a technical point of view, says Gerben
Hoogwerff Kroon from AskRoger!, an expert
in Unifed Communications. Using Unifed
Communications to provide every employee
with one platform for all communication
channels ensures that people can work from
home as they would in the offce. They can
ask their colleagues questions via audio,
email, chat or video, for example.
Service via every medium
The presence of various media and increasing
digitalization within service departments and
organizations offer many opportunities for
improved services. Unfortunately, this is not
yet the case in practice. Hoogwerff Kroon:
Everybody knows how annoying it is when
the customer service needs to fnd all kinds
of information, it feels very ineffcient. They
already know who is calling, right?
By integrating the Microsoft Lync application
with your other service tools, your service
desk can provide better and faster help.
Hoogwerff Kroon: To make good service
independent of the colleagues location,
we have integrated TOPdesk with Lync.
This is a frst step towards helping your
customers better and more quickly through
all channels.
The current integration offers a number
of improvements for services provided via
phone or chat. This way, you wont have to
look up a customers information when they
call. You can see their information, including
current calls, in an overview. Hoogwerff
Kroon says, The customer doesnt have to
wait until their information is found, and
because you can refer to the other calls they
experience your involvement. Regardless of
whether you processed his previous calls
or not.
The TOPdesk-Lync integration not only
helps you to provide better customer service,
it also makes it easier to log new calls. A new
call can now be logged directly from the chat
conversation or the pop-up that appears
during telephone calls. You can open the
Caller card from the pop-up. From there you
can directly log a new call with the contact
details already flled in, explains Hoogwerff
Kroon. In chat conversations you can copy
the conversation to the call with one click.
Let your customer determine
the medium
Lync enables you to use more media besides
telephone and chat, but these are currently
not used to their full potential. Most people
still think its strange to use video chat,
says Hoogwerff Kroon. But I think that
this is slowly changing: the more we need
to keep in touch with people all over the
world, the more important it is to see each
other. Sometimes an email is suffcient, but
if a question is more complex, the customer
22 PROCESS AND PRACTICE
Gerben Hoogwerff Kroon, AskRoger!
YOUR CUSTOMER
USES WHATSAPP?
WHY NOT LET
THEM REACH YOU
THROUGH THIS
MEDIUM?
Gerben Hoogwerff Kroon
AskRoger!
wants to be able to switch to a more
interactive medium. Body language, facial
expressions these are the things youll
miss when you are calling or chatting. In
the end, the customer will take the lead; if
they have a question, they determine which
medium to use to reach you. Hoogwerff
Kroon: If you use a specifc chat client and
your customer is at home, they dont want
to install this application to contact you.
The roles have been reversed: your customer
uses WhatsApp? Why cant they reach you
through this medium? Ultimately, your
customer is going to determine the medium
you use to provide service.
Present!
Indicating your availability, or your presence,
is an important aspect of providing services
through a variety of media. When service
providers and customers indicate their status
in a tool like Lync, it is even easier to provide
and receive good service. A customer can
directly see whether a specifc service desk
employee is available for a question, and vice
versa: if you are processing a call you can
check whether the customer is present and
available. According to Hoogwerff Kroon,
The positive aspect of Lync is that it is not
limited to the organizations borders: you
can decide to extend your communication
network to suppliers or partner
organizations, for instance. When you need
a new printer, for example, you do not have
to call to see whether your contact person at
the supplier is available. This creates shorter
communication lines, enabling you to process
calls more quickly.
Service through Skype
Developments in media and technology have
created a lot of possibilities to bring your
services to a higher level. The TOPdesk-Lync
integration is the frst step towards providing
your customers quicker and better service
on the phone or through chat. It is essential
that communication channels suit your
organizations applications, and Hoogwerff
Kroon predicts that the developments in this
area have only just begun. In the future, I
expect service provider websites will include
a block containing contact options, including
the persons currently available. When a
customer clicks the preferred contact option,
an automatic connection is made with his
own communication software. Does the
customer click the video chat? A new window
opens in his own chat client, such as Skype.
We are going to use more programs both
professionally and privately. You can tell more
and more people are starting to ask service
providers questions on Twitter.
Text: Nienke Deuss
PROCESS AND PRACTICE 23
Your colleague working from home has the same
questions and problems as your colleagues at the ofce.
And he expects the same service, too. You can use a
unied communications tool to support your employees
on location but that is not enough. Provide services the
way the customer wants using the medium of his choice.
NEW METHODS OF
CUSTOMER CONTACT
More information on the
TOPdesk-Lync integration?
Are you curious about the possibilities
of the TOPdesk-Lync integration? Please
contact your local TOPdesk branch.