Do you have omnichannel projects that just aren’t moving along as fast as you think they should? What are the hurdles getting in your way? I’ve yet to find a scenario where it’s the technology that’s slowing things down. Don’t get me wrong, omnichannel isn’t easy. It’s a very different approach to customer contact than traditional call centers or even multichannel contact centers. Omnichannel is all about customizing the journey of the person (or thing) trying to interact with your business. First we need to understand what the customer journey actually looks like. This is often a lot harder than it sounds. Most people in a company know their little piece of the customer journey, but very few can articulate the details of the full, beginning-to-end journey. This often requires a lot of exploration, business-level interviews, multi-disciplinary teams, and documentation.
Once we know the journey, we need to identify the information that can provide context to the various resources supporting that interaction. Maybe it’s using historical information to more intelligently route the caller to the right resource (human or otherwise) to handle the interaction. Maybe it’s simply providing more complete and contextually relevant visibility to the agent working the interaction. Only when that’s been done can you even begin the technology phase of the project. And if identifying the relevant data wasn’t hard enough, you have to find the owner of it and get their buy-in to let you and your omnichannel solution have access to it. This is where I see a lot of projects come to a grinding halt. To keep things moving, you must be able to talk the language of the people who are there to ensure information stays safe.
The issue is that most large companies have a team in place to make sure this kind of data stays safe and secure (or at least a detection mechanism for when it doesn’t) from outside hackers and well-intended but excessively privileged internal employees, business partners, systems integrators, or software applications. Good data governance is hard work, and most do not do it well! These “security guys” are usually hardware-oriented and focus on the network, firewall, intrusion detection/prevention, and so on. They ensure defined security policies are enforced, so we need to go through them when we want to open ports on a firewall so that communications applications can access what they need to in order to function properly.
How do we convince them to open the ports—or in the case of omnichannel, to give the solutions appropriate access to the end-customer data that they need? The key is to realize that this isn’t a hardware conversation. It’s a GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) conversation, and it’s generally non-technical.
The hottest topic in GRC, as it relates to omnichannel, is privacy. Privacy is no easy thing to address, because it is often in direct conflict with innovation and the customer experience, which relies heavily on personalization. People hate the idea of giving “Big Brother” constant access to their current GPS location, or letting an app access their contacts or calendar. We’re all terrified of what those companies might do with that kind of information and we’ve seen these details be abused in the marketplace. Further, privacy means different things under the law. Is your IP address private? Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, it is—under certain circumstances. Under different jurisdictions and regulations, it isn’t.
At the same time, we love the ease and convenience that often comes with innovation. For example, your mobile device can tell you exactly when you should leave to arrive at your next appointment on time based on current traffic conditions. People love this, and are already starting to take it for granted. However, in order for this feature to work correctly, you need to provide the aforementioned information: your GPS location and your calendar. You need give up some privacy to let the amazing experience work. How much? What’s appropriate? Are you leaving your information exposed? How are the users of that information protecting your privacy? Who’s keeping an eye on them? Moreover, who can gain access to that information? Can law enforcement get it? Can the government?
Governance. Risk. Compliance. By design.
I find that GRC consultation and advisement are critically needed for successful omnichannel solutions. Someone needs to be able have an interactive conversation with the customer about the data that’s required, and the best practices associated with safely using that data before they get through high-level design. Many privacy laws mandate that new systems and applications contemplate privacy principles from the start, not after the fact. These people know how to work within the customer’s GRC policies (or help the customer formulate them), and know when, and how, to recommend appropriate changes to those policies, all while knowing the relevant requirements associated with things like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), SOX (Sarbanes Oxley), HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and so many others.
The next question is obvious: Who do you engage for that kind of help?
Make sure that your customer experience partner has a cybersecurity practice that encompasses a cross-organizational team of people with experience in Governance, Risk, and Compliance matters across industries and sectors so that they can help you create GRC policies—or modernize policies that were written in the dark ages before privacy concerns were so top of mind. They should be able to advise you on how to achieve a middle ground between privacy and innovation, while always meeting the mettle of the regulatory climate that should be “non-negotiable” for your customers.
If your projects are coming to a grinding halt because everyone is afraid to give omnichannel solutions access to data, speak the language of GRC to get things moving again – without sacrificing the privacy and security of the data needed for a personalized experience.
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Topics: Customer Experience, Cyber Security
