Cisco Cisco IP Contact Center Release 4.6.1 White Paper
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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White Paper
The Three Waves of Customer Care
What You Will Learn
This white paper, intended for business decision makers, describes the three major waves of innovation
experienced in the customer care industry since its inception in the 1970s:
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Wave 1: Cost and Efficiency
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Wave 2: The Customer Relationship
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Wave 3: The Complete Experience
Each of the waves is described in detail - including associated technologies, metrics, and trends - and
recommendations are given for how businesses and organizations can take best advantage of the waves to
cost-effectively deliver world-class customer care.
Introduction
The customer service market is in the midst of a major transition as businesses of all sizes strive to provide
customer care in the manner in which today
’s customers wish to be served. This transition to what Cisco first
defined as Customer Collaboration combines traditional contact center technology and processes with important
innovations in social media, Web 2.0 agent workspaces, and network-based recording and analytics to empower
businesses to forge deeper, proactive relationships with their customers.
To fully understand the effect of Customer Collaboration, however, it is important to consider it within the context of
three waves of innovation and investment in the customer care industry. From a conceptual standpoint, we can
refer to them as the waves of cost, relationship, and experience. The cost wave is all about optimizing the cost and
processes associated with providing customer service, whereas the relationship wave focuses on adjusting service
levels, resources, and channels in response to the customer identity and context. The experience wave seeks to
deliver an optimal - and in many cases proactive - customer care interaction using the media and channels
preferred by the customer.
Businesses and organizations that understand the principles that influence these waves are better able to take
advantage of their capabilities to deliver world-class customer care that strengthens customer loyalty and
generates additi
onal revenue while lowering costs. Let’s now better examine each wave.