Multichannel Customer Service: Why Companies Choose Microsoft Parature

Consumers regularly use multiple channels when interacting with a brand or organization for customer-related questions and issues - any combination of phone, website, mobile apps, social media, live chat and more. Microsoft recently reported their findings on the changing use of various support channels by customers in their 2015 U.S. State of Multichannel Customer Service Report (download required).

Microsoft's ability to deliver multi-channel customer service comes from its Parature offering, which it acquired in early 2014. Parature solutions are sold in large part by Microsoft partners, many of whom are experts in both traditional CRM and the specialized needs of customer service teams. We spoke with Sam Thepvongs, a practice manager for public sector and Parature at Webfortis to both get his take on both the findings of the new Microsoft/Parature report and to find out how Thepvongs and Webfortis approach implementing Parature to meet customer service needs.

MSDW: The perception out there is that there is no end-to-end solution for multichannel customer service - is Parature truly it?

Sam Thepvongs: It is, truly. You have more traditional products that do [one or two] channels well. Using Parature and combining it with other Microsoft products, you can really handle any and all the channels a consumer might choose to engage with the company. Providing a unified voice to the customer is one of our end goals.

What's a typical ...