Conversation Manager will allow companies to better handle customer inquiries that are based on multiple interactions across multiple channels over a span of time.

This week Genesys held its user meeting for North American customers, prospects and partners in Chicago. The event served as the official launch for Genesys 8, a major release of the company's customer service software suite.The most intriguing element of Genesys 8 is a new software component called Conversation Manager. In a presentation to press and analysts, VP of Marketing Eric Tamblyn drew an analogy that helps explain how Conversation Manager compares to what has been available in the past. According to Tamblyn, Genesys 6 was about applying CTI to voice calls and Genesys 7 applied multi-channel routing to a wider set of interactions (e.g., email and chat). Genesys 8 with Conversation Manager helps to create a unified view of customer interactions across multiple channels and over time.

When fully available, Conversation Manager will allow companies to better handle customer inquiries that are based on multiple interactions across multiple channels over a span of time. It will have the ability to understand the context of the individual interaction and combine that with relevant third party application data and analysis, such as CRM information or analysis from lead generation systems. This data will then be used to make decisions based on how to proceed with customer conversations based on pre-established business rules.

Note the phrase "when fully available." Conversation Manager will be deployed in stages. The first stage, subject of a technical breakout at G-Force, is deployment with Genesys intelligent Customer Front Door (iCFD) applications using Genesys Voice Portal. In the session, we learned that Conversation Manager can help add context to typical IVR prompting. This could mean offering callers a different set of prompts based on very recent activity. An example would be offering a caller the opportunity to complete a purchase with an agent after just having abandoned a shopping cart on the web.

How does Conversation Manager do it? It will take me a few more briefings, with a few more experts, to understand why the fact that it is built on a RESTful architecture using JSON is impressive. In the meantime, an available proof point is the fact that Genesys partner Virtual Hold Technology in three weeks created an application tying its product to Conversation Manager. Instead of just offering callbacks to customers when all agents are busy, it can help a company offer live assistance to customers in self-service when pre-defined frustration thresholds are met.

In the video below, Max Ball from Genesys describes why iCFD is the first Genesys 8 solution to work with Conversation Manager and Virtual Hold's Rob Brazier discusses how Conversation Manager helps extend the call back application.

Conversation Manager will allow companies to better handle customer inquiries that are based on multiple interactions across multiple channels over a span of time.