Contact Center as a Service – Changing your Customer Experience

As if we didn’t have enough already – a new aaS acronym to learn, Contact Center as a Service or CCaaS.

For many years, organizations have been working to improve customer experience and drive the all mighty NPS (Net Promoter Score) up for their business. While there are a number of ways to attack this, technology and the implementation of a wholistic customer experience is definitely front and center.

While we all love our Amazon like experience of shopping without having to speak with anyone, compare pricing and have it show up as soon as same day or worst case 2 days later; it is also making other organizations really stretch to meet their customers where they are.

Organizations today should be enabling communication with their customers at any time of the day in any medium they can to support enabling a better customer experience. If you are a tech leader in your business, you may be already rolling your eyes. While the business suggests this in passing, we know that it isn’t quite that easy. We have tried to serve our internal customers for years; met with plenty of complaints and struggles tied to their overall experience. Now the business expects for technology to also deliver this to the external customer and the stakes are that much higher due to the direct impact on top line revenue. Just like your customers, you probably have left a website or app to go search for another avenue to get what you need because the ability to engage was less than impressive.

So how do we solve for this challenge?

Many, and I mean many, (over 100) service providers have stood up offerings to tackle this challenge and there are some significant differences between those. In general, all of them are targeting somewhat similar challenges but none the less, everyone has their own take.

The customer & agent ecosystem.

So your customers are trying to get in touch with your company. How can they do that today? Typically phone and email are not enough. They typical IVR setup isn’t always optimized for customer experience using an omni-channel approach. Your customers have to enter in the same information over and over again just to be faced with providing the live customer service agent the same info. Doesn’t really scream customer centric.

To combat this experience, look at what someone like USAA has done with their customer experience. Built-in chatbots on the mobile app seamlessly take your credentials and questions to present you with options for resolution. Want a live agent, no problem, click here and just an FYI there is a 4 min hold time. Want to resolve via email, click here and all of your account information pre-populates in the message. Once on the phone with a live agent, the system has already passed your credentials over and the agent is aware of your general needs. Take it a step further and there are capabilities leveraging AI and ML to suggest to the agent that there may have been a storm in the area and you are asking for the homeowners insurance number because of loss at your home. They are able to prioritize needs and get resolution before you may even know to call the company. This example provides a much more streamlined customer experience and greater satisfaction.

So how do you choose the right CCaaS for you?

The short answer is shoot us an email (info@alignedtg.com) or give us a call (919.819.5275) to start that conversation. Based on the existing technology investments you have made today, your strategic plan around integrating in important systems like your CRM and others will help quickly define which platform would be worth considering and which would not. While providers are constantly adding in new features and capabilities, the ability to find a key service provider with a sound offering to grow on top of is a great place to start.