Covid and the resulting “work from home” era spurred the contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) market; evolutions in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities within CCaaS solutions have even further invigorated its uptake.
CCaaS offerings are cloud-based solutions that provide a multi-channel method to address customer inquiries and additional capabilities, such as intelligent routing of calls, interactive voice response, recording, outbound predictive dialing and various data collection and reporting features. A strong contact center strategy is at the heart of a company’s customer experience strategy and CCaaS solutions are fueling the modern customer experience.
Most CCaaS solutions also include some form of artificial intelligence (AI). Chatbots and voicebots were the genesis of AI being amalgamated into CCaaS solutions; the use cases and implementations of AI are consistently reaching new heights.
The CCaaS market, which is currently around $3 billion, is predicted to triple by 2027. This isn’t surprising given the nonuplet of positive outcomes from implementing a CCaaS solution. They include:
- Reduced total cost of ownership and increased ROI
- Eliminated demand for on-premise hardware
- Improved customer satisfaction / NPS
- Ability to acquire additional functionality for your call center
- Diminished day-to-day management
- Unified technology systems
- Improved disaster recovery plan
- Enhanced analytics and actionable insights
- Increased agent effectiveness and agent retention and an enabled remote agent workforce
If you have yet to take the plunge to select a CCaaS solution or are thinking about upgrading your current contact center strategy, here are a handful of considerations before selecting a solution:
- Have I considered the right providers?
Niche providers are emerging in the provider community and some of the most robust CCaaS solutions are offered by providers whose names you may not have previously recognized. Seek to understand the market with an open mind. Third-party advisors can help you understand the current provider landscape.
- How does this solution take advantage of artificial intelligence?
Don’t shortchange yourself by failing to fully scope out what AI functionalities are currently available in the market. Take time to evaluate which solutions best align to your enterprise’s needs today and to your digital transformation journey in the longer term.
- How does this solution protect my company and our customers’ information?
Fraudulent behavior consistently takes shape in new formats and bad actors; understand how this solution is designed to be secure. In addition, carefully determine what types of proactive monitoring you will need to activate.
- How will my staffing requirements and skills requirements change with this solution in place and how will I address those changes?
CCaaS solutions do not eliminate your need for agents, but they may change your people strategy and will likely alter the profile of desired skillsets for your agent team. It’s important to understand these implications and have a plan in place to address them.
- How will I bring IT, management, security, finance and contact center users on board to support the implementation?
Before moving forward with an implementation, have a plan in place to communicate the new solution and garnish support among internal stakeholders. If possible, communicate in a way that directly correlates how the solution will positively impact the customer experience and how it will help the enterprise progress on its transformation journey.
If you’re seeking a CCaaS provider and would like further insights, including AI use cases, or a more in-depth analysis of the provider landscape for CCaaS, reach out to ISG.
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