Navigating the fast-paced digital landscape with an outdated, complex tech stack poses significant challenges to contact centers. Legacy on-premises call center software hinder growth and efficiency. And they make it difficult to stay relevant in today’s competitive experience economy.
IT teams grapple with lagging systems that barely work together. Agents can’t quickly access information to personalize the customer experience (CX). And customers endure extended wait times and disjointed interactions. In fact, just 35% of 646 surveyed CX leaders say their company offers a highly personalized customer experience, according to “The State of Customer Experience” report from Genesys.
To address these issues, many companies are moving to an all-in-one cloud contact center platform that meets evolving customer requirements. And the technology primes IT teams to effortlessly adapt to future demands.
Let’s explore the value for IT teams when moving to cloud contact center technology that offers stability and scalability, as well as the extensibility of open APIs and microservices, and integration with a robust app marketplace.
Empowered Teams Provide Winning CX
As customer expectations continue to rise, businesses need the right tools to meet and even surpass these expectations. An all-in-one cloud contact center platform provides the necessary infrastructure, including open APIs, developer tools, a global footprint, and security and compliance. This enables you to offer personalized end-to-end experiences across preferred channels.
A modern customer experience platform allows you to compose differentiated experiences in and beyond the contact center through integrations. You can orchestrate seamless customer journeys. And customers are no longer passed from one agent to another, repeating their issues each time.
Instead, the platform’s integrated system ensures all relevant customer data is accessible to contact center agents in real time — no matter which channel the customer used or when they contacted the company. This means the agent or AI can personalize customer interactions and show the customer that they’re listened to, heard and understood — the pillars of empathy.
And that personalization only strengthens a company’s bottom line and drives long-term business performance. More than 80% of the 5,517 consumers surveyed in the Genesys report say they’d purchase additional items from companies that consistently personalize their customer service experiences.
And almost the same percentage said they’d buy more often and recommend those companies to others. More than half of respondents said they’d pay more to buy from companies that personalize their experiences.
A big part of personalization is being where your customers are. With omnichannel support, customers can engage through the channel and device they prefer — when it’s convenient for them. They can also switch from self-service to agent-assisted service within and across channels seamlessly. This flexibility creates a consistent experience across all touchpoints.
By proactively leveraging data analytics and automation capabilities, businesses can predict customer needs and reach out with timely, relevant and personalized offers or support.
In these ways, an all-in-one cloud contact center platform equips businesses to orchestrate an end-to-end experience at scale to meet elevated customer expectations.
Cloud Contact Center Technology and What’s in It for IT
An all-in-one cloud contact center platform brings a host of benefits to IT teams.
- Reduced IT operational costs. There’s no need for additional hardware and consolidation of systems, so see significantly reduced costs for integration and maintenance. According to Genesys Cloud CX benchmarking data, a migration to the cloud platform can save 20%, on average, in maintenance costs in just one year. With less strain on resources, a unified solution allows IT to prioritize better and focus on more strategic tasks and innovations.
- Faster innovation. An all-in-one cloud contact center platform empowers companies to innovate at the speed of their customers. User-friendly designs and rich capabilities mean your IT teams can quickly adapt and enhance customer experiences. You can distinguish your company from competitors without overburdening your development teams. And you can easily spin up new capabilities and test them before broadly deploying.
- Improved uptime. With built-in redundancies spread across cloud-based integrations, you have confidence that your services and channels are always conveniently available when your customers need them. Better reliability translates to less downtime, which improves CX. And it means IT teams don’t have to scramble to get operations up and running again.
- Enhanced security. With robust security measures that protect customer data, there’s peace of mind that allows you to focus on improving services rather than closely monitoring security.
- Simplified administration. IT teams can effortlessly coordinate data, systems and capabilities to ensure the contact center platform orchestrates end-to-end experiences for customers and employees.
Choosing the Right CX Tech Stack
Built-in omnichannel features like voice and digital, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered self-service and chatbots, and workforce engagement solutions are table stakes for a modern contact center. There are several critical features to look for when choosing a platform. These “must haves” will help you chart the digital paths that lead to great experiences.
- Extensibility. Look for a customer experience platform that supports open APIs and extension points throughout the platform. A fully open architecture makes it easier to add functionality and seamlessly integrate with existing systems, minimizing operational costs and freeing your business to more quickly navigate change.
- Scalability. An easy-to-use customer experience platform with simple to understand administration enables IT to innovate, orchestrate on demand, and add features to meet business requirements or line of business requests. Look for a platform that empowers you to co-create unique customer experience solutions across teams using intuitive tools and without the need for complex coding.
- Innovation with integrations. Platforms with a thriving app marketplace and partner community are a boon. Turnkey apps and integrations from trusted partners can enhance your services and support customers throughout a range of use cases.
Staying Ahead in the Experience Economy
We’re in an experience economy — where 33% of customers say they’ve stopped using a company after just one negative customer service interaction in the last year, shows Genesys report. To meet increasingly high customer expectations — that only continue to rise — companies need to rethink the tech stack, focusing on an all-in-one customer experience platform. This includes connecting data and technology, such as CRM systems, ERP software, workforce management, AI, digital and voice, to orchestrate an omnichannel experience in and beyond the contact center.
A cloud contact center solution is critical for a company’s success. It also gives IT teams the power and freedom to innovate to keep up with increasing customer expectations.
By providing IT teams with a fast, efficient and responsive way to build and deliver personalized experiences at scale, you’ll orchestrate the end-to-end experiences your customers expect. And you’ll stay ahead of your competition.
Source: Genesys
