Contact Centers Are Sending an SOS to CCaaS Providers

Rapid changes in the contact center have left many companies struggling to keep up. Staffing challenges continue, as turnover – always high in the contact center – increases and many companies are looking to expand their labor pools with the work from home model. At the same time, escalating customer expectations and increased reliance on communications channels outside the telephone have intensified the complexity of call center operations.

Increasingly, contact centers are turning to outside parties to help them get a handle on operations, and these consultants are overwhelmingly recommending a contact center-as-a-service approach. According to Information Services Group in its “2022 ISG Provider Lens Contact Center as a Service – CX report,” providers are enhancing clients’ customer engagement capabilities with cloud-based operations and advanced AI and analytics.

“AI is redefining the customer experience,” said Wayne Butterfield, partner of ISG Automation. “Automated tools like chatbots can now handle up to 80 percent of customer issues without an agent, so confidence in AI is growing.”

Both artificial intelligence and chatbots can help direct and streamline customer contacts, and even handle lower-level inquiries on an automated basis. When customers do reach a live agent, these technologies can help them locate the right resources faster to bring customer issues to a resolution. Outsourcing contact centers also helps enterprises acquire omnichannel capabilities, which meet growing customer demand for immediate responses using their medium of choice. The need to master text, voice, social media and other channels has made customer engagement too complex for many companies to do in-house.

The technology shift is a necessity at a time when customer expectations are higher than ever, and a majority of customers say they will stop doing business with a company after a single poor customer experience.

“Customer experience is a boardroom issue now,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “Companies that are not connecting with their customers need to find the best service provider for their needs, and quickly.”

Given these factors, it’s not at all surprising that businesses are increasingly turning to CCaaS providers to help them meet their challenges head-on.