Contact Center as a ServiceTHE HISTORY, BENEFITS AND TRENDS

CCaaS Origins

Contact Center as a Service—CCaaS—represents an entirely new paradigm for business communications and collaboration. CCaaS solutions offer similar functionalities as an on-premises contact center infrastructure (CCI). But, key differentiators of CCaaS lie within simplifying connectivity to other cloud-based applications, consumption being paid for via a monthly subscription, and a definitive focus on service capabilities rather than simply product functionality.

A massive opportunity presented itself in the early 2000’s with the realization of taking traditional call center software and hosting it in the cloud. The evolution of contact center software took shape allowing employees to access the exact same system from anywhere with reliable internet connection, rather than using specific computers to access software on-site.

The initial wave of CCaaS solutions brought to light benefits that a call center operation had never seen before, such as the ability to reduce IT headcount, lower maintenance costs, detailed reporting on people and progress, and the capacity to allow work-from-home opportunities, rather than requiring physical presence in a call center. One of the most impactful benefits of a CCaaS solution is that organizations are able to instantly scale to meet business and customer demands – including the ability to add or subtract the number of seats. Contact centers are saying good-bye to purchasing additional capacity that they may never need, paying for software licenses that go unused, or purchasing pricey storage options to cover unexpected increases in demand.

Like any cloud software, it levels the playing field for small and mid-sized businesses better able to compete against goliaths in their respective industries. Early adopters are always within SMB as it requires less capital upfront and they can avoid being locked into long-term vendor contracts. But, in the age of the customer, providing a superior customer experience is the top priority for organizations, regardless of size, that want to stay on top.

Nearly 7 out of 10 IT managers report that improving the experience

of their customers is a top business priority. (Forrester)

Businesses are investing in service by ensuring they are where the customer is, whether that means through voice, chat, WhatsApp, email, etc. Just 15 years ago, the average consumer typically used two touchpoints when buying an item; today consumers use an average of nearly six touchpoints with nearly 50% using more than four (Marketing Week). It’s important to note that while younger consumers prefer chat, email and social media when contacting a company, older consumers’ outreach method is by phone.

CCaaS enables superior and consistent customer service by allowing employees to communicate across any and all touchpoints, in real-time and have call recording or transcripts added to internal systems, promoting greater internal visibility and accountability.

The expectations of customers today include brand interactions and experiences that are completely seamless and effortless no matter the location, time or touchpoint. In order to deliver on a better customer experience, companies are leveraging cloud-ready contact center technologies to drive company efficiencies, as well as customer loyalty and advocacy, which ultimately correlates to increased revenue.

Current Growth and Future Outlook

The global contact center software market is expected to grow to nearly $50B by 2025.

(Grand View Research)

According to Contact Center 2.0, The Rise of Collaborative Contact Centers by Altimeter, top reasons for moving to the cloud are:

Benefits of CCaaS Solution

CCaaS solutions provide the highest levels of availability, reliability and disaster recovery; most providers promise uptime as high as 99.99% by leveraging

geographically redundant data centers, staffed 24/7/365.

Increased reliability/uptime

Ability to better meet the needs of today’s customer

Better reporting and analytics

Ability to scale up or down

Improvedsecurity

Reduce reliance of internal IT

> > >

> > >

Agents can be remote; not tied to a call center

Availability to the consumer (across all touchpoints)

Integrations and APIs to existing apps and software

Analytics

> Customer Experience

• Hold times

• Time to resolution

• One call resolution

> Internal (agent/department)

• Hold times

• Time to resolution

• One call resolution

Call-back solutions

Flexibility to add/remove agents quickly (i.e. peak seasons vs. slow seasons)

Monitor/adjust queues on the fly

Review call scripts

Record/review calls for quality and/or training purposes

Reduce IT headcount (lower maintenance cost)

Seamless interdepartmental access

Business continuity & disaster recovery

Improved security & compliance

> HIPPA, GDPR, PCI-DS

Future-proofed from costly upgrades/updates

According to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, functions and abilities that organizations should consider when reviewing contact center requirements include:

Automatic call distribution (ACD) and interactive voice response (IVR)

True omnichannel capabilities—universal routing and queuing of voice and internet channels — such as email, web chat, SMS, social media and video

Chatbot capability — to support self-service and assisted-service interactions and transactions

Proactive contact — including outbound dialing and SMS, as well as push text and email notifications

Inbound, outbound, & blended calling abilities—easily added or removed in the future, based on company needs

Open API—allows integrations with any existing or future software

Access to customer data — by connecting to existing web-based applications or CRM solutions via a purpose-built adapter or web technology toolkit

Support of virtual operations, remote agents and subject matter experts that reside outside the traditional contact center operation

Customer relationship tracking, management applications and operational support applications — including reporting, analytics, sentiment analysis, self-service

Some of these functionalities are provided solely by CCaaS providers while others are utilized in partnership with specialist providers.

What to look for in a CCaaS provider

>>

>

>

>

>>

>

>

CCaaS Verticals

What Verticals are a Good Fit?

> Doctor/Dentist> Large medical

groups> Insurance

> Home healthcare

WHYImproved privacy-compliant communications with patients which results in:

• Increasedsatisfaction

• Improved accessto care

• Greater schedulingconvenience

• Reduced admissionrates

• Reduction ofdisparate-languageservice costs

> Banks/creditunions

> Mortgage lenders> Investment/

brokerage firms

WHYSeamless, omnichannel customer service that meets regulatory compliance standards, resulting in:

• Increased servicelevels

• Improved efficiency

• Enhanced routingcapabilities—customers get tobest expert quickly

• Efficiently manageomnichannelengagement

• Greater operationalefficiency

> Catalogs> Online

WHY• Provides vitally

important, positivecustomer journey toretain existing andattract futurecustomers

• Consistent brandexperience

• Seamlessomnichannelcommunication

• Improved orderefficiency

• Decreased call times

• Increased agentproductivity

> Local> State

> Federal

WHY• Provides better

service and improvefiscal responsibility

• Ensures federalsecurity levels are met

• Adheres to reliability/availability/performancerequirements

• Improved citizenexperiences

• Agility for rapidchanges

• Scalability is seamless(up/down)

HEALTHCARE FINANCIAL SERVICES

E-COMMERCE/VIRTUAL

RETAILERSGOVERNMENT

DISCOVERY QUESTIONS

SALES

• Is your contact center tied toyour CRM?

• Are you able to track thingslike how many times you calla prospect before theybecome a customer? Or howmany times a customer has tocall before an issue isresolved?

• Is your contact center tiedto revenue?

SERVICES DEPARTMENT

• Do you have the ability tosee your call abandon rate?(For example, how manycallers hang up before theytalk to someone and how longdo they wait before theyhang up?)

• How much visibility do youhave into your contactcenter’s performance?

• Do you know how manycalls you receive a day andmore importantly, do youknow what each call is about?

• What happens when yourcustomers call your mainnumber? What do you want tohave happen when they callthat main number?

• How do your currentcustomers interact with yourcompany? (For example,phone, chat, email or SMS)

C-SUITE

• Do you have all the featuresthat you want in your currentcall center?

• Do you have the need forremote users?

• Do you have times when theweather is bad and noteveryone can get to theoffice?

• Do you think you would havehappier employees if theycould work from home somedays?

• Do you have staffingproblems today?

CONTACT CENTER MANAGER

• What are the various platformsconsumers are reaching out tothe company?

• How do you address staffinglevels today?

• What are your KPIs?• Do you leverage post-call

surveys?• Do you have skilled-based

routing today?• How do you measure customer

satisfaction?• What is your wish list of

features you would like tohave in your Call center?

• What do you consider the keycriteria for a successful callcenter?

IT

• What are your challenges ismanaging your current callcenter?

• How much time is dedicated tomanaging your call center?

• Can you manage your callcenter remotely?

• Do you want embed ACD/telephony into your CRMsystem for click-to-call orscreen pops?

• Do you want to have aknowledge base for youragents?

www.aticti.com