servion logo Crafting CX Solutions
subscribe

Get the Servion Blog updates in your inbox.

Your ultimate CX destination

Cloud contact center adoption has grown among large enterprises to the point where this segment now holds the largest share of the global CCaaS market. Key drivers of this transition are digital and self-service capabilities, cited as top priorities by contact center professionals in 2021. As the world grows more interconnected and customer expectations continually rise, it’s crucial that IT leaders begin to modernize with a more transformative contact center platform that supports digital and self-service capabilities like omnichannel, chatbots, and conversational AI.

Here's why enterprises are adopting CCaaS for digital and self-service capabilities:

Growth in user adoption

Few customers exclusively desire in-person service, especially for simpler tasks like account management and troubleshooting. Most want to handle their needs on their terms in a way that works best for them. This might mean starting a chat session during their lunch break or visiting a company’s help center on their website or mobile app. These digital and self-service capabilities actively improve measures of satisfaction like first contact resolution and handle time while significantly lowering interaction costs. Virtual agents, for example, can reportedly save up to $11 per query, and 99% of companies that use VA solutions report an increase in customer satisfaction as a result. A cloud deployment model makes it easy for organizations to quickly launch digital and self-service capabilities by removing the complexity associated with on-premises systems.

Easy customization with APIs

Legacy contact center solutions provide a certain degree of customization, but only when companies invest heavily in professional services or a small subset of developers who are trained on the platform. A cloud-native contact center differs in that it leverages technologies like microservices and Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS), which provide APIs to expand the core platform (on-premises systems were not designed with these APIs in mind).

These cloud-enabled technologies allow organizations to become composable in nature (per Gartner, the future of business will be composable). They can create and deploy new digital and self-service capabilities in minutes without any coding skills required. CCaaS providers continue to add new APIs to integrate with other business applications, making the cloud even more enticing. About 20% of global organizations now use CPaaS APIs to enhance their digital competitiveness, and Gartner predicts nearly 90% will use CPaaS by 2023. It’s important to note, however, that not all CCaaS platforms are architecturally equal. Some are more open than others, enabling varying degrees of composability.

In-built AI capabilities that enable personalization at scale

AI provides companies with a deeper understanding of customers to enable personalization at scale across digital and self-service channels. For example, organizations can use Natural Language Processing and machine learning to create an AI-powered chatbot that engages with customers in a natural, human-like way. Customers can take care of things like paying bills and managing their accounts through this conversational interface, which will improve over time as a self-learning system. This chatbot can also conduct sentiment analysis to ensure empathic conversations, further personalizing the experience. McKinsey estimates that personalization at scale has the potential to create up to $3 trillion in new value, but this is only possible with the power of a cloud contact center platform.   

Workforce optimization

Digital and self-service capabilities are hugely helpful for reserving live agents for more complicated issues, which was listed as the No. 1 challenge by contact center professionals in 2021. Consider the strain on contact centers that the COVID-19 pandemic created. The flexibility of CCaaS and CPaaS enabled companies to manage unprecedented spikes in call volume by quickly deploying virtual agents that could help alleviate call queues, all without any developer expertise. These virtual agents were able to handle the bulk of repetitive customer queries while live agents stood by for more complex and emotional issues. Whether it’s an annual occurrence like Black Friday or another crisis that catches organizations off guard, cloud-based digital and self-service capabilities will adequately prepare them for it.

Gartner predicts that more than half of enterprise IT spending will shift to the cloud by 2025, no doubt driven by digital transformation and customer experience needs. Enterprises with on-premises contact center deployments need to consider how they're innovating and improving with the use of digital and self-service capabilities. If you’re ready to make the move, Servion can help plan your perfect cloud migration. Click here to view our most recent success stories. Or connect with our team of Digital Engineers.