If you’re wondering which Amazon Connect features to focus on when implementing your new CCaaS technology, you’re in the right place. As one of the most powerful omnichannel contact center solutions available, Amazon Connect is brimming with unique functionality.
Not only does this platform offer companies a flexible way to manage interactions across a variety of channels, but it also leverages state-of-the-art technology such as AI and machine learning. Giving companies the freedom to personalize every discussion, empower agents with generative AI, and even reduce compliance issues, Amazon Connect is a CX game changer.
Today, we’re taking a closer look at some of the most impressive Amazon Connect features worth checking out in 2024 and beyond.
The Top Amazon Connect Features to Explore
If you’re looking for a leading omnichannel cloud contact center, Amazon Connect features a range of capabilities ideal for businesses of all sizes. The user-friendly solution combines numerous communication capabilities with solutions for agent productivity, empowerment, and insights.
Plus, AWS even helps new customers get started in the cloud contact center landscape, with up to 12 months of access to Connect for free.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the best features of Amazon Connect
1. CCaaS Combined with CPaaS
Like many top CCaaS vendors, Amazon offers companies various ways to unify and consolidate their technology stack. You can use Amazon’s “Connect Contact Control Panel” to give agents a UCaaS-like interface to collaborate with team members.
However, the variety of “CPaaS” solutions also available for business leaders differentiates Connect from its competitors. Amazon offers in-app web and video calling capabilities, which allow users to add personalized voice and video experiences to existing apps.
Companies can implement communication capabilities into their existing tools without any code using an SDK or communication widget. Plus, the solutions can pass contextual information to Amazon Connect automatically to help streamline customer conversation personalization, routing, and analytics.
2. The Drag and Drop Workflow Designer
One of our favorite Amazon Connect features for team efficiency and productivity is the drag-and-drop “Flows” workflow designer. This allows companies and users to create, enhance and automate complete agent and customer experiences across channels.
Users can design interactive voice responses and chatbot experiences to help customers address issues without agent input. You can also create step-by-step guides for agents to assist them with resolving issues faster and more intuitively.
The “Flows” feature integrates natively with AWS Lambda for more comprehensive automations across other AWS services and third-party apps. You can even design workflows that leverage Amazon Redshift, your CRM tools, and more.
3. Amazon Q in Amazon Connect Features
Like many CCaaS vendors, Amazon has recently begun exploring the benefits of generative AI in the contact center. In Amazon Connect, companies can now access the AWS assistant, “Amazon Q,” for various tasks.
Amazon Q is the evolved version of Amazon Connect Wisdom. It can analyze contact center conversations and calls and use generative AI to deliver information to agents proactively. This means staff members can rapidly use insights into customer profiles and business data to drive higher customer satisfaction.
Amazon Q in Connect also leverages real-time speech analytics and natural language processing to detect customer issues. It can then craft specific recommended responses and action items for agents based on historical and real-time context.
4. Omnichannel Inbound and Outbound Campaigns
Amazon Connect features all the tools businesses need to create genuinely omnichannel experiences for their audience. You can communicate with customers by voice, SMS, video, email, messaging apps, and more. Users get a single interface for chat, task, and routing management. You can even set up custom routing strategies with skills-based routing capabilities powered by AI.
Unlike some simpler contact center solutions, Amazon Connect doesn’t limit its omnichannel capabilities to inbound campaigns. Using the admin consoles, users can also create comprehensive outbound campaigns. You can use these to deliver appointment reminders, delivery information, marketing promotions, and more to customers at scale.
Amazon Connect even has its predictive dialer, designed to automatically contact customers on a list while throttling outreach according to agent availability. The dialer also uses machine learning to distinguish between voicemail greetings, busy signals, and live customers. Plus, a progressive mode ensures the dialer doesn’t start working until an agent is available.
5. Amazon Connect Features for Self-Service
If you’re investing in conversational AI tools and enhanced IVR systems for self-service, Amazon Connect features plenty of tools to help you reach your goals. Since Connect is integrated natively with Lex, you don’t need any coding knowledge to create and add chatbots to your workflows.
You can enable intelligent automation through all stages of the customer experience with task routing, interactive voice responses, and text-to-speech capabilities in over 30 languages. Amazon Connect IVR and the solution’s chatbots also use generative AI features like LLM-assisted slot resolution, utterance generation, and conversational FAQs.