The cloud contact centre is growing at an amazing pace.
As more companies continue to recognise the value of having their customer contact solutions ready-to-scale in the cloud, we’re seeing the arrival of endless new technology and opportunities. Already, things like artificial intelligence and IoT are changing the way that companies deliver service.
According to Gartner’s recent Magic Quadrant for the CCaaS landscape, by 2022, CCaaS will be the preferred model of adoption for 50% of all contact centres. That’s an increase from around 10% just in 2019. On top of that, the sector should be worth around $28.6 billion by 2025 too!
To get a better insight into how the CCaaS environment is changing, we caught up with some of the market leaders from the industry. Here’s what we learned when talking to representatives from Genesys, 8x8, ContentGuru, and NiceinContact.
What do you believe is driving this demand for CCaaS?
The demand for CCaaS is greater than ever. Even larger contact centres that previously didn’t have the opportunity to leave legacy equipment behind, are taking their first steps into the cloud. All over the world, the industry is evolving, with some locations like the US and UK moving faster than others.
One of the key trends driving the need for CCaaS is the need for a more flexible and unique method of delivering personalised experiences to customers. But what else is leading the way? Here’s what our experts had to say.
Mark Armstrong, Director of Commercial Sales for Genesys:
According to Director of Commercial Sales at Genesys, Mark Armstrong, one of the many reasons that organisations are now looking at CCaaS, is to manage the rapid changes in customer service and support. A lot of brands are still using legacy systems, hybrid environments, and mixed systems for customer engagement that don’t match today’s requirements.
Armstrong told us that businesses need to be available where their customers are.
“CCaaS enables companies to connect with customers on any channel while also delivering the highly personalised experiences today’s consumers expect"
"The cloud provides brands with tools to ensure they maximise the value of data and leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse customer history and behaviour in real-time.”
CCaaS offerings are flexible and scalable solutions, designed to adapt to what the customer base needs right now. CCaaS is built on modular, easy-to-customise architecture that takes days to update, not months.
Chris Marron, Director of Competitive and Market Intelligence for 8x8:
Chris Marron, the 8x8 Director of Competitive and Market Intelligence agrees with the idea that better customer service is essential. He notes that custom support for clients is now a business-critical concept.
“You only have to look at the number of companies whose adverts now include TrustPilot ratings to see that there is a real need for businesses to exhibit the highest levels of customer service.”
Marron told us that businesses today need to be agile, flexible, and based in the cloud, so that they can respond quickly to the changing demands of the modern customer. Businesses need to deliver a services that matches the exact preferences and communication styles of various generations, from baby boomer to Gen Z.
“CCaaS is a key piece of what enterprises need to allow companies to deliver this excellent service while also giving businesses the flexibility to keep up with both consumer and contact centres’ needs”
Laura Basset, Senior Director of Product Marketing for NICE inContact:
The Senior Director of Product Marketing at NICE inContact, Laura Basset said that confidence in the viability and security of CCaaS has increased. Now, the question isn’t “if” you should move to cloud, but how and when you should begin the migration.
One major factor leading the transition to cloud, according to Laura, is customer behaviour.
“Consumers are increasingly digital-first and want seamless interactions regardless of channel"
"CCaaS provides the agility to build and maintain contact centre solutions alongside consumer preferences rapidly.”
Another concept to consider is flexibility; companies need more elasticity with their contact centres, and appreciate the lower costs and reduced barriers to entry with CCaaS. Workforce flexibility allows unmatched capabilities for at-home agents, better disaster recovery, and more.
Basset also said that value is a factor too. “The unrivaled speed of innovation and the ability for contact centres to reap the benefits of enhancements and features in a seamless, no-hassle fashion continuously, ensures they are always on the latest and greatest.”
Martin Taylor, Deputy CEO and Co-Founder for ContentGuru:
Deputy CEO and Co-Founder of ContentGuru, Martin Taylor, says that as customer experience becomes more essential to businesses, the demand for a modern contact centre is higher than ever.
“The traditional view that the contact centre is a place to make savings is being blown out of the water." "Instead, the contact centre has the potential to be a hugely rewarding value centre for organisations”
According to Taylor, the demand for CCaaS is being driven by a widespread investment from countless C-level executives keen to improve customer experience and engagement. In the next two years, there’s likely to be an increasing number of companies shifting from on-premise into a cloud-based omni-channel infrastructure.
What Customer Experience trends did you see developing in 2019?
Since customer experience is at the heart of the demand for CCaaS for a lot of businesses, the trends that are changing the CX landscape are crucial to companies investing in new contact centre tools.
For some time now, we’ve seen the potential that the cloud can bring to the contact centre environment. However, the arrival of new technology, ranging all the way from AI to sentiment analysis, is changing the way that we can address customer needs. Here’s what our experts had to say about the customer experience trends that developed over the last year.
Mark Armstrong believes that one of the major trends will focus on predictive customer engagement strategies, and how companies can serve clients before they come to them. Businesses already have a lot of information about their customers, but the historical data available might not be used to its fullest potential when figuring out when to engage customers and make suggestions that are relevant to their needs.
“Here is where technologies such as AI can help brands in determining when to engage with the customer, with the right resource or offer and help to determine the next best course of action.”
Armstrong also acknowledged that while cloud might have been a crucial trend in the IT industry for a long time now, organisations haven’t been as quick to move their contact centres fully into the cloud. Now, we’re reaching a nexus of change in the industry. “Today, we are at a point where it is no longer a question of if businesses will move their contact centres to the cloud but when.”
Chris Marron of 8x8 said that the industry is beginning to see more businesses recognizing that while the contact centre is crucial to good customer interactions, exceptional experiences require more coordinated solutions from the entire business. Creating these opportunities requires close teamwork and collaboration across sectors.
“As businesses recognise that a siloed approach to customer service is ineffective they are also identifying that a siloed approach to business systems is equally ineffective. My prediction is that we will see considerable consolidation in the space as vendors scramble to deliver a combined UCaaS and CCaaS offering to meet the enhanced requirements of modern businesses.”
Laura Basset for NICE inContact told us that the trends of personalisation and specialisation are particularly significant in the current landscape. “For 2020+, each of these will only grow in necessity and intensity as we head towards hyper-personal, hyper-specialised experiences where real time AI helps augment humans in the process.”
According to Laura, we’re also seeing an increased demand for more all-in-one products with unified interfaces for everything, including CRM technology. Organisations don’t want to just manage bolt-on applications or panic about cross-vendor dynamics. They want a solution that gives them everything that they need in one place.
Digital transformation is also becoming the new normal, as multiple companies start to pivot to address changes in customer behavior. In 2019, we saw a rising demand for seamless omni-channel solutions and increased adoption of digital channels. Additionally, “during 2019, we saw a lot of buzz around “AI” and “Bots.” Many organisations don’t really know how they would implement it, but they are looking to CCaaS providers to help them blaze the trail.”
Martin Taylor said that the idea that chatbots might be able to deliver the secret sauce solution to all customer problems has only recently be debunked. Over the last year, many companies have realised that while chatbots are useful, they’re better suited to act as one part of an entire omni-channel portfolio of customer service offerings.
