During turbulent times, CEOs of CX companies often reassure investors, customers and the media by reminding them that their products are “mission-critical”. After all, a business will always need to provide customer support, no matter the economic climate.
However, this bullishness appears to have taken a hit in recent months, as more and more CX giants realize that they might be heading for a global economic slowdown, just like everyone else.
Salesforce, HubSpot, and Twilio all reported hits to their business in recent weeks. And industry leader Avaya has suffered a 21 percent decline in revenue during the last quarter, amid a top leadership reshuffle and a late shift to the cloud.
HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan recently admitted that HubSpot had experienced a “lengthening of deal cycles and more decision-makers getting involved”, as companies increase scrutiny of tech vendors in a bid to contain costs, amid a worsening economic backdrop.
Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s co-CEO, added to that sentiment, by telling analysts:
“Nearly everyone I’ve talked to is taking a more measured approach to their business.”
Minimizing Costs by Relying on AI and the Cloud
The worsening macroeconomic backdrop means that enterprise buyers have become laser focused on trimming their tech stacks. Top leadership across the CX industry have said that clients want tools that offer the flexibility to adapt to changing demand, while minimizing operational costs by leveraging more AI-driven automation.
Some companies have already reacted to these market conditions, with Vonage recently launching a conversational AI “studio” that companies can use to test and deploy omnichannel bots faster.