Of all the big-name entrants in the CCaaS space, Google has kept the lowest profile.
There have been no headline-stealing statements, only murmurings of megadeals and scarce broadcasts of its contact center innovations.
Yet, despite this, its Google Contact Center AI platform is perhaps the most sophisticated new-entrant offering and its approach the most exciting.
Most importantly, it’s also resonating with enterprise end-users. For instance, OneUnited recently celebrated the ROI it achieved with the platform.
Indeed, Teri Williams, President & COO at OneUnited Bank, highlighted how Google allowed it to drive towards “exceptional client experiences.”
The bank is one of the many enterprises that first implemented the Google Contact Center AI Suite – the predecessor to the fully-fledged CCaaS platform.
The suite offered the foundational elements of AI – including chatbots, agent-assist, and analytics – and many brands implemented it to augment their service operations.
Thanks to that pioneering solution, Google is already in many service operations, and now – with its fully-fledged CCaaS solution - it aims to expand its contact center business.
The CCaaS Opportunity
Google’s shift to CCaaS was far from a foregone conclusion. “We understood the complexity of contact centers and went through many lengthy cycles,” admits Amit Kumar, CCaaS Product Manager at Google.
However, over time, these cycles accelerated with increasing excitement from customers of The Google Contact Center Suite. Kumar added:
“We pioneered the contact center AI market six years ago, and this is a natural progression for us to evolve and meet customers where they are.”
Kumar also isolated three additional motivators behind the move:
1. The Increasing Pace of Innovation at Google – Many vendors were not ready to pull its technology into their ecosystems. Yet, Google wanted customers to harness its solutions as they came to market. It craved the ability for customers to drop innovations into their environments on-the-fly. Google’s cloud-native platform enables this – as evident in the launch of its Generative AI App Builder.
2. The Changing Role of Customer Service – Google anticipates increased investment in customer service innovation. Why? Because – following the pandemic – businesses realize contact centers are make or break, and their operations do not align with how consumers communicate with friends and family. They are not ready for multi-modal interactions. Google aspires to change that.
3. The Limitations of CCaaS Rivals – Financial issues, stilted innovation, product shutdowns, brands forcing customers to choose particular cloud models... these are just some of the problems Google has spotted across the contact center space. As such, the enterprise tech stalwart sees an opportunity to offer increased dependability, flexibility, and trust.
According to Kumar, each of these trends gives Google an upper hand in the contact center. He said:
“We’re here to disrupt the market with AI innovation that goes far beyond bots, a user-first approach, and a cloud-native architecture. We are really well-positioned.”
Of course, many other CCaaS providers will claim to leverage AI, prioritize user experiences, and deliver a cloud-native platform. Yet, there are other notable features within the solution that seem to be significant differentiators.
The CCaaS Differentiators
Here are three differentiating features that may help Google seize the CCaaS opportunity.
1. Scale, Security, & Reliability
Kumar suggests that most companies have not shifted to CCaaS, and the stats back him up. Indeed, little more than a fifth of businesses have migrated – as per Metrigy research.
That stat may surprise many. Yet, Kumar believes there are three core reasons behind the slow CCaaS transition: security, scale, and reliability.
Recognizing this, Google designed its CCaaS platform with these three pillars in mind.
Consider scale. It runs on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). Noting this, Kumar stated:
“It’s built from the ground up, in the cloud. It’s not taking servers from an on-prem data center, migrating that to the cloud, and using another computer to run it there.”
As a result, each component is scalable, which is critical in service operations where erratic demand is the norm.
In terms of reliability, Google will soon launch a multi-region capability, which will allow the platform to run automatically in multiple locations across the globe and across various clouds.
Finally, consider security. Google does not store any data within its CCaaS platform, everything gets encrypted (in transit and at rest) and pipes through to the business’s system of record.
Also, it has virtual support, CMAC authentication, and more unique features that Google is known for. The platform inherits all of those.
2. A Mobile-First Architecture
“We are laser-focused on delivering a personalized, contextualized experience to the end-user through a mobile-first architecture,” said Kumar.
A massive part of that for Google is blending the conversational experiences people have in their personal lives with those they have in the contact center.
For instance, when a customer phones a business, they should be able to exchange photos and gain new context. Google has wrapped its CCaaS proposition around that philosophy.
Another excellent example of this mobile-first architecture is in identification and verification (ID&V).
Here, Google can securely tap into IOS and Android devices, check via face or fingerprint ID, and automate the process for the agent.
By offering such capabilities, Google strives to push omnichannel further. As Kumar concluded:
“In contact centers, we talk about omnichannel. Yet, by unifying voice, video, images, and everything together, we’re taking this concept further and blending these mediums.”
3. Native AI
As Kumar stresses: “Many of the biggest CCaaS players use our technology for everything AI-related.”