When remote working came to the fore in 2020, many contact centers – particularly in the U.S. – started to give employees Chromebooks to work from.
Why? Because a Chromebook has many advantages for contact centers, including price, speed to deployment, and built-in security.
Here, Chrome sensed an opportunity. As Matt Bottomley, Partner Sales Engineer at Google, told us:
Because of the web-based nature of it all, there is no update period time. Applications are always compatible with the version of OS you run. That means we never have downtime or unproductive periods, and that has really resonated in contact center environments, where every minute counts.
Having this leg-up, Chrome considered how it could drive extra value for its contact center customers – beyond what their vendors offer.
As such, Chrome set up an entire team dedicated to building contact center-specific functionality within the OS – targeting value-add opportunities.
Now, it is starting to release innovations that catch the eye.
What Has Chrome Already Released for the Contact Center?
Last month, the hard work of the contact center-focused Chrome team started to bear fruit, releasing the ChromeOS Desk Connector.
While many operating systems – including Mac and Windows - have multiple desk options, this innovation uniquely links desks on Chrome to IVR inputs through an API.
After recognizing customer intent, the innovation makes a specific desk layout appear on the agent’s screen, customized to open every application the agent needs to handle that conversation.
Such an offering provides an attractive alternative to the “single pane of glass” approach, which contact centers so often struggle to achieve.
The innovation is compatible with Genesys, NICE, and many more prominent communications solutions. Indeed, the video demo below shows how it works in a RingCentral environment.
Yet, this is just the start. "We got a lot of innovations coming," promised Bottomley.
What Is On the Contact Center Roadmap for Chrome?
In the near future, Chrome has told us that it will debut new screen recording and reporting capabilities, with the latter aiming to add value to similar solutions from CCaaS vendors.
Here, Chrome is targeting a gap in cradle-to-grave telemetry capabilities. Indeed, while conversational analytics lifts additional insight, more general reporting tools do little to help businesses uncover the reasons for bad feedback or dropouts.
As such, Chrome senses the opportunity for innovation. Bottomley stated:
ChromeOS is introducing end-point based telemetry APIs, which will pop directly into existing CCaaS platforms reporting software.
"[This will cover] everything from: How strong is the WiFi? What headset have they got plugged in? Is their headset running an old driver that is no longer supported? Are they running too many apps and slowing down their computer?"