A recent Gartner study highlighting a downturn in CCaaS growth has sparked debate across the customer experience space.
Indeed, the research firm found that growth has halved over the past two years, dropping almost every quarter and leading some analysts to predict increased market consolidation.
Nicolas de Kouchkovsky suggested this trend when sharing the following graphic from the report.
Liz Miller, VP & Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, followed suit when sharing her thoughts on an upcoming episode of CX Today's Big News Update.
In doing so, she drew a comparison with the UCaaS market.
"UCaaS is starting to consolidate because many [vendors] turned themselves into a commodity," said Miller. "And when you turn yourself into a commodity but want to be considered an "innovator", you go and buy someone really fast. You try and make some new moves in the marketplace.
"That same pattern is about to hit CCaaS – and you’re going to see vendors start to look everywhere else for growth."
Some of the moves that follow may add value to CCaaS suites. Yet, Miller worries that many will veer in the wrong direction.
"We Mustn’t Panic!"
Sharing an example of one such "wrong direction", Miller said:
Where I start to see this going is [vendors thinking] we have multichannel and journey orchestration, maybe we can be the next marketing automation tool?
"I want to say: Slow down! No one is going to let the contact center run marketing operations.
"We mustn’t panic about the decline. It was expected, and it will start to level out."
As it levels out, Miller asserts that businesses must keep their innovations customer-focused, not only to inspire new business but to keep what they already have.
After all, many COVID contracts from the pandemic-induced peak in CCaaS are in the renewal process, and some providers may struggle with retention.
Miller notes this and suggests that several poor practices may cost them business.
"You can’t sell a solution that claims to be customer-first and then do nasty things – like long-term vendor lock-ins and arbitrary increases to fees," she said. "This must be a market that keeps its eye on customer satisfaction – and how their customers treat their customers."
CCaaS Vendors Must Lead By Example
Miller suggests that there is a certain irony in particular CCaaS providers banging the CX drum and not doing what’s best for their own customers.
As such, they must close the gap between what end-users want and what they deliver. Noting this, Rebecca Wetteman, CEO & Principal Analyst at Valoir, added:
"It can’t just be about delivering capabilities in the software, particularly for the contact center managers not used to getting something new every quarter.
Managers need to understand: what am I getting out of the software, and where can I get more value?
Wetteman suggests that new telemetry must happen to meet this need, and Genesys is one example of a vendor breaking the boundaries in this regard.
Indeed, its new Genesys Experience Index aims to offer "new levels of visibility" for clients into how they can bolster agent engagement and specific customer outcomes.
Meanwhile, Salesforce recently released a novel Customer Success Score to help customers drive more value from their investments.
Yet, Wetteman advocates for further customer hand-holding.
"You don’t build it, and they come in the contact center," she concludes. "You’ve got to bring them on a journey, from the manager to the agent level – and that’s not about pushing new capabilities out the door every quarter."
Get a Grip on Licensing Models and AI Pricing
As CCaaS growth slows, vendors may bolster their margins by encouraging existing customers to augment their operations with more AI.