From agent desktop innovation to compliance blunders, here are some extracts from our most popular news stories over the last seven days.
AWS Tackles Contact Center Context Switching Issues with Agent Desktop Innovation
AWS has announced a preview of new third-party integration capabilities for Amazon Connect, its CCaaS platform.
These capabilities allow service teams to embed third-party applications directly into the Connect agent workspace.
The screengrab below offers an example of what this looks like, with a third-party maps tool available as a tab within the agent desktop.
In building such tools into the unified interface, contact centers can lower context switching and enhance agent efficiency.
After all, most agents currently switch between four and ten applications when interacting with customers – according to LiveVox.
Transitioning between them typically slows agents down and often takes wind from the flow of customer conversations.
Michael Wallace, Americas Leader of CX Solutions Architecture at AWS, believes that the new third-party integration capabilities will remove such issues once and for all.
"Amazon Connect's new capability to embed third-party applications in the agent workspace equips agents with the information they need, regardless of where the information comes from, to deliver exceptional customer service," he told CX Today.
By consolidating applications into a single user interface, agents can seamlessly transition between systems to resolve customer issues quickly and accurately the first time.
This idea of presenting agents with a single 360-degree view of the customer is something vendors have mulled over for years.
Still, it is part of the CX discussion because it has proved too tricky a problem to overcome.
Yet, according to Wallace and the AWS team, early adopters are already realizing the benefits of Connect’s consolidated UI. (Read on…).
Vonage Customers Receive Refunds After Enduring "Junk Fees" and "Illegal" Practices
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is sending out almost $100MN in refunds to Vonage consumers after denouncing the vendor for “junk fees” and “illegal dark patterns” in November 2022.
Those dark patterns include actions that made it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions.
Moreover, the FTC found that Vonage continued to charge customers illegally after they spoke to a service agent directly requesting a cancellation.
In other cases, agents told customers they must pay an unexpected termination fee – which Vonage didn’t clearly disclose in the onboarding process.
Often, that fee would cost hundreds of dollars.
After the investigation, Vonage reached a settlement with the government agency to pay up, and – one year later – those refund payments will reach the 389,106 affected consumers.
Now, Vonage must also ensure its cancellation process is “simple and transparent” and “stop charging consumers without their consent”.
