"If you build it, they will come" is the famous line that originated in the 1989 movie "Field of Dreams" with Kevin Costner. The story itself is about creating something that faces impossible odds. Impelled by a personal mission, Costner's character builds a baseball field in the middle of his Iowa cornfield, an unlikely spot for a professional baseball team.
Now, consider the technology industry. There are men with dreams - visionaries - like Steve Jobs, Andy Grove, and Elon Musk. Sensing a market with vast opportunity, they single-mindedly built it. Because as Grove said, "What's possible can be done."
Yet, it also helps if the dream has some chance of meshing with reality. In contact centers, the opportunities are rife, and visionaries – like Webex – are seizing the moment to innovate and make the improbable possible.
The No-Go Zone of Today’s Call Centers
To this day, customers who interact with call centers suffer from cumbersome IVRs, long wait times, and bounce from agent to agent to resolve their questions. For many, contact centers have become a 'No Go Zone,’ leaving customers highly aggravated and low on satisfaction.
This is where Webex senses its opportunity; creating more intelligent Contact Centre solutions.
But the vendor hasn’t become distracted by technology. Instead, Webex remains on the path of pragmatism. By all accounts, their vision is coming to life.
Indeed, despite only venturing into the CCaaS space in 2020, a 2021 Aargon Research study singled out Webex as the leading intelligent contact center platform – as evident in the matrix below.
Sharing how Webex managed to make such waves in the market, Zack Taylor, Director of Strategic Communications at Cisco Contact Center BU, said:
Today, customers are overwhelmed with choices and the endless stream of what is possible. Rather than confuse them even more, we took a step back and looked at the heart of the problem.
That was a fortuitous decision. Not only for call center agents, who spend up to 40 percent of their call time searching for answers, but for customers too who need accurate answers without waiting.
"Cisco balances today and tomorrow," Taylor explained. "We believe in practical solutions to customer's problems.”
The Balance of Power Has Shifted: Customers Have Their Way
If there's one thing that CEOs and senior managers understand in the current business climate, it's the need to adapt to shifts in the marketplace. It's the customer who now has the leverage. They have many choices and a low tolerance for pain. Companies that can't or won't pivot to this reality risk everything.
"The consumer owns the power now," Taylor continued. "They want to feel that the interaction is germane to them, in other words, relevant."
Their power comes from an expectation that companies will respect their time. "They expect a service that reduces friction and impedances when they reach out," Taylor explained. "Make my life more efficient and reduce the time needed to do what I want."
The Paradigm Shift: Making Call Centre CX Delightful
Today, the implementation of intelligent call center platforms - such as Webex solutions- sets forth a framework that provides multi-channel experiences.
Webex has coined it as "One app for everything. And everyone."
Indeed, it offers more than a traditional CCaaS platform. It allows the customer to:
- Call from any device with their cloud phone system.
- Meet from anywhere with immersive sharing.
- Message instantly for collaboration and file sharing.
- Engage everyone in meetings and events with polling and Q&A tools.
- Host webinars and events virtually and in person, with up to 100,000 attendees worldwide.
Webex wishes to wave goodbye to the days of the uncaringly cold and brittle contact center structure, where customers know they are about to face a contact center fortress. Instead, the vendor offers AI-based support systems to find answers independently without needing a conversation.
SMS messaging, email, and video support tools, and access to company knowledge repositories have replaced irritative and impersonal contact center structures.
"We've moved from 'migraines-brought-to-you-by-contact-center' recordings to the age of unexpected delight," said Taylor.