Editorial
The Gist
- Growing CCaaS market. The global Cloud Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) market is expected to reach $15 billion by 2029.
- CCaaS challenges. A recent study found that over 40% of CCaaS migrations face obstacles such as limited internal talent, complex IT landscape and lack of executive support.
- Cloud toolsets solution. To overcome CCaaS limitations, companies are adopting cloud toolsets to improve quality management, revenue and agent efficiency.
The Cloud Contact Center as a Service, or “CCaaS” as it is commonly referred to, is a technology category comprising thousands of software vendors. The CCaaS vision is a technology platform that efficiently delivers a compelling omnichannel customer and agent experience by integrating data from across the organization and customer touchpoints to power intelligence and automation.
By 2029, the global market is forecasted to reach $15 billion, up from $4 billion in 2022, according to Fortune Business Insights.
Several factors are driving this category’s growth, including:
- Remote and hybrid workforces.
- 5G-interactive calling.
- Artificial intelligence.
- Programmable voice.
- Customer experience.
- Agent retention and experience.
- Lower cost to serve.
To serve customers where, when and how they want, CCaaS is essential. And at its core is cloud-based computing which enables flexibility, scalability and intelligent personalization of each customer interaction.
Sounds rosy until you lift the hood.
Forrester just released a study, “The Frustrating Journey to Cloud Contact Center Success,” commissioned by SuccessKPI, which found that over 40% of respondents, contact center decision makers from across North America, South America and Europe, have had limited success with their CCaaS migration.
Three obstacles that stand in the way of success: Limited internal talent with new technology (42%), complex internal IT landscape (38%), and executive support (34%). Add the common challenge of low solution optimization, and it spells trouble for companies.
Related Article: What Is a Contact Center? Omnichannel Customer Experience Redefined
Removing the Band-Aid
CCaaS is supposed to make life easier for agents to serve, managers to understand how to respond to evolving customer behaviors, leadership in building brand preference and IT because cloud providers manage the infrastructure.
Yet, users are discovering that their CCaaS solution offers fewer capabilities when compared to on-premises software. Over 80% of study respondents shared that their CCaaS solution has less functionality, robustness and usability than their on-premises solution.
Cloud migration, coupled with integrating multiple technologies and solutions, requires expertise that is in short supply. Thirty-seven percent of respondents have yet to gain significant customer experience improvement after migrating to CCaaS, and slightly over 20% report limited operational efficiency gains.
One of the “promises” of CCaaS is the ability to easily leverage AI/ML and automation into contact center workflows. The study found that over 50% of respondents found their CCaaS solution doesn’t adequately support these needs. “Real-time reporting and speech and sentiment analytics are capability gaps for CCaaS solutions today.”
The most common gaps cited in the study are:
- Real-time business intelligence reporting and analytics.
- Playbook-based automation and insights to understand the customer journey and drive business outcomes.
- Speech and sentiment analytics.
Unsurprisingly, agents and company leaders are not satisfied with their migration to CCaaS. The study states, “Just one in four respondents say they are completely satisfied with their solution.”
Learning Opportunities
Webinar
May
30
ChatGPT and the Future of Conversational AI
This discussion explores various aspects of AI implementation, ethical considerations, and challenges for your organization.
Webinar
May
31
The Evolution of Employee Listening - 2023 Trends & Best Practices
Learn proven effective methods and solutions to supporting an inspirational future of Employee Voice
Webinar
Jun
1
How organizations can design, build and run Generative AI into the Customer Experience
Discover how to drive enhanced CX through Generative AI
Webinar
Jun
6
The Future of Social Media: Emerging Trends and How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
The impact of emerging technologies like AI on social media
Webinar
Jun
7
The Building Blocks of Personalization
This webinar will explore how personalization can create powerful ecommerce shopping experience.
Webinar
Jun
13
The Future of Contact Centers with AI at the Helm
Learn how to balance human intuition and interaction with the potential uses of AI to create delightful and lasting CX
Webinar
May
30
ChatGPT and the Future of Conversational AI
This discussion explores various aspects of AI implementation, ethical considerations, and challenges for your organization.
Webinar
May
31
The Evolution of Employee Listening - 2023 Trends & Best Practices
Learn proven effective methods and solutions to supporting an inspirational future of Employee Voice
Related Article: CMSWire's Top 10 Customer Service/Call Center Articles of 2022
Cloud Toolsets to the Rescue
Juniper Research defines CCaaS as “A service that merges cloud-based contact center infrastructure with contact center processes.” Today, we have a robust cloud engine. What’s lacking is the comprehensive data and intelligence to "power" automation.
To bridge this gap, companies are adopting purpose-built cloud toolsets. According to the study, 79% of respondents believe the right cloud toolset is crucial for optimizing their CCaaS solution, with over 50% implementing or testing cloud toolsets, while the rest are exploring options
The cloud toolset should support four functions:
- Create a single source of truth by integrating corporate and customer data.
- Support contextual data analysis.
- Automate business processes.
- Act on insights.
The ROI is improved quality management, incremental revenue and agency efficiency. Other benefits include reduced customer and agent churn.
Cloud toolsets are instrumental to improving the success of CCaaS deployments. More importantly, they enable organizations to improve their customers’ experience by unlocking the value in CCaaS solutions.
“Developing a single source of truth to power insights, automation, and improve business outcomes across all channels enables contact centers to blend data across customer journeys and disparate systems, bridging the gap to customer success,” shares Dave Rennyson, CEO and co-founder of SuccessKPI.
For instance, establishing a single source of truth encompassing all corporate data sources, feeds, and repositories, rather than just a few systems, marks a significant advancement in deciphering customer conversations across all channels. Those insights give agents a contextual understanding of why customers act in a certain way and how they define a successful service outcome.
Cloud toolsets round out CCaaS systems. Contact centers shift from reacting and reporting to understanding and delighting customers, strengthening organizational resilience to change.
Couple that with automation that eliminates manual and repetitive agent tasks — such as automatic creation of call notes — saves time and makes agents happier. Taken a step further, actions agents initiate in the toolset and CCaaS that are automatically updated in other relevant corporate systems and data stores via the single source of truth. That becomes a game changer in efficiency.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
