The Customer Experience (CX) discipline is about people, strategy and measurement. Aligning technology to these goals however can make customers lives easier and increases the likelihood they will become brand ambassadors. Welcome to the world of Contact Centre as a Service.
As businesses increasingly differentiate on how well they service their customers rather than the products or services they sell, many are increasingly focussed on customer experience (CX).
Technology that supports CX has been getting a lot of focus as a result. And, as with every other sector of the IT industry, there has been a sea change in contact centres in recent years, both in terms of technology innovation and new providers and approaches gaining market acceptance.
Cloud-based technology providers have been the driving force, with Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) fast becoming a core component of the customer services industry. In Europe, for example, the CCaaS market has increased more than 15% YoY since 2015 according to research analysts Frost and Sullivan.
Why is CCaaS on the Rise?
It’s not one reason, there’s many – born from inherent flexibility of subscription-based services, cost, and the fact that technical innovation is now mostly focused in the CCaaS arena. In broad terms:
CCaaS providers have generally been quicker to market with innovations such as new channels (social media integration), voice analytics and virtual agent technology.
SaaS innovation – built for cloud. API integration with other cloud / SaaS-based applications is inherently easier with CCaaS platforms
CCaaS enhances remote working capabilities, a significant issue for on-premise provision in the Covid-era
While not a given across the sector, providers generally offer solutions compliant with internationally accepted security, data and systems management standards. One less headache for business
Subscription services tend to be more flexible, able to adapt to seasonal demand and quicker to deploy
CCaaS software is ‘evergreen’: it is the provider’s responsibility to improve the platform; rolling updates provided by vendors mean clients should have accelerated access to new features and functions
Issue resolution: it is the provider’s responsibility to remediate issues. With services measured by uptime, resolution is generally quicker
These characteristics have not only meant a change in technology for established contact centres. The affordability of CCaaS and its ability to scale down to single-digit environments has led many companies to adopt their first contact centre, something which would not have made commercial sense for most smaller businesses with traditional on-premise technology.
How do Providers Differentiate?
For providers, technology innovation has become the central factor determining their success in the CCaaS market. As Frost and Sullivan observed, “The innovation capacity of vendors is not only defined by their R&D budgets but also by the company's vision, product strategy. Innovative vendors are able to identify relevant market mega trends and design and execute a compelling product portfolio roadmap.”
Almost every vendor talks in terms of R&D spend: numbers of software engineers relative to sales and marketing for example.
Providers ability to execute and deliver effective support on their software and services is another key differentiator. Providers understand this of course, and many invest heavily in professional services, customer success teams and support. If your environment has a lot of legacy technology and processes which must be adapted or replaced over time, having the right provider alongside, working with you through what can be an extended period of transition, is key.
The CCaaS Provider Market – Making Provider Choices
In response to a march to the cloud, many existing providers have hosted, subscription-based versions of their software. Some have acquired providers and technology to augment their established contact centre platforms. A number of new cloud-native providers have also emerged, especially in Europe.
Targeted go-to-market campaigns by existing providers, in some cases leveraging complimentary services in their portfolio such as cloud-based unified communications, has created a highly competitive market, with considerable overlap between CCaaS solutions in terms of functionality and the markets they sell to.
In this context, solution differentiation has become a central challenge for providers, by extension making it much harder for potential customers of CCaaS to pick the right software.
And of the service itself? Understanding how a provider will manage the install, integration, transition, training and support of an environment is a challenge of equal measure.
In a nutshell, it’s why The Source Guy exists. Using an experienced CCaaS advisor to gain an understanding of what providers are like to work with in practice will really help. We know the providers and their nuances intimately and are on-hand to help accelerate and de-risk the choices you need to make.
Want a CCaaS market overview, help uncovering CCaaS technology requirements or even customer experience consulting? Engage The Source Guy to help.
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