The cloud contact center and the future of customer experience (CX)

Customer expectations are rising

After the pandemic triggered an unexpected and highly accelerated digital transformation, thoughts and expectations about all aspects of business started to shift. In the world of customer service, both agents and customers had to think and operate differently.

Customers began to form higher expectations about how their experiences with businesses should go. In this age, there’s no excuse for large organizations to not have instant access to account data, interaction history, customer journey history, and other pertinent details relevant to customer inquiries and concerns.

As the bar of customer expectations rises, businesses need to quickly evolve to meet and surpass it. Sticking with an antiquated customer service model will upset customers and quickly turn them off from a brand. In fact, 61% of respondents in Zendesk’s survey of consumers¹said that they would switch to a company’s competitor after a single unsatisfactory customer service experience.

And in their Predictions 2022 guide², Forrester says:

“Around 80% of consumers will see the world as all digital, with no divide.” Due to this, Forrester states, “consumers have higher expectations that digital experiences work well,” and “consumers also expect companies to double down on building a successful and sustainable digital customer experience.”

Moving forward, the goal for all companies should be to form lasting customer relationships with excellent service. Customer experience (CX) is changing forever, and its future is undoubtedly going to be more delightful for everyone involved. With customer expectations rising, see how Webex is ready to not just meet but exceed them:

Cloud-based contact center solutions

One of the tools that will be enabling the brighter future of CX is the cloud contact center, such as Webex Contact Center (also known as CCaaS – cloud contact center as a service). A cloud contact center is a cloud-enabled replacement (and significant upgrade) of a traditional call center.

It allows customers to connect with organizations across all channels – phone, chat, text, email, and social. Zendesk found that 93% of consumers will spend more with companies that allow them to connect with customer service via their preferred method.³

And while cloud contact centers give customers more options, they also give customer service agents the flexibility to work from anywhere along with the tools to optimize experiences for customers by delivering efficient and satisfying interactions.

It may sound too good to be true, but a cloud contact center can enable better customer service, improve business operations and employee sentiment, and even deliver a significant ROI.

The other pieces to the CX puzzle

In addition to cloud contact centers, there are many other tools and capabilities that can create a smarter and more connected journey for customers.

Many of these tools have incorporated AI-based technologies to help assist customers and take some of the burden off customer service agents.

For instance, chat bots, which many businesses have already deployed, can handle a large volume of simple requests all on their own. Solutions that can empower customers with self-service options have proven to be greatly appreciated.

AI can also give live assistance to agents in the form of call transcription, actionable data delivery, and suggested next steps. Along with real time collaboration, which allows representatives to quickly exchange information with other experts across an organization, the spectrum of agent capabilities becomes far wider, turning them into super agents.

If an enterprise really wants to level up and customize customer journeys with the full potential that the cloud can provide, then a Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) solution, such as Webex Connect, can deliver the desired results.

CPaaS provides building blocks in the form of out-of-the-box low-code tools that give developers and IT teams the ability to seamlessly implement voice, messaging, and other communications features into existing applications.

With a CPaaS solution, an enterprise can take total control of its customer experience by giving its developers the ability to configure, test, and deploy journeys quickly and easily. Paired with data from relevant insights and trends, developers can use CPaaS to design frictionless and pleasing experiences for customers across all available communication channels.

And, like cloud-based contact center solutions, CPaaS platforms can help achieve a significant ROI by reducing operational cost and complexity. See how Webex provides end-to-end customer experience solutions that create customer delight and turn agents into superheroes:

The future of customer experience

With organizational leadership that prioritizes CX and makes the right investments, companies can deliver customer experience interactions that serve to strengthen relationships with customers.

If built and managed properly, a good CX team can be a very significant asset that will directly add value to a brand. In fact, according to North Highland⁴, 87% of business leaders believe that CX is their top growth engine. But only 1 in 3 feel their company is properly prepared to address the area.

This unreadiness highlights why it’s absolutely critical for a business to partner with a vendor that can provide the products, services, and support to start and maintain CX that will exceed customer expectations.

Webex sees a future where customers no longer dread dealing with a customer service department. These customers will look forward to connecting with a business to get their problems solved quickly and painlessly. This concept may sound impossible to those who have repeatedly experienced horrible customer service, but it can be a reality now and in the future.

In this future, customers will no longer have to re-verify their identity over and over on calls. They won’t have to repeat their problems or concerns at every touchpoint. (According to Zendesk’s survey of consumers, the elimination of repetition alone would get 92% of customers to spend more with a company.)⁵ They might not even have to ever state why they’re calling. This future is what interconnected, cloud hosted, AI-powered CX capabilities can empower.

Better CX will not just benefit customers. With the help of AI tools, real time collaboration, and instant customer account and journey data, customer service agents will have increased productivity and more enjoyable workdays.

With Webex Customer Experience solutions, the ultimate goal will always be on powering remarkable customer experiences. From end-to-end and across all channels, Webex aims to make interactions painless for customers.