11/16/21 Update: Expansion of the global reach and availability of the all new Webex Contact Center is now available for the broader EMEAR region, which now joins existing availability in United States, Australia, and the broader ASEAN region. With this latest expansion, an additional 35 European countries will be able to take advantage of all the benefits of this next-generation cloud contact center.
By now, we’ve all seen that the contact center industry has gone through significant transformations and milestones, all of which have one common goal – to strive for excellent customer service experiences while improving business outcomes for organizations.
According to Cisco’s Global Contact Center Survey, 75% of customers expect knowledgeable help within five minutes, yet there is still the continuous challenge that agents face when juggling multiple applications to service customers. Closing the gap between customers’ expectations and overall experience is not an easy task. Innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud technology and data analytics are some of the ways in which the industry is looking to close this gap. However, combining all of these innovations into a single platform, some may question how does the role of human agents evolve? Can all these innovations truly offer omni-channel experiences? What does this mean to the customer and how will they respond to these innovations?
Innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud technology and data analytics are some of the ways in which the industry is looking to close this gap. However, combining all these innovations into a single platform, some may question how does the role of human agents evolve? Can all these innovations truly offer omni-channel experiences? What does this mean to the customer and how will they respond to these innovations?
Being an industry leader in this space not only prompts us to find answers to these critical questions but to also optimize our offering to respond and pivot to our customers’ ever-changing challenges and market demands. This is one of the reasons we are so excited to announce that the all-new Webex Contact Center platform is now available in the UK. This new solution has already been rolled out in the US earlier on in the year, Australia last month and will be rolled out to the broader European regions later in the year..
11/16/21 Update: We are so excited to announce the continued global expansion of the all-new Webex Contact Center, with the most recent addition being available to the broader EMEAR region, which now joins existing availability in United States, Australia, and the broader ASEAN region.
Our digital-first approach will allow customers to connect according to their preference, be it chat, text, message, email or call. The modern-day customer is not only tech-savvy but is always striving for a better, faster, more efficient experience.
With this new platform, we have integrated social platforms, such as Facebook Messenger, to offer a truly integrated and omni-channel solution to customers. This now means customers can get the support they need on the channel that’s most convenient for them.
Striving to be truly digital, we have also introduced 24/7 self-service, offering round the clock customer support with AI-powered voice and chat virtual agents. Our virtual agents are programmed to respond quickly, efficiently and with the ability to transfer to live agents when necessary– there’s no need for customers to repeat their conversation with the live agent. We have ensured that there’s a seamless interchange framework in place between virtual and human agents to aid customers with more specific support.
AI has been at the heart of the new Webex Contact Center, where we have leveraged this technology to develop virtual agents that are intuitive enough to interact with customers in real time, programmed to handle varied questions across multiple channels, while also being smart enough to divert a customer to a human agent for more complex inquiries.
What does this mean for human agents? A new comprehensive, user-friendly platform that provides a consolidated view of a customer’s interaction history, supported by context-aware tools such as a widget-based design that allows them to have everything they need at hand, while giving undivided attention to each customer.
The most critical part when integrating AI at this scale, is to ensure that we are minimizing live agents’ daily work by removing the repetition of simpler tasks. But, most importantly it’s about adopting a productive working model that creates a harmonious balance between human and AI, which will allow for 24/7 customer support.
Human agents will also benefit from an enhanced and more diverse set of applications, such as the integrated Webex App and Webex Workforce Optimization, which provides additional tools for workforce analytics and management, as well as quality management.
Customer feedback is paramount when determining customers’ needs and allows agents to better understand each individual experience with more granularity and care. To close the feedback loop, we have introduced surveys that are delivered to the customer via text, email, or interactive voice response.
All customer feedback is collected via Webex Experience Management, Webex’s next generation Customer Experience Management (CEM) solution, that has advanced to provide agents with a comprehensive experience journey for each customer. The vision is to steer away from a transactional customer experience model to a real-time customer experience journey that’s insightful and informed. Customer Experience Analytics have also been integrated into Webex Experience Management platform, which will allow agents to understand their performance and have access to data-driven insights that will enable agents to deliver truly personalized customer experiences, every time.
The all-new Webex Contact Center is developed on open APIs and cloud-based microservices delivering on next-generation and full customization of AI, data, media and UI capabilities.
For agents, this now means that they are able to customize the way their desktop looks and consolidate everything into a single view with the new modular agent desktop. Administrators will also appreciate the new drag-and-drop flow control builder which enables non-technical users to alter workflows without relying on IT resources.
The revamped platform has also taken app integrations one step further, by integrating business applications such as Salesforce, Zendesk and Microsoft Dynamics. This now means that agents will benefit from a truly customizable and unified experience, making any application accessible with the click of a button.
From a customer service perspective, having real-time and historical data to evaluate and analyse customer interactions was a desirable functionality within the contact center industry. Webex Contact Center now brings together data from live calls, chat, and virtual agent interactions to better manage customers, while also empowering agents to proactively optimize for operational efficiency and productivity.
According to the same Cisco survey, 94% of agents consider it important to have all their communications and collaboration functions integrated into a single offering. With Webex Contact Center, agents will now have access to cross-department, cross-functional subject matter experts—all with a common goal of driving and optimizing customer experiences.
By combining Webex collaboration tools for messaging, calling, meetings as well as devices such as phones and headsets, agents will have an enriched and common user experience. Organizations and administrators benefit from ease of management of their contact center, collaboration tools, and users through one single management platform – the Webex Control Hub – a single-pane-of-glass solution that provides one central cloud app for all Webex administrative functions.
Our next-generation cloud contact center solution strives to meet one of our core values at Webex – to deliver 10x better customer experiences. This new platform we’ve built from the ground up, combined with our recent integration of functionality from imimobile, offers a comprehensive Customer Experience as a Service (CXaaS) solution to our customers. The goal of CXaaS is to enable an organization to understand all the drivers of customer experience and to really identify how we can close the gap between customer expectations and actual experiences while improving business outcomes for organizations. And our journey does not end here, we are committed to finding ways in which to innovate and enhance customer experiences, one step at a time.
To learn more about Webex Contact Center and the platform’s features and benefits, read the showcase brochure or get started with a personalized cloud contact center demo today.
Learn more
Embedding the Power of Data in Contact Centers to Create Super Agents [Blog]
The Changing Landscape of Enterprise Customer Experience, Expert Perspectives [Recorded webinar]
Exceeding expectations with Webex customer experience solutions [Blog]
Cisco + IMImobile: Delivering the Future of Customer Experience, Together [Blog]
Webex Contact Center [Website]
Webex Contact Center [Recorded Webinar]
SAP monitoring and testing for full-stack, end-user business scenario visibility
This series focuses on SDP, the Session Description Protocol, the method by which almost all…
We’re excited to share that Cisco was recently named a 2024 Customers’ Choice in the…
Cisco is committed to continuously advancing state-of-the-art speech enhancement AI technology, such as Background Noise…
In this hybrid work environment, we strive for work-life balance by making our day more…
Last week, Orlando was teeming with Webex partners, customers, and IT pros from across different…
When I joined the calling team at Cisco - it’s hard to believe 18 years…
