Contact Centers Continue the
Shift to CCaaS
Understand what’s Driving this Transformation
INTRODUCTION
While there is nothing new about hosting software and integrated systems in the cloud, Contact Centers have been relatively slow on the uptake. There is frequently a reluctance to cede control of technology solution ownership, administration and management to an anonymous cloud provider. Sometimes dubbed “vendor-lock”, Contact Center leaders prize independence and the ability to leverage best-of-breed solutions and applications as they work to create an expansive, high performance technical tool-set to deliver more and more personalized, responsive customer experiences.
The up-front costs for a cloud transition are daunting, regardless of the promised long-term benefits of having a more flexible, extensible, and agile customer experience. And, the inhibiting effect of technology overload on already over-stressed technical and operations teams are significant barriers and have the possibility of leading to a negative cascading impact on fragile organizational ecosystems.
No doubt, the technology supporting hardware-heavy, on-premise contact center operations is uniquely complex and, for optimal performance, requires tight integration, orchestration and management. But in today’s fluid business climate, maintaining status-quo is a losing battle. Customer Experience (CX) throughout the entire customer journey is often the key differentiator for business success, and ever evolving customer preferences and expectations for omni-channel support continue to apply exhausting pressure on legacy systems to do more.
There is a seismic shift underway in the Contact Center business model as organizations are accelerating the transition away from centralized, on-premise technical infrastructure to cloud-based platforms (CCaaS).
Key Inflection Points Pushing Contact Centers to Pivot to the Cloud…CCaaS
A significant push towards cloud deployment was delivered with the onset of COVID-19. Social distancing mandates drove the physical and geographic dispersal of agents and rapid IT retooling to support remote operations through web-based systems. For many large contact center operations, the transition from on-premise support systems was no longer a matter of choice but rather one of survival.
While presumed to be a temporary shift, this forced “trial” began to yield some surprises as the pandemic dragged on; remote agents could still serve customers effectively and, in fact, reported higher job satisfaction (which lowered churn rate) due to their new work-from-anywhere, anytime lifestyle. Not only were they meeting their KPIs but, according to this , Call Answer Rates (CAR) and Average Speed of Answer (ASA) significantly improved for businesses after migrating their call centers to the cloud. Businesses also realized the financial benefits of reduced overhead and management costs associated with their former, on-premise operations.
With a consumption-based subscription payment model, administrators began to recognize how cloud contact centers offered greater flexibility with 24-hour services delivered through agents in multiple time-zones, as well as seamless scalability to fit the normal ebb and flow of business needs. Cloud deployment also reduced the burden of hardware and software upkeep for in-house IT staff while offering management greater control over, and predictability of, current and future costs (OPEX).
Today, the post-pandemic Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) is solidly mainstream, with numerous platform providers vying for a piece of what Gartner analysts predict will be a $17.9 Billion business by 2024.
CCaaS Empowers:
Geographic Freedom in Agent Location
Improved Employee Satisfaction
Elevated CSAT & CX
Reduced Burden on IT
Platform =
Ecosystem
Open Architecture
API-Native Integrations
Ability to Add Capabilities Rapidly
Dramatically Reduce Management & Administration Overhead
CCaaS Platforms offer customers the opportunity to rapidly add advanced feature-sets and solutions from 3rd-Partner providers…its basically, point-n-click!
The open architecture of CCaaS technology has also stimulated a whole new market for third-party applications (apps) developed specifically to extend the functionality of the CCaaS platform. These apps, certified for interoperability and offered primarily through the platform provider’s app stores, may include, for example, survey add-ons, custom dashboards, report generators, connectors to CRM/Social Media platforms and solutions for channel optimization and cybersecurity.
Integration of these innately intuitive, platform-enhancing apps can be achieved with simple, web-based tools. This is a far cry from the heavy-lift software and hardware replacement, programming, connecting, testing, and employee retraining required for premise-based system upgrades of days past.
What these CCaaS apps all hold in common is the promise to extend the value of an organization’s CCaaS platform investment, as measured by their positive influence on agent productivity and performance (KPIs), and overall customer experience (CX) and customer satisfaction.
Contact Center systems administrators, now relieved of the burden of on-premise systems management, have the opportunity to shift their attention to delivering value. Forward looking organizations have restructured tech teams around value creating, often segmenting and prioritizing potential projects into three tiers: Customer Experience, Operational Performance and Organizational Risk Management.
CCaaS Platforms offer customers the opportunity to rapidly add advanced feature-sets and solutions from 3rd-Partner providers…its basically, point-n-click!
The open architecture of CCaaS technology has also stimulated a whole new market for third-party applications (apps) developed specifically to extend the functionality of the CCaaS platform. These apps, certified for interoperability and offered primarily through the platform provider’s app stores, may include, for example, survey add-ons, custom dashboards, report generators, connectors to CRM/Social Media platforms and solutions for channel optimization and cybersecurity.
Integration of these innately intuitive, platform-enhancing apps can be achieved with simple, web-based tools. This is a far cry from the heavy-lift software and hardware replacement, programming, connecting, testing, and employee retraining required for premise-based system upgrades of days past.
What these CCaaS apps all hold in common is the promise to extend the value of an organization’s CCaaS platform investment, as measured by their positive influence on agent productivity and performance (KPIs), and overall customer experience (CX) and customer satisfaction.
Contact Center systems administrators, now relieved of the burden of on-premise systems management, have the opportunity to shift their attention to delivering value. Forward looking organizations have restructured tech teams around value creating, often segmenting and prioritizing potential projects into three tiers: Customer Experience, Operational Performance and Organizational Risk Management.
Platform =
Ecosystem
Open Architecture
API-Native Integrations
Ability to Add Capabilities Rapidly
Dramatically Reduce Management & Administration Overhead
The CCaaS value prop is highly dependent on the performance of the Voice Channel… but the rise in nuisance and nefarious inbound calls have become a real threat to achieving CX excellence.
As the most utilized contact center channel, voice plays a pivotal role in overall Contact Center performance.
It should go without question that the integrity of the voice traffic entering the agent call flow has a direct bearing on operational performance and the accuracy of KPI data. That channel has become increasingly polluted by unwanted nuisance and nefarious callers. Nationwide, monthly robocalls alone are topping 4.5 Billion, a 12.5 increase from a year ago. What’s more, upwards to 45% of all unwanted calls to the enterprise are actual scams, with voice phishing (vishing) attacks up 550% as threat agents seeking access to customer accounts or organization data see in remote, service-oriented contact center agents a vulnerable, convenient, and relatively unprotected gateway to advance their schemes.
Today, the growing scourge of robocallers, spoof calls, scam calls, voice phishers (vishers) and other unwanted callers is not only posing a direct threat to agents and the organizations they represent, but they are consuming network resources and agent time that could be better spent delivering timely, quality service to legitimate callers.
Top Threats to an Optimized Voice Channel
Unwanted Inbound Calls Skew Data Used for KPIs
Continual Rise of Robocalls & Spoof Calls
Dramatic Increase in Bad Actors Targeting the Contact Center via Vishing & Social Engineering
Agents Tasked with Cyber Defense, Rather than CX
Keys to Voice Defense
Unwanted Calls Must be Eliminated at the Network Edge
“Do No Harm” Mandate
Defense Measures Must Not Impact Call Flow Performance
Must be a Solution for Nuisance and Nefarious Inbound Calls
There is an app for VOICE threat DEFENSE in your CCaaS ecosystem!
In a CCaaS environment, cleansing incoming calls from damaging spam, scam, dead air, vishers and robocalls can now easily be achieved through the integration of a CCaaS-specific voice traffic filtering application such as the Mutare Voice Traffic Filter.
As the premier voice traffic filtering system for the enterprise, Mutare’s powerful Voice Traffic Filter can now be added into multiple CCaaS platforms (see list below) through simple API integration. It includes multiple call data analytics and filtering layers as well as a “do no harm” voice CAPTCHA for additional call vetting. Voice Traffic Filter is also unique in that it detects and deflects unwanted calls at the network edge before they reach the agent call flow, so there is reduced stress on the voice network and zero agent distraction or need for judgment of low trust calls that are still passed through.
Clearly, no single solution can completely eliminate unwanted traffic in the call center. However, with the ease of implementation afforded through CCaaS cloud integration, Mutare’s Voice Traffic Filter can go a long way in extending the value and performance of any CCaaS platform by eliminating the vast majority of damaging unwanted calls while protecting agents and organizations from criminal intrusions. It is one of the many platform-enhancing applications available to CCaaS customers that has an immediate impact on the performance of the platform as a whole, as well as that of the agents it supports.
There is an app for VOICE threat DEFENSE in your CCaaS ecosystem!
In a CCaaS environment, cleansing incoming calls from damaging spam, scam, dead air, vishers and robocalls can now easily be achieved through the integration of a CCaaS-specific voice traffic filtering application such as the Mutare Voice Traffic Filter.
As the premier voice traffic filtering system for the enterprise, Mutare’s powerful Voice Traffic Filter can now be added into multiple CCaaS platforms (see list below) through simple API integration. It includes multiple call data analytics and filtering layers as well as a “do no harm” voice CAPTCHA for additional call vetting. Voice Traffic Filter is also unique in that it detects and deflects unwanted calls at the network edge before they reach the agent call flow, so there is reduced stress on the voice network and zero agent distraction or need for judgment of low trust calls that are still passed through.
Clearly, no single solution can completely eliminate unwanted traffic in the call center. However, with the ease of implementation afforded through CCaaS cloud integration, Mutare’s Voice Traffic Filter can go a long way in extending the value and performance of any CCaaS platform by eliminating the vast majority of damaging unwanted calls while protecting agents and organizations from criminal intrusions. It is one of the many platform-enhancing applications available to CCaaS customers that has an immediate impact on the performance of the platform as a whole, as well as that of the agents it supports.
Keys to Voice Defense
Unwanted Calls Must be Eliminated at the Network Edge
“Do No Harm” Mandate
Defense Measures Must Not Impact Call Flow Performance
Must be a Solution for Nuisance and Nefarious Inbound Calls
CCaaS Ecosystem Partners
(click to learn more)
Not convinced?
unsure of how your Contact center is being impacted?
Free Assessment Provides Immediate Visibility
The Voice Traffic Assessment provides you with visibility into the traffic traversing your enterprise voice network. Each Assessment is created and customized based upon your organization’s data.
Your custom report will uncover and expose the types of traffic traversing your voice network. You will have clear numbers and metrics to understand the scope, scale and impact of unwanted traffic in your environment.
30-Day Trial for CCaaS
Turn-on Mutare’s Voice Traffic Filter and immediately improve the accuracy and integrity of your KPIs & Metrics and reduce the burden on your Agents to serve as protectors of the enterprise.