Can’t Get No Satisfaction: Where First Generation CCaaS Falls Short

One thing you can guarantee with CX technology is it never stands still. Engagement channels are expanding, and consumers now have a growing array of ways to reach out to brands. With that expansion comes more volume, more engagement data and more demands on the contact center.

To deliver the exceptional experiences that customers expect, companies need to achieve CX automation, which is a problem if you’re trying to do so using first-generation CCaaS.

The shortcomings of traditional contact center solutions are highlighted in Verint’s new research report, The Open CCaaS Advantage. Contact center executives were asked to rate the importance of CCaaS solution features deemed essential for modern CX against also how satisfied they are with their current technology’s ability to meet their expectations.

The results demonstrated where first-generation platforms fall short and the need for many companies to modernize their CX strategies.

Four First-Generation CCaaS Frustrations

Using AI and bots for customer self-service and agent-assisted tasks

Without an open approach to both data and AI in the contact center, self-service will never reach its potential.

Open data means that bots have access to rich historic behavioral data and can be trained on a company’s specific intents, enabling continual improvement to customers’ experiences.

Coupled with an open approach to AI, companies can consistently innovate and leverage the latest models, rather than being constrained by the inflexible all-in-one packages of first-generation CCaaS.

Easy integration into third-party systems

If your current solutions don’t offer what you need, the next logical step is to find a new CCaaS provider. However, the initial step with first-generation platforms is typically moving the entire system on day one—a nearly impossible task for large organizations.

An Open CCaaS platform such as Verint’s enables businesses to start where they want and with one application at a time. This brings two advantages compared to first-generation CCaaS:

1. Companies can build CX automation into the contact center at their own pace and still use existing telephony or CRM platforms, minimizing any major disruption to services.
2. New channels or third-party innovation, such as ChatGPT, is straightforward to integrate—contact centers can keep pace with technological advances. 

Accurately predicting customer interaction volume to hire appropriately

By Verint’s calculations, global industry labor spending is at $2 trillion annually—clearly, brands need tools to help them create a more efficient contact center.

Traditional CCaaS platforms tend to put data in silos, meaning any applications that predict quiet or busy times are limited in their efficacy.

By using next-generation CCaaS, not only can companies take advantage of connected data to forecast and schedule resources to meet customer demand more accurately, but also use omnichannel capabilities to enable agents to switch channels and tasks throughout their shifts.

This helps to improve contact center efficiency, reduce staffing costs, and give employees the flexibility to schedule their shifts for a better work/life balance.

Listening, analyzing and acting on customer interactions to improve CX

Without access to workforce, interaction and experience data, it’s difficult to fully understand the customer’s experience and make swift and effective changes to CX practices. This is where first-generation CCaaS falls short.

Verint’s Open Platform collects interaction data from across every customer touchpoint, as well as post-interaction feedback to give a complete set of behavioral data and relevant insights.

It’s then unified in a single hub, connecting previously siloed data and making it available to applications across the platform, as well as the workforce of humans and bots.

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Verint’s latest research report, The Open CCaaS Advantage, explores the challenges faced by contact center leaders and the need to adopt next generation solutions to overcome them. Discover how to put CX automaton at the heart of your contact center.