ISG Provider Lens™ report sees CCaaS providers helping companies meet rising customer expectations stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic
Enterprises across Europe and the U.K. are turning to contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) providers to address dramatic changes in customer buying and communication behavior prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report published by Information Services Group (ISG) , a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center as a Service – CX Report for Europe and the U.K. finds customers are seeking more digital interactions with companies and improved experiences overall. At the same time, the contact center industry is being forced to use remote workers and adopt work-from-home and hybrid business models due to the pandemic. Contact center operators in Europe and the U.K. increasingly are transitioning to cloud-based contact center solutions with enhanced security requirements.
“During the pandemic, companies across Europe and the U.K. have been challenged to deliver better customer service through a variety of channels, including messaging and social media,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “Many enterprises have realized that CCaaS providers represent one of the few routes that enable them to meet customer expectations.”
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“Many enterprises have realized that CCaaS providers represent one of the few routes that enable them to meet customer expectations.”
CCaaS solutions deliver several benefits, the report says. They are easy to deploy and integrate with other applications and systems, they offer high scalability, and they provide pricing flexibility. In addition, CCaaS solutions support multiple channels of communication, including voice, chat, email, social media, video and messaging apps.
Social media has become a customer service focus of many companies in Europe and the U.K., with content moderation, community management and web crawling seen as vital elements of a good social media plan. Many CCaaS providers are now offering these services.
Cloud-based contact center solutions are embedded with several technologies that can bring benefits to enterprise buyers, the report adds. They offer omnichannel customer engagement and analytics, as well as single-screen management functionalities that enable agents to deliver highly personalized services. Many CCaaS providers are using AI and machine learning to create even more personalization and achieve higher customer satisfaction.
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In addition, CCaaS solutions often include a suite of workforce management capabilities that provide supervisors with real-time insights about team performance. Features and tools include automated coaching, sentiment scoring, analytics for performance improvement, and gamification that provides performance comparisons and customized avatars to keep agents motivated and focused, even in remote settings.
CCaaS providers also are investing in remote working setups to address issues with connectivity and background and environmental noise. The report sees the industry moving to a mix of brick-and-mortar and remote working models as the pandemic subsides.
With a range of functionalities in one solution, CCaaS is highly suitable for enterprises that want to deliver a high-quality customer experience with advanced technologies and the ability to integrate seamlessly with existing systems, the report concludes. It also makes remote working easier than legacy stack solutions with private network connectivity.
The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center as a Service – CX Report for Europe and the U.K. evaluates the capabilities of 18 providers in one quadrant: Contact Center as a Service.
The report names Content Guru, Five9, Genesys, NICE inContact, Odigo, Puzzel, and Talkdesk as Leaders in the quadrant.
In addition, Avaya was named a Rising Star—a company with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition.