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From the sessions to the show floor, Enterprise Connect 2022<\/a> was overflowing with talk about the latest customer experience (CX) strategies, technologies and trends. Across the dozen or so keynotes and breakouts I attended, and the nearly 20 interviews I conducted, three themes stood out.<\/p>\n The benefits of using artificial intelligence (AI) to support and improve both the customer and employee experiences are numerous and impactful. AI enables everything from automating personalisation at scale, to increasing the performance of existing CX tools, to helping companies use new technologies like bots, noted David Myron, Principal Analyst at Omdia pointed in his session, \u201cWhere AI pays off in the contact centre.\u201d<\/p>\n A new survey by Omdia found that CX professionals are finding \u201csignificant value\u201d in using AI for social listening and ticketing (80%), digital customer contact analytics for quality management and customer satisfaction (71%), and intelligent call routing (65%). Respondents also use AI to understand caller intent, for chatbots, and for analytics in quality monitoring.<\/p>\n These companies are overcoming challenges in several areas: efficiently and effectively responding to customers on social channels; managing more complex, personalised and pervasive digital customer interactions; and routing highly complex interactions to the most appropriate agent. In the process, companies are reducing average handle time, increasing first-contact resolution and improving customer satisfaction. A 2021 Economist Impact survey of CX leaders<\/a> also found the greatest benefits of AI are improved customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and lifetime value.<\/p>\n AI benefits the employee experience, too. \u201cAs AI gets more entrenched in the contact centre, we\u2019ll see the rise of the super-agent, who is skilled in multiple technologies for customer interactions,\u201d said Myron. The Economic Impact survey supports this; nearly two-thirds of companies identified as AI leaders use the technology to identify employee career growth capabilities.<\/p>\n Contact centre as a service (CCaaS) and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) are finally coming together, seamlessly. And it\u2019s a union to celebrate.<\/p>\n The duo will help companies deliver a more connected and relevant customer experience. From contact history and AI-assisted screen pops to instant messaging and screen sharing, blending these interaction technologies better supports agents and enhances customer interactions. And that brings the entirety of an organisation closer to the customer.<\/p>\n \u201cCX should be the responsibility of everyone in the organisation,\u201d said Blair Pleasant, President and Principal Analyst of COMMfusion, when kicking off her panel session, \u201cUCaaS plus CCaaS: What\u2019s real, what\u2019s hype, and what\u2019s next?\u201d Customer experience should extend across the enterprise, she added, not just be the responsibility of contact centre agents.<\/p>\n CCaaS combined with UCaaS helps to create what Pleasant called the \u201ccollaborative contact centre,\u201d by linking data and systems, as well as enabling agents to more easily connect with colleagues to resolve customer issues. This ability to collaborate helps the enterprise \u201cbecome the contact centre,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n There are several factors driving the integration of CCaaS and UCaaS. One is the shift to CX delivered via cloud technologies. The hybrid workforce model is another. The biggest is the need to provide better customer and employee experiences \u2014 to engage and retain both constituencies.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you put the customer at the centre of your business, you need also need to provide agents with access to the information that enables them to resolve an issue in the first contact,\u201d said Jack Nichols, VP, Product Management at Genesys, during the session. \u201cCustomers don\u2019t want to have to call back.\u201d More than half of the consumers who participated in Genesys \u201cThe state of customer experience<\/a>\u201d\u00a0 research said they value first-contact resolution most in a service interaction.<\/p>\n Nichols emphasised that agents can\u2019t possibly know everything, and often don\u2019t have access to information on everything. Sometimes they need real-time knowledge and expertise from elsewhere in the organisation. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing agents\u2019 frustration levels go down [when companies integrate CCaaS and UCaaS] because they\u2019re not expected to know everything. They can reach out to experts. This improves collaboration across the organisation and agents are better able to handle tickets,\u201d Nichols said. \u201cAmazing things happen at the intersection of business, technology and creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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