Picking the right path in a changing CX landscape.

CX technology decision-making is more complex than ever in a changing CX landscape.

By Steven Fricker, CRO at Connect.

The concept of the contact centre is evolving. With customers engaging with you in the CX landscape via multiple channels (sometimes simultaneously), the ability to manage the omnichannel experience has become more important than answering and routing calls.

That’s opened the customer contact market up to businesses from a range of different technology heritages. Organisations that began life as specialists in customer relationship management (CRM) or customer service management (CSM) are now converging on the space that was once the domain of a few specialist providers.

At the same time, cloud service providers are offering powerful contact centre tools as part of a wider customer contact solution.

Multiple routes to the same outcome.

All these competitors offer at least some – and often all – of the jigsaw pieces, to a high standard, whether through their own portfolios, strategic collaboration with other providers or both.

From the client perspective, this doesn’t just mean there are multiple technology partners to consider, but also multiple routes to delivering the same core functionality.

Take, for example, Salesforce.com – originally a CRM provider, that has grown to be central to thousands, or possibly millions, of businesses.

An organisation with a major Salesforce CRM deployment could decide to add the Service Cloud for case management and a new agent workspace. It could then opt to include Service Cloud Voice, to support outbound calling and further empower agents, creating something that is barely a contact centre at all in traditional terms. And, if the call numbers are very low, that may well be a suitable solution.

But the same organisation could also choose to use Service Cloud alongside its existing contact centre solution, or take advantage of the established integration with Amazon Connect contact centre – both of which would result in more advanced contact centre capabilities, while still harnessing the power of Service Cloud.

Alternatively, if the company is already accustomed to a Zendesk or ServiceNow CSM platform including case management, it could integrate that with Salesforce CRM and pick a different contact centre such as Five9 or Genesys.

Determining the right options in the CX landscape.

All are viable options, and all can ultimately deliver similar outcomes and functionality. All could be purchased by going through Salesforce, through a different lead partner such as the contact centre provider, or by engaging with each organisation and constructing the integrated solution yourself.

So how do you determine the best option, or more accurately set of options, for you?

In this complex landscape, we’re finding more and more clients are in need of some independent, unbiased advice on the right customer contact roadmap for them. They’re looking for someone with the knowledge to unpick the vendor promises, and explain the often marginal, but important, differences between providers that boast the same capabilities.

Building on experience.

This is a challenge that Connect thrives on. As partners with many of the major players in the space, we can bring the product knowledge and technical expertise that vendors offer, but across multiple portfolios.

But more than that, we can also offer the experience of deploying different solutions, integrating them and solving problems. And above all, we’re also able to help identify which of the promised features will really support the business in delivering its target customer experience – based on a deep understanding of what you want that CX to be in your CX landscape.

With so many potential routes to the technology outcome, our independent and knowledgeable perspective can be a major asset in helping you pick the right path.