Last year shone a bright light on contact centers and customer service departments that operated on legacy systems and outdated technology. The shift to remote working and cloud-based systems was critical, but still daunting for many. Helping to make this transition as easy as possible was our priority.
In many cases, we helped our customers through a phased transition to the cloud, starting with Engage for Amazon Connect as a voice channel for customer support. Once the business and agents were comfortable with their cloud call center infrastructure, we rolled out additional channels including social media, mobile messaging, email and web chat, helping them build a cohesive omnichannel customer support experience.
If you’ve got future omnichannel plans but you’re not ready just yet, here are five reasons why Engage for Amazon Connect is a powerful place to start:
1. Start with voice and expand to other channels when you’re ready
Engage for Amazon Connect was designed as a scalable, omnichannel solution. But, if you don’t want or need an omnichannel solution just yet, that’s ok. Engage has great strength as a voice-only communications platform too. In fact, for many businesses, this is a great way to start. Built on top of Amazon Connect, you get all the fundamental call functionality with loads of additional Local Measure features including visibility into the customer’s time in queue, the ability to pause and resume recordings, predefined resolution codes for solving customer queries faster and seamless transfer of handover notes to avoid customers having to answer the same questions time and time again.
Perhaps you’re not ready to offer social media, SMS or webchat as customer service channels just yet but at the same time, you realize a strong CX strategy is built on an omnichannel experience. By investing in Engage, you get a supercharged call center solution now with the option to activate additional digital channels when you’re ready. Best part is - they’re all pre-built and ready to go. You just say when you want to switch them on.
2. Integrate email and improve agent productivity
While consumer behavior has shifted and there’s a greater demand for digital convenience, traditional communication methods are still popular. In fact, according to recent research, email remains the most preferred method of customer engagement. But from a contact center perspective, email may be seen as yet another channel that adds complexity, siloed information and wasted productivity time.
With a proprietary solution that utilizes Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Engage for Amazon Connect allows email to be integrated into your agent desktop. No more command>tab or Alt>tab to find your open email application. It’s all in the one platform. And, better yet, with a single thread customer history, you can see all previous email and chat communications regardless of which channel was used and which agent looked after the customer.
3. Surprise and delight customers to drive long term loyalty
Customer service is more important than ever. It directly impacts brand reputation, repeat business and word of mouth - both good and bad. Customer experience (CX) is today’s biggest differentiator, but to do it well, businesses must continue to surprise customers with personalized attention and positive interactions.
According to research by Microsoft, 72% of consumers say that when contacting customer service they expect the agent to ‘know who they are, what they have purchased and have insights into their previous engagements’. As a single pane of glass, Engage for Amazon Connect makes it easier for agents to deliver exceptional customer service. Our 360 degree customer profiles and the single thread customer history (regardless of the channel they’ve communicated on), gives agents all the context they need to deliver a personalized experience. As the saying goes, ‘knowledge is power’. By knowing who a customer is, what their preferences are and what their previous purchases and interactions have been, agents can delight customers with personalized attention and much faster resolutions.
4. Log and track follow up tasks so that nothing gets left undone
Ever wondered how many ‘to do’ items are forgotten because an agent scribbles it down on their notepad and it’s never looked at again? Perhaps it’s a sales lead that requires a follow up phone call, or a customer wanting a copy of their latest statement. If neglected, these tasks can often be the final straw for a customer. If you don’t follow up with your customer, the likelihood is, your competitor will.
With Engage for Amazon Connect, you can reduce the reliance on memory and handwritten notes using Amazon Connect Tasks to log and track follow-up actions. Supervisors can set predefined tasks based on common requests, and agents can create new tasks as needed, or be prompted with suggested actions based on chat transcripts. It’s automating an otherwise very manual job, helping to reduce After-Call Work (ACW) time and ultimately helping deliver a better customer experience.
5. Pause and resume call recordings to protect customer privacy
With a global movement to the cloud, data security and customer privacy has never been more important. Regulations are nothing short of confusing. Businesses and agents want to know they’re doing the right thing, and customers want reassurance that their data is safe.
With Engage for Amazon Connect, agents can pause and resume call recordings at any stage that confidential information is being discussed. It’s an extra feature not included in the basic Amazon Connect Contact Control Panel (CCP) and it’s hugely valuable for contact centers operating in highly regulated industries or for those just wanting to reassure their customers that they take data protection seriously.
So if you're looking to future proof your contact center operations, Engage for Amazon Connect is a flexible, scalable and dynamic solution. It is built on top of Amazon Connect, meaning it will always leverage platform updates, and combined with the CX expertise of Local Measure, Engage will always remain an innovative solution full of embedded smarts, efficiency gains and customer experience accelerators. It’s an intuitive cloud contact center solution, for today’s generation and tomorrow’s.
Want to invest wisely for the future of your customer service department? Learn more about Engage for Amazon Connect.
