Many modern contact centres offer live chat, social media, and messaging.
Some may even dabble in video and consider the metaverse their next viable channel for customer engagement.
Yet, the principle remains: when companies enhance their voice, they enhance customer service.
After all, the complex, emotional issues that make or break experiences come thick and fast through voice.
Moreover, many customers have an overriding preference for the phone and will stick to that no matter what.
To meet this demand and deliver excellent, efficient voice experiences, contact centres must weigh up each of the following critical considerations.
1. To Cloud or Not to Cloud?
Many will point to the many benefits of cloud migration and consider this an open and shut debate. After all, cloud migration offers increased scalability, accessibility and ease of integration.
That said, if contact centres are happy with their current on-premise solution and simply want to add a little innovation on top of it – whether on the voice channel or elsewhere – there is no need to bow down to the pressure.
Indeed, after all the mass cloud migration caused by the pandemic, those that still have not moved to the cloud must have a good reason.
Thankfully, solutions such as Live CX Work from Anywhere from AudioCodes exist to support these operations in offering remote working and ensuring high-quality voice experiences.
Peter Broeckx, Regional Sales Director of Contact Centres at AudioCodes, also puts forward further innovations that add value to voice – both in the cloud and otherwise. He says:
It is also possible to add click-to-call features to digital journeys and conversational automation to the existing platform to enhance voice operations.
As a result, the need to rip and replace existing contact centres with a CCaaS solution, as many vendors imply, is perhaps a little overegged.
2. Can I Keep My Carrier Autonomy?
Many who choose to move to the cloud will strive to keep their current telephony numbers, connectivity and tariffs. Unfortunately, many CCaaS and UCaaS providers put forward solutions with calling plans attached.
Consequently, businesses must often play by their rules and port all numbers to the new vendor. Doing so is not always easy or desired – especially for enterprise customers. After all, the best carrier varies from country to country and region to region, so working with a single vendor for voice connectivity is a concern.
Moreover, the enterprise may have negotiated a better deal with various carriers than the CCaaS or UCaaS provider. As such, there are cost benefits to keeping their current contracts.
Finally, Broeckx warns that brands can struggle with “vendor locking” after accepting a calling plan from such a provider, stating:
If a vendor holds all the numbers and SIP trunks, moving away becomes trickier. However, with bring your own carrier (BYOC), contact centres remain autonomous and may switch providers much more easily in the future. That agility is critical.
AudioCodes offers a certified solution for Zoom Phone BYOC, as well as Microsoft Teams Direct Routing and Operator Connect, providing enterprise contact centres with seamless PSTN access in almost every country.
As such, companies can retain their preferred calling plans, keep their phone numbers, and manage their communications infrastructure using their preferred network(s) and cloud-based UC service.
3. Where Will AI Add Value?
Automation to reduce call volumes is the obvious answer here.
For many chatbots and digital deflection originally offered the answer. Unfortunately, many of these strategies only proved to irritate customers, with calls still flooding in through voice.
Highlighting this, the CFI Group uncovered that 76 percent of consumers prefer to phone customer service rather than using other channels.
With such a trend, many contact centre leaders must think to themselves: “We’ve built an interaction automation solution across our digital channels, but we can’t use it to combat most customer conversations.”
Indeed, many businesses that started conversational AI projects initially forgot voice, so blending it in now is becoming a key priority.
Luckily, there is a way for companies to do so and expand the value of their digital chatbots across voice. Broeckx explains:
Solutions such as Voice AI Connect by AudioCodes – which exist as both a SaaS and on-premise solution – connects any contact centre to any bot framework, across all cognitive speech services.
Whether a company has built its chatbot on Microsoft, Google, or whatever framework, Voice AI Connect gives it a powerful voice.
To do this, AudioCodes supports companies in working with the optimal provider for various speech services. These include speech-to-text, text-to-speech, voice recognition, and more. The video below shares further details:
Enhance Voice Experiences with AudioCodes
With many more solutions such as Work from Anywhere, BYOC for Zoom Phone, Direct Routing and Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams, and Voice AI Connect, AudioCodes is working closely with some of the world’s biggest brands to transform their customer interactions though enhanced voice experiences.
Discover how the vendor can help you by visiting: www.audiocodes.com
