AWS Adds WFM, QA, and Conversational Analytics Features to Amazon Connect

Catch up on all the latest Amazon Connect announcements from AWS re:Invent 2022

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AWS Adds WFM, QA, and Conversational Analytics Features to Amazon Connect
Contact CentreSpeech AnalyticsLatest News

Published: November 29, 2022

Charlie Mitchell

AWS has kickstarted its annual re:Invent event for customers and partners to stay up-to-date with its latest digital innovations.

In CCaaS, these innovations are coming thick and fast as AWS takes on stalwart vendors, already leading the market in customer acquisition – according to the research firm Metrigy.

Gartner also commended AWS for its completeness of vision in CCaaS. The analyst’s latest Magic Quadrant ranks the vendor only behind NICE in this regard.

Yet, AWS shows no signs of slowing down, embedding Amazon Lex into Connect earlier this year. The vendor also added new case management, sentiment analysis, and outbound campaign tools.

Now, it aims to finish 2022 with a bang, launching more innovations and using re:Invent as the perfect platform to show them off. These new releases include:

  • Forecasting, capacity planning, and scheduling tools
  • Automated quality scoring capabilities
  • Conversational analytics for chat interactions (both human and automated)
  • Custom workflows and step-by-step guides for agents

Below, we delve deeper into each before considering what differentiates AWS in the in the crowded CCaaS market.

Amazon Connect’s WFM Solution Is Now Generally Available

As teased in March this year, Amazon Connect’s new WFM solution is now generally available, offering more depth than anticipated for a newbie in the space.

Indeed, it offers forecasting, capacity planning, and scheduling solutions, all infused with machine learning (ML) for enhanced accuracy and a more effortless planning experience.

First, consider its forecasting tools. The solution uses ML models to predict customer demand and handling times. Contact centers can then assess which works best in their environment by testing historical contact volumes and outcomes.

Below is a sneak peek of the forecasting tool, which also forecasts outbound, transfer, and callback rates to supplement the most comprehensive planning strategies.

Amazon Connect Forecasting Tools

From the forecast, Connect’s WFM solution automates staffing calculations, factoring in estimated attrition and absence, alongside target service levels and maximum occupancy.

WFM teams can then build a long-term capacity plan to share with stakeholders.

From this, users may turn to native scheduling tools, which automate much of the process but allow planners to make tweaks based on their experience.

These tools build schedules by factoring in unique shift profiles, agent specialties, and business rules.

Once published, supervisors and agents receive notifications that the new schedule is available.

Moreover, according to AWS:

Scheduling now supports intraday agent request management, offering agents overtime or voluntary time off.

Finally, the system adjusts forecasts, capacity plans, and schedules in real-time, using the latest data and following business rules. This helps contact centers to hit their service level targets.

New Conversational Insights Support Quality Assurance

Contact Lens for Amazon Connect – the CCaaS solution’s native conversational analytics tool – now offers users the opportunity to build agent performance evaluation forms.

These forms include customizable evaluation criteria around script adherence and compliance practices. Contact Lens then automates the evaluation of all conversations – across particular contact center channels – against these criteria.

As a result, contact centers can monitor all customer conversations instead of just two or three percent through traditional contact listening processes.

Early-adopter and home maintenance firm Frontdoor enjoyed success with the new solution.

As Scott Brown, SVP of Customer Experience at Frontdoor, said: “[Amazon Connect’s] analytics are equipping us to make better-informed decisions and strengthen our agent coaching strategy.”

Our managers appreciate how easy it is to access conversational insights; things like sentiment, categorization, recordings, hold time, and more are provided side-by-side in the same UI, where evaluation results are pre-populated.

These insights are evident in the following screenshot of an Amazon Connect evaluation form.

Amazon Connect Evaluation Form

Agent evaluation forms are now generally available in all AWS regions where the vendor already offers its Contact Lens solution.

Conversational Analytics Extends Into Chat

Contact Lens now assesses live chat conversations, both automated and human-to-human.

In doing so, the solution monitors customer sentiment, pulls sensitive information, and tracks compliance – in tandem with business guidelines.

Moreover, businesses may use sentiment scores and keyword searches to uncover customer journey pain points while tracking chat-specific metrics – including agent response time.

Automated chat summarizations are also possible – alongside automated dispositioning – mechanizing post-chat work for agents, lowering wrap time, and measuring intent more accurately.

The graphic below showcases what the automatic chat summarization looks like.

Amazon Connect Contact Lens

The conversational analytics for chat solution is now available in preview across all AWS regions where Amazon Connect users can harness the Contact Lens platform.

Step-by-Step Guides for Agents

Amazon Connect already offers agents a single, unified application where they can converse with customers across multiple channels and shift contacts between them.

While doing so, agents may access customer information, knowledge articles, and real-time, AI-generated performance recommendations, all within a single interface.

Yet, AWS has advanced this further, allowing contact centers to create custom workflows and step-by-step guides, which also appear on the agent desktop.

Amazon Connect’s no-code, drag-and-drop interface makes these guides relatively straightforward to create.

Agents may then access these through their desktop, and – when they do so – their workspace transforms. It presents agents with a series of one-click actions across Amazon Connect and third-party applications to solve each customer’s query.

The application also spotlights relevant information from within contact center systems when it is most likely to be relevant.

Here is the agent view of the Amazon Connect desktop as they choose between guides.

Amazon Connect Step-by-Step Guide

Amazon Connect customers in the US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (London), and Asia Pacific (Sydney) regions can now access the solution in preview.

Learn More About Amazon Connect

With its cloud-native CCaaS platform, AWS is innovating fast and capturing the imagination of many contact centers.

Its global reach is helping it do so, alongside its AI- and ML-driven innovation, which allows businesses to build their ideal operations.

Yet, its agile pricing model sets Amazon Connect apart. Indeed, contact centers only pay for what they use, with no long-term commitments, upfront requirements, or minimum monthly fees.

To learn more about AWS’s vision for contact center technology, read our article: CCaaS: The Art (and Science) of Balancing Business Goals and Customer Expectations

 

 

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