The world is changing at a phenomenal pace, and with it, the expectations and preferences of customers are evolving too. To survive in this new landscape, companies must adapt with a flexible and agile approach to CX.
Cloud-based solutions, focused primarily on software as a service and online applications, allow employees in an ever-changing environment to respond to the needs of customers everywhere. A focus on cloud CX ensures companies can alter their approach to serving customers whenever and however they choose.
The question is, what kind of trends are paving the way for the future of cloud CX? Here are just some of the topics generating the most attention in this area today.
1. Rapid Adoption of CCaaS
For most companies getting started with a journey into cloud CX, the first stop will be in CCaaS. Contact Centre as a Service technology provides businesses with the tools they need to stay ahead of the competition when offering amazing experiences to their target audience. According to Grandview Research, the CCaaS market will be worth around $10.8 billion by 2028.
Companies have been gradually moving more of their business processes into the cloud for years now, prizing the environment’s flexibility, scalability, and resilience. However, the contact centre has been among the slowest moving environments.
Since the pandemic proved companies of all sizes need to be prepared for an environment where working in an office may not be possible, demand for CCaaS has grown. Cloud contact centres ensure companies have the freedom to enable their staff wherever they are – perfect for today’s hybrid world.
2. The Rise of Hybrid Teams
The rapid increase of hybrid employees in the modern landscape is one of the main reasons why we’re seeing such a sudden shift to cloud CX. Today’s employees are searching for ever-more flexible approaches to the workplace, whether this means being able to shift between working in the office and at home or working remotely full-time.
With hybrid team opportunities evolving, a successful cloud CX solution will need to focus on finding ways to bring all kinds of teams together. This could mean building contact centre and CX tools into the hubs teams already use for collaboration and communication. For instance, many companies are now using the open environment of Microsoft Teams to combine UCaaS and CCaaS.
Cloud CX solutions need to be easy to use for employees wherever they are, simple to provision, and managerial teams need to be able to manage this technology from anywhere.
3. Hyper Personalisation
The cloud doesn’t just give businesses much-needed resilience in a changeable landscape, it also provides an opportunity for connecting multiple threads within the customer journey.
Through integrations between cloud-based tools for contact centre interactions, CRM solutions, and service desks, it’s possible to build a more comprehensive view of the way businesses and consumers connect. This end-to-end visibility paves the way for a new level of personalisation.
Comprehensive cloud CX environments, enhanced with artificial intelligence, reporting, and analytics tools, will give companies the insights they need to build more relevant experiences for customers. This could lead to everything from customised product suggestions in sales discussions, to more meaningful service conversations with long-term customers.
As we learn more about our customers through cloud-based analytics tools and insights, we could even see a future where “proactive” service becomes more common. Already, approximately 45% of customers say they’d abandon a brand if a company didn’t anticipate their needs.
4. Digital Engagement Reigns Supreme
One of the most significant changes happening in the customer experience landscape now is the shift from the “digital natives” focus to “generation-less” preferences for customer service. Millennials and Gen Z used to be the demographics most comfortable with using tools like social media, chat, and self-service bots. Now, the pandemic has forced us all to become more comfortable with digital systems for sales and service.
Part of building a strong cloud CX strategy for 2022 and beyond will be ensuring you can offer a unified, digital-first approach to your customers. This means experimenting with all kinds of new channels for every type of client. Since you’ll be appealing to not just digital natives, but an entire ecosystem of new users, a focus on simplicity will be key.
Customers will need to feel comfortable using everything from live chatbots to smartphone apps. Pay attention to the feedback provided by your customers to see which channels they prefer.
5. Agent Experience is Crucial
Over the last couple of years, the challenges imposed by the pandemic have pushed companies to begin looking at the contact centre from a new perspective. Leaders realised that if they wanted to offer the best possible customer experiences, they needed to start by offering phenomenal employee experiences.
The Cloud CX environment needs to be built with the needs of your teams in mind, rather than just the needs of your target audience. This means investing in technology with a focus on usability and convenience for your day-to-day users. You’ll also need to pay more attention to your employees and the feedback they give.
Solutions like Microsoft Teams are already evolving to make the monitoring agent experience easier, with personalized insights through Microsoft Viva. It will be up to every company in the modern world to determine how they’re going to prioritize and improve agent experience in a hybrid team.
6. The Rise of New CX Channels
Finally, over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a rapid increase in the number of channels customers use to interact with companies. In almost no time at all, consumers have gone from interacting primarily through phone calls and emails to connecting through social media, text, online messaging, and even video.
Video in particular is emerging as one of the most important channels companies will need to be aware of as they invest in cloud CX solutions. However, there are other opportunities on the horizon too. Companies like Microsoft and Meta are already exploring things like extended reality for virtual, augmented, and mixed reality experiences.
As concepts like the “metaverse” evolve, cloud CX could include more realities than we originally assumed when we began our transition into the future of customer service.
