Zoom has announced an array of new additions to its CCaaS solution, including live chat and SMS.
Less than two months since its entrance into the contact center space, Zoom is innovating quickly, adding channels, dashboard enhancements, and video upgrades to its offering.
The live chat and SMS additions come with sophisticated routing functionalities, paving the way for better contact center conversations and seamless channel shifts.
Dashboard enhancements also allow admins to access real-time metrics that relate to video engagements, enabling advanced performance management capabilities.
Such video capabilities are a significant differentiator for Zoom, given its UCaaS roots. Understanding this, the company has added an innovative video waiting room for queuing customers to engage with agents through the channel.
Automatic voice call recordings, with playback for coaching and review, and voicemail transcriptions, allowing agents to get to the crux of customer queries quickly, are further additions to the Zoom Contact Center.
These additions highlight the speed at which the CCaas solution is evolving. Of course, Zoom does not yet offer the capabilities of leading providers within the space. But it is catching up.
Speaking to CX TV last month, Heidi Elmore, Head of Product Marketing at Zoom, said:
As we start maturing over the next quarter, six months, twelve months, you’ll see a significant focus from us in a few different areas. The first is driving innovation with additional channels, industry-specific solutions… and integrations that go beyond CRMs to include other systems of record.
“Much of it really comes down to intelligence, helping to provide agents, supervisors, and administrators with the information they need to be more productive and answer customer questions faster.”
Such intelligence will also come through AI, with Zoom launching a Conversational Analytics Solution last week. For now, it is geared only towards sales teams, yet the Zoom IQ offering has the capacity for further analytics-driven capabilities.
Indeed, several of the latest Zoom releases seem to have significant potential for the future of CX. For example, the company recently augmented its video solution with gesture recognition. In the future, such capabilities may allow customers to interact with screens and smart displays – the next-generation smart speaker – in an entirely new way. For CX, this may have many permutations.
Of course, these innovations are a long way down the road. Yet, the speed of advancement at Zoom – across its Meeting, Events, and Contact Center platforms – is impressive. Such growth underlines its growing credibility within the fast-paced CX world.
