AWS has announced a preview of new third-party integration capabilities for Amazon Connect, its CCaaS platform.
These capabilities allow service teams to embed third-party applications directly into the Connect agent workspace.
The screengrab below offers an example of what this looks like, with a third-party maps tool available as a tab within the agent desktop.
In building such tools into the unified interface, contact centers can lower context switching and enhance agent efficiency.
After all, most agents currently switch between four and ten applications when interacting with customers – according to LiveVox.
Transitioning between them typically slows agents down and often takes wind from the flow of customer conversations.
Michael Wallace, Americas Leader of CX Solutions Architecture at AWS, believes that the new third-party integration capabilities will remove such issues once and for all.
“Amazon Connect’s new capability to embed third-party applications in the agent workspace equips agents with the information they need, regardless of where the information comes from, to deliver exceptional customer service,” he told CX Today.
By consolidating applications into a single user interface, agents can seamlessly transition between systems to resolve customer issues quickly and accurately the first time.
This idea of presenting agents with a single 360-degree view of the customer is something vendors have mulled over for years.
Still, it is part of the CX discussion because it has proved too tricky a problem to overcome.
Yet, according to Wallace and the AWS team, early adopters are already realizing the benefits of Connect’s consolidated UI.
In doing so, they’re bringing together customer data, knowledge bases, and workflows – with many reporting significant improvements in average handling time (AHT) and first contact resolution (FCR).
Consider an example where a customer calls in regarding a product issue. The agent may check the customer’s details, log the problem, and process the refund – through a third-party payment application – without leaving their workspace.
According to Steve Johnson, GM of AWS Enterprise Applications at Amazon, many others are excited to bring such workflows into their contact center environments.
“Our customers are excited to add homegrown and vendor-built applications, giving agents everything they need at their fingertips,” he said on LinkedIn.
That ability to add homegrown applications – such as an insurance policy portal – alongside vendor-built applications is another differentiator.
Again, it reduces the number of applications agents must open, which lowers context switching and related errors.
Connect customers in the following AWS regions may access a preview of the third-party applications feature and check it out for themselves: US-East (N. Virginia), US-West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Sydney), and Europe (London).
These customers may also try out many of the new generative AI use cases AWS has released for its cloud contact center platform.
In doing so, the enterprise tech giant looks to gain further momentum in a market where it is now a leader, as per the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for CCaaS report.
