Cloud Contact Center Archives

Posted on May 3, 2017 by West Corporation

Seeing the Bigger Contact Center Picture in the Channel

Bruce Pollock, VP of Strategic Growth and Planning, West

As people evolve in step with the technology they touch, cloud-based solutions provide the flexibility and agility organizations need to respond to them effectively. But. The right technology is just one piece of the puzzle.

By 2020, if not before, Customer Experience (CX) will become more important to customers than price or product as a key brand differentiator. As such, a set-and-forget technological mindset that companies have used in the past is dangerous. As expectations climb, organizations that fail to ground technology in thoughtful strategy will struggle to connect meaningfully and effectively with customers. Without forethought, interactions become siloed across channels and departments, customers repeat themselves as they are passed from agent to agent, and the company’s top and bottom line suffers.

So how can you help your clients avoid these commonplace contact center pitfalls? Let’s look at a few inbound strategies that are essential to success in today’s CX landscape. Read More >

Posted on April 27, 2017 by West Corporation

West Provides Key CX Performance Rules in CCW Research Report

West collaborated with CCW Digital—a prominent community, resource hub and advisory for customer management practice, call center and customer experience professionals—on their Performance & Agents Executive Report. This report addresses the goals, challenges and solutions that organizations should address in the pursuit of a result-oriented customer experience function.

Within the report, West’s “Practicality Guide: An Illustration of Improved Performance,” offers up 5 Rules of Customer Experience Performance (starting on page 25). You can read more about these best practices in the full write-up here.

How Utilities Should Respond to the Mobile Shift

Doug Thompson, Director of Product Development

According to Google, 87 percent of people now have their phones by their sides at all times.[i] Despite many utilities recognizing the need to address ever-rising customer mobility with newer, more proactive communication strategies, they still fail to make it a priority.

In my recent article published in CS Week’s Spring edition of Newsline Magazine (Page 3), I explore the customer experience (CX) challenges today’s utilities face, and offer my take on how utilities can capitalize upon the “mobile shift” that has gradually seeped into the industry. Read More >

Posted on April 5, 2017 by West Corporation

West’s Contact Center Infrastructure Recognized as One of Industry’s Best by CRM

West is proud to receive a 2017 CRM Service Leader Award for Contact Center Infrastructure. Recognizing the major role the contact center plays in a company’s customer experience and bottom line, West designed its contact center offering with the intent to connect interactions across multiple channels, boost agent productivity, increase connection rates and build long-term brand advocates.

CRM recognized West for the depth of its Cloud Contact Center’s functionality and addition of multichannel capabilities, network-based queuing, and preview, predictive, and progressive dialing modes that provide artificial intelligence to manage dialer pacing in real time. It also attributed much of West’s success to a number of strategic business decisions, including divesting its agent services back in January 2015. Click here to read the full write-up. Read More >

Posted on March 14, 2017 by West Corporation

Regulators Open the Door for Utility Investment in the Cloud

By Chandler Harrison, Sales Executive, West Interactive

As technology evolves and changes the way we live our day to day lives, expectations for agile customer service are ever-rising. As a result, customers demand the same speed and personalization from your utility customer experience (CX) as that of their favorite retail company.

Cloud-based technology can provide the flexibility and data-informed insights that utilities need to get ahead of today’s fickle utility customer. Traditionally, utilities have been unable to rate-base associated costs in the same way they can when it comes to on-premises software. In a nutshell, utility leaders would rather (understandably) realize a regulated rate of return from capital expenditures on in-house technology, rather than invest in the cloud and miss out. But things are changing… and fast. Read More >

Posted on March 9, 2017 by West Corporation

Send Your Callers to the Free Throw Line

Whether you are an avid college basketball nut, or were roped into the “madness” and took a more creative approach to team selection (Hey, those jerseys are neat!), there are 9.2 quintillion possible combinations you could have ended up with by the time your March Madness bracket was complete. That’s 9.2 billion written one billion times. You had a lot of tough decisions to make.

Imagine if each of those decisions could have affected the way your company runs— organizationally and on the consumer side. That feeling of the unknown many get while filling out a bracket is a lot like how it feels when making customer communication decisions, with just as many potential outcomes. Even the smallest choices matter in the long run!

Repeat calls, for instance, are an often overlooked source of customer information. Often seen as an organizational “air ball,” a repeat call can actually become a valuable tool in your overall customer experience strategy. (What are a caller’s pain points? Can you apply your findings across other communication channels?) Read More >

Posted on February 8, 2017 by West Corporation

The 10 New Rules of the Inbound Contact Center

Things have changed in the contact center. Customer experience is no longer bound by the limitations of legacy on-premises system capabilities. In their place, new cloud-based solutions offer a more flexible and agile approach, resulting in considerably more rewarding customer interactions.

But while new cloud-based technology can play a major role in an organization’s ability to deliver a more effective customer experience, it needs to be grounded in solid strategy. “The 10 New Rules of the Inbound Contact Center” provides a playbook through which any brand can get the most from their cloud-based platform: Read More >

Posted on January 25, 2017 by West Corporation

Consumer Survey Offers Key Insights to Improve CX

Not long ago, grocery shopping happened solely in-store and banking was done with the help of a human teller. But in the blink of an eye, the internet, social media and mobile devices changed the relationship between company and customer as we knew it. Now, the quality of every interaction with a brand plays into a larger customer experience lifecycle that evolves with every conversation, across multiple channels.

– 89 percent of customers have switched brand loyalties due to poor CX. 69 percent will pay more for products and services from brands with a good CX reputation.

West surveyed more than 500 U.S. consumers to understand how they define high quality CX, gauge how communication preferences shift across self-service and proactive interactions, and identify which industries are leading and lagging in CX delivery. Download this whitepaper to explore customer expectations for your CX and learn: Read More >

Posted on January 6, 2017 by West Corporation

The Future of CX: Machine Learning Will (Finally) Make Business Personal

Greg Ablett, SVP of Utilities and Business Support at West, offers insights into how businesses in every industry can prepare for the future impact machine learning will have on the customer service industry in his article published by Data Informed, a leading resource on data analytics and management strategies.

“Business analytics and, specifically, machine learning are turning the proverbial ‘dating’ game between businesses and consumers on its head. Instead of assembling interactions based on preconceived notions about how consumers want to be treated, machine learning enables companies to deliver truly personalized communication based on up-to-the-moment data…”

Click here to learn what steps Greg recommends companies take to stay ahead.

Posted on January 5, 2017 by West Corporation

SaaS or Managed Services: Which Contact Center Option Fits Your Needs?

You’ve made the big decision. You know you’re going to update—or even upgrade—your contact center with a cloud solution. But there are more choices you need to make. One of the first and most important choices about a cloud solution is whether to choose Software as a Service (Saas) or Managed Services.

Each option has its advantages, but your ultimate decision will depend on several factors. These include the depth of your in-house resources, your desired level of support and your outlook on a strategic partner that will continually optimize your business. To see the features and differences between SaaS and Managed Services, view this helpful infographic describing the benefits of each. It covers what you’ll need to consider about:

Staffing
Configuration
Support
Analytics
Channels
Cost

Solutions

Unified Communications Services

Solutions

Interactive Services

Solutions

Specialized Agent Services

Solutions

Telecom Services

Solutions

Safety Services

Careers

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Category: Cloud Contact Center

Category: Cloud Contact Center

How Utilities Should Respond to the Mobile Shift

Send Your Callers to the Free Throw Line

Consumer Survey Offers Key Insights to Improve CX

– 89 percent of customers have switched brand loyalties due to poor CX. 69 percent will pay more for products and services from brands with a good CX reputation.

The Future of CX: Machine Learning Will (Finally) Make Business Personal

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