Highlights:
- As customer expectations continue to change and shift, organizations must be prepared to change alongside them.
- Customer experience, agent collaboration, and empowering agents are keys to successful hybrid working arrangements for agents.
- From AI to video to channels customers suddenly pick up and drop, change is inevitable, and today’s contact centers must be prepared.
- Here’s what you can do with RingCentral Contact Center.
The world is navigating a profound time of change—in particular, executives are embracing a new era of sustainability.
In early 2021, Larry Fink, CEO and Chairman of BlackRock published in his letter to CEOs that “we are on the cusp of another transformation.”
“I have great confidence in the ability of businesses to help move us out of this crisis and build a more inclusive capitalism.”
Contact centers have a crucial role to play during this profound time. Contact center agents—and the data that they generate—equip company leaders with a direct line of sight into on-the-ground company needs. What challenges are customers encountering on a daily basis? How can companies adapt to the realities of today’s market?
The era of “the customer is always right” is over. Companies are entering a new paradigm of “we need to answer our customers’ questions.”
And as the future of customer support evolves, so does RingCentral.
Flexibility, in the cloud
In the past year and a half, a lot has changed in the world of customer experience. In particular, hybrid and remote work are new terrain for contact center agents, managers, and executives who are overseeing these teams.
RingCentral has been paying close attention to our customers’ challenges and has been responding to the present by looking ahead.
One outcome is a new take on what’s possible. Instead of fearing the future and what it may throw at us, we’re taking it head-on and asking ‘What else?’ and ‘What next?’ We’ve up-leveled our thinking with a more intuitive UX and fresh aesthetic.
Here’s what’s possible with RingCentral’s Integrated Contact Center.
Your new contact center foundation
Contact center agents need an intuitive way to ask and answer important questions.
Executives need to align on the ground perspectives with bottom-line business metrics and financial statements.
Enter “Possibilities,” RingCentral’s Integrated Contact Center. Here’s how we’re helping companies prepare for what’s next:
- Give the right experience to your customers. Focus on the right digital channels for communication, ensure seamless channel elevation (i.e. from text to voice call), and connect costumes with the right agent and information—the first time.
- Enhance collaboration capabilities. Empower agents to connect with experts and leaders throughout the organization, integrate information flows between contact center branches, and involve customer experience (CX) stakeholders at the last moment with proactive alerts.
- Empower agents to work from home. Give agents an easy, intuitive tool to orchestrate data flows across apps, offer personalized coaching and feedback based on performance, and solidify a collaborative work environment.
With the right contact center foundation, your business can be ready for whatever comes next.
Onward and upward
Now is a time for listening and learning. Where do we go from here? What’s next for contact centers and more importantly, for the customers?
“The future will not be more stable or certain,” writes April Rinne, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader who is ranked one of the 50 rising female futurists. “The future—whether that’s this afternoon, next week, next quarter, next year, or the next decade—is now defined by more uncertainty, more unpredictability, and more unknowns.”
The key to navigating this time of change is for companies to “radically reshape their relationship to uncertainty,” Rinne writes.
“As we look toward a future in which the only ‘steady state’ is one of more change, it’s time to open your flux mindset, upgrade your organization’s ‘flux capacity,’ and prepare to thrive in constant change,” Rinne says.
Companies will need to build iteratively and adapt quickly to changing market conditions and changing agent and customer expectations. Questions are going to lead to more questions.
How can companies use AI effectively? What’s the right approach to integrating video into the business? What channels do our customers frequent most?
Step one is in the cloud and ensuring that agents are fully empowered with the right solutions to best grow with and serve your customers. Say hello to possibilities and learn more about RingCentral’s Integrated Contact Center.
Originally published Sep 23, 2021, updated Dec 30, 2022
