Two vendors have highlighted five hot trends that could help channel partners improve customer experience.
Classen from Enreach named three of these trends as convergence and automation of different channels, mobility, and AI.
Tilsed added conversation AI and giving customers the ability to develop their own USPs with the technology.
The pair spoke about a range of areas relating to UCaaS and CCaaS, including what they were witnessing in the marketplace right now.
Martin Classen, Chief Product Officer at Enreach, said: “What we clearly see in the enterprise market is there will typically be dedicated cloud contact centre solutions which are integrated to the back-office functions.
“That means call centre agents need to route calls to the back-office function.
“When we look more in the SOHO and SME segment, what the customer expects is fully converged UCaaS and cloud contact centre solutions.
“As a result, there are many customers in the SOHO and SME segment who run a cloud contact centre, but they are even not aware of it.
“This trend has been accelerated throughout the last two years.
“It depends on the customer segment but, in general, it’s about bringing cloud contact centre functionality from the high-end enterprise market into the SOHO and SME space.”
Tilsed pointed to the ‘XCaaS’ (Experience Communications as a Service) market as having the strongest growth.
He also said that while the pandemic has been an accelerator for business in the communications industry, it has also brought a number of logistical challenges, such as managing various suppliers and the integration issues that come with it.
Classen and Tilsed offered their thoughts on how an omnichannel solution is best implemented for its partners.
Russell Tilsed, VP EMEA Sales at 8×8, said: “The main differentiators [of omnichannel support] are the number of dedicated agents, the number of channels and how much intelligence or functionality is on those different channels.
“It is not a case of lift and shift or ‘can I get it a bit cheaper?’ anymore.
“If [partners] are able to provide or obtain data that shows what the customers’ needs look like, and get that into a business case, it will be really helpful.”
On this subject, Classen spoke of the importance of having multiple channels to communicate with customers on.
He also mentioned Enreach is seeing an increasing need for including smart automation. Chatbots, he says, are a good tool to begin communications, with a view to escalating the conversation to a voice call when it is necessary.
Finally, Classen emphasised that it is crucial to be able to switch between the channels in a way which is relevant to the use case.
Other areas of discussion included the generational divide over channels.
Tilsed explained that Boomers and Gen X generations were still regularly defaulting to making phone calls. For Gen Z, apps are the most popular mode of communication.
He believes that the varying inter-generational preferences need to be addressed to offer a comprehensive communications experience for everyone.
The utility of vertical selling was also debated. Both Classen and Tilsed believe there is a lot of potential business to unlock using a tailor-made approach.
Tilsed referenced a vertical sales example of his company, 8×8, which has onboarded 26 new NHS trusts over the past 18 months. He thinks this was only possible by making a meaningful proposition for the customer.
The Senior Director of Commercial Sales at 8×8 recently spoke about its XCaaS solution at the UC Partner Summit, and the Managing Director Centile TA discussed partner differentiation.
