Seth Godin once said, “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” When you do, you solve problems for them and provide value; this ensures that they’ll come back – and they’ll tell their friends.
About a year ago, I wrote about how I’m often asked to look at new products in the customer experience technology arena to get my thoughts on those products. I don’t take all of those calls, but occasionally curiosity gets me.
I’ve seen some great products, but I’ve also seen plenty that are just me-toos, aren’t well thought out, or just have no real purpose.
In those conversations, one of my first questions after seeing a demo is “What problem are you solving for the customer?” Oftentimes, I just get shrugs or, “Oh, that’s a good question.” I’ll ask if they’ve talked to customers or potential customers, and they haven’t.
The story is different when it comes to RingCentral’s latest product, RingCX. I first wrote about RingCX in a post last month in which I talked about the importance – and benefits – of using AI in the contact center. Today, I’m writing about the problems that RingCX solves for RingCentral customers and their customers’ customers.
I can’t write about RingCentral’s customers’ expectations without talking about agents’ and end-customers’ expectations, both of which need to be factored into any technology solution decision.
Some of the role-specific expectations that agents have for their experiences include:
- Consumer-grade technology: why should the software they use for work be so much more complex, complicated, and time-consuming than what they use in their personal lives? Why is it so outdated and inefficient?
- Productivity: why are they spending so much time flipping between screens or platforms during a call, writing after-call reports, etc.?
- Workload: why are they spending so much time on menial tasks, high-volume/low-effort calls, and other things that just drain their time?
- Coaching and career development: they want to develop, grow, and evolve. How can this help them do their jobs better so that they can move up in the organization?
Among consumers’ expectations when they interact with brands is a simplified and effortless experience that includes:
- Offering multiple channels to make contact
- Knowing through which channels they’ve contacted the brand
- Knowing what happened during those interactions via other channels
- Having the same experience from one channel to another (i.e., one brand, one contact center)
These expectations must all be taken into consideration when making decisions about which technology to acquire. Layered on top of that, consider what contact center leaders’ problems to solve are:
- Reducing wait times and costs
- Having a truly omnichannel platform (not just voice, not multichannel)
- Satisfying customers by meeting their expectations and having a direct connection to them – via whatever channel they prefer
- Increasing productivity and efficiency of agents
- Gathering conversational insights and simplifying reporting
- Coaching agents in real-time
- Having a platform that is easy to use
- Implementing a platform quickly and easily
- Finding a platform with all of that and that is reasonably priced
RingCentral heard from customers that it’s challenging to find a platform that meets all of these needs and expectations – and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Most CCaaS platforms that have all the bells and whistles are both over-complicated and cost-prohibitive.
RingCX has the features and the power of the more traditional platforms but offers everything you need in one place. There’s no nickel-and-diming for additional features and functionality or for other channels besides voice. It’s all included. There’s one price (per agent per month) regardless of business size, number of seats, industry, etc.
Let’s revisit some of the benefits of RingCX.
- It’s easy to use – for agents, supervisors, and administrators.
- It’s truly omnichannel; it includes voice, video, and 20 other channels, all in one place so that you can easily engage with customers while having the complete context of their journeys regardless of channel. The agent can see it all.
- AI-first provides capabilities to improve the experience for agents and customers before, during, and after contact.
- Before: agents have insights into prior customer conversations so that customers don’t have to repeat themselves or feel unknown.
- During: real-time AI agent assistance and script guidance enables live coaching on every call.
- After: automatic AI summaries enable agents to quickly close calls and move to the next customer; quality management helps supervisors efficiently assess team performance; and conversational insights offer up business insights such as customer sentiment and common topics for coaching and continuous improvement to drive value.
- It’s easy to deploy. It’s an open platform with APIs for easy integration with CRM systems, intelligent virtual agent providers, agent assist platforms, and workforce management systems.
- It is disruptively priced. Pricing is transparent with no hidden costs – including unlimited domestic minutes. It’s $65 per agent per month, making it predictable while providing cost savings.
IN CLOSING
While there are other platforms to consider, RingCX provides a compelling solution at a compelling price. As you know, technology decisions are not all about price. But with RingCX you get a platform that solves problems for you, your agents, and your customers. And if you can do that while saving the bottom line, it’s a win-win.
It’s going to be interesting to see how society deals with artificial intelligence, but it will definitely be cool. ~ Colin Angle
Related: Customer-Centricity: Bringing the Organization Together