Description

The highly competitive hosted/cloud contact center market in North America faces many challenges. Customer service is now the centerpiece of business differentiation. To remain competitive, enterprise decision-makers must deal with cutting costs while vastly improving service quality and the customer experience.

The contact center industry also is fundamentally transforming in response to the changing behaviors and preferences of an increasingly digitally connected consumer and workforce. The digitally connected consumer has leveled the playing field for competitive differentiation between businesses, which can no longer rely on features and price for differentiation.

Customer care organizations are answering these challenges by improving the customer experience through the addition of new digital channels, omnichannel service delivery, proactive and personalized interactions, and agents equipped with advanced tools to better assist customers. Digital technologies, including mobility, cloud, Internet of Things, unified communications and collaboration, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and speech technologies, are being incorporated into customer care to further enhance offerings.

At the same time solution providers are focused on improving the employee experience. Workforce engagement management has gained traction in recent years because solution providers see agent engagement as a key driver in reducing churn, empowering workers to more easily do their jobs, and improving overall service quality.
To gain a competitive edge, businesses need careful evaluation of existing cloud provider offerings to select the best fit for their specific needs. With a crowded playing field of hosted/cloud and system contact center providers, it is sometimes difficult for them to differentiate between the services offered by competing providers and to determine what partnerships best suit their organizations. This buyers guide provides insight into hosted/cloud customer care providers in the North American marketplace.